Fireing Up Your Racket
At this time of the year, with the weather colder, we often get people coming into our shop complaining that there is something wrong with their racket. Their problem is that they are not getting the power out of their racket that they were a short while ago. A lot of the time this is because the temperature is a lot cooler, and the ball is not coming out of the racket with any where near the power that it was when it was warmer. The weather makes a huge effect on the amount of bounce of the ball. Don't blame your racket! It probably won't be cracked, it's just the weather! One thing that will give you more power is to get a new set of strings in your racket, possibly strung a little lighter- say 24 lbs. The strings tend to move around a bit more at the lower tension, but this doesn't do any harm. The lower tension will create more rebound for the string, and give more power. Try Tecnifibre- I think it's the best string in the world. It frays a bit like gut used to, but it lasts as well as anything, and seems to give more power than anything I have tried. One last thing -when its cold, hit the ball higher on the front wall to get good length-you will get more gains from a good length shot in the winter as it will be harder to dig the ball out of the back.