As with any sport, playing tennis at the highest levels requires years and years of daily practice. However, tennis is one of the easiest sports to pick up and play casually because you need only a tennis racket to get started. As you decide which tennis racket to buy, keep in mind that some are designed for pros, some for amateurs and some for beginners. You should start with a racket for beginners.
The Three Basic Types of Rackets
Generally, manufacturers divide tennis rackets into three main categories: game improvement, tweener and player rackets. Game-improvement rackets, as their name suggests, are the most suitable for beginners. You should use a game-improvement racket if you have not had any formal tennis training and just like to go out on the court and punch the ball around with a friend. Also, a game-improvement racket will suit you if you are just starting to take lessons. Tweener rackets are meant for moderately experienced players, and player rackets are designed for competitors at the club to professional level.
What Game-Improvement Rackets Do for You
Game-improvement rackets supplement your power and make up for the fact that your tennis swing might not be perfect. These rackets have large sweet spots. A racket's sweet spot rests in the center of the string bed and is the ideal spot to hit the ball. Player rackets have very small sweet spots and thus require the player to have a very precise swing. The large sweet spot on a game-improvement racket forgives your beginner's imprecision and allows you to make solid contact with the ball even with an improper swing mechanic. All this may have you thinking that everyone should use a game improvement racket since they provide more power and a larger sweet spot. The main trade-off is control. A proper tennis swing generates its own power, and using a game improvement racket with a proper swing is like hitting the tennis ball with a baseball bat; control is sacrificed and home-run-like bombs are inevitable.
How to Find a Game-Improvement Racket
Game-improvement rackets have several physical characteristics that make them easy to identify. They have over-sized heads and look kind of like giant racket-ball rackets. The head sizes range from 107 to 135 square inches and are what give the rackets such large sweet spots. Game improvements rackets are light---usually weighing between 8 and 9.5 oz. They are very stiff and tend to be head-heavy, meaning that most of a racket's weight is concentrated in the head. Some are evenly balanced, but you will never find a head-light game improvement racket because head-lightness is a defining characteristic of a control-oriented player racket. Lastly, game improvement rackets tend to be inexpensive, which is a pleasant surprise for the beginning player.
Member Comments