Racket Weight: Factory Stock or Heavier?

It's well known that many top professionals play with racquets that look like the one you can buy from your favorite pro shop, but are actually custom made or modified to be different than the one available to the public.

One way that us average Joes can make our racquet feel and play more like our professional hero's is by adding weight to affect the overall mass and balance of a racquet. But why would we do  this?

There are several reasons to change the weight and balance of a tennis racquet. For one, a heavier racquet can be more stable when returning high-velocity shots. Another reason for changing the weight and balance of a racquet is to help overcome or avoid injury to wrist, elbow or shoulder. A racquet that is handle heavy (head light) may tend to be more joint friendly, thus reducing the likelihood of injury or re-injury.

A third objective of changing the weight or balance of a racquet is often used by physically-strong players. These players may be strong enough to handle and enjoy racquets that have a higher swing weight. These are the players who will prefer those racquets that come from the factory with a head-heavy feeling.

I, personally, for the past several years added weight to my racquets, which made them 345 grams (unstrung) and nine points head light (also unstrung). This weight and balance was the same as Federer's published racquet specs. I did this not to simply emulate the arguable greatest of all time, but rather to reduce the shock and stress on my chronic elbow tendonosis (no, not tendonitis) and long time shoulder rotator-cuff issues (now resolved).

Recently I removed all added weight from my racquets. The purpose of this change was to add racquet speed for more energy in my shots (in the form of ball revolution and translational speed). This is according to the physics equation, E = 1/2 mV*V (energy equals one-half mass times velocity squared). This equation tells us that velocity (that is, racquet speed) is significantly more important than racquet mass in the energy of the collision between racquet and ball. Another purpose of the change was to be able to move my racquet more quickly to better respond to the quick at-net exchanges in doubles.

Although my shots -- especially my serves -- have since become more energetic in both pace and ball rotation, and my racquet may be a bit quicker to move, there has also been more elbow irritation and some new shoulder soreness. For now, though, I'm sticking to the lighter configuration.

What do you think?

The Utility of a Coach's Input, Part Two

This summer, while I was working on my grind baseline shots, I began struggling with other issues on my backhand. I was feeling uncoordinated in my mechanics and was struggling to get my usual power.

Enter Scott Smith, a local tennis pro. Scott is a high-energy instructor, who coaches out of the Franklin Athletic Club in Southfield, Michigan, and also works summers at the Heat Tennis Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. I've known Scott for several years from our crossing paths at local courts in the summer season, and my participation in his practice-with-a-pro sessions at Franklin during the indoor season.

Scott Smith, tennis pro.

He watched me hit against the ball machine, and reminded me of a few basic points, which had gotten lost in my emphasis to make grind shots habitual:

• Meet the ball early out in front -- even on two-handed backhands
• Maintain the kinetic chain: Ground, legs, hips, shoulders, arm, wrist

I hadn't realized that in my focus to hit more reliable grind shots as part of my playing strategy, I had lost the habit of using these essential fundamentals. When I focused on re-integrating these fundamental mechanics into my groundstrokes as part of my grind-shot groundstroke option, all of a sudden everything seemed to come together.

These experiences remind me that, even though one may know the proper technique for any give shot, it is sometimes necessary to have an informed, objective observer do some analysis. It has certainly been helpful to me.

Have fun. Be healthy. Play tennis.

The Utility of a Coach's Input, Part One

I know of very few really good tennis players who have achieved their playing level without significant coaching input. I know many poor tennis players who have had little coaching input -- and it shows in how they play the game (badly).

I recently have received additional professional-tennis-coach advice from two separate coaches, and this advice has made a relatively quick improvement in my play. Today I'm writing about one of those coaches: Tom Herb, Sr.



I met Tom when I began attending a 4.5-5.0 organized-practice (OP) sessions at the Wessen Indoor Tennis Club in Pontiac, Michigan. From the very first sessions I realized that he is different from most other pros at the many clubs I've attended who facilitate the OP practice drills and games. The vast majority of pros in OP sessions meet the requirements of the activity: they comment, encourage, keep things moving. Tom Herb does all that, but he does something more: he teaches. He is, I realized quickly, a natural teacher.

In the first session, he explained and drilled those of us on his court in a subtlety of doubles net-play teamwork and movement. Now I thought that I knew how to play doubles, but this session was a real eye opener.

Although the doubles instruction was interesting, I don't play much doubles; I'm a singles player. Over the next few OP sessions, I was becoming increasingly frustrated because I was having a difficult time keeping the ball in play with my groundstrokes.

Part of my difficulty was my lack of competitive play the preceding summer. Due to nagging injuries, not only did I not play any tournaments, I didn't even participate in my usual summer flex league. So during the off-season indoor OP, I certainly wasn't playing my best to say the least.

Tom took me aside and did a short mini-drill intending to lead me to hit more topspin on my groundstrokes. (I thought I was doing so, but it turns out I was unintentionally trying to rip most of the shots rather than playing high-percentage shots until I got the short ball that I should rip.) Unfortunately, this drill without explanation -- which he promised another time -- didn't really solve the problem. In an all-important follow-up session he hammered home several key points.

First of all, he explained the three varieties of groundstrokes: rip, grind, and roll. Rip is how I was trying to hit most of the time, which is rather flat, hard, and, therefore, low over the net. This is what you hit when you get your ideal set up for the point-ending winner. Grind shots are one's bread-and-butter shots -- the topspin shots one hits to stay in a point, move the opponent, position for an advantage. Roll shots are semi-moonballs, defensive, rather high in trajectory, with heavy topspin -- intended to keep the opponent from attacking.

In the drills we did together to practice and distinguish between the three shots, I was struggling hitting the heavier-topspin shots cleanly. In response to this, he asked me how much short court I've played, which was very little. He emphasized the utility of short court, which, when properly done, helps hone skills in good footwork and full-swing topspin mechanics and execution.

Since then I've played a ton of short court. Whenever I begin to hit with a practice partner on court, I like to begin our session with several minutes of active short court. When I use my ball machine, I start by placing it behind the service line and setting its controls so it gives me a vigorous short-court session. Even when I hit off the wall, I now find the best use of wall work is to stand away from the wall about the same distance I would from the net when playing short court against a partner or the ball machine. Then I hit easy- to moderate-speed shots but with heavy topspin.

This simple instruction from Tom Herb has made a significant difference in a relatively short time. There was a learning curve, of course, but in the months since he first introduced these ideas, I've had a chance to improve my skills in this regard, and as a result, my competitive play.

Even occasional input from a good tennis coach like Tom Herb, Sr can make a huge difference.

Have fun. Be healthy. Play tennis.

My Silent Partner -- My Ball Machine

In about January of 2013, I purchased a ball machine to facilitate my tennis development. Living in Michigan, January is perhaps a strange time to buy a ball machine, but with climate change and all, I have managed to use it many times -- yes, outdoors -- during winter months.

My machine looks just like the photo, except that the ball hopper -- the white upper half of the unit -- doesn't have the tri-colored grapic shown.

Initially I had some problems with the machine, which as it turned out was the result of one of their manufacturing suppliers providing defective or inappropriate parts that didn't meet design specifications. Nonetheless, even before they had figured that out, their customer support was and has continued to be superb.

Being on a budget, the model that I got at the time was called the Edge Star. Their top-of-the-line machines were just financially out of reach.

The manufacturer and seller was Silent Partner. My machine's features included the following:

• Variable ball speed from slow to ridiculously fast
• Variable ball spin from extreme backspin through flat through to extreme topspin
• Variable ball feed pace
• Variable ball-lauch trajectory from line drive to high-lob ballistic
• Variable fixed-direction or side-to-side oscillation of ball feed
• Two-button remote control individually turning on/off the ball feed and side-to-side oscillation

I found this machine to be cost competitive -- in fact, at the time it was the best value that I found, so I bought it.

For much of my ownership of the unit, I've kind of uncreatively used the ball machine to work on roundstrokes and volleys. Duh. Oh yeah, and I've also occasionally used it to practice overheads.

Recently I've begun to use more imagination in my application of the machine. For example, since I'm old school, having played tennis since about 1968, I tended to undervalue hitting short court (service line to service line). A couple of months ago, one of my favorite local teaching pros whom I highly respect, pointed out some improvements to my mechanics to achieve better topspin on my groundstrokes. I was having a bit of difficulty with actual implementation of his advice, and he told me one reason for that was that I hadn't played enough short court.

So I started to include short court as a significant portion of my ball-machine sessions. I'd put the machine at the T of one service line and adjust speed, spin, feed rate and launch trajectory appropriately. Then with the oscillation feature turned on, I'd get some of the best short-court practice ever. (The machine is very consistent! ;-)

I was also struggling as a new member of a doubles league. I have tended to focus on singles for many years, and though I was a serve-and-volley player back in the day, my volley skills were not up to par for modern doubles.

Enter the ball machine. Again set up at the T and set in oscillation mode, I made the appropriate speed and spin setting for the desired effect. Then most significantly, I set the feed rate to very fast, which simulated the rate of exchange in a good doubles rally, when all four players are at the net. The result was a significant improvement in my volleys (which are nonetheless a work in progress).

The only thing I've not yet done is devise a platform to allow the machine to simulate a server. I've read about others having done so successfully, so I know it can be done. This, of course, will allow me to practice my return of serve, which is so all important to a competitive player.

Recently, because of an in-storage accident, one of the three posts molded into the blue-plasic lower half of the machine -- posts that locate the ball hopper in position -- broke off. I was able to successfully glue that back good as new. However, it took several trips to the hardware store to get the proper adhesive. The key is to know that the blue plastic is polypropolene, which is stubbornly resistant to most adhesives. Once I got a glue designed for polypropolene, however, the repair progressed according to plan and the crisis was resolved.

I also finally just this fall replaced the battery, which looks to be about an every-four-years repair.

All things considered, the ball machine has been a fun and useful investment. I'm glad I made the pruchase.

Have fun. Be healthy. Play tennis!