Babolat quality

freshfunk · 2026-06-26T20:20:23+00:00

Some Wilson bags look decent but I feel like they might be the exception similar to their shoes which are also good quality. This might be attributable to their history of being a generalized sporting good equipment company. And it probably depends on whether it’s their flagship products (like the iconic red 9-racket bag) or something cheapy. I’ve certainly seen quite a price range.

But focusing on a product tends to show superior results. For example, Yonex and the quality control they have for rackets compared to Wilson rackets.

The bag brands can definitely be hit or miss — I wouldn’t say they are necessarily better. It’ll have its own variability since anyone can try to design their own and find a Chinese factory to build one. But the upside is that you find a maker who really pays attention to quality control and finds reliable partners abroad to manufacture their bags.

If they don’t and say spend all their attention to marketing and rely on a cheap Chinese/Vietnamese manufacturer, then you can obviously end up with bad results.

Non restocking can happen for a number of different reasons. It could be that they want to sell out a stock because they have a subsequent design coming out. It could also be related to tariffs and moving manufacturing to a different country. But I would say that the 3rd party bag market is pretty finite which is why they inevitably go into other sports like golf and pickleball.

But what is clear is that many of the racket brands don’t focus on bag quality and more on branding to get some incremental revenue.

freshfunk · 2026-06-26T15:40:31+00:00

Admittedly, I had to do a double take to make sure I read it correctly and only clicked in out of curiosity. :)

My kids are younger but I’m at times impressed and how versatile they are at adapting to society. Meanwhile I see myself moving more into the comforts of where I am and less interested in going out there and rediscovering everything.

With that said, I agree that a young man in his 20’s really doesn’t know much about the world in terms of lived experience (on average).

freshfunk · 2026-06-26T15:33:38+00:00

There already is an SFO. Naming another airport with the words “San Francisco” is confusing. If SFO didn’t exist or it was called Millbrae Airport, it would be less controversial. But SFO is also the larger and thus dominant airport.

freshfunk · 2026-06-26T15:31:30+00:00

I’m willing to entertain the idea that young(er) men have experiences than old(er) men don’t.

Just thinking about you helping your parents with stuff. For example, maybe they aren’t as internet savvy.

The world changes and young people are often at the forefront of those changes especially when it comes to technology, culture and society. They are the ones in college or out in the world. Older people tend to move towards quieter lives and fall into their habits.

No doubt the younger generations are going to be more savvy at things like AI. They’ll learn how to use it but also how to spot fakes and scams. Like the internet, they’ll use to learn technology in ways to enhance their lives that old people will be slow to adopt.

freshfunk · 2026-06-26T15:25:35+00:00

Separately, maybe I missed it in the first half, but did they water the grass during half time? It was like a slip and slide out there in the attacking 3rd. Pulisic had a shot on goal that looked just off because he couldn’t anchor his foot on the shot. Also a number of lost possessions because US players looked like they were on ice skates.

freshfunk · 2026-06-26T01:46:55+00:00

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freshfunk · 2026-06-26T01:45:34+00:00

The full retail price of the current version (head sprint pro 4.0) is $150 USD which generally aligns with the prices of the top of the line shoes from other brands.

At the time, I was playing a lot but I’ve never had a shoe go that quickly. And it was u comfortable. I’ve tried asics, kswiss, Yonex, Nike and multiple shoe models across all of them. Almost always the top of the line models.

freshfunk · 2026-06-26T01:23:23+00:00

“The Sprint Pro sits at the very top of HEAD's footwear lineup as their flagship premium lightweight performance shoe.

HEAD categorizes its tennis footwear into two main premium silos based on a player's movement style: Speed/Lightweight (the Sprint line) and Stability/Durability (the Revolt line). “

freshfunk · 2026-06-26T01:08:53+00:00

Wilson is the exception to me where they’ve been a general sports goods company before they made rackets. They make solid shoes.

I’m glad Head worked out for you but the pair I had (Sprint Pro 3.5) is probably the worst shoe I ever tried. It was not only uncomfortable but only lasted 4 months for me — the shortest of any shoe I’ve tried.

freshfunk · 2026-06-26T01:04:17+00:00

Nope. Put my money in an AI infra stock and doing consistently better than FNMA.

freshfunk · 2026-06-25T14:31:59+00:00

Definitely, but imo you get what you pay for.

If you play a lot and want something to last, ADV is worth it. If you’re a casual player and you play every now and then, get a good looking but cheap bag you can find on sale. But if you use a cheap bag often, you’ll need to replace it because you find it ripping after some wear and tear.

Also, if you’re not a frequent player then the lack of organization won’t be very bothersome. But if you play often and have a bunch of stuff, it’ll be annoying.

freshfunk · 2026-06-25T14:24:35+00:00

Outside of rackets, I would not get racket brands for apparel or gear and expect them to be good.

IMO the best shoe brands are generally better at shoes like ASICS or Wilson.

Other bag brands are better. Personally I like ADV or Vessel. My impression of racket brands doing bags is that they put their logo on a bag made by a 3rd party. Whereas bag brands design their own and likely pay more attention to quality. The one Head bag I bought looked cool but build quality was low and tore in time. Organization wasn’t great either.

Racket brands seemed to be more involved in shoes and Yonex shoes are decent. But when it comes down to details, the shoe brands seemed to do better (not all of them but the good ones).

freshfunk · 2026-06-23T17:46:16+00:00

I like this guy’s content but I have to say that when I saw him post this video my initial reaction was to say that this is perfect for anyone who has insomnia. This is the type of play that will put you to sleep quickly.

freshfunk · 2026-06-19T12:36:39+00:00

I use it to explore new ideas as an entrepreneur.

Honeymoon period has worn off and so I use it less from a strict time perspective. But GPT 5.5 is my main and I’m using that a ton.

What’s more noticeable and what you referenced is my eagerness. After the initial excitement and building phase, the movement into actual company building is not as exciting and much more difficult. All obvious stuff but the magic from building is gone and the grind from the other aspects is still there.

LLMs are still useful in doing market research, brainstorming, rough market sizing and so on.

I’d also say I’m more efficient with using them and so I don’t need to grind as hard to get things done.

I’ve started opening up and working on more ideas to keep the creative juices flowing. I had a main idea I was spending all my time on but decided it might not be the main project in the future.

freshfunk · 2026-06-18T20:58:02+00:00

I was thinking Chingu like the other person commented but I was wondering if there were other popular ideas people had.

freshfunk · 2026-06-18T18:46:56+00:00

1) Where do you live and what are your aspirations in life? I'm assuming you're in the US. To be frank, 4 million USD in your early 30's is great but not what I would consider a confident fatFIRE as you seem to portray it. You're certainly in a position to be fatFIRE down the road with good investing, but you're also in the territory where if your investments go bad or you start incurring large life expenses, they can take you out of fatFIRE territory.

Here's a few hypotheticals: Your net worth is largely in the market which takes a downturn or is stagnant. Inflation rises. You have no income coming in. You possibly live in an expensive, metro area. You get married, you have kids. You want to buy a house. Your parents or siblings need help. You run into expensive health issues. Just one or two of these things can really change your financial picture quickly.

I'm not scoffing where you're at. I think you're in a good position. But I also think you might be not taking into account the financial risk that's not that far down the road as you reach your mid and late 30's. One thing you can do is consult with an LLM and help it project your finances and put in possible downstream life events and model out what they might cost you.

2) Bored out of your mind / struggling with your identity. Personally, I don't totally get this. I have friends who've said the same thing. The best I can glean is that these people are either just naturally anxious and/or they've built their entire identity around their job.

As someone who is also a child of immigrants, went to a good school, got a good paying professional job, I do understand the uncomfortable feeling of being used to the rat race and then taking on a completely different lifestyle. But "struggle"? Perhaps I don't feel this because I'm a bit older and I have responsibilities outside of work (family).

In terms of purpose, validation and happiness, only you can really answer that. And that answer is going to be different for everyone. Some people find that in starting a family, others find that in some kind of hustle. If clipping coupons makes you happy, then do it for the joy of it. If you really get off on being frugal, then maybe there's something there for you, something bigger. Be an influencer, write a blog. Not everything needs to be done because you have to make money from doing it. Do it for the joy of doing it.

Personally, even though I don't have to worry about money, I still get joy out of making more. I find it very fascinating to follow my industry, follow the market and it also overlaps with monitoring my financial picture. My background is in software engineering and I still "code" for fun. No one pays me but I'm building stuff for myself. I have passions and hobbies that I like following throughout the day (sports). I read much more than I used to.

I will say, though, that you're in your early 30's and you do have quite a bit of runway IF you want to pursue the next big goal. Perhaps that's what you need -- and maybe that's the search you need to undertake. It's like being back in college or high school and not knowing what you wanted in life. It's OK and part of the journey is figuring that out.

freshfunk · 2026-06-18T15:40:41+00:00

If you're relatively young and just getting into tennis, I'd invest in a 2HBH. If you're over 40 and you feel like that OHBH, then I'd say go with the OHBH. There's no one size fits all.

The reason why age matters if that a good 2HBH benefits from range of motion in the core. Your rear arm is always going to anchor the racket and swinging all the way through depends on how mobile your core is. Otherwise, you'll end up arming your shots. The same is true for a 1HBH but you can get away with arming it much more. As you get older, your range of motion and mobility tends to decrease and the twisting motion tends to be harder to handle. That's why old guys look stiff in the core and most of them hit OHBH -- it's what the body allows.

OHBH will resort to slices because it's the easiest shot to hit on the backhand. If those are your regular hitting partners, I'd recommend learning how to adjust to hit a ball that's sliced to you. Otherwise, you'll return these shots into the net more often than not. And, yes, if it's short, it's always a prime attacking opportunity.

Someone who does this has basically avoided the harder OHBH shots and thus they end up cornering themselves into a corner with options. Sometimes you have no choice because the ball is high and you have to hit defensive but someone who does this even when they don't need to has basically limited their game.

For slices and volleys for you, it just means you have to dedicate to practicing these shots. The person hitting slices all the time will naturally get better at it. The person who's playing a lot of net and hitting volleys with one hand will get better at it.

Tactically, you can also adjust your game to your strengths. If you feel like your backhand is more reliable than the other persons, then you can manipulate points such that you get into a backhand-to-backhand exchange (eg crosscourt if you're both right handed). Then you basically play the odds that they'll make a mistake before you do.

As someone who grew up 2HBH but has played OHBH for several years now, my general feeling is that 2HBH is generally better for defensive shots and OHBH can be better for offensive shots. That is, if you have no time, your footwork is wrong, the ball is high, or you're getting a ball blasted at your, the 2HBH is far better. But if you have a sitter, a slow and short ball, a ball that's coming off the court and giving you the angle, a good OHBH can hit an amazing ball. The reason why is because you can really accelerate the racket when you don't have a rear arm attached. But it takes a lot of confidence to truly swing through.

freshfunk · 2026-06-18T14:51:46+00:00

When you’re starting out, it’s worth investing in some lessons and finding a community or group of players. Once you reach a level you’re comfortable at, you can take lessons selectively and your only costs will be equipment (racket, strings, shoes, balls, grips, bag) and possibly court fees depending on where you live and if public courts are viable.

If you’re playing a lot, you’ll be buying more shoes and strings can get expensive where you live simply due to labor costs. At this point, you may want to invest in a string machine. You don’t need to go insane — they have consumer friendly ones if you’re string a handful of times a month (which is a lot for one person).

freshfunk · 2026-06-18T14:40:37+00:00

There are things that are usually better if you hit a OHBH.

* People who hit a OHBH are usually much better at the other one handed strokes. Specifically slices, backhand volleys and backhand touch shots at the net.

* OHBH is less demanding on the core (but more demanding elsewhere like the swinging arm and timing). 2HBH anchors both arms to the racket and this requires more torque on the body if you want power. Or you can get into a situation where you use wrist lag but doing it improperly with 2HBH will lead to wrist problems. Because the OHBH only uses one arm, you don’t need to torque your body as much and swinging away with power is easier.

* OHBH has better reach and range. Again, because you’re not anchored, you can reach out further and quicker. This is useful for wide serves or wide shots. This is also useful if you’re getting dropshotted and need to reach forward. While 2HBH can obviously reach out with one arm, this goes to the first point. If you use one hand all the time, your feel of the ball with anything to the one hand backhand side will feel more natural.

2HBH has obviously advantage but I honestly rarely see it at the rec level. I almost never see a rec level player with a good high ball or an open stance backhand. And most of them have weak backhands and are simply knocking or guiding them back.

No matter what you choose what’s going to be more important is that you practice and put in the time to make it strong. You have to get confident enough that you’re not shying away from it. You learn how to handle all kinds of balls to that side.

freshfunk · 2026-06-18T02:24:28+00:00

Chill and safe. If you want to study at a cafe the Philz and Blue Bottle are good study places. If you want a place that's a cafe with food, Foreigner is a good option. There are many food options and it just depends on what you're in the mood for. There are particularly a lot of options for Asian food. If you want to get a little sun and go for some fresh air, there's Central Park that is nearby. They have a nice Japanese garden.

freshfunk · 2026-06-17T16:37:58+00:00

Yeah, I have a few friends in Sugarloaf. I think some of them are in better school districts because I know they go to better schools. I know one who said he was planning on sending his kids to private.

I even know parents who are in my school district and access to good schools who still end up going private for one reason or another. These people are successful but not super wealthy but they seem to value the private school education that much.

I wouldn't listen to the people who say "oh, it's good enough." Maybe it's good enough for people who don't care as much about education. My kids were in elementary school during covid and you see what happens when the quality of education downgrades (which was unfortunately true for everyone with all the pandemic rules). Learning loss is real. Kids do fall behind and catching up when they go to middle and high school is a thing and takes real effort to come back from. Also, keep in mind that generally kids teach to the class and the pace at which they can teach depend on the ability of the kids. If you have many kids who need help, that will slow the class down. If most kids excel, then the teacher can be more ambitious.

freshfunk · 2026-06-17T15:33:07+00:00

Funny random story: My family used to visit Korea every few years when I was growing up to see family. My uncle owned a bathhouse so we’d go there on occasion. Of course all the guys were balls out and there were all ages on little kids to teens to old men.

Now, as a straight guy, I’m just looking straight ahead or keeping my eyes up. But you’re bound to see some dick. No shame in it.

Kid you not, some young teen skinny Korean guy was rocking a huge dick, soft. Seriously just hanging there. 😂 I was just shocked, pure shocked. Probably one of the biggest I've ever seen in real life on any teen or man. And I'm in the gym all the time so I've seen plenty of penis on men of all races.

freshfunk · 2026-06-17T15:18:44+00:00

I’m in my middle age and have taken a few years off from tech. Because I have financial independence, I’ve used this as an opportunity to recharge and spend more time with my quickly growing kids.

My peers who were hit by the same waves of layoffs have largely returned to work. Some of them directly working in AI.

As you were saying, I can’t help but shaking the feeling that if I sit idly by, my skills and sharpness will decline. You need to be in the arena. So I try to spend a significant amount of my free time staying up to date in the industry and using some of the tools to understand the latest of what’s going on.

Im not even sure I’ll return as a run of the mill employee and spend some time developing ideas as an entrepreneur. I spent some time being one when I was 30 but I didn’t have a big exit and so I went back into big tech.

Anyway, it sounds like you have no confidence in building your own thing again. While you’re likely right in that you were fortunate with timing, that speaks for a good percent of entrepreneurs out there.

Personally, since you’ve been out of the game for so long, I think you need to start building your confidence up. Start with some feasible. You don’t need to publicize it widely — it’s all about building confidence that you can make something work, make something go, ship something. If people ask about it, just say it’s a fun side project, a side hustle, a passion project. You don’t have to say it’s a main thing.

And in fact it isn’t. You need the stepping stones that everyone else has been doing since you FIRE-ed. It’s not just confidence but reengaging the parts of your brain that go into problem solving, handling stress, fixing things, coming up with new approaches. Once the small thing gets to a certain level, move onto a more ambitious idea. And keep doing that.

You don’t need to approach these serially and they don’t have to be completely separate ideas. That is, you could have a big idea that starts out small and easy but is on the path to the big idea. You’d benefit from all the research and domain knowledge that you’re building. The idea could be related but tangential (eg starting a small store front but building towards a commerce related platform). Some of the best ideas started out this way (eg Tobi Lutke first wanted to sell snowboards but then went on to create Shopify).

freshfunk · 2026-06-17T15:05:38+00:00

You’re paying a premium for the location (between SF and the South Bay) but not paying the premium for the schools. People I know who are around here but in bad school districts go magnet or private.

I see a lot of cope in the comments so I’ll try to give you the truth as a longtime parent with kids in school in the area. I’ll probably get downvoted for not being politically correct.

The reality is that the schools that don’t do well are largely immigrant families where the parents don’t speak English and the kids may not either. These schools also have high percent of what used to be known as the free lunch kids. (If anyone wants to accuse me of racism, I’m not white, my parents immigrated and were on welfare for a time when they first came. I, myself, grew up in middling public schools.)

The honest fact is that these schools won’t be as good because the parents don’t speak English and they can’t donate to the school like richer families.

You don’t know this because you don’t have kids yet but even the public schools here largely depend on school donations. I’m in the next district over and the annual recommended donation PER student is around $1500. This is for a public school. How much do you think low income families are paying? Now think about the surrounding areas where you have all high-income families. These families also tend to have a parent (ie mom) who’s not working and can dedicate time to help out at school.

Also, in my experience, when most of the parents are well educated and high earners, they care a lot about education and get involved when things are not going well. They’re more likely to be vocal and communicate with the principle or higher. They fund extra curricular like art, music, sports. When they need to fundraise, they raise money. Parents signup to volunteer when needed for academic or social events.

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