"Breaking Into" Rackets

Some months back, a junior competitive player asked for advice on how to continue playing with an arm injury.

Then, he was using a Babolat strung very tightly with full poly. Switching to a hybrid or even full multi did not help.

I felt a more flexy racket was necessary. After testing different sticks, he made his choice and stuck with the new racket since. According to published specs, the RA was around the low-60s.

During a recent restring, he started lamenting how the accuracy was still poor compared to his previous stiff Babolat.

I was perplexed.

He has been happily using the four new stick for about four months. Even managed to beat some team-mates he regularly lost to. Why the sudden nostalgia about his old Babolats?

He rang up his coach, passed me the phone and we spoke.

Top on my mind was whether he was "arming or swinging" (link) the new stick. This technique has huge implications on accuracy, especially when one is switching from a stiff flex to something softer. I also asked about his timing.

All seemed well. 

To ascertain, I even dropped in on one of his training sessions to see for myself how he was hitting. And there he was, leaking some forehand shots just a tad right. First serve consistency was not as good as what I recalled.

I borrowed and played a tie-break each with all four of his sticks. Then realised that the flex has changed! The rackets has all broken-in and the graphite has softened!

The pieces started falling into place. Like when he mentioned that he felt he was not able to "load" the strings and "pocket" the ball as much as before. And the reduced spin. And the "not enough time" to shape the ball.

It was finally confirmed after we put the rackets into a Babolat RDC machine. The RA stiffness for all four of them now measured 59, 60, 60 and 61 compared to 63, 64, 63, 65 when new.

To address this, I proposed to:
(1) add some lead tape to increase mass, which would "stiffen" the dynamic flex, &/or
(2) lower the tension of his existing strings, &/or
(3) change to a thinner gauge or softer string.

As it was near an important competition, he selected option (2). It was a quick-fix that addressed most of his problems. His accuracy returned while the arm pain stayed away.

Perfect!