At that time, 13 to 14 ounces rackets (368-400 grams) was the norm. Everyone who wanted to play, had to get used to the weight, including women and children.
The last time I used very heavy rackets (370-390 grams) was about 2 years ago. (link) I stopped after injuring my wrist.
Now, with a better understanding of my limited capabilities, plus knowing how to tweak the racket weights and strings, I thought I should give this another try...
This time, I kept swingweight down to "only" about 365 kg/cm².
Air swings after the final adjustments felt good. The swing speed was definitely slower than lighter rackets, but the heavy plow felt really nice, and familiar.
Surprisingly, the first two sessions on court was very good. It did not take me long to get in tune with the weight and timing. It was like bumping into an old friend on the street, and continuing exactly where we left off last time.
However, my partners suffered. Both LOVED receiving heavy balls. So I did not hold back and let it all out.
The first partner showed no emotions throughout. After the session, my partner showed me the red and swollen index finger base knuckle. Apparently, my shots had been pushing back my partner's stick every impact and the hand bore the brunt of the shock.
The second partner uses a racket about 90 grams lighter than mine. Almost all my shots were returned to me very short. Just barely passing the net a meter or so. I had to tone down to get a decent rally going.
At another session with another partner, the outcome was totally different. He was initially surprised by how heavy and spinny the ball was (see ball fur pic above). But got used to it in about 10 minutes.
Instead of blocking my shots, he took compact back swings with full follow-throughs, just like return of serves, and simply re-directed my pace back at me. I do not recall ever seeing him hit such fast paced shots and so deftly placed. He was using MY energy!
I switched back to my normal racket and immediately saw him struggle to generate pace. His balls fell so short it did not even clear the service line. Or they flew out due to loss of control. In the end, he reverted back to flatter shots hit straight to me.
What was unexpected, was that the change back to a lighter stick was much more difficult to adapt than when picking up a heavier stick. My timing became too fast, my footwork wrong, control became very poor, spin levels dipped and volleys were suddenly so unstable!
If you have never tried heavy sticks and think this is ridiculous, you could have missed the point. There are reasons why top pros insist on such heavy rackets. And these heavy sticks are not as unwieldy nor cumbersome as most people think!
Don't believe me?
Take a look at how fast and easily these 10 to 12 years old kids adapted to a male tour pro's heavy racket, and with no warmup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCw2gZM-eNg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d07GAyQuuY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMeXWXzoJqs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JugXpLT3EVI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uSl3UycOoo
5th November 2015 update:
Mission accomplished.
Happy to cross swords with the 200G now!
Nice sharing.
ReplyDeletePlayed with sticks as high as 16.25 oz
ReplyDeleteLately have been digging low static weight/ high sw (400+) sticks
Serves volleys everything is better. Getting the "heavy ball" comments again
Wilson experimented with low static weight but high SW sticks via their "Hammer" series a decade or two ago.
DeleteI believe this extreme head weighting is the root cause of many injured wrists, elbows and shoulders.
With the weight located so far away from the axis of rotation, it became a case of the racket pulling the arm rather than the arm controlling the stick.
Take a look at this player whom I modified for:
http://unorthodoxstringing.blogspot.sg/2015/03/mysterious-arm-pain-and-hyper-hammer-40_10.html