Friday, June 22, 2012

The Classic Dilemma


Okay, summer is here - I think we established that factoid in the last post.  And yesterday I am playing with my friend who can't seem to put most of his shots in.  Today he's off by a lot,  maybe 6 feet on most of his shots.  We sit and talk.  I look at his strings.  They are all over the place and of course since I strung it myself in April, I can only blame myself.  But he says both his racquets are strung way too loose and he has no control.  He does use an oversized racquet.  I think it's 27.75 inches and 110+ head size so with a 28mm beam, power is no problem.  He wanted it strung at the low end because to string higher he has arm pain.  The classic dilemma.  We talked for a bit and I mentioned that the better strings, the multifilaments, while costing a lot more, have more power AND better control.  They seem to "pocket" the ball.

There is another solution however.  Switch to a more flexible racquet.  His beam of 28+mm tells me that he has stiffness to spare.  And since the racquet is really big too, that may translate into a lighter than good for your arm sub 11 ounces.

This is a site I have referred many people to.  http://racquetresearch.com/ . It starts off a bit technical but then explains in fairly basic layman terms why a heavy racquet is good and so is a flexible one compared to stiff.  It's worth a read.  If you have a sore arm problem, it may thank you.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Welcome Back Summer!

It's that time of the year again!  Summer!  And while I get to play more now, I also play in hotter weather and I am snapping strings every two weeks now.  Bummer.  Good thing I string my own.  And as I may have said in posts of long ago, strings act differently at 65 degrees than they do at 85.  Therefore, I adjust my strings to about 2 - 4 pounds tighter to make up for the elasticity that seems to go with the hot weather.

What else do I adjust?  I bring a FULL 2 liters now to drink.  Rarely do I finish it all but have about once a week for the last 3 weeks shared some of my Cytomax brew with partners and opponents who did not plan ahead and run dry.

Finally, in addition to lathering on the sunscreen (30, or 50 SPF is my preferred range), I also do the popular if not nerdy thing and bring LAWN CHAIRS so we don't have to sit in full sun at changeovers and wonder why or why are we playing on such a hot day.  A little breeze while sitting in the shade during a changeover is almost pleasant enough to help you forget that sitter you blew at the net a minute earlier.

Enjoy the summer hitting and let's be prepared out there!