Category Archives: Juniors
Head Gravity Tour 98 Review Duex
After playing with the Head Gravity Tour 98 consistently for several weeks, this racquet has continued to impress me.
Head Gravity Tour 98
I personally prefer my string tension rather high- between 53 and 55 lbs. I tend to be sensitive to tension fluctuations. I only noticed a decline in my play when the tension dropped below 50 lbs. That being said, I had a full bed of Ashaway Monogut ZX strung at 55 which lasted probably 8 weeks or longer while playing 3 to 4 times a week.
The frame was recently restrung with a hybrid setup of natural gut and Ashaway Monogut ZX. I love this setup. Between the strings and the frame, the feel is almost silky when hitting a ball. I feel confident that I can put the ball where I want it with enough topspin to reduce errors. Touch shots like drop shots or slice backhands are easier with this racquet than with most I’ve played with.
My serve was one area of my game that didn’t come quickly during the first demo with this racquet, which I spoke about in my first review. However, that has changed and now I’ve found that I can hit both flat serves with pace and an effective slice serve.
I know that I will be ordering one of these racquets when they’re released and that’s the best recommendation that I can give.
A Visual Treat: String v String
A picture, or a graph, is worth a thousand words somebody said. So here is an image showing the difference in string stiffness.
Simply, the shorter the distance (mm) to 50 pounds the stiffer the string. So you see one string (blue) reached a force of 50 lbs at 26.0 mm, another (red) at 27.9 mm, and another (green) at 49.6 mm.
Soft v Stiff String
Another property we see is linearity, or how straight the line is from beginning to end. This could indicate the consistency of the string through various hitting forces.
Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) is indicated by the line going straight down because the string broke at that force. The force and distance are displayed near that vertical line.
The two top strings are polyester and the lower one is PEEK. These just happened to be strings installed in racquets today.
Three Important Things
When dealing with tennis racquets, there are many significant performance parameters. We are going to list our three (3) most important ones:
- Swing Weight
- Overall Weight
- Effective Stiffness
These particular parameters are based on machine testing, physics, and experience.
- Swing Weight: we refer to this as a dynamic weight, meaning how heavy or light the racquet feels during the swing to the ball.
- Overall Weight: This is normally considered to be the weight found on a scale, electronic, or balance. Weight is your friend if properly associated with your capabilities and stature.
- Effective Stiffness: is a calculable and measurable stiffness of the ball hitting the string as you are holding the racquet and hitting a ball.
Why is it Important?:
- Swing Weight: contributes to power and stability, which contributes to control. A higher swing weight of, say, 320 to 340 will handle most incoming balls with ease. Swing weights of 300 to 319 will be easier to maneuver and require a little more energy from the player to handle aggressive incoming balls.
- Overall Weight: contributes to ease of movement and long play time and must be associated with the stature and style of the player. The heavier racquet will provide more power with less energy expended by the player.
- Effective Stiffness: this is a metric we use to ensure the racquet is within the stiffness range needed by the player. For example, if you come into the World Headquarters of Racquet Quest for the first time with your current racquet and the strings are intact, we can determine the effective stiffness and, based on your satisfaction with the current playability, arrive at a corresponding effective stiffness…not on a reference tension. A range of 24 to 30 pounds is acceptable. Anything over 30 becomes quite stiff and should be avoided by most players.
If you look at our racquet reviews, you will see a lot more than three (3) performance parameters! We believe they are all important, but players should understand the three (3) described here.
T-Shirts with a Message!
Just in case you can not make it to Racquet Quest’s World Headquarters, we are posting our T-shirt loop here so you all can see it!
If you can’t make it to the World Headquarters you can pick up your “T-Shirts with a Message” here!
Racquet Quest, LLC
