Author Archives: RacquetQuest
My chat with Oscar!
It is a rare opportunity to chat with one of the greatest basketball players of all time! I am happy to share our conversation with all of you on our Racquet Quest Podcast!
Our podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and Twitter, or you can simply click the episode on the left side of the home page and listen without going anywhere!
This is a really fun conversation, and I hope you will listen and comment if you want.
Thank you, Oscar, for sharing, and thank you, Tia, for bringing us together!
Failure by Fruit!
Tennis strings fail for several reasons… but fruit!
I have been doing tennis racquet work for many years. However, this is a first for me!
Failure by Fruit
So what actually happened here? This player carries everything she needs to compete at tournaments, including fruit. In this case, it was bananas!
Well, bananas don’t last long, and these decided to go and take some very good sting with them!
The racquets were placed in the bag and remained there while the bananas did what bananas do…go bad!
Apparently, where the bananas contacted the string, the chemicals in the decomposing banana were enough to eat the string in not one but two racquets!
So, if you are considering sharing your bag with bananas, be sure they are separated from the racquets!
We are preparing to work on these racquets, and I can say they do smell good!
Solinco Black Out 300XTD
Solinco is not new to the tennis racquet business but the new offerings have some excellent features that I don’t remember on the previous ones we saw.
The two (2) racquets being reviewed are the Black Out 300XTD and White Out 305 XTD
Solinco Black Out
Cleverly, one is all black and one is all white! I mention this because the graphics are minimal which I think is a very good design platform.
We will start the review with the Black Out. As you might have guessed the 300XTD is a 300-gram, 27.5-inch-long racquet having a 100-square-inch hitting area.
This racquet comes with three (3) butt caps for adding much-needed weight! Pop out the 0-gram standard and pop in a 5 or 10-gram replacement! When you pop out the butt cap you will see this is a non-filled (hollow) racquet, and, there is nothing wrong with that. You will also see that the grip pallet is a molded foam pallet, allowing for minor size and shape changes.
That is enough narrative. Take a look at the specifications below:
| Manufacturer | Solinco |
|---|---|
| Racquet Model | Solinco Black Out 300XTD |
| Reference Tension | 42 |
| String | Volkl V-Star 18 |
| Machine Used | True Tension Professional |
| String Bed Stiffness - RDC | 42.0 Units |
| String Bed Stiffness -FlexFour | 39.0 pounds |
| String Bed Stiffness - SBS | 41.3 pounds |
| String Bed Stiffness - ERT | 28 Kg/Cm |
| Racquet Flex, RDC | 70 - After stringing |
| Racquet Flex, FlexFour | 49.0 |
| Racquet - In Plane Stiffness | 377.4 lbs/Inch |
| Weight, Grams | 330 |
| Weight, Ounces | 11.64 |
| Balance, mm | 323 |
| Balance, Inch | 12.72 |
| Length, Cm | 69.9 |
| Length, Inch | 27.52 |
| Head Width | 9.81 |
| Head Length | 12.98 |
| Head Area, cm2 | 645.3 |
| Head Area, Sq. Inch | 100.0 |
| Beam Height @ Grip, mm | 23.3 |
| Beam Height @ Mid, mm | 24.5 |
| Beam Height @ Tip | 23.7 |
| Beam Width @ Grip, mm | 16.0 |
| Beam Width @ Throat, mm | 15.7 |
| Beam Width @ Mid, mm | 11.0 |
| Beam Width @ Tip, mm | 12.8 |
| Number of Main Strings | 16 |
| Number of Cross Strings | 19 |
| Ratio Cross/Mains | .637 |
| Main String Grid | 7.70 |
| Cross String Grid | 10.68 |
| Density (% of head filled with string) | .822 |
| Average Cross String Space | .562 |
| Average Main String Space | .481 |
| Dynamic Tension, Kp, ERT | 30 |
| Dynamic Tension, Lbs/in | 167.79 |
| First Moment, Nm | .819 |
| Polar Moment | 332 |
| Torsional Stability | 15 |
| Swing Weight, Kg/cm2 | 317 |
| Swing Weight, Ounces | 11.18 |
| Swing Weight Calculated | 344.3 |
| Power, RDC | 60 |
| Control, RDC | 36 |
| Manueverability, RDC | 75 |
| Power, Calculated | 2330.5 |
| Head Points | 8.35 |
| Head Weight, % | 46.2% |
| Center of Percussion | 20.9 |
| Dwell Time, ms | 10.19 |
| Efective Stiffness - lbs | 25.0 |
| K, Lb/In | 125.00 |
| Recoil Weight | 155.24 |
| Twist Weight | 237.60 |
| End Weight | 136.4 |
| Tip Weight | 192.7 |
| 9 O'Clock | 100.4 |
| 3 O'Clock | 101.3 |
| Butt Cap | 127.5 |
| COF, Main | .370 |
| COF, Cross | .332 |
Solinco White Out 305XTD
Solinco is not new to the tennis racquet space but this model is a much better effort than the ones we have seen previously.
Solinco White Out
This White Out 305XTD is a 305-gram, 27 ½ long, 98-square-inch hitting area, thin beam racquet, that happens to be foam filled. The White Out is basically white…which is very good! The grip pallet is a molded foam format that will allow minor size and shape modifications.
The standard butt cap can be replaced with a 5 or 10-gram unit for needed weight.
We have added the beam height and beam width to the specification sheet. Beam height is the thickness of the racquet when looking a the side and beam width is the thickness of the racquet when looking at the face.
Take a look at all the specifications:
| Manufacturer | Solinco |
|---|---|
| Racquet Model | Solinco White Out 305XTD |
| Reference Tension | 42 |
| String | Volkl V-Star 18 |
| Machine Used | True Tension Professional |
| ASPS, RDC | 39.0 |
| ASPS, FlexFour | 50.5 |
| Racquet Flex, RDC | 67 - After stringing |
| Racquet Flex, FlexFour | 50.0 |
| Racquet - In Plane Stiffness | 350.9 lbs/Inch |
| Weight, Grams | 330 |
| Weight, Ounces | 11.64 |
| Balance, mm | 323 |
| Balance, Inch | 12.72 |
| Length, Cm | 69.9 |
| Length, Inch | 27.52 |
| Head Width | 9.62 |
| Head Length | 12.95 |
| Head Area, cm2 | 631.5 |
| Head Area, Sq. Inch | 97.9 |
| Beam Height @ Grip, mm | 22.0 |
| Beam Height @ Mid, mm | 22.0 |
| Beam Height @ Tip | 22.3 |
| Beam Width @ Grip, mm | 11.6 |
| Beam Width @ Throat, mm | 13.0 |
| Beam Width @ Mid, mm | 10.8 |
| Beam Width @ Tip, mm | 12.5 |
| Number of Main Strings | 16 |
| Number of Cross Strings | 19 |
| Ratio Cross/Mains | .626 |
| Main String Grid | 7.70 |
| Cross String Grid | 10.56 |
| Density (% of head filled with string) | .831 |
| Average Cross String Space | .556 |
| Average Main String Space | .481 |
| Dynamic Tension, Kp, ERT | 30 |
| Dynamic Tension, Lbs/in | 167.79 |
| First Moment, Nm | .819 |
| Polar Moment | 334 |
| Torsional Stability | 14 |
| Swing Weight, Kg/cm2 | 320 |
| Swing Weight, Ounces | 11.29 |
| Swing Weight Calculated | 344.3 |
| Power, RDC | 57 |
| Control, RDC | 40 |
| Manueverability, RDC | 73 |
| Power, Calculated | 2203.6 |
| Head Points | 8.35 |
| Head Weight, % | 46.2% |
| Center of Percussion | 21.1 |
| Dwell Time, ms | 10.19 |
| Efective Stiffness - lbs | 24.7 |
| K, Lb/In | 125.00 |
| Recoil Weight | 158.24 |
| Twist Weight | 229.13 |
| End Weight | 100.1 |
| Tip Weight | 191.2 |
| 9 O'Clock | 100.1 |
| 3 O'Clock | 100.6 |
| Butt Cap | 128.4 |
| COF, Main | .362 |
| COF, Cross | .300 |
Comparing Racquets (for real)
The Racquet Quest podcast recently aired a session on comparing racquets, so, to be fair I wanted to post that same data here. If you listened to the podcast this will sound familiar.
These racquets are not random. These racquets are owned by a client that is seeking an upgrade without going overboard!
Here is what Jess has to say:
“Hey, John –
Jess definitely likes the VS more than the Rafa. She said that she gets more easy power and stability with the Rafa but she’s able to accelerate faster on the forehand side with the VS.
She also felt like the VS was more maneuverable at the net. She said that if she’s in control of the point that she can really whip her forehand for a winner. She definitely noticed the lighter swing weight and liked that.
However, she also said that sometimes it feels a little unstable – like the VS is getting pushed around a bit. For example, she noticed that the head of the racquet can twist sometimes if her opponent nails a hard ball at her.
She has more control for sure with the VS – felt like she blasted more balls out with the Rafa. Overall, she likes the racquet- just would like a little more stability.”
By the way, Jess had not seen the racquet data prior to her hitting. So, there you have it. I believe you can see how much numbers help us find the right performance characteristics for a racquet.
Racquet Quest, LLC
