As those of you who have read Tennis thing know, I owe my tennis to my brother, MIB. He was the one who told me, before even meeting me in person, “Paulie, you would love tennis.” MIB was right, as he so often is. What I doubt, though, was that MIB would have expected how long I would take my twice-a-week lessons with my coach, Caesar Schwarz. It’s been a bit over two years since I started studying tennis with Caesar. I didn’t start out studying the game, I think it became a study gradually, but it is what tennis remains for me.
What’s the diff, you might be asking? Think back to playing dodge ball when you were a kid. How long was it between your first hearing of the word dodge and the moment when someone was chucking a ball at your head? Most games are learned as they are played. Many people, most people, likely, learn terms by playing it.
But, I have not. I have learned to play tennis while studying it. I like to watch tennis played whether I am watching a WTA or ATP pro or a little kid with marvelous footwork.
And, I love to hit the ball.
What I have not focused on is competition. This is true partly because at my age I am not especially competitive. I’m not even in a competition with myself, to be honest. I want to play tennis correctly out of a motivation to master something at once new and satisfying. That’s an intoxicating combination. But, the question is does the person on the other side of the net count and is anyone keeping score? When Caesar is the guy, he matters. It’s the precision and intentionality of his play that allows me the physical and mental opportunity to learn. He has raised me since I was a 60+ year old tennis newborn and has been instrumental to everything I’ve learned. If any elements of my game are AOK, it’s because of my coach.
But, and this is something I mused about in Tennis thing, does one need to play tennis, keep score, enter tournaments, seek the humiliation of their opponents to really play tennis?
There’s this old broad at Calabasas who seems only to hit with whichever pro is available. I have never seen her playing with anyone other than a coach. There’s no serving and each coach tends to hit the ball directly toward the old broad. But, the old broad bashes the ball back with fierce effort and likes to collect winners. And, this brings me to this quote:
“Some people, they keep on working with a coach, but the coach is just teeing the ball up for them. That’s no way to learn tennis. This is how you learn the game, right here.”
The previous quote is from Brisbane Stew. He’s a Qantas pilot I met at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl tennis courts. Unlike me, he has scads of tennis experience and is quite fit for 60. Unfortunately, he just told me the Qantas Brizzy to Los Angeles route is now flown using the Boeing 787. Unless Stew changes aircrafts I won’t be seeing him soon. Bummer. Playing with him was always amusing and educational. Back to his quote. He’s not wrong. Playing with him or MIB is not as easy as playing with Caesar but there’s more to it than that.
I have mentioned before that an example of Caesar‘s particular genius is the ability to hit shots that are consistently challenging for me, but only rarely beyond my capabilities. The other day, I was watching as he served to an elderly, but very fit student. Caesar had to abbreviate no fewer than three elements of his motion, that I could see, in order to hit a serve that was challenging to his student but not overwhelming. Now, can I imagine that I could get better faster if I consistently played with someone like Stew or MIB? I think the answer is undoubtedly, yes, especially if better is defined by advanced competitive ability. However, there’s a significant caveat. And that caveat involves the questions of form and balance. When the ball is coming too fast or bouncing too high or has been hit too wide or too shallow or too deep the kinds of corrections a beginning player like I have to make must ofetn be done in great haste. Not surprisingly, great haste, seldom results in a shot struck with good form or balance. And, there’s the rub, at least for me.
It’s a great understatement to say that I’ve enjoyed the meditative aspects of tennis. You see, I am on the eve of cutting back on my lessons with Caesar. This change is driven solely by economics. If a small shitpile of cash were to drop onto my head, I would gladly spend it on more frequent and longer lessons with Caesar, but this does not seem likely.
Early on, I remember Caesar saying that when he and his younger brother, Darius, were taking tennis lessons as kids their family could only afford one lesson each month. Caesar’s dad was a smart guy because he made sure that his sons actually practiced what they were taught during their lessons. That’s my plan and I will be similarly dedicated even though I will still be having four lessons a month. Still, I’m not going to be happy about it.
When I go to sleep at night I am thinking about my footwork as I move toward a deep, high-bouncing back hand. I’m not thinking about how I can beat someone or keep them from beating me. It will be interesting to see how things differ and stay the same in 2026. Tt
Shortly after I started playing tennis, back in the late summer of 2024, I began to sift through the internet looking for information on players, coaches and the game itself. I wasn’t usually looking for something or someone specific, but I always have a special interest in coaches and the techniques they use to teach. Tennis, it turns out, is not much different from golf. There are a lot of gurus, a lot of experts standing around, ready to tell players how the best players in the world do what they do. After playing for a while, taking lessons twice a week, I began to apply a lot of what I know about golf teachers to what I was learning about tennis coaches. As a group, tennis coaches are far better at what they do than golf teachers. I describe the differences in Tennis thing so give it a read to learn more.
Walter Redondo
One of the more interesting coaches I stumbled upon was Robert Lansdorp. He came, seemingly, from nowhere but was an influential coach to Pete Sampras, Lindsay Davenport, Tracy Austin and Maria Sharapova and many others. Lansdorp, born in the Dutch East Indies, came to California in the early 1960s. Little is known about what he did during that first decade but sometime in the 1970s he was introduced to San Diego’s Walter Redondo.
In an interview given toward the end of his life in 2024, Lansdorp said the most talented player he ever worked with was Walter Redondo. Thinking for moment about the list of other players who Lansdorp coached, they of the 25 grand slam victories, made me want to learn more about Walter Redondo. It turns out Walter Redondo was easy to find at his San Diego art gallery.
Tennis thing: Walter, I’ve been trying to decide whether we should talk about art first or tennis and I’ve settled on art. What got you interested in art and how old were you?
Walter Redondo: Art really became interesting for me around the age of six. Before that, I hadn’t paid too much attention to it. One day, I was walking down the hallway of the house we lived at the time and my older brother was in his room and as I was passing by I saw he was doing a drawing so I walked in and looked at what he was doing and got a piece of paper. And, basically, I drew what he drew with the materials he had around him, and as I looked at my drawing, I recognized that mine was very close to what he was doing. I thought to myself, well, if I can do what my older brother does it must mean I can make art.
Somehow it just registered for me that, OK, I enjoy art! From that point art just started to take shape in everything I was doing. From the time I started first grade my teachers recognized I could draw and I was creative. My teachers and school nurtured my art by having me create their classroom display boards and eventually others at my school started and realizing what I could do. Before I knew it, I was designing and creating works for the stage for performers at my school. So, really, my school nurtured my art early on.
Tennis thing: Ok, same question about tennis. Who got you into the game and how old were you?
Walter Redondo: Oh again, I was around probably the same age, about six or seven. My grandmother was the one that actually got us involved in tennis. Because there were so many of us in the family, there were nine of us, and my father being in the Navy and was away a lot, and my grandmother needed to work and so on, but she had found a sport that she loved. She would watch films of Helen Wills Moody and the other great players and figured out what she could do to get us involved in the sport. Because she truly loved tennis, she would bring us to the tennis courts and so it was my grandmother who introduced tennis to us and from that point it just kinda took off.
Tennis thing: You know Walter, what put you into my mind was an rather offhanded comment by Robert Lansdorp in an interview he gave some years ago. In it, he said you were the most talented player he ever worked with. And I thought to myself, Lansdorp worked with Sampras, Sharapova and Davenport. How many slams among that trio? 25? But, he mentions you, Walter Redondo. But right now I really want to know more about your art and especially your gallery.
Walter Redondo: You know my art is constantly evolving. Obviously, as we move, just as a tennis player does, we’re trying to sharpen skills and trying to evolve into a stronger voice. When I think about art and tennis there’s such a similarity, but when I think about, you know where I am in my life as as as an artist, and where I’m in my career, figure what was important to me as I had a little bit more control over my art career.
Part of that was being able to show and grow because often times when you get involved with the gallery, you develop a clientele that you actually start to paint for, to some degree. And so you kind of move in that way, which is a great thing also because it’s developing me as an artist and as a painter. So, I thought to myself, as I’m sitting in my home, that all this art is on the walls, and I think, as I was evolving I started recognizing, as well as the gallery owners were starting to recognize, that I was selling a lot of my work.
And often times some owners would say that my work kept their gallery open in a given month. Abd, I was so gratified to hear that. It was confirmation that I needed to give my own gallery a shot. I’ve always dreamt of owning my own gallery. That also says a lot about where I am spiritually. I love believing. I love faith. I love entering into something with the understanding that, you know, the work ethic, the whole thing of being able to believe in something that hasn’t yet transpired but will by believing in faith and hard work.
I like the whole inner person of my being to grow. And I think as a tennis player, or you as a writer, we want to evolve and grow as a person because it’s the person that we basically play with and so our person becomes stronger and more confident in the things we believe. There’s a difference from what I choose to believe and that for me is where I’m with my art. You know understanding that what I’m painting, what I’m receiving from the outside, whether it be someone’s giving me something they look for as far as a commission or whether it be that, you know, I’m picking up things around me in my environment that hopefully will make a difference or change for someone’s perspective our outlook on the way to see life.
Tennis thing: I’m right with you on all of that and I think whenever you create anything, particularly in visual arts but also perhaps in writing, when you start you often don’t know when you’re gonna finish and sometimes you don’t know if you’re going to finish. For me anyway, as a writer in creative and in business writing, you always finish because it’s the job you have to do, but in creative writing you only finish if you want to and if you need to. You have to have faith.
Walter Redondo: Personally I think it’s a such a privilege to be able to move in this way. I think this is for everybody really, you know I was literally thinking and taking notes for myself in regards to my approach to art. And, people will ask me how do you start? And, you know, we basically start with nothing but once we start that first stroke or that first line you’re developing, but then there’s kind of a mess. You know as I’m moving along and I’m just scattering paint. I’m moving paint. I really don’t have anything in mind but I’m doing this with a lot of energy. But, what’s beautiful about it is the discovery that while I’m doing this I’m taking notes of little details here and there so that I can resolve all these mistakes, or what one could think are mistakes, but actually be able to use them. I think that’s the beauty of being able to be creative is understanding how a problem gets solved just like we do on the tennis court. I like that the gathering of thoughts in the energies and even the discipline to focus as long as it takes us to get to a certain place, I think that’s a real privilege for all of us, whether it be in business or being creative with art or playing tennis.
Tennis thing: When you speak about resolving mistakes it reminds me of something one of the tennis coaches where I play said. One day when I was sitting by the courts getting ready to play and he walks by and says, “I’ve just discovered the secret to tennis and I’m gonna share it with you.” I said, “OK, Austin, what’s the secret?” He says, “Adjust. Then, when you’re done adjusting adjust again and just keep on adjusting.”
Walter Redondo: Isn’t that so true? And another thing I’ve discovered, you know, as I have thought about this and spoken with a number of the students I’ve worked with when we watch the top players: They have come into such a confidence with their own game style we would think that they are not making adjustments to their opponents, but their opponents are making adjustments because of them. And here I’m thinking getting to the point where you are just playing your game and you stick to it, everyone has to adjust to and accommodate what you’re doing. That’s a great place!
Tennis thing: Now let me take you back to Robert Lansdorp, so we know he was impressed with you as a player but how did you come to work with with him and what was the experience like for you?
Walter Redondo: I think I was the first player he worked with who became recognized. While we were over at Morley Field Robert had just started teaching and he recognized that our family was not well-to-do so my grandmother who is the one that got me started. We would go around and pick up aluminum cans out of the trash cans. But, it was really out of the kindness of his heart that Robert started working with me. It was really out of God’s grace to have a gentleman of Robert’s ability become part of the process of my life. He taught about discipline and a work ethic. Robert worked me hard but at the same time he recognized how much I loved tennis. In later years, Robert would come down San Diego and I remember him saying, “You know Walter, as a coach you see a lot of players who come to you, but there will only be a very few who have something that’s truly special. It’s not necessarily how they hit the ball but there’s something that’s a little bit different. It could be a work ethic. It could be a longer focus or it could be a kind of hunger. You’re going see a lot of players, but they may not have the substance that it takes to be a great player.”
Tennis thing: I think tennis more than any other game I can think of brings element of artistic expression and here. I’m thinking about the court as a canvas, the arc of the ball the angles, all those angles! As one who has been a high-level player and a professional artist can you say something about how art relates to tennis and tennis relates to art for you?
Walter Redondo: Oh yeah, so the beautiful thing about this whole thing is that in tennis and art we strike with we make one quick strike at the very beginning, right? We hit a ball. I put a mark on the canvas same thing at the very end. So, regardless of what happens we’re ending with two strokes in both tennis and art you know? The similarity of the intuitiveness, the whole play on how the focus and the way I may use space on the canvas to lead, or mark, or line to lead the eye because all I’m trying to do is lead the eye to a certain place on the canvas in the same way I would with, maybe, locating a ball in the corner of the court to open the space on the court. So, all I’m doing is taking what I’m doing on the tennis court and applying it to a canvas. So, whether it would be a color that’s a little bit more yellow, just for example, yellow being a very happy color. Orange being very energetic, red passionate, so I’m combining all these colors with lines and space. The beauty of this, I think what I love about is, and being involved with the process I’m sure you totally understand. Often times I’ve shared with individuals that in tennis when I go to sit down between sets, I’m just not drinking water. It’s like me stepping away from the canvas. What I’m doing as I’m looking at the canvas and I’m organizing my mind how I’m gonna resolve this painting, the same way I would in regards to OK this is what’s happening in the last few games. I’ve got my notes now. I’ve got to try to resolve this match and how I approach it is really going to be Important. So, that’s kind of really my whole take; being confident with my strikes on the canvas, letting go and surrendering to the process and believing in the outcome.
Tennis thing: Walter, I want to thank you for spending this time with me and having this chat about art and the game we love.
Walter Redondo: I’m honored, Paul. It’s been a lot of fun!
I dig the Tourna Ballport Deluxe. It’s light, holds plenty of balls (I will leave its exact capacity for my esteemed colleagues at YouTube) and has wheels. In fact, Deluxe means wheels, funky two-piece wheels to be precise. Check ‘em out:
See the little slit in the wheel? Yeah, that should work!
I cannot imagine making this hopper more efficiently than they have, when you consider that it’s nearly free. That said, the screws that hold it together grip only to plastic. Even the legs rely on plastic to lock open and closed.
Have a look:
Yeah, man; those legs are locked, that’s for sure!
It’s super light duty and made with cheapness firmly in front of mind, but it works as intended.
I love that phrase and it applies perfectly here. Oh wait. I do have one more niggling complaint. Every time I take the Ballport Deluxe out of the trunk one or more balls have gone rogue and made a break for it!
There goes another one! Grab it!
Two-piece wheels, all-plastic construction and escape-prone balls notwithstanding, I just loves my Ballport Deluxe.
It took a while before I decided I wanted to wear sunglasses when I played tennis. On one hand it’s not like i”m out there forever but my eyes aren’t getting any younger either. Light weight is good, as is visual coverage. I was interested in getting a bit more contrast while still maintaining decently accurate rendering of color.
Nike Trainer: Let down by odd fit and flimsy build.
These has the blue reflective lenses and were fine optically. But, the Nike’s were let down by their exceptionally flimsy construction and the fact that they rode so high on my nose they created a coverage problem under the lenses. In decades of sunglass use I have never had that issue before.
Well done for a little cash. Good work, Tifosi!
I’ve had pretty good luck with Tifosi. They make a lot of different sunglasses at significantly different price points. The Tifosi Optics Centus are one of their less expensive designs but have been impressive to me so far. The Centus are actually a gram lighter than the Nikes but somehow feel sigificantly more durable than the swoosh shades. I’ve never had a pair of sunglasses with brown lenses unless you count the brown-lensed Vuarnet’s I borrowed from my roommate at UCLA from time to time. The Centus’ brown worked great with the yellow of the ball and the blue of the court to keep everything as visible as possible. They fit much better than the Nikes and left no odd coverage gap in any direction. The only commnt on fit I’d like to make is that the centus could be better suited to medium to wide faces rather than narrow to medium. With their design and light weight they have no tendency to shift or slide around during play. Well done for a little cash. Good work, Tifosi! Tt
Until I began playing tennis in 2023, my sports were baseball and golf. Baseball (and I gather Cricket) may be the two most elementally unchanged ball sports. Sure, we’ve been living in baseball’s live-ball era since the time of Babe Ruth but other than that, little has changed between the baseball and the bat over the last century.
Golf is totally different story with technical advancements in ball and club (especially driver) construction that has fundamentally changed the game forever if not for better. The impact of multilayer balls and max-COR drivers is inarguable and these improvements have been augmented by the practice of data-based club and shaft fitting. Today, the average recreational players can avail themselves of most of the tech a touring pro can. Of course, the tour pro doesn’t pay.
I see tennis somewhere between those extremes. Until recently, my favorite racket was a borrowed 2014 Head Prestige Pro. It’s still my favorite racket but my advancing years have suggested that lighter may be better for my game if not my ego. Still, the fact that a twelve year old frame could still be useful to a player at my level gives me great respect for what a great racket Head could build all those years ago and a little less respect for their 2025 offerings which I am sure they describe as far more advanced than my old Prestige.
What all this means is I can easily imagine a day when a tennis player, pro or amateur, can have their tennis racket (and strings) evaluated by measured data. Golf has already done this and more. Golf tour pros, with their unimaginably consistent swings, can tune their clubs to their ball of choice, chasing their ideal of ball speed, spin and feel. I would be surprised if players on the WTA and ATP can’t do something similar right now. And, if they can, you and I will be able to soon. Whether this will help the game of mere mortals like me is anyone’s guess.
I am so glad anyone seeking beneficial alteration of their tennis racket can reach out to Miha Flisek of Impacting tennis. Even tbough my skills were still in their infancy when I first started playing tennis I knew and could feel that details mattered. In fact, everything mattered. The marriage of string, racket velocity, racket weight, weight distribution, racket flex (on multiple axes) and swing shape are a fascinating combination of variables and destined to confuse most players, leading to a great deal of misunderstanding.
I sought to learn all I could, sometimes surprised by how such complicated issues were spoken of with such a cavalier attitude. I was lucky my early searches pointed me toward Miha and his excellent videos. HIs clarity did a lot to demystify that which could easily be mystifying. I’m grateful Miha was generous enough to contribute his time to answering my questions about him and Impacting Tennis.
Tennis thing: Tell me a little about your own history playing tennis? How old were you when you started?
Miha Flisek: I started playing tennis very early, but at the same time I was also into archery and basketball. It wasn’t until an injury took contact sports off the table that I really began focusing on tennis. From the beginning, I was very sensitive to equipment. In archery, even the smallest change can completely alter your shot, and I brought that same mindset into tennis. I was honestly surprised how little attention most tennis players gave to their rackets.
Later in college, I started combining my background in engineering with my growing understanding of tennis equipment. That’s when things really started to click. I began connecting the dots between player movement, stroke mechanics, and racket behavior. That’s how Impacting Tennis was born, from the idea that tennis gear shouldn’t be treated as an afterthought but as a core part of performance.
Tennis thing: How long did it take for you to begin customizing your own rackets? What were some of your early modifications?
Miha Flisek: I started modifying my rackets almost immediately, experimenting with strings, shifting balance points, and later adding lead tape. At the very beginning, I didn’t even have proper materials. I remember finding some old lead pipes and literally hammering them flat to make my own thin strips of lead, that was my first version of lead tape. It was very DIY, but it gave me a hands-on feel for how mass placement affects the racket.
The real transformation came later when I gained the technical knowledge to calculate what I was doing. Instead of just feeling the difference, I could measure swingweight, balance, MGR/I, twistweight, and understand what each change was actually doing. That’s when customization stopped being trial and error and started becoming engineering and that’s really what laid the groundwork for everything I do now.
Tennis thing: When players come to you for customization, do they usually have a specific goal in mind, or do they rely on your guidance to help them improve?
Miha Flisek: Players usually come in with a clear goal in mind, whether it’s more spin, more control, or more stability, and I help them move toward it. But we never start with the racket. First, we look at where the player is in their career, what’s limiting their game, what they’re trying to improve. We take into account their technique, movement patterns, and overall development.
Only after that do we adapt the equipment. The racket becomes a tool that supports their goals. When you get it right, it’s not just a better racket, it’s a better version of their game.
Tennis thing: One of the most interesting aspects of tennis for me are the significance of audible cues. The Octo damper is designed to reduce unwanted vibrations while keeping the higher-frequency feedback that’s important for feel, timing, and contact cues. What led you to choose the thermoplastic elastomer PEBA (Polyether block amide) and were there other materials you considered?
Octo damper
Miha Flisek: I was already working with PEBA on a different project and found the material really interesting. It was being used in high-performance running shoes for its energy return properties, and it had just started to become available for 3D printing.
The Octo damper actually came out of working with the material. I realized it had the ideal combination of characteristics, soft enough to reduce unwanted low-frequency vibration, but responsive enough to preserve the high-frequency feedback that’s so important for timing and feel. It wasn’t something I set out to create, it just made perfect sense once I started using the material.
Tennis thing: I am really fascinated that you actually 3D printed a tennis racket! Without getting too deep into the technical weeds, how many separate pieces were needed to create TO Stardust and what adhesive did you use? Also, I found your use of rounded string transitions rather than traditional grommets to be exceptionally clever. What was the total print time?
Miha Flisek:TO Stardust was printed as a single solid frame. No adhesives, no bonding. Just one continuous piece. That required a very large and advanced 3D printer along with specialized materials. The handle pallets and buttcap were added afterward, like with a standard racket.
The total print time was about 12 hours. One of the standout features is the integrated rounded string holes, which replace traditional grommets. That not only reduces unnecessary components but also gives the stringbed a more consistent response. The project was a way to test what happens when you throw out legacy design assumptions and build a racket from the ground up using modern tools.
Tennis thing: Many ATP players still use racket designs that are more than a decade old, often under new paint jobs. Do you think racket technology has plateaued or do you see meaningful trends in design or construction that could still benefit players?
Miha Flisek: I don’t see any real leaps in racket technology happening right now. The core materials, like carbon fiber laminates, have been around for a long time, and most of the available geometries and design concepts have already been explored or exhausted. There’s not much on the horizon in terms of radically different materials that would offer meaningful improvements.
What we are seeing today, like the shift toward lighter and more powerful rackets, isn’t so much about technological progress as it is about adjusting to external changes, especially the balls. Balls have become lighter and less consistent, which makes it harder to get penetration through the court, so players are shifting toward rackets that help generate more pace and spin.
TO Stardust on court and ready for play.
The next real shift in racket design will probably come with the maturation of 3D printing technology, particularly once continuous carbon fiber printing becomes viable. That’s when we’ll finally be able to explore forms, layups, and mass distributions that are simply impossible to achieve with traditional molding techniques.
Tennis thing : What’s next for Impacting Tennis? What enhancements can we expect to see in TO Stardust v2?
Miha Flisek:That ties directly into the future of TO Stardust. Right now, with the current 3D printing materials and processes, it’s not quite at the performance level I want, at least not for professional-level play. The design itself showed what’s possible in terms of rethinking racket construction, like grommetless string transitions and integrated frame geometry, but to move to the next stage, we’re waiting for the technology to catch up, especially in terms of continuous fiber reinforcement.
When I saw TO Stardust’s grommetless construction, I knew Impacting Tennis was serious about innovation.
In the meantime, my focus is on consulting and helping players unlock performance through better equipment understanding and customization. I’m also exploring string design using a novel material that hasn’t been used in tennis yet. The long-term goal remains the same: use engineering and first principles to push tennis forward, not just follow trends.
Tennis thing: Thanks for participating, Miha. I will be posting my review of the Octo damper soon. I’ve been evaluating along with a trusted pro at my club. So far, I am really liking it, especially its amazingly light weight.
Yesterday, over a nice, crisp wheat ale (Rasenmäher-Bier [lawnmower beer]) at Enegren, I was waxing lyrical about how much my tennis game would improve if I was able to play with the MIB just once a week.
My ale-sipping companion wondered if my coach, Caesar, wasn’t able to fill that roll. His question revealed the difference between playing for the sheer joy of trying to hang in there, rather like riding a bucking bronco, as opposed to the steady, incremental block-on -block approach of a tennis coach intending to help a player build a complete game.
Outwardly, the best evidence of the kind of play that characterizes a lesson is preparation (anticipating and flowing toward the incoming ball) and executing the proper kind of stroke. It is simple, but simple is often not easy especially in tennis.
Playing with MIB stresses my game to its limits and beyond, but is also just plain fun. A great deal can be learned just by watching him move around the court anticipating and revealing entertaining angles to create.
Caesar would approve of the exercise but I think he’d want to both debrief and decontaminate afterward. I think I will always have the tendency to overhit in tennis, something I never did playing baseball and rarely did on the golf course. I can hear Caesar now, telling me to do all of the same things he has for the last two years. I will sometimes stop just to say that I hear him and that I appreciate what he’s saying and that I am trying my best to put his advice into effective action.
But, the tennis racket and tennis ball contact is simply too enjoyable not to occasionally crank up to 11. Catch that ball in the middle of the racket especially when accompanied by some well-timed movement into the shot and you have an experience that’s hard for me to resist, though I usually do.
Reading Anthony Verghese TheTennis Partner will always stand as a reminder of how rare the best tennis partners will always be. Enjoy it when you find yours.
I’ve only been playing tennis since late July 2023. But, since then I’ve owned a good number of rackets. Two of them came from the MIB (the 2013 Head Prestige Pro and more recently a Wilson Shift 99). The others I bought used, some on Ebay and a few on Craigslist.
The first variable to be considered was grip size. My first racket was codenamed Battle Axe. It was a Wilson Six One 100 and I really liked it but its grip was 4 1/2 and everyone thought it was just too big. It was, but I enjoyed playing with that racket anyway. I still miss it.
I made the move first to 4 1/4 and later to 4 1/8 to make it easier to use overgrips. Later I drifted back to 4 1/4 by way of a couple Tecnifibres (a TFight 300 and a 305). Overall, the racket that worked best and felt best was my 2018 Head Graphene Touch Prestige Tour. That’s the worst racket name I’ve come across but, all things considered, it’s the racket that has best fit my game and aesthetic.
Then I tried MIB’s Wilson Shift 99 and I was surprised at how easy it was to swing while still feeling solid on impact. At first, I was under the mistaken idea it was a Wilson Shift 99L which weighs 10.1 ounces (286.3G) but once I got it home I realized that when MIB identified it as the lighter one, he meant it was the 10.6 ounce (300.5G) version. Strung, and with my usual Sampras dampener, El Shifto weighs 316G, fully ten grams less than my Head Graphene Touch Prestige Tour. Months earlier, MIB had told me how much difference five grams can matter and here I was finding that eleven grams obviously means even more.
I do enjoy hitting with a heavier racket. It’s not unlike putting with a modern 350G putter as opposed to an 80s Ping putter that typically weighed less that 300G. Mass is your friend when you don’t need much absolute velocity or your don’t need to change directions quickly. I like to think my time playing tennis has made me stronger but I know it hasn’t. When I got started in tennis I was 62 and now I’m 64. I don’t want to deceive myself into thinking I’m defeating the effects of gravity or age.
So, the Wilson Shift has been instructive though I’m not wild about the 16×20 string pattern, plus, its grip is 4 3/8 which is a bit large, even without an overgrip. So, I’ve spent a few days looking for a racket that aligns with the Shift’s basic specs before I found the Head 2022 Instinct MP. It’s very close in terms of weight (the Wilson is a little more head light) and flex though while the Instinct’s head measures 100 sq in as opposed to the Head’s 99 sq in.
Once I get the Instinct, I will have the Head Prestige at 327G and the Head Instinct and the Wilson Shift at right around 315G. I’m pretty sure the 315G rackets will work better for my game. I’m not sure I’ll like them quite as much as the Head Prestige but I still feel a few steps closer to playing with the right racket for me,
The occasion of my family’s 2025 reunion presented an irresistible opportunity. With a little tweaking of flights, rental car and hotel we found ourselves in South Eastern Michigan with the Man in Black himself.
Looking south from the roof top of Plaza La Reina.
The last time the two of us shared a little time we found ourselves on the rooftop of Plaza la Reina in Westwood. The MIB had been generous enough to stay over an extra day so we could play tennis on my birthday. Plus, he got to have breakfast at Henri in Canoga Park, but that is a story for another day.
I think the last time I was in Metro Detroit I was a little kid and my family was on its way to Windsor Ontario and points further east. This time the focus was on MIB’s and his home in Farmington Hills. After we got in town, MIB generously asked if we wanted to go to Ann Arbor.
“Fuck no, brother. This trip is all about spending time with MIB in his native habitat.”
Just when you thought it was safe to step onto a tennis court with a confident stride, you see the MIB looking over the net at you. He’s a great player to warm up with. He likes to start close to the net, refamiliarizing his racket and hands to the variety of shots he likes to play. Then we hit soft volleys back and forth. Then we worked our way back toward the baseline and started to rally. That’s when the MIB Effect starts to take hold. It often seems like his feet don’t interact with the ground with the full force of gravity, he moves with such great ease. His strokes are fine, especially on the angles, but it’s always his footwork that is so fun to watch and listen to. Even the squeek of his Nike Air Zoom Vapor Cage 4 occurs at a higher pitch and amplitude than normal. I especially enjoyed returning serve from MIB (a minor strength of my game). In the end, though, playing with MIB is a reminder of the harsh differential between our games. Still, it was a lot of fun.
I thought about what it was like to play with MIB all the way home to Los Angeles. I knew there was no hope of reducing the differential to zero. Then again, that was never the goal. What I wanted to do was identify as many things as I could to improve in the specific areas that playing with MIB had exposed. So, I did what I always do. I asked my coach, Caesar, he with the unlimited answers to my limitless questions about tennis.
The first thing he said was to focus my attention on the racket of my opponent rather than simply on the ball as it crossed over the net and onto my side of the court. Caesar told me that would help me to identify the kind and the pace of the shot that was likely to be coming my way. That awareness was the first step in preparing for the shot I would need to play very, very soon.
Then he told me of the benefit to moving quickly early and slowing down into the shot. “Bad players are constantly running and stopping. Good players flow to the ball and flow toward their next shot,” he said. Of course, my coach had told me this many times before. But this time it was more urgency and relevant since I’d recently learned I was working too hard creating too little effective movement.
It came as no surprise that three days hanging with the MIB was just not enough. No sooner than we touched down at DTW it felt like we were on our way home. Though time was far too short, I’m glad we made the trip and look forward to sharing a tennis court with MIB again. I will be a little better prepared when that day comes.
I bought this booksolely to take advantage of free shipping at Tennis Warehouse. Remember readers, you have to spend money to save money. The book is superb, though perhaps mostly of interest to people like me who are intrigued by the technology, or what’s represented as technology, in tennis. I’ve spent my first year and a half in tennis trying different rackets and strings (not to mention grips and overgrips). At no time have I gotten the sense a given racket made or kept me from being a better player.
I have developed preferences that remain fairly consistent. The first is for a racket with a head size of 98 square inches. The second is for polys that are not strung too tight, always less than 50 pounds. Finally, I trend away from rackets designed to aid in power because, for all of my faults and weaknesses in tennis, I do not suffer from a lack of power.
Back to Cross & Lindsey’s book. Check out this quote:
TENSION AND PLAYER PERCEPTIVENESS Virtually every player assumes that he can tell the difference between different tensions. Some claim to be able to identify a difference of a pound or two. Tests have been performed that bring that claim into question. In a test of 41 advanced recreational players, only 11 (27 percent) could determine a difference of 11 pounds or less. In fact, 15 (37 percent) couldn’t correctly identify the difference even when the tension between two racquets varied by 22 pounds. A small number were able to discern a two-pound difference, however. Players were not allowed to touch the strings or vibrate them to guess tension, and each racquet had a vibration dampener to take away auditory cues.
Using earplugs to further dampen auditory cues lowered the success rates even more. Players were only allowed four hits with each racquet, so the only data the player was interpreting was feel, not an accumulated history of location of ball placement that could be used to deduce string tension. Some players said that they noticed a difference, but then incorrectly chose which racquet had a higher tension.
Auditory cues are huge but they’re not often a subject of conversation with most players so quick and confident to identify what they feel about string tension. I recall a similar test relating to golf. Many players reported that they prefered the feel of putters made from this material or that. But, when they wore earplugs they couldn’t differentiate even the most dissimilar materials or even construction techniques.
For me the question is this: Thinking of the average player is it beneficial to believe in the benefit of this string over that string, this tension over that or this racket over another? To jump ahead, I think using the correct racket (correct as regards weight, head size, stiffness) is very important for new, especially young, players. What I’m asking concerns average adult players. My experience leads me to conclude that it can be entertaining but is largely a waste of time for recreational players to believe that the right (or wrong) racket or string will relevantly affect their games.
With that said, identifying preferences is fine but I contend that mine have little affect on my game, and that’s Ok. I still like what I like. As they saying goes, you can either use the racket you like or the racket someone else likes. Just make sure to keep your focus on your game and not your strings and racket. By the way, I’m not done writing about this book. It’s much too interesting so stay tuned. Tt
A couple weeks back I was lucky enough to catch a couple lessons with Laura Sax at Del Norte in Sacramento. Laura is a super tennis coach. I always try to show up with a specific issue so my lessons with her can exist in kind a parallel universe to what Caesar and I continue to work on.
As we drove from Los Angeles I tried to come up with something. What I finally came up with was my need for more consistency when I’m serving. So, Laura asked to see me hit a few serves.
She said, “Those are kinda Ok. Lotsa pace. Now, show me your second serve.”
I looked down at the court and sighed, “I don’t have one.”
Laura said, “Well, show me what your second serve would look like if you actually had one.”
I sighed again.
Then, I hit something like a flat serve with the pace turned down. It hit the net with authority. Kind of…
Laura said, “Ok, follow me up to the net.”
Over the next few minutes she had me first hit the ball over the net with the edge of the frame while choking up on the racket. That’s not as easy as it sounds, by the way. Then, Laura had me hti the ball over the net with only a downward snap of the wrist. As with an overhead, this was done without the arm or torso bending forward, or following through. A secondary object of the game was to have the ball hit inside the service box, so a distinctly downward strike was in order.
It was kinda fun. I spent much of the rest of the lesson hitting those spikes from the net and out toward the back of the service box on my side of the net. It wasn’t until Laura had me back up to the baseline that I saw the point of the entire exercise. I was hitting a slice!
Who knew?
As the racket snapped, it also rotated left with the ubiquitous pronation that everyone is so excited about. The force of the strike was a combination of the wrist snap multiplied by the racket’s rotational energy. The result, when the ball was struck as the racket was driving forward but still not completely open (read: flat), was a serve with rotation that curved it left (from me) a right handed player.
I’m not very bright so it was not until that very minute that I understood what the totality of the exercise was about. As I said, Laura is a fantastic coach.
On the long drive home I tried to reimagine the movements and, more importantly, the feelings of my two lessons with Laura. I had a fairly decent grasp of what I was trying to achieve but as with all things tennis the goal was fogged by age and lack of significant athletic ability. Still, when I got home I could still feel it although I was triyng to hit the ball too hard (don’t I always?).
Then I remembered something else Laura said. She said that when serving the wrist should be completely at ease and the racket held with the very lightest of grip.
Now, let me tell you why this made sense:I have always, and I mean always, since the time of my first serve, had a difficult time warming up with my serve. I can throw a baseball softly enough that a newborn could catch it with his offhand (Ok, maybe that’s an exageration) but you get the idea. In contrast, I have a very difficult time warming up to serve. My motion, and the overall pace of my early serves are, far too fast and too hard. Who knows why?
But, when I deliberately keep my arm, wrist and elbow relaxed I can hit early serves at Speed 1 and then Speed 3 and so on. It is almost as if I can coordinate the speed better because I am managing the tension (or lack) in my serve (note that I do not write, hitting) arm. Simple, but remember that simple does not always equal easy. Perhaps it never does.
Then, and I hope this doesn’t appear to suplant Laura’s contribution but I stumbled on this video by Patrick Mouratoglou. The looseness or softness is counterintuitive to someone like me who was born to throw a baseball (5.25 ounces at the end of the fingertips) rather than strike a tennis ball (2 ounces, plus or minus) overhead and with an added 27 inches of the racket.
Yes, it’s still (obviously) a striking motion but a very different one.
So, there I am and happy to be there. I have been playing tennis since September of 2023 and I now have a developing the tiny bud of a second serve. Now that wasn’t so hard, now, was it? Tt
Tennis thing 