WHAT IS IMPACTING TENNIS ?

"We can attribute one's success to something we can never have, or we can embrace them as our masters and learn what are the secrets to their mastery."

Tennis, among sports like golf, is unique in a way that it’s a sport were equipment plays a crucial role and requires a high level of personalization. I’ve seen too many players and coaches treat rackets like basketball. Tennis equipment is too often seen just as a tool used to play the sport, and you should just focus on how to play the sport and not what you use to play it. Maybe one day, there will be a rule change to require all players use the same rackets, but for the time being that is not the case and we should focus in great detail to unlock the potential of tennis equipment.

I’ve devoted a lot of o time and research to understanding every playing style, grip, technique, racket specifications, player physique etc., in order to understand the whole picture of how all these variables form a tennis player and his specific game style. It’s hard for me to watch most of the young up and coming players all use similar rackets specs and developing the same playing style. For me, it’s no surprise that the so-called »big 4« still can’t be touched, and it doesn’t seem there is anyone on the horizon to replace them. They each have a very specific game style to match perfectly with their racket specifications., to set them apart from the herd. Perhaps one that stands out the most is Federer, because of how he and his team transformed his game between 2016 and 2017 seasons by increasing the MGR/I of his racket.

" What is seen as great talent by many, can be seen as the right racket set up for one's abilities as a whole. "

Miha Flisek
Racquet engineer

Have you ever wondered what set’s apart world class players from a very good professional player? Well sure you might argue it’s their physique. We can’t ignore that guys like Nadal and Djokovic are among the earth’s mightiest warriors. But how to compete with those guys if you are build like…well an average human being. We all know that one guy who has figured it out…yes it’s Roger. And many others…

They seemingly have that little extra special thing that lets them play differently. They can produce shots that others can’t. They hit a spinnier ball than anyone else. They create pace with seemingly no effort. Their strokes, grip styles, swing paths seem unorthodox, but more effective. What do all these players have in common? One might say it’s talent, something they were born with. But as any successful person can tell you, talent has nothing to do with one’s world-class mastery. Hard work is the right answer, but not entirely, especially not in tennis. What is it then?

It’s racket’s high ceiling

 
Ceiling (a term I like to use to describe one’s or one thing’s maximum potential) is the single most important thing in tennis. You can train harder, longer, better…but if you are limited with your equipment you hit a plateau and that plateau is defined by your equipment. Even one’s stroke technique is a function of racket mass distribution.  If Roger seems like he is generating effortless power it’s because he is. Believe me, his racket is heavy and a rocket launcher and he builds his play style and his strokes around that.
 
Everyone should be aware how he or she builds his racket ceiling and in what areas the ceiling is the highest and then build your game around that. Coaches are often too focused on making players do everything well, jet the best players only do a couple of things exceptionally well and they build their game around that. It’s easy to play with an all-around good racket, but you can’t excel in any area and thus your ceiling as a player is lower.
 
What is also important is that one racket will produce the higher ceiling only in the hands of a player for who it is personalized for. How you raise your racket’s ceiling most effectively for your game, is a function of many things like grip style, length of the bones in the arm, stroke style, one or two handed backhand, strength, stamina and so on. There are so many variables, but every year there is less variety in racket specs available on the market. The trend of the popular rackets today seems to be in the direction of 33 cm balance, 300 g of mass, swing weight of about 320 and a high twist weight.
 

That is because these specs are the easy way for an average player to play at an average level.

 
 
And it is no secret that manufacturers mainly target the average players. They have their professional sponsored players endorse those rackets, and when your average players buy the racket, they are happy with the performance. The problem is when a serious player does the same, or even an inspiring young professional or a junior. They start plateauing quickly and this has been the case with increasingly aggressive marketing strategies in the recent years. The upcoming players just can’t compete with the older generations.
 
Fortunately for us, it is possible to create the perfect personalized racket for just about any player with what we have available today on the market, with some exceptions. For example, if you aim to replicate Nadal’s strokes, you are out of luck. There is no racket on the market today with similar specs and such low twist weight. But let’s get back to the “ceiling”.
 
I’ll give you some examples of how players increase their ceiling. Let’s look at how Roger Federer, Nick Kyrgios, Jack Sock and Richard Gasquet raise their ceiling. They are some of the textbook examples of what I’m trying to portrait here. Roger uses a de-polarised, very head light and heavy racket with MGR/I value slightly above 21. Back in the day, when he used a smaller head size he also strung gut (the most powerful string) at 19 kg. Kyrgios uses an even more depolarized frame, even higher MGR/I value and a relatively low swing weight. All that enables him to accelerate his racket head on a very short swing path, that’s why all his strokes look so unorthodox. And of course, his serve is so unpredictable, because he generates most of his racket head speed just before the contact point. Jack Sock’s racket is special in a way, that by itself is very low powered, but Jack reportedly strings it with around 16 kg of tension. That makes it a rocket launcher and enables him to generated ball speed even though his forehand swing would normally just cause the ball to heave heavy rotation, but no speed or depth in the court. Another good example is Richard Gasquet, he is not very bit or particularly muscular, jet his strokes are one of the heavyest, and his one-handed backhand is considered the best by many. His secret is in the flare at the end of the butt cap. He grips his leather grip and overgrip in a way that he creates a baseball bat like grip shape and that allows him to whip his racket around in a very different way than anyone else.
 
There are many more and more complex examples, but that’s enough for now. If you found this interesting and want to learn more, like what some terminology I used means, how to implement this in your tennis etc., stick around and feel free to explore my page.
 
I hope I can impact the way you perceive tennis.