HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH? [POWER] {2009}

By Vince Chiarelli, PTR, MRT and Owner of String Along With Vince in Largo

I hope you all had an enjoyable, if frugal holiday season. I’m sure some of you are now proud owners of new racquets. Did you choose the one with the most power so you could crush your opponent? Unless your stature and your stroke are very short indeed, if you did get a really powerful frame, you probably got more than you needed.

We all watch the car commercials where they tell you how much more powerful their car, truck, SUV, etc. is than the last year’s model, or some competitor’s vehicle. You will enjoy that power when you are cruising the streets at 35 miles per hour, or inching your way through “rush” hour traffic. The fact is, even at highway speed, you will seldom if ever, have the need for that 400 horsepower.

Now back to tennis. 82.54 ft., 85.9 ft.; do you know what these numbers represent? They are the distance a ball can travel and still be in bounds on a tennis court. The first is the distance for the singles court and the second, you guessed it, the distance for the doubles court. 85.9 feet; not really very far is it? Actually the chances are very slim that you will hit a ball from one corner of the court to the opposite corner, so you are mostly hitting balls less than 78 ft. The result of the above is that many shots go long because the racquet is too powerful.

Let me see the hands of those who string their racquets at the top of the tension range to keep the ball in the court. I see lots of hands out there. If that’s what YOU do, you probably have a frame with too much power. The exception to this rule is if you are playing with a very small head size racquet and are still having trouble keeping the ball in the court. This is usually reserved for those players who have extremely fast swings and can generate their own power to the point where the only thing they can do is reduce the power as much as possible. Remember, even Federer doesn’t string his racquets at the upper limit of the tension range, and he certainly has plenty of power.

COPYRIGHT 2009