hey guys in today's video i'm going to give you the ultimate tennis racquet guide and
one of the most frequent questions that i get on social media whether it be private messages
or the comments section is advice about tennis rackets players
will often ask me for example hey nick i play with the babolat pure aero and i want to switch
to the yonex e-zone do you think this is a good idea and these are really difficult questions to
answer so i'm going to use today's video to clear everything up i'm going to give you a complete
guide to tennis rackets this is going to clear up any questions to which rackets that you should be
using and when we're talking about modern tennis rackets we are talking about rackets that are made
out of graphite and one of the first graphite rackets that was ever made is the dunlop max
200g this came out in 1980 and was used by john mcenroe and steffi graf now of course this racket
is different from a modern racket because of the head size you can see that the head size
is very small compared to my babolat pure drive plus so as time went on the racket head sizes
became a little bit bigger and i'm going to show you an example of a racket that also came out in
the 1980s also one of the first graphite rackets to ever come out which is the prince graphite the
original racket that came out was called the pog prince original graphite this model that
i have right here came out a little bit later sometime in the 90s and it's the prince
long body graphite that was used by michael chang now when we go back 30 years ago and we compare
the prince graphite racket to a very modern racket which is the babolat pure drive you can see
that these rackets are very similar they're both made out of graphite the head sizes are very
similar the the thickness of the beam is very similar overall the mold of the racket is very
similar we have quite a long handle and we have the throat that goes out to both sides and then
we have a kind of an oval shape of the racquet head so these two rackets even though they're 30
years apart at least in years they are remarkably similar so the reason why i brought up the old
prince graphite i want to explain to you that the rackets really don't differentiate from each other
very much yes there are absolutely differences especially when you're talking about
the high level there are differences in head sizes there are differences in
stiffness there are also differences in weight but generally speaking there is not much difference
in which racket you're going to be using in theory and guys the reality is there's not gonna be
much difference in your game based on what racket you're playing with as long as we're talking about
a modern racket i'm gonna prove it to you by hitting a few shots with two completely different
rackets so first i'm going to hit a forehand with a babolat pure aero and you take a look what my
forehand looks like with this racket and i'm going to do the same with the babolat pure drive plus
there it is and now how about a serve let's go back to the aero
okay and a serve with the pure drive plus now let's take a look
okay went a little bit long and ironically the only shot that i missed came with the racket that
i use which is the babolat pure drive plus so my point is that your game is really not going
to differentiate that much based on what racket you're using let me tell you a couple of examples
to further prove my point so i'm sure you know players who don't really care what racket they
play with i've seen players like this they can pick up any racket even different grip sizes any
string it doesn't bother them at all one of the players that you actually know from my channel
is ema who was an all-american player she doesn't care what racket she plays with it could be a
different grip size completely different brand doesn't care what strings are on her racket
it doesn't influence her game whatsoever let me tell you a little story from back
in the day when i used to play german prize money leagues that relates to this topic
so i played for my club against a good player i remember this guy was no slouch he was ranked
700 atp or something like that so this was a match where i had to play really well to win and i came
to the court with four racquets that were all unfortunately previously used this is my own
fault i should have had a couple of freshly strung rackets in my bag but what happened was i popped
all four rackets and it was two all in the third and now my dad who was thankfully there to help me
out had one of his racquets which was completely different strung completely differently even
had a bigger grip size he had this racket in his trunk he went and grabbed it for me i played with
his racket for a little while and unfortunately i popped that string as well now it was five on the
third and had to play with a club members racket my dad had to ask someone at the club it wasn't
our own club we played away it was a random racket i don't remember the brand i remember it being
a recreational level racket with a big racket head it was not even close to the racket that i was
using and what ended up happening was i won that match 7-6 in a third with a recreational
racket so my point is that my game didn't really go drastically down based on the rackets that
i was using even though there were different brands and the extreme case was that i actually
played with a recreational level racket and i was still able to maintain my game and beat a quality
opponent so what does this mean does this mean that it doesn't matter what racket you play with
absolutely not now i don't know if you watched my racket history but i play with the same racket
for 15 years then you're talking to one of the craziest guys when it comes to tennis racquets i
am extremely sensitive so it's going to turn out that there are players who are very sensitive to
equipment and then there are players who are not very sensitive at all for example
like ema and i'm one of those guys that can feel every little difference in the racket now the way
this works is all mental so the proof is in the pudding i was able to play high level tennis
with any racquet those are the facts there's absolutely no doubt about that
but unfortunately when i feel a slight difference in the racket it goes in my head for example in a
match if i'm playing with a different racket and i miss a backhand i'm going to immediately blame
the racket this is the natural thing that tennis players do we have to try to find blame somewhere
and naturally it's going to go towards the racquet because it feels a little bit different when in
fact the racket might not have been a reason for a missed backhand and the problem with players like
me who are very sensitive with rackets is that we tend to magnify insignificant little changes
in the rackets for example if we take the specs out of the babolat pure drive and a babolat pure
aero and these are small minute differences it's really a very similar racket in many
aspects however as a player i for example magnify all these little changes so if one racket is a
little bit heavier i say oh this racket is so much heavier if one racket maybe goes through
the air a little bit more in other words it's more headlight i then would say this racket is so much
whippier where in reality the changes are so minuscule if somebody saw me play from
the outside they wouldn't be able to detect any difference whether i'm playing with this racket
or this racket however in my head all these small little changes are exaggerated and that's what's
causing the problem so is this a mental problem that needs to be fixed on a player absolutely not
it's perfectly okay to be like that you're either going to be that type of personality when it comes
to rackets or you're not going to care at all the only problem that i see if you get really
used to a racket that's discontinued then you're going to run into some issues because that's what
happened to my wilson hyper hammer 5.2 i played with that racket way too long and my rackets were
old what will happen with tennis rackets after a while the frame will go dead in other words
it's not going to remain as stiff as when you bought the racket in my case my rackets were
really old some were 10 years old they were even discolored on the frame so when you play with a
racquet like that that's going to be a detriment in your game it could possibly lead to some
injury so the only problem i see with being very picky with rackets and not switching like i did
is that if you play with rackets that are too old it could cause problems with your arm i'm
going to be honest with you guys it's going to be very difficult to turn off that switch in your
head and say oh i don't care what racket i play with i can play with anything you have to have
that specific personality trait as a tennis player there's really nothing you can do about it you're
either going to be able to play with whatever you want and do well and not care about it or you're
going to be like me and be ultra sensitive to any little changes in your racket so when it comes to
the high level there's really no recommendations that i can give to anybody nobody's gonna listen
to me anyway why because it's a highly individual thing every player needs to figure out what works
best for them and i can tell you one story from college everybody wanted me to play with the
head prestige especially my coach mel purcell he always used to say nick you got to play with the
head prestige it's going to be the best racket for you maybe because i had a pretty good serve
and i was tall and maybe he thought goran ivanisevic used that racket or other big
servers and he thought that it would be a perfect fit for me however i hated the head prestige i
could not play with that racket and i stuck to my wilson so that goes to show you that when it
comes to the high level players are so stubborn they got to figure out what works best for them
however when it comes to the recreational level there are certain rules that need to be
followed when it comes to rackets and i see a lot of mistakes that players make when they
choose the wrong racket to play with and there's some problems that can happen because of that for
example some injuries especially tennis elbow so here are my recommendations for the rec level if
you are a beginner you should choose a racket that's between 250 and 270 grams if you are a
intermediate player you should choose a racket that's between 270 and 300 grams if you are a
high level recreational player let's say 5.0 level you should choose a racket that's between 300 and
320 grams when it comes to the head size it really doesn't matter because most racquets come in a 98
or 100 square inch head size what i recommend to most players is to stick to those weight
guidelines that i just provided to you these are very important i often find for example beginners
that pick up a racket like this one that's 300 grams and that's way too heavy for a beginner
or for example i see some advanced recreational players who will play with the racket that's
more for elite level players for example novak djokovic i heard has a very heavy racket and some
recreational players will put lead tape on their racket and make their rackets extremely heavy
and this is a very dangerous proposition that can possibly lead to some frustrating injuries
for example i used to play with the wilson hyper hammer 5.2 that was originally 305 grams and i
put lead tape on there my racket was around 340 grams altogether however now that i'm not playing
actively anymore that would be way too heavy for me i would not be able to play with it if i play
with a racket that heavy i would immediately get problems with my elbow or my shoulder therefore
right now in my current physical ability 300 grams is the perfect weight for me a few years
ago i was playing with francesca schiavone and i picked up her racket and i noticed it was the
300 gram model of the babolat pure aero and i asked her i'm surprised you play with the 300 gram
i thought you would play with the heavier one because babolat makes a pro version that's
around 315 or 320 i believe and they make a regular version this is for the aero and the pure drive
that's 300 grams and francesca told me that when she won the french open she played with the heavy
one but then a couple of years later that racquet was too heavy for her and she went back to the
300 gram version and the reason why i'm telling you this is that with age your athletic abilities
are going to decline therefore the racket weight needs to go down and not up because with a lighter
racket and less athleticism it's going to be a lot easier to play tennis so for all you guys that ask
me questions about customization and lead tape i can tell you that you should be very careful
not to go too heavy on your rackets i see so many players these days with tennis elbow it's rampant
currently whether it's the strings that are being strung too tight or it's the rackets that are
simply too heavy a lot of players for example play with the roger federer racket the real version
that's too heavy and they're at the intermediate level and they are big fans of roger and they want
to play with his racquet but unfortunately it's a very difficult racket to handle for players
of that level so i'm going to repeat my weight recommendations one more time because i think
they're that important if you are a beginner level player your racket should be between 250
and 270 grams if you are an intermediate level player your racket should be between 270 and
300 grams if you are a high level recreational player let's say 5.0 but let's even say 4.5 level
can be considered a high level recreational players in some cases if you are one of those
your racket can be between 300 and 320 grams the only exception would be players that are really
strong i have some players that take lessons with me who are built very strong they're just
naturally very strong players therefore if the racket is too light it's not going to work for
them so those type of players can play with a racquet that's a little bit heavier regardless of
their level all right guys grip size another super important thing when it comes to tennis rackets the
best measurement that i can give you for grip size is simply grip the racket like this put your thumb
upwards and now we have a gap here you put your index finger in the gap and it should fit snugly
in this gap with no spaces on either side this is a 4 and 3 8 grip that i play with so you have
to make this test if the fingers are are too tight together if there's no gap the grip is going to be
too small if the gap is too wide and you put your finger in and you have enough space here in
between then your grip is going to be too big you have to make sure that you play with the correct
grip size and when it comes to specific brands or specific models or rackets i cannot give you
any recommendations you guys had asked me those questions in the comments or my private messages
i'm sorry but i can't help you because this is a highly individual thing there's a reason why there
is so many different racket companies because for example if you pick up four demos and they're
in that weight category that i recommended these rackets are going to be very similar there's going
to be nuanced differences in those rackets and for whatever reason you're going to like one more
than the other we can also relate this to the pro level some players like certain brands over others
for the simple reason that it's a very individual thing the best tip that i can give you when it
comes to switching rackets is what i did when i finally had to switch i was basically forced to
switch or i would have played with the wilson hyper hammer 5.2 forever but my rackets were
so beat up i had to make a change and it took me a whole year to find the right racket for me so what
i usually do let's say if i have four demo rackets and i try them all out if i don't like the racket
right away in the first five minutes that racket is not going to work for me it's never going to
be a circumstance where the racket feels terrible first when i play with it and then i fall in love
with it later that just simply doesn't happen you have to immediately fall in love with a new
racquet that you're trying if that's the case then that might be the new racket for you you