Wilson or Babolat?
- Thread starter vicious
- Start date
It depends on your type of game and swing style. Here is a good article on the top players.
I like a racquet with good touch at the net and pop on serves, ground strokes not so much...
http://www.nytimes.com/20...ET20.html?pagewanted=all
Also look at the forum here...
http://www.tennisw.com/fo...bed2122f02aa910ee81e62b1
My best advice would be to demo several that you like at your local club or tennis facility.
Good Luck
I like a racquet with good touch at the net and pop on serves, ground strokes not so much...
http://www.nytimes.com/20...ET20.html?pagewanted=all
Also look at the forum here...
http://www.tennisw.com/fo...bed2122f02aa910ee81e62b1
My best advice would be to demo several that you like at your local club or tennis facility.
Good Luck
A lot of factors go into choosing a racquet that is right for you:<div>
</div><div>1) Your level of play (beginner, intermediate, or skilled) -- a lot depends if you want a stiffer, head-heavy racquet or an all around racquet with larger sweet spot.</div><div>2) Type of player you are (baseliner, serve and volley) - will influence the type of racquet you should try.</div><div>3) Preference -- some people only like Prince, Wilson, Head, Babolat, etc.</div><div>
</div><div>My recommendation is to try several different racquets. If you are Jackson, you can go by Bridges and demo several different racquets. Or you can go to Tennis Warehouse and they can send you demo racquets to try out.</div><div>
</div><div>In summary, you should find the racquet that you like, fits your game, and one that you are comfortable.</div><div>
</div><div>BB</div>
</div><div>1) Your level of play (beginner, intermediate, or skilled) -- a lot depends if you want a stiffer, head-heavy racquet or an all around racquet with larger sweet spot.</div><div>2) Type of player you are (baseliner, serve and volley) - will influence the type of racquet you should try.</div><div>3) Preference -- some people only like Prince, Wilson, Head, Babolat, etc.</div><div>
</div><div>My recommendation is to try several different racquets. If you are Jackson, you can go by Bridges and demo several different racquets. Or you can go to Tennis Warehouse and they can send you demo racquets to try out.</div><div>
</div><div>In summary, you should find the racquet that you like, fits your game, and one that you are comfortable.</div><div>
</div><div>BB</div>
My experience has been the Wilson is better for volleying, but the Babolat (Pure Drive or Aero) are superior in ground strokes. I see this replicated in my opponents. I see a lot more topspin and power from the Babolat's, but more angles and touch from the Wilson's. The Babolat's I mentioned are for intermediate (3.5 and up) players. Babolat makes other racquets for beginners. I demo'd around 10-12 racquets when I had to replace my mid-90's Prince and the Babolat and Yonex were my favorites, but the Babolat serve was the tie breaker. I hated the Wilson racquets I tried, but others seem to play very well with them. I really like the Babolat AeroPro Drive feel (less power than Pure Drive but great topspin placement), but since I already have 3 Pure Drives, I dont plan on changing over anytime soon.
Especially the part about considering level of play. Unless you're at least a 4.0 (and probably a 4.5), you don't need to even try to play with the same racquet the top pros use. Those racquets generally very unforgiving, have small sweet spots and are usually too heavy for most players.
A few things I would add:
It might be worth paying for a lesson with a good pro (get recommendations, don't just ask the local club who's available) just to hit with him and talk to him and let him give you hit thoughts on what racquets you should consider after he's seen your game for 45 minutes. Should cost you about $50.
Tennis magazine has an equipment review issue every spring (usually comes out about March). Get the most recent one (if all else fails the library should have it) and read it.
Once you get your racquet, don't wait for the strings to break before you get it restrung. Rule of thumb is restring at least as many times per year as you play per week.</p>
A few things I would add:
It might be worth paying for a lesson with a good pro (get recommendations, don't just ask the local club who's available) just to hit with him and talk to him and let him give you hit thoughts on what racquets you should consider after he's seen your game for 45 minutes. Should cost you about $50.
Tennis magazine has an equipment review issue every spring (usually comes out about March). Get the most recent one (if all else fails the library should have it) and read it.
Once you get your racquet, don't wait for the strings to break before you get it restrung. Rule of thumb is restring at least as many times per year as you play per week.</p>
The same manufacturer can have so manyvarious racquets that play incredibly differently. In fact the exact same racquet with two different types of strings strung at different tensions can have completely different feels. Like others have said, you have to just experiment. One major consideration, much like with golf clubs, is your swing speed. Generally speaking, the faster you swing your racquet (not the harder you hit it...different things), the smaller you want the head face of the racquet to be. I personally have found on a quality of construction point of view, you get a much better racquet for the dollar from some of the not as "popular" brands such as Head or Volkl. Honestly, invest in quality string and figure out your tension and get asolidly built racquet, not the lightest racquet.
But when it's all said and done, there is no magic racquet that will make you a better player, only more time than you are willing to devote to practicing will ever make you as good as you want to be.
But when it's all said and done, there is no magic racquet that will make you a better player, only more time than you are willing to devote to practicing will ever make you as good as you want to be.