POWER, POWER, POWER!!!

Speaking of power, I was playing with my friend Rufus yesterday and he had a new racquet. It was a RAMBO XF15 THUNDERBAT which is (surprise!) a stiff, powerful racquet. Rufus from the first point hit hard penetrating baseline shots, a noticeable uptick in power and depth from his normal game.

For the first 3-4 games I was breathing hard, chasing deep shots into both corners. My goose was cooked – tennis wise. Then something interesting happened. On shots that were mid court to him, he came in and hit it long (out) more often than not. What had been a wonderful racquet 5 seconds earlier was now an unwieldy cannon.

Power is only good on a tennis court if you can harness it and direct it. From the baseline he was a monster but for the mid court stuff, the monster lost its bite and the racquet became a one trick pony.

So this is just a reminder that while power might be the most intoxicating of all the tennis weapons, it is also the most overrated. The other tennis P’s... placement, position and pa-variety are all equally or more important armaments in an effective tennis arsenal.