Perhaps influenced by watching professionals change their rackets at every ball change, many became fastidious about their string tensions too.
When probed, I was surprised by the theories they presented, and how some of these myths were believed to affect string tension and their play.
However, when asked about their natural ball impact location on the stringbed, everyone threw a blank face at me!
Davydenko was known to reduce the top 4 or 5 crosses by a few pounds of tension. (link) However, it was not mentioned why he preferred it that way.
According to the Babolat Play statistics, even Nadal (link1)(link2) posted only about 55% dead centre hits for forehands, and about 45% for backhands during competitive play.
Knowing is the first step. The next is to communicate with your stringer (or coach) to find out what he can do for you. The "sweetspot" location can be adjusted slightly to suit your style of play.
The most common impact location I noticed seems to be the top one-third of the stringbed.
Take a video or get a non-playing partner to stand directly behind and record the impact locations. This has huge implications on the types of shots you can or cannot execute, the placements locations, spin and power.
In my opinion, this takes precedence over string tension.
No comments:
Post a Comment