A hurting arm makes it no fun to play tennis! So we need to keep your arm from hurting. Typically players associate hurting with stiff, lightweight racquets which may be true. We know that weight is your friend when it comes to comfort. I have written about this many times and most players accept the concept but simply don’t think they can play with a heavier racquet.

Well, don’t worry too much because we can make the stiff racquet feel “softer” by focusing on “effective stiffness”. Effective Stiffness is a calculated number based on the racquet stiffness, that can not be changed, and the string bed stiffness that can be changed.

That means the lower the string bed stiffness the lower the “effective stiffness” will be. By knowing the “effective stiffness” of a racquet/string combination we can customize the string bed stiffness to create almost any feel you want. Our diagnostic equipment makes it easy for us to collect “effective stiffness” number for any racquet at any time. For example if your racquet is feeling particularly good right now we can capture the current “effective stiffness” and duplicate this number the next time we string the racquet.

This is a very simplified version of what can be a complex discussion so please accept it as such.