You can find a broad overview of the key areas of a Tennis racket here but now we’re going into more detailed territory. With the help of LTA coach Mathew James and one of our lead Product Managers, Florian. We’ll take you through the key areas of a racket and how they effect your game.

Head Size

The bigger the head size – The more power you will get. You’ll also get a bigger sweet spot. However, you will lose a little bit of maneuverability the bigger the head size gets. It is minor but for those looking for more control, the smaller sweet spot shouldn’t be off putting because you’ll have more control over the racket, not forgetting that if you want control from a racket, you are likely to have a big swing which generally means you are an advanced player and so, again, you should be competent in making contact in around the sweet spot.

One big reason as to why bigger head sizes offer more power is because they make way for wider string beds, inversely, a smaller head size has a tighter string bed. The wider the string pattern the more string movement the racket has and the more string movement leads to more power. If you think about it, you can probably imagine how you gain control from a tighter string bed and start to lose control and gain power as the strings move more.

String Pattern

This brings us nicely onto string patterns. Given that most rackets come at 16×19 you can see how the above information about head size makes an impact. When we really go down to control orientated rackets we can see 18×20 rackets – like the CX 200 Tour 18×20 and this essentially means there is lots of strings in a small head size which offers a very tight string bed with very little string movement. Not much power, but if you generate the power yourself, then the 18×20 string pattern will offer you a lot of control.

Weight

Weight can be tricky. First and foremost, it’s important that juniors and perhaps older players aren’t using rackets that are too heavy. Heavy rackets can be bad for the arm over time (if they are too heavy for the player using them). Heavy rackets in theory will produce more power as they will offer a more stable swing. However, this can be contradictory as the lighter rackets allow more maneuverability and therefore the potential for a faster swing generated by the player themselves. It’s a difficult one to get right and the thoughts given in this video are only really opinion based. The final decision should be made by yourself surrounding what weight feels right for you.

Balance

A few more subjective notes as we look at balance. Balance is essentially just in which direction the racket balances. Is the head heavier than the base or is the base heavier than the head? It is often referred to as ‘head heavy’ or ‘head light’. There is debate as to what type of player would use each racket and the results in this video are of Mathew James’ observations although there are opinions that disagree. A heady heavy racket ultimately gives you slightly less control and generally a bit more power with head light rackets allowing you better control of the racket and as a result more control on the shot.

Stiffness

The RA rating goes from 1-100. The higher the number, the stiffer the racket. The stiffer the racket, the more powerful the racket. Simple as that.