Category Archives: Blogs
Still Committed to Your Racquet!
For the past few years and certainly the past year Racquet Quest has been committed to tennis racquets and yours is included!
Hopefully the days of the “mask”are over and we can resume actually talking to each other and be understood! Of course if you prefer to wear a mask that is OK, too!
Here is what is not OK!
Not caring about your tennis racquet is not OK, and by that I mean keeping it in the best possible condition. That includes string, grip, grommet sets, overgrips and general reactions of beating it against the ground or net!
We have seen five year old racquets that look brand new and five day old racquets that are in really poor shape! One of the most damaging “strokes” in tennis is the ball pickup stroke! This is not a stroke at all but a way to keep from bending over to pick up balls!
Using the racquet head to scoop up the balls is easy and cool! It is also the quick way to ruin the bumper guard which is there to protect the Racquet from normal stroke, not pick-ups!
So, what do you do about it? The next time you consider scooping up balls with the racquet consider tapping the ball to start it bouncing or simplpy use the fingers on your hand to pick up the ball…that would be good!
Friction v Tension…what wins?
We all know what friction is. It keeps our cars from sliding around, it keeps us from slipping and in general makes movement possible!
Friction also plays an important part in the string bed of your tennis racquet. Friction between the strings and the ball create friction which in turn creates rotation.
What are, however, some of the downsides of friction in the string bed during, and after, the stringing process?
Friction v Tension
For more detailed information and a graph showing the forces involved go to our membership site, GASP.network, but in the meantime this image will show the frictional forces at work!
This machine tension head will pull the string (blue) in the direction of the center of the racquet support structure instead of directly out the middle of the grommet.
It is obvious that this will create considerable friction and result in lower tension inside the grommet than outside the grommet.
Racquet Quest, LLC
