I have been playing a lot more (5-6 times a week) since summer hit. I decided to experiment with a hybrid synthetic gut and poly. I usually play a full bed of RPM Blast, Restring Zero or Luxilon 4G at 52. My new summer hybrid setup is Head syn gut blue 16 GA in the mains at 52 and Solinco Confidential 16 GA in the crosses at 50. I am super happy. It feels easy on the elbow and the subtle loss of spin is easily offset by exceptional pocketing, control and a sound that is free from excessive twanginess. Whatever is smoothing out the sound is more than Ok by me. Power might be slightly greater than my full poly beds but overall I am very impressed with how this combo plays in my Shift 99.
My initial hope was the square shape of the Solinco string wouldn’t notch the syn gut too rapidly. But, when I had him string my backup racket identically my stringer quickly commented about the possibility of the Confidential going all cheese grater on the syn gut. I told him not to worry, that I was happy to experiment. If the syn gut really takes a beating I will try the Head syn gut with Tru Pro Ghostwire.
In fact, the Head syn gut got notched up pretty fast but the syn gut / Confidential hybrid still feels great. Since blue is part of what I’m looking for I bought a couple sets of Head Velocity MLT 16 GA, in blue of course. Since I now have two Wilson Shift 99 (more on Son of El Shifto later) rackets I will have the original Shift (codename: El Shifto) to be restrung with MLT at 50 pounds. Tt
Mint is the tackiest of the three Toroline colors, along with Lavender. Neon Pink is aparently less tacky but it’s Neon Pink, which doesn’t work with any of my rackets or Kimony dampeners. Toroline, being a clever group of folks does things a little different. Their overgrips are tapered on both ends so, in a better world than this, you wouldn’t have to trim the top part before you put on the finishing tape. But, reality intrudes and I ended up having to trim mine anyway.
I prefer two overgrips to any replaacement grip, grip. Toroline does not spec their overgrip’s thickness but I would say it’s on the thin side side two of them render my 4 3/8 grip comfy but firm and the bevels easily felt.
Did I mention this stuff is tacky? Who knows how long it will stay tacky or how durable it is or even, at this point, if it’s too tacky. We will see. Thing is, in golf I was grip obsessed, always trying to find the perfect combination of durometer, compound, texture and tackiness (or smoothness in some cases). I guess it should come as no surprise I’m the same with tennis, always happy to try something new and different. If you’re at all like me give these Torolines a try. Oh, a couple final notes. First, the inner plastic is extremely thin. How thin? I almost accidentally wrapped the grip with it in place. I would love it if someone would come up with a grip that had less plastic. Of course, I am sadly doubtful the grip material itself is exactly Earth Friendly. Tt
My experience with the Wilson Shift started when I flew home from Detroit with MIB’s personal racket. I guess it wasn’t his personal racket if we are defining personal as the racket he was using at the time. Long story short, Jonas at tennisnerd steered MIB toward the Shift 99. I found it a rather odd suggestion, knowing MIB’s game first hand. At the same time, I was somewhat heartened MIB had reached out to someone for racket help when he already owned a fantastic tennis game, especially in doubles. As good as he is, MIB was still striving for improvement!
By the time El Shifto (300G / 16×20) was in my hands it had been through some changes, courtesy of the MIB. It had a leather grip and a Tourna overgrip as well as significant quantities of lead tape at 3 and 9. It felt a little like the tennis racket equivalent of Manny Sanguillén’s bat from the 70s. If you don’t get the reference, oh well. The point is that MIB’s Shift was heavy.
Me? I like a heavy racket as much as the next guy but Michael’s tuning of it felt more than a little off to me so bit by bit I undid what had been done. First to go was the lead tape. Then I lost the leather grip. That’s when things got wild. You see, MIB uses a 4 3/8 grip while I prefer a 4 1/4. My solution was to go Modified Djoker. I heard Novak Djokovic used two overgrips and no main grip. True? False? Who knows or cares? But I added a twist. I placed vertical strips of blue masking tape on the bare grip (five layers to be precise) and finished the grip with a single Yonex Super Grap Wet.
Before I get to the results let me tell all of you who don’t know and, really, why would any of you know, I find the grip sizing system to be totally stupid. I think tennis grips should be sized by measured dimensions rather than a reference to something that’s actually not a reference but a simplistic effort at correlation, in this case a bizarre attempt at correlation between the length of one’s palm and the added length of their ring finger and the correct grip size.
What?
I’ve probably lost you by now and that’s Ok since this is my tennis fever dream. Back to the five layers of blue masking tape. Quality 3M masking tape actually builds up quite a bit of cushion, especially five layers of the stuff so once I had the Yonex overgrip installed the Shift’s grip felt pretty much like a 4 1/4 with nicely pronounced bevels.
Voila!
MIB’s El Shifto with a couple grams of lead tape in the throat now tips the scale to a svelt 310 grams.
Not quite. But here’s the thing. El Shifto felt and played great. Even though at 310G strung it was my lightest racket it felt exceptionally solid on volleys and quite precise on groundies. My serve had great pop and El Shifto rewarded a smooth stroke, happy to do a good deal of the work for me. Notwithstanding my general disinclination against Wilson tennis rackets I have to say the modified El Shifto has become my favorite racket. It has me thinking about grabbing a Son of El Shifto or hunting down a Wilson Labs version. As if I need another tennis racket. Then, right as my enthusiasm for the Wilson Shift was in its ascendance I read that Wilson had ditched the racket for a yet unnamed successor. I say unnamed even though I’ve read rumors that Shift’s replacement will be called the Python.
You know. Snakes. Tennis. Sure.
This is what I don’t get. Wilson, by all indications, did a lot of work creating the Shift, similar to the effort put behind the development of the Clash. The Clash is now in Version 3 but Shift has been unceremoniously consigned to the ash heap of tennis racket history without the common courtesy of even a Version 2.
Why?
I’m sure Python or Viper or Garter Snake or whatever Shift’s successor is called will incorporate some and perhaps many of Shift’s innovations. Abandoning Shift bothers me as a marketer and I think it makes Wilson look bad, at least in my eyes. If they knew they had a good racket in the Shift, and they obviously did and likely still do, what’s the hurry to dump it? Is the Wilson Burn really flying off the shelves? I don’t think so.
Maybe Wilson thinks the Shift is too close to the Clash, but I don’t think that’s correct. Obviously, the Blade V9 is a darling of the professional game for both women and men. For a while, the Ultra V5 with its flashy blue paint, looked like it was going to catch on for both pros and recreational players but its appeal to both sectors seems to have flattened somewhat.
The Shift deserved more respect from Wilson. At least it has mine. Tt
Tennis thing 