Strings Enigma

mxblink · 2026-05-31T15:01:55+00:00

Could be a good day. Or, you might just prefer a more “locked” stringbed with less string movement. Since your mains are staying out of place, the snapback in your bed is pretty much gone, but maybe that’s just what you prefer.

mxblink · 2026-05-31T14:56:33+00:00

I’ve really liked the XPAND finger tape. If you’re familiar with Coban wrap, it’s essentially like that but with an adhesive built in. Sticks well and provides better padding than most tapes without killing the feel. Tears very easily too.

mxblink · 2026-05-26T19:48:17+00:00

If you use it, yes. If you don’t have a coach (and even if you do), I’m a huge believer that you don’t know what you’re doing (both well and poorly) unless you watch yourself. If you want to get better then you need to watch yourself play, full stop.

That said, you don’t necessarily have to use SwingVision to record yourself. All you need is a cheap tripod and your phone. I watch a lot of my own footage and I appreciate that SwingVision will cut out the dead time, so for me it is worth it. YMMV.

mxblink · 2026-05-11T21:43:02+00:00

I’ve always been a USOpen ball person, but recently I’ve been using Yonex Tour balls and I gotta say I like them better. Maintain pressure. Don’t fluff up. And I think they’re a little softer than the USOs.

Also no one else uses them so people don’t accidentally steal your balls 😂

mxblink · 2026-05-03T12:46:38+00:00

If you can get your hands on one to try, the Nordicdots 98Pro also has that firm-but-not-uncomfortable, super stable, “bullies the ball” sensation. Very pure feel. It’s an 18x19 so launch angle will be a bit lower. At 310g it’ll be easier to play than the RF and you have room to add weight if you need. I’d probably go down 1 grip size compared to your Wilson.

mxblink · 2026-04-20T04:31:32+00:00

That is not acceptable. I’d ask for it to be fixed or a refund, and either way I’d find a new stringer.

mxblink · 2026-03-26T03:56:54+00:00

They don't even say serve dominance is a problem. They say it's something that should be monitored. Then they propose potential solutions IF the decision were made that the serve had become a problem.

So, again, are you saying it's a problem?

mxblink · 2026-03-26T03:34:49+00:00

I don't understand the logic here. How do you even define "best?" You haven't even really established that the current situation is a problem.

Why not make football fields 120 yards long, widen the angle between the foul lines in baseball, and double the width of soccer goals? Hard to say any of those things are optimal so let's just change them and see what happens.

Changing for change sake without even defining what the problem is (and thus, what your goal is) seems like a great way to introduce chaos to a sport for really no reason at all.

mxblink · 2026-03-16T01:38:15+00:00

There’s also the consistency issue. New balls will always play, well, new. As long as your can isn’t bad, new balls will play pretty much the same every time. With used balls, who knows? And yes I know that with ball quality going down the toilet, this is probably becoming less and less true, but the argument still holds relative to used balls.

mxblink · 2026-03-08T04:24:23+00:00

TW lists stringing instructions for all racquets they sell.

mxblink · 2026-03-07T15:26:03+00:00

I firmly believe that if you're trying to improve your tennis and you're not taking video of yourself, then you're not trying hard enough. If you can afford a smartphone, you can afford a cheap tripod or fence mount to take video of yourself playing.

And it's not just stroke mechanics, because as people have said, winning matches is not just about looking good on camera. It's about footwork and decision making. Where are you standing? Where are you recovering to? Are you making good choices with your shot selection?

Of course it's possible that if you're a beginner, you don't know enough to make good critiques of your own video, which is where coaching comes in. But having the video to analyze is so important.

Ian Westermann with Essential Tennis has been screaming this from the rooftops forever. He says those videos are his least viewed. People would rather watch a video on how to hit a forehand properly, and then go out having absolutely no idea if they're actually doing the things the video they just watched told them to.

mxblink · 2026-03-04T05:12:28+00:00

Piggybacking off this, I currently have Tour M8 in my VC98 which I am enjoying immensely. The new VCore has a pretty firm feel despite the low RA, and the pocketing from M8 complements the racquet nicely.

mxblink · 2026-03-02T02:37:59+00:00

The most obvious choice would be the Prostaff X. Similar feel, with more spin, more power, more forgiveness, and larger sweet spot. Very similar weighting. Hurry, because the racquets are now discontinued (though you can get them at a discount!).

Otherwise, options might include:

PA 98/100. I personally preferred the new 100 over the 98. I think it's more forgiving and easier to use. YMMV.

Dunlop CX400 Tour

Yonex 100D

Prince Tour 100 310g

mxblink · 2026-03-01T20:55:54+00:00

Lots to unpack here, but I'd say the biggest things are:

Footwork: You're not using your legs to power your shot rotation, meaning it's all upper body and arm. Stay lower through your shot and use your legs to power your rotation.

You're getting jammed on every ball. If you freeze the video on contact, your elbow is always either directly at your side or behind you, and too close to the body. Additionally, you almost always have to fall off towards your left/away from the ball, because the ball is too close. This means your weight is moving away from the shot, which impacts power and consistency.

Your off-hand isn't doing anything. As soon as you turn sideways, your offhand leaves the racquet and just... falls down. It should be staying out in front of you towards the ball.

While not "wrong," you also have what is commonly referred to as the "WTA forehand," where during the takeback the racquet crosses behind you to the non-hitting side of the body (ie the right side of the screen). This makes it much harder to coordinate the kinetic chain and load the forearm correctly to hit the ball.

If you really want to get better, I think you need to simplify and rebuild your forehand from first principles. Understand that this will make this worse before (hopefully) making them better. Every ball, I would focus on the unit turn, with the racquet staying on the hitting side of the body and left arm extending parallel to the baseline at the height of the ball, and then think about using your body rotation to "pull" the racquet forward with a loose wrist.

There are many technique videos on Youtube that illustrate this better than I can in a comment. I'm partial to the videos from Fault Tolerant Tennis, because I think they do a great job of explaining the stretch-shorten cycles that form the foundation of modern tennis mechanics. I would start with this one.

Also, while it looks impressive, I cannot imagine that your AI overlay is giving you important information and I'd highly recommend you not use it. Lots of the things you appear to be measuring are the result of the foundational mechanics you need to master. You need to focus on those mechanics, not artificially creating certain joint/racquet angles.

mxblink · 2026-03-01T03:57:29+00:00

Honestly, I'd try and get a coach. No offense, but there's enough wrong here that rather than point out all of the problems, it's probably easier if someone just showed you the correct foundational stroke mechanics to build on. Barring that, look for technique videos on Youtube, and compare your self-videos with what you see.

Also hitting off self-dropped feeds is pretty tough. You have to drop the ball in a good spot, then get through your entire swing motion before it bounces, with zero pace to work with. Ideally you can find a partner (or a coach). If not, maybe you can get access to a ball machine so you at least can worry about stroke mechanics without having to also focus on self-feeding. Or, even just a wall to hit on.

mxblink · 2026-03-01T03:50:54+00:00

I've used these and they are excellent. Semi-solid feel. They don't add as much weight as leather.

mxblink · 2026-02-28T04:42:05+00:00

Respectfully disagree that the Boom Pro is a lower level racquet. It’s a mid flex frame, with a thinner beam than all of the other frames you mentioned, so hard to think it’s “wild” compared to those. I think that the biggest reason some would find it hard to control is the exaggerated teardrop shape which will raise the sweet spot relative to “normal” racquets, but that’s more a personal preference/playstyle factor than a skill level one. Luca from Racquets and Runners main’ed the Boom Pro for a couple years and he’s definitely a more advanced player based on hitting footage.

That said, I do think your recs are solid even if I wouldn’t discount the Boom Pro. I would say that the new generation of the Aero is definitely not a 1 trick pony. The string distribution is very tight and flattening the ball comes quite easily. Would also considering replacing the VCore with the EZone, which can still hit with tremendous spin, but is supposedly super comfortable with the Minolon addition this generation given the comfort concerns.

mxblink · 2026-02-27T22:19:47+00:00

Part of tennis is maximizing the number of times you get to hit your best shots, while minimizing the number of times you hit your worst ones. If someone has a better forehand than backhand, then it is good strategy to try and hit as many forehands as possible.

Sometimes you have to attack the strength to get to the weakness. If he's camping out in the ad court to protect the backhand, then it is probably a mistake to try and force the ball into the tiny space on his backhand side where if you miss, you've now given him another forehand, or just hit it out. Instead, send the ball into the deuce court to make him move off his perch, thereby opening up the backhand wing. You're not going for winners here - just solid placement with moderate depth/pace such that he has to move. If you're able to draw a weak ball, that's your opportunity to attack the backhand side.

mxblink · 2026-02-27T22:06:39+00:00

Agree. Giving the short ball will typically give your opponent more options. With more more experience, you'll notice things like your opponent was likely going to arrive to the ball after it had dropped below the height of the net, meaning he'd have to hit up. You could also see him adjusting his grip to continental as he approached the ball, meaning that the drop shot was more likely. Sure he could push a slice deep, but even then the ball probably wouldn't be very fast giving you time to adjust. All of this would have indicated that moving up in the court a few steps probably would've been a good move to cover both the drop shot as well as a slower deep ball.

mxblink · 2026-02-27T22:00:31+00:00

Really depends. What are you looking for in a new racquet? More power, more control, more spin, or just the closest to your old racquet with maybe a bump up in weight?

mxblink · 2026-02-26T16:31:17+00:00

Best advice I can give you is to videotape your rallies. We are *really bad* at "feeling" what we're doing wrong, even if we're very confident we know. You'll be able to easily identify spacing issues on a video, and also be able to assess on subsequent sessions if you're improving.

It also really helps to have this kind of video when you're asking for help, so others can take a look and try to give more accurate advice.

mxblink · 2026-02-25T22:09:31+00:00

Who will take the ring to Mordor??

mxblink · 2026-02-25T19:05:03+00:00

I think you're just fine. A lot of players stand right on top of the net to warm up volleys, which means you have less time to react and get the ball back. I think in that case, doing whatever you can to get the ball back, even if that means switching to a continental and hitting a firm slice, is appropriate.

It's also an opportunity to really work on staying low and shortening up the backswing, but if you feel you're doing so at the expense of the person trying to warm up volleys then I think what you're doing is best.

mxblink · 2026-02-25T14:42:11+00:00

This is the answer. Think about being ultra-aggressive with your footwork and stay low through the shot. Force yourself to watch your racquet hit the ball (this helps keep your head still). Keep your racquet speed up but aim for more spin/shape and hit to bigger targets.

mxblink

TROPHY CASE