The Babolat Racket Station can use the 20mm height riser side, as seen here, and many other machines can probably use that height as well.
Category Archives: Learning
Wrong Planet?
Yesterday a good friend was in the World Headquarters, and as usual, our discussion turned to player training, the necessity, and the over-training of players, mainly juniors!
This training may include the wrong equipment setup, unnecessarily stiff strings, and sometimes stiff, light racquets. This may cause injuries at every level of player from recreational to professional!
My friend, by the way, is a Collegiate All-American, a professional player, and a coach!
After we discussed how to change this behavior, she said something quite interesting;
“John, you are on a different planet!”
Yikes!
So two things can happen;
- Abandon my planet
- Invite you to join our planet!
We have chosen number 2!
- to invite you to our planet!
There will be no need for interplanetary travel right now, but we do need to pick a name for our planet, so, the person presenting the best name will be the Mayor of our planet (your name here)…for a while.
We hope you will join us and make our planet a place we can all go to discover, learn, share, and understand as much as we can about tennis equipment, customization, stringing, and “best practices”.
Please use the “Leave Comment” tab below to submit your name for our new planet!
Solinco Confidential (string)
As you know, Racquet Quest, LLC does not promote polyester string to most tennis players. We do, however, test any racquet string we can. This really helps us understand what happens during play and helps make a better performance selection for the player!
All of the information shown in the table is interesting but the most important data is Power Potential.
We have added three (3) Solinco strings to the Power Potential table, so take a look here
Numbers, numbers, numbers! What do they mean?
With each of our racquet reviews a long list of numbers is included. It has been a few years since we explained what these numbers mean so here it is;
| Manufacturer | Head |
|---|---|
| Racquet Model | Head Radical MP 2023 |
| Reference Tension | 55 (what you tell the stingers to set the stringing machine). This should be replaced by String Bed Stiffness (SBS) |
| String | MonoGut ZX Pro |
| Machine Used | True Tension Professional |
| String Bed Stiffness - RDC | 53.0 Units (Babolat RDC) |
| String Bed Stiffness -FlexFour | 64.9 pounds (Flex Four) |
| String Bed Stiffness - SBS | 51.8 pounds (Racquet Quest string bed stiffness SBS Master) |
| String Bed Stiffness - ERT | 35 Kg/Cm (previously Beer's ERT1000) |
| Racquet Flex, Babolat RDC | 65 - After stringing (unstrung racquets will be slightly stiffer. Loaded from the tip) |
| Racquet Flex, FlexFour | 44.5 (Loaded from the COP) |
| Racquet - In Plane Stiffness | 379.7 lbs/Inch (stiffness across the 3 ad 9 o'clock positions of the racquet head) |
| Weight, Grams | 326 |
| Weight, Ounces | 11.50 |
| Balance, mm | 333 |
| Balance, Inch | 13.11 |
| Length, Cm | 68.57 |
| Length, Inch | 27.00 |
| Head Width | 9.63 |
| Head Length | 12.79 |
| Head Area, cm2 | 623.0 |
| Head Area, Sq. Inch | 96.7 |
| Beam Height @ Grip, mm | 21.0 (how thick the racquet is looking at the side) |
| Beam Height @ Mid, mm | 22.5 (how thick the racquet is looking at the side) |
| Beam Height @ Tip | 20.5 (how thick the racquet is looking at the side) |
| Beam Width @ Grip, mm | 12.5 (how thick the racquet is looking at the front or face view) |
| Beam Width @ Throat, mm | 11.5 (how thick the racquet is looking at the front or face view) |
| Beam Width @ Mid, mm | 12.8 (how thick the racquet is looking at the front or face view) |
| Beam Width @ Tip, mm | 12.8 (how thick the racquet is looking at the front or face view) |
| Number of Main Strings | 16 |
| Number of Cross Strings | 19 |
| Ratio Cross/Mains | .634 ( typically the natural ratio) |
| Main String Grid | 7.18 (the distance between the two outer most main strings) |
| Cross String Grid | 9.44 (the distance between the two outer most cross strings) |
| Density (% of head filled with string) | 69.6% (how much of the head area is filled with string) |
| Average Cross String Space | .494 (how far apart the strings are). The farther apart the quicker the wear. |
| Average Main String Space | .449 (how far apart the strings are). The farther apart the quicker the wear. |
| Dynamic Tension, Kp, ERT | 35 (string bed stiffness in kilos per centimeter) |
| Dynamic Tension, Lbs/in | 195.76 (DT converted to pounds per inch) |
| First Moment, Nm | .841 (sometimes called pickup weight) |
| Polar Moment | 347 (torsional weight) |
| Torsional Stability | 16 ( resistance to twisting on off center hits) |
| Swing Weight, Kg/cm2 | 331 (the dynamic weight and the most significant property) |
| Swing Weight, Ounces | 11.68 |
| Swing Weight Calculated | 361.5 (calculated from the butt end to the tip) |
| Power, RDC | 52 (property calculated by Babolat RDC) |
| Control, RDC | 49 (property calculated by Babolat RDC) |
| Manueverability, RDC | 66 (property calculated by Babolat RDC) |
| Power, Calculated | 2101.4 (calculation based on several racquet properties) |
| Head Points | 3.15 ( a point is generally consider to be .125 inches/3.18mm) |
| Head Weight, % | 48.5% |
| Center of Percussion | 21.1 (highest COR) |
| Dwell Time, ms | 8.74 (length of time the ball is in contact with the string without a swing) |
| Efective Stiffness - lbs | 29.2 ( the calculated combined stiffness of the racquet and sting bed) |
| K, Lb/In | 169.87 (string bed stiffness in pounds/inch) |
| Recoil Weight | 156.44 (resistance to twisting about the grip) |
| Twist Weight | 226.48 (resistance to twisting about the neutral axis) |
| End Weight | 126.0 (two scale system to calculate CG) |
| Tip Weight | 197.7 (two scale system to calculate CG) |
| 9 O'Clock | 105.1 (three scale system to assure symmetry) |
| 3 O'Clock | 104.7(three scale system to assure symmetry) |
| Butt Cap | 115.6 (three scale system to assure symmetry) |
| COF, Main | .416 (the stickiness of the string bed sliding the ball with the main strings) |
| COF, Cross | .388(the stickiness of the string bed sliding the ball with the cross strings) |
Clamp Riser…your friend!
The Clamp Riser eliminates the need to pull two main strings to start a string job! There is really no need to use that procedure.
Sold as a set of 2. Can be used at a 20mm or 30mm rise depending on rotation.
1⃝ Any stringing machine with long, rotating string clamps is too low to capture the string properly for the first tension pull. The Clamp Riser fits under the clamp and raises it!
2⃝ The clamp holds the string securely at the proper height for the first pull, one string at a time!
Simply rotate the clamp riser depending on whether you need 20mm of height or 30mm.
We have found that Baiardo prefers the 30mm height, as seen here. The riser height must be enough to allow the clamp base to “lock”.
Charges for shipping outside the US will be added to the total cost minus the US shipping charge.
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
