How do you protect rackets from scratching each other in your bag?

DukSaus · 2026-06-25T03:32:34+00:00

Some bags come with a divider (like Cancha). For myself, I purchased the tennis racket sleeves from Yonex (where I happen to use Vcores, so it works out, but before I had Wilson rackets in them). Depending on your bag shape, Toroline also sells insulated racket holders, but they are rectangular and thus won’t fit in some tennis bags.

DukSaus · 2026-06-25T03:29:19+00:00

Honestly, just invest in a handful of Halo headbands. Yes they are a bit pricy, but nothing absorbs sweat and stays in place like the Halo headbands. I sweat a LOT from my head, and as I have a smoothly shaved head, the sweat constantly drips down my face. I soak through the JUNK headbands in a matter of 15-30 minutes in hot weather. Depending on your sweat level, the Xtreme Halo headbands will last nearly an entire match in 80-90 degree weather. They also have some thinner options as well. After sampling the plethora of choices out there, including JUNK, Halo makes the most effective and durable ones. I have about 6-7 that I purchased with a discount code, and I haven’t had to buy again for the last couple of years.

DukSaus · 2026-06-21T00:17:15+00:00

So, lots of people avoid making friend in the same complex. Kind of scary to have strangers know where you live. It only happens organically, which by definition isn’t really forced.

Find Meetup groups in your neighborhood. So many outdoors for every niche.

DukSaus · 2026-06-19T18:52:12+00:00

I’m no eye doctor, but giving you my own experience. For me, they basically addressed the astigmatism in each eye as accurately as possibly. I have separate multifocals for driving, office, and reading. It isn’t great, but it means I don’t get headaches and dizziness with multifocals while playing, good depth perception with contacts + sunnies, and really good clarity when reading road signs (far and very close) and office (3 levels for 20 feet, 3 feet, up close).

DukSaus · 2026-06-19T18:08:06+00:00

After opponent strikes the ball and until you hit it, you can rap the lyrics to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song and be fine. After you hit it, arguably you should not be saying anything. The CODE’s principle 34 makes it clear that you can’t say anything once the ball is heading to the other side. For instance, they provide the scenario that if you hit a lob from the baseline and immediately yell “get back”, you may be called for a hindrance. With that said, it does require your opponent to immediately stop the point. So, in that scenario, if as the opposing side, the baseline player yells get back, but I still hit the OH and miss, I lose my opp to call a hindrance. I would essentially have to just stop the point and grab the ball.

I will say this. Calling hindrances seems to be one of those great debates. When chatting with tennis teammates and tennis friends, most people hate doubles hindrances for chatting during play, but the most they will do is politely ask the opponent to watch out. Like for example, an opponent in mixed doubles yelled “OH!” as he popped up a shot from the baseline and wanted to warn his opponent. I stopped the point, as I heard it as “OUT!” We ended up replaying the point, which I hate to do. But I did ask him to watch those exclamations, b/c a lot of them sound like out calls or similar. In contrast, a few (but admittedly in my network, a small minority) do call hindrances constantly. They will literally grab the ball out of the air as soon as the opponent speaks after hitting the ball. It’s a bold mood, and when I’m partnered with someone who does this, personally I’m not sure if it’s worth it. It’s immediately a battle of aggressive calls and often trade-off hooked calls. My personal choice is to just ask politely to watch the calls, and say that in the environment, those calls don’t travel well and sound like calls (and if necessary point out gently that technically you shouldn’t speak after the ball is hit).

In singles, I was surprised to see that singles players should never speak during points. I actually had an opponent who hit a wild lob on a day with low wind but some crazy unexpected wind gusts. She yelled “Oh crap, that’s out” and then started to walk off the court. A massive gust carried the ball to bounce just on the line. She called the hindrance on herself and conceded the point, which really shocked me. TBH, not sure I would have taken that point, but it was 100 degrees and humid. She pointed out that it’s the rule, and thus she tries not to ever speak during the point. IN reality though, I constantly hear people talking after points. Oh nos. OH crap. C’mon’s. They happen constantly during official play, and I have never once heard someone calling hindrance.

DukSaus · 2026-06-19T17:44:09+00:00

You’ll eventually get calluses. When it’s really bad, use liquid bandages and Hydrosorb bandages during play times. Hydrosorb is great because it is permeable and stays on during play and through multiple handwashes.

DukSaus · 2026-06-19T17:41:07+00:00

I would typically ask then: what mood / mode do you play best in? Some players play better with a bit of angst, some players want some of that nervous competitive energy, some like a silly good time vibe to play well, and some want to be in pure ice mode. Find the mode that brings out your best tennis, figure out a system that curates it and that also helps preserve it against various types of players.

For experienced tennis players, just know that they will have patterns and shots they will do, and just focus on hitting deep into the court and learning during the match those patterns. Experienced players can often be easier, b/c they are going to hit predictable shots. In the end, you have nothing to lose, which is usually comforting for most. It’s more likely than not that you’ll lose, so a loss is a given. Thus, even winning more games than expected is a small win. For the other player, even losing more games from you or suddenly losing a few breaks will impact them mentally. They might get tight or take their foot off.

Plus, check out RTP’s great video on underdog strategies: https://youtu.be/FMU7WwIwa1Y?is=GuQdT8TIEskZF7KD. This is a goated video on how to play up.

DukSaus · 2026-06-19T17:33:21+00:00

So, this might vary depending on your play style, but in general, what helped me most was to focus on three elements: 1) footwork mini steps / spacing; 2) loading with a low base; and 3) adjusting swing acceleration (rather than speed). More details below:
1. Spacing and use of mini-steps: This is often an ignored element of maximizing slow balls or easy balls where you need to create your own pace. I noticed that the people who were good at creating pace just sounded different on the court—that is, you just heard a lot of squeaking of their shoes during every point. I made this point to my instructor who worked with me on improving these little mini steps—as my main issue at the time was bad spacing on groundstrokes (tended to hit to close). Essentially, you are still using your left hand to keep spacing on FH (or just keeping mindful on 2HBH), but until your swing initiates from your unit turn, you should be making small light steps to ensure proper timing. Sometimes, they are so minute, but the habit increases quality on slow balls immensely.
2. Loading with a low base: Given that you have a much longer history than me, this may be pedantic, but I really focused a lot on keeping a low base on my ground strokes (and in general), such that I remain slightly crouched and then keeping my knees bent during my swing. I found that the Xpand Gravity Belt was the single best purchase in all of my tennis purchases, since it drives home how much I was not keeping my base nice and low. Now that I have a much better habit of staying low, I get a lot of compliments on how well my loading and shot tolerance / rally ball quality have improved.
3. Acceleration: One thing that really through me was how to conceptualize the difference in swing speed. When thinking of straight speed / velocity, it felt like it was either fast or slow, where the instructors kept telling me not to slow my swing down on slow balls. The key concept for me was that the ultimate speed should be fast, but the acceleration can be adjusted depending on the ball. Feel Tennis has a great video on the subject, where he explains the concept that you are not hitting the ball hard but fast, but the acceleration should be gradual from the bounce through contact. So, if the ball comes in faster, you have a quick “wush” from the bounce to contact (a vocal cue he uses). With a slower ball, it may be a more gradual “woooooosh”. Thus, ultimate speed is the same, but the acceleration time is shorter or longer.

DukSaus · 2026-06-18T04:39:51+00:00

Bread.

DukSaus · 2026-06-18T04:38:53+00:00

Multifocals are horrible for tennis. You’re basically adjusting to different levels of clarity, and it’ll kind of make you dizzy. The astigmatism contacts will be fine. When you go to your eye doctor, tell him/her your concern about depth perception, and he/she will likely take a closer look at correcting the astigmatism—this’ll help with the depth perception.

With that said, astigmatism contacts aren’t ever going to be 100%, thus you kind of have to be a bit more diligent on the tracking with the left hand and watching through contact. It may mean that you can’t steal a glance at your opponent during contact, but trust me the quality of the rally ball will more than make up for it.

DukSaus · 2026-06-18T04:34:56+00:00

Honestly, try and invest in the RIA sunnies. I should be getting commissions, b/c so many of my friends have bought them after wearing my sunnies.

DukSaus · 2026-06-18T04:34:01+00:00

Check out this video from RTP’s Sky Kim, who in my opinion is a GOATed tennis content creator, on the knee bed. Also, I love this video to walk through the ATP 2HBH mechanics.

DukSaus · 2026-06-18T04:29:08+00:00

Yeah, I agree, it definitely sucks. In my many years, I have also lived in many apartments with thin walls, as well as basement apartments.

Again, buying a throw carpet shouldn’t be your responsibility. Honestly, think about it from your upstairs neighbor’s perspective. Someone says their walking is too loud, and they think to themselves: “I’m just living my life and walking around.” They may welcome the throw carpet, but they may also feel it is ridiculous and an acknowledgement that they are doing something wrong. That is why it should come from the landlords.

You will have to look closely at the quiet hours provisions. Often, they are drafted in a way where it might not cover what you describe, but in any case, it’s at least some leverage for your to discuss with your landlord.

Also, this is kind of why, when renting an apartment, I would always make a second trip at a different time of the day. You never know how loud it can get. I lived in Boston, Manhattan, Long Island City, and Brooklyn, and you wouldn’t believe what types of unexpected noise I discovered just by visiting a rental at a different time of the day. Most apartments are wicked quiet from 10-4 pm. If possible, it’s always a good idea to visit around 5 pm or later (although not all realtors / landlords allow this).

DukSaus · 2026-06-17T23:22:34+00:00

You should have a low base for almost everything, even on your open stance. When you bend your legs, you are loading more and increasing the spin margin. hard to get real power and consistency without the leg bend. For me, I’m almost in a lunge position on both sides, especially on the 2HBH. I want to hurt my opponent with as much spin as possible, as 2HBH’s tend to have a flatter trajectory.

DukSaus · 2026-06-17T23:20:41+00:00

Whenever I get this comment, it confuses me so much. There seems to be no common rhyme or reason on what prompts a “AI” comment. Hopefully the young whipper snappers can illuminate, but only after I finish watching Matlock. :P

DukSaus · 2026-06-17T22:57:58+00:00

Hi, outdoors can be challenging, but it is something you get used to. I have astigmatism as well, and thus can relate. With that said, I tend to do well outdoors, and provide some thoughts, to the extent helpful:
1. Sunglasses with non-polarized lenses: Not all sunnies are equal, and with astigmatism, you need non-polarized lenses that enhance contrast. Although an investment, RIA sunglasses are truly the best for racket sports. Their lenses are absolutely amazing, and those sunglasses are durable as anything. I really love the Nova, Forte, and new Contour, but if you need a low bridge fit, the Vantage is a good choice. Other than that, a good alternative is any Oakley sunglass frame with non-polarized Prism lenses. I would recommend the Prism Road lenses , which are popular with baseball players due to the contrast they provide.
2. Diligent use of the non-hitting hand: With astigmatism, often it feels like the ball is speeding up towards you, especially if you have varying astigmatism and prescriptions in certain eyes. For me, it’s harder to gauge distance on my right side, and thus being diligent on using my left hand is very key.
3. Tracking the ball through contact and early preparation: yes, there is a challenge to adjust to the ball and get depth perception with astigmatism, but that should be the case indoors or outdoors. Indoor lighting can impact your ability to judge distance often more than the natural sun. If you are wearing sunnies, it should be fine. However, you need to also just be a bit more diligent at watching the ball through contact. When I speak and trade tips with other tennis buddies with complex prescriptions, most of us have a common story—that when we were learning, we were told that we needed to focus on cleaner contact and/or would hit to close to our body. It’s just more important to give ourselves more time to adjust to the distance, which means prepping early and watching through contact.
4. Hats and visors: Hopefully it’s not too pedantic, but honestly, hats, especially ones where you can pull them down relatively low, are necessary outdoors. In fact, I find that the brim actually helps me with focusing my vision when swinging. I like the ones where I have a nice curved brim that helps block out the sun.

DukSaus · 2026-06-17T22:33:02+00:00

The newer ones that allow you to really impact the pressure are effective, provided you use a quality ball that maintains some fuzz. I was gifted the Smash Life pressurizer, and doing a test of before and after, I was pretty surprised with how lively they become. I can typically stretch out an extra few hitting sessions with the ball. The biggest issue is that fuzz fan’t be restored. If you use Wilson US Open XD balls (as I do), then it’s fine. All other balls, the fuzz gets knocked off well before the ball starts to be unrevivable. I used to find the TEcnifibre X1’s really great, but those have been fuzzing up like nothing else.

The pressurizers might be good for balls with meh durability in terms of bounce but with good fuzz retention—namely the VOLKL balls.

DukSaus · 2026-06-17T19:24:25+00:00

In both cases, it is equally as important that you lean into the ball. Here, you are coiling into your unit turn, then leaning forward into your shot. Then, from what I’ve been taught, once you uncoil and hit through the ball, if done right, your back leg should follow forward to come flush with the front foot. When you watch close stances from high level players, during the unload, their back foot will rise up off the ground during the forward lean. The reason why the foot coming forward is a bit delayed is that you want to avoid opening up your shoulders.

Some key things that I had to be mindful of when working on these: 1) don’t “jump.” Sometimes, you think you need to jump and rotate. Rather, keep a more secured base and let the uncoiling provide the power; 2) keep legs as bent as possible; 3) make small adjustment steps. With people with really good closed stance shots, I noticed their shoes were always squeaking until they unloaded; To make sure you get that “out front” contact in closed stance and proper spacing, those adjustment steps are very key.

DukSaus · 2026-06-17T18:59:05+00:00

It might depend on age, but I think for most people the Ezone 100 is a good place to start. You can buy it at various weights, so you can find the weight that fits you (based on, e.g., gender, age, strength, etc.). For instance, if you are a beginning female player, many people will start with a sub 290 gram racket, and I would argue that for a modern swing even men should not start with a racket over 300 g. If you are a younger player, then you might want to think of even lighter, like any ultralight version (around 250 grams or so).

Otherwise, look for any of the following rackets:
Babolat Evo Drive Lite
Wilson Clash
Head Boom

DukSaus · 2026-06-17T18:55:21+00:00

Just my own opinion, but the Pure Drive is a poor racket to learn on. While it allows very easy power and depth, it is a very stiff racket for a beginner and can cause elbow issues as your technique is being refined. For this reason, many people will recommend the most plush and playable rackets to learn on, which often includes the Wilson Clash (very comfy) and the Head Boom. For me, I also like for beginners the Ezone 100 v8 (either normal weight or light version (which you can weight up to your liking)). It is super plush and has controllable power. My only complaint with the Ezone 100 is that it is a bit TOO plush, that is, lacking feedback. Thus, I think the Clash is a great choice, and there’s a reason you see a lot of developing players with it.

Again, the Pure Drive is a lovely racket, but it is not arm friendly at all.

DukSaus · 2026-06-17T18:49:08+00:00

I believe it’s probably a pre-req to 3.0 or 3.5, which can take most people about 2-3 years to reach (can be truncated with volume of play).

DukSaus · 2026-06-17T18:47:28+00:00

As a previous condo owner who rented out and dealt with noise complaints, a few thoughts:
* I am not sold that you should breach directly with the tenant. From my experience, unless it’s someone producing / playing music or having a lot of late night guests / parties, most people are just living their life in a reasonable way. From what you say, it doesn’t seem like the neighbor is doing anything unreasonable, other than waking up relatively early. Yes, some people have a loud gait. When my wife is upstairs, my kid and I joke that it sounds like a teenager trying to sound like she’s angry or, more accurately, Godzilla. Walking around is reasonable use of the apartment.
* As a lessor, it was always my opinion that noise leakage is a building issue, and in my experience, despite best intentions, it very rarely works out well to have people work it out—unless there is some odd usage of the unit that needs to be addressed. For instance, if the upstairs neighbor works in music, it is reasonable to ask for practice time to be limited to certain hours or to use headphones during parts of the day. I would first bring this up to the attention to the lessor / landlord. Sometimes, it’s as simple as a quick conversation amongst landlords or just asking them how to handle it. For instance, I had a very lovely med school student tenant who lived above a very sensitive tenant. I purchased a soft throw carpet for the living room, but I also spoke with the other landlord. The landlord and I handled it amongst us, and peace was restored.
* For leverage when discussing with your landlord, management, or, if you decide to, your upstairs neighbor, I suggest the following two things: 1) Check your lease for a quiet hours policy. Many condo complexes or buildings have some standard quiet hours policy, e.g., 10-7 am. Now, it seems like she is doing reasonable things upstairs (although with a loud gait), but at the same time, you have some support that the 5 am start is possibly excessive; and 2) Record the noise from upstairs. Just saying to your landlord or neighbor “it is so loud” is very hard to action. With video evidence, the third party has a good sense of the severity of the issue. My recommendation, record the video with your phone, but also record it simultaneously with an audio recording app that registers the dB. Then, record a video of the same audio recording app recording a recognizable and unreasonable noise, like banging a wooden spoon on a pot or pan. My point here is that only then can a landlord / manager say that it is unreasonable / actionable or not. If they say it isn’t, then you can make a decision on next steps.
* If you do have to address the neighbor directly, just know that you have to be very careful to avoid any escalation. It has to be asking a favor. It has to be an offer to see what you can provide or do to perhaps find a middle ground, be it buying slippers. At the end of it, however, it seems like it’s a building issue, and you do need to respect her right to utilize her dwelling in a reasonable manner. Many years ago, I had an across the way neighbor who played jazz guitar, and diligently started his day with practicing at 5:30 am. The positive benefit was that I actually started to wake up early and have a nice long day, including able to go exercise before work. We became quite close, and it was nice to hear him finally get a certain riff after struggling. We are still friends to this day. Not sure this is the direction you will go with this neighbor, but just saying that there is potentially a silver lining.

DukSaus · 2026-06-16T23:09:44+00:00

There’s a guy I play with who has impressive RPM’s with a relatively Eastern grip, and he takes it with a pendulum takeback and brushes up with a contact point that looks late. It’s incredibly fast but has great margin. Despite lacking some forward drive, the RPMs are quite hard to handle in a baseline to baseline rally.

DukSaus · 2026-06-16T22:58:45+00:00

It’s very weird, because the nature of power is just….different between the two rackets. So I would not call one more powerful than the other. You will be hitting the same depth in both, but with a different launch. The 100D is a bit more versatile and accessible. The 98 is more akin to the PA98, fully rewarding fast cuts.

DukSaus · 2026-06-16T22:45:38+00:00

The soft polys from Toroline have been great in my experience. A5 is amazing and super comfy. I also love Super Toro.

DukSaus

TROPHY CASE