How to Customise your Tennis Racket for Control and Power
Hey guys, Tim here from Play! Tennis Singapore. In this video I will explain a couple of different ways you can customise your tennis racquet to suit your needs. I’m simply going to talk about what certain customisations feel like, how they can be done and what sort of playing style they each suit.
Now there are a number of ways a racquet can be customised - from lead tape which is the most common, to a leather grip or even silicone in the handle. The purpose of racquet customisation is to adjust the weight and balance in order to suit your playing style.
Grip
Let’s begin with the grip. Now each racquet comes with a standard grip built in from the factory. Some players like to play with the stock grip, but others, like myself, like to use an overgrip.
The benefits of an overgrip are that you can choose exactly what sort of feel you like, and it also increases the size of the handle. There’s no real trick of the trade when it comes to choosing a specific grip, but my advice is that if you play in Singapore, you should use an absorbent grip as it soaks up the sweat and allows you to keep a firm grip on a racquet when playing. However, when I play in Melbourne, I prefer to use more tacky grips as it’s usually quite cold there.
In terms of grip sizes, choose a grip size that you are comfortable with, keeping in mind you can always add more overgrips to suit your needs. If you get a grip size that is too big for you, it’s extremely difficult to make it smaller. The four grip sizes are 4 1/8, 4 1/4, 4 3/8 and 4 1/2. These are usually labelled as L1, L2, L3 and L4.
Adding Weights
In terms of adding weight to the racquet, replacing the stock grip with a leather grip adds about 10g to the handle (a leather grip is usually about 10g heavier than a stock grip). I will talk about how this weight can affect your play a bit later. Another way to add weight to the butt of the racquet is to insert silicone inside the grip by removing the butt cap. This is quite advanced so I do not recommend trying this by yourself if you haven’t already done it before.
The next thing I want to talk about is lead tape. Lead tape is very commonly used on tennis racquets by many players around the world. A vast majority of pro tennis players also use lead tape on all their racquets.
Lead tape simply adds weight to the hoop of the racquet. Where you put the lead tape also determines how the racquet will play. Lead tape that is applied to the 3 and 9 o’clock positions will provide extra stability and a higher swing weight. Lead tape at 12 o’clock with provide extra power due to a much higher swing weight. Anything in between (10 and 2 o’clock for example) can provide both stability and power.
Keep in mind that any lead tape applied to the head of the racquet increases swing weight. This means it will be harder to swing the racquet but ultimately you receive more power and stability.
Recommendations
So how does all this customisation affect the way the racquet plays? Well, let’s start with weight at the handle. If you desire a faster swing speed and more control, you can put extra weight at the handle through a leather grip.
On the other hand, putting extra weight on the head of the racquet gives you more power and stability, but may reduce your control as it takes more effort and time to position the racquet well.
Customisation is all down to personal preferences. It’s about finding the right balance to suit your game. Best of all, customisation is very affordable! You can get a roll of lead tape for less than $10 online.