LATEST, YES, GREATEST..NOT SO MUCH {2010}

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

Ah, yes, ‘twas the Season: Christmas trees, poinsettias, turkeys, new “better than ever” tennis racquets. Let’s take a closer look at some of the new sticks for the New Year and see.

Let’s agree that graphite in its various forms (aka: nanocarbon, carbon fiber, extreme carbon, hyper carbon, high modulus graphite, etc) is THE outstanding material for racquets. It is light, strong, and vibration deadening by nature. Okay, what does that leave the “marketeers” to work with when they have to tout “new and improved”? Not much.

Racquet companies add tiny bits of other materials to the graphite, jazz up the paint jobs, line up pro players for endorsements, and the race is on. By the way, if the “old” added stuff was so incredibly wonderful, why change? (To stimulate more sales is the answer.)

Head’s latest is their “YouTek” line of frames. The “new” material is supposed to stiffen on impact with the ball (or net post, court surface, etc.) yet be flexible for those soft touch shots. Gee, that sounds like the “Intelligence” line containing “Intellifibers” that Head was touting 10 years ago. They used that same lingo about them. I think the main thing either of these, or “Liquid Metal” or “Metallix” or “Flexpoint”, or anything else they have come up with, is Head’s marketing department’s extremely good ability to get your attention. Very little of the material they demonstrate goes into the frame. Head is my choice for number one—in marketing, and nothing else.

Wilson’s latest is basalt fibers. After doing some research on the material I learned about some of its positive properties regarding strength and vibration damping. I asked Wilson why they didn’t put more of the material in the frame to reduce vibration. I was told basalt fibers are too heavy relative to graphite, so there is really very little used. Sound familiar?

Actually basalt fiber is good for many applications other than racquets. If you’re curious, do an internet search.

The good news is that the measurements I took of the frames leads me to believe they are basically the same as last year’s models under the new paint jobs. So if you are looking for a replacement frame, you should be fine.

You can repeat these stories and substitute other company names and materials: Babolat and “graphite-tungsten” or “Cortex”; Yonex and “elastic ti”; Dunlop and “aerogel” and so on. Most manufacturers’ information is just to get your attention and I find most consumers get nothing out of the marketing but confusion and a headache. As usual, my advice is try a racquet and if you like it, buy it.

COPYRIGHT 2010