Help me get a woody

[faultsnaces]

Kyle and don, thanks for your replies! Roman has been so incredibly helpful over the last many years - always love dropping in to see him and his whole staff.

As for how I feel: shoulder, elbow, arm all feel great, no issues. However, I'm exhausted! I've got about 3 hours on the wood now, and it remains crushingly exhausting to play with. So much movement, so much focus required, completely exhausting. But no specific pain.

As Kyle mentioned, my current racket is a pretty ideal base to start from; my Prestiges are weighted to 368 grams (12 7/8 oz) versus 374 grams (13 1/8 oz) for the Dunlop woody - so not all that much different. I actually suspect that the swingweight (the weight that really matters) of my Prestige is higher than that of the Dunlop, though they are likely pretty close.

The effort required to play with the woody really means that I have to be relatively fresh to get anywhere with it. Tried hitting at the end of a regular practice session, and it was just a total fail - but I was hitting the Prestige just fine. The woody is super demanding, no margin for laziness or sloppiness at all.

I also must have a pretty huge fundamental issue with volleys: I can volley ok with my Prestige against a wall, but not at all with the woody. Total fail, can't make wall volleys work at all with the woody. So will spend some quality time with a pro next few weeks to see what is going on. Very odd feeling though - I've known that I don't have great volleys, but this is like complete incapability. (On a positive note, I'm looking forward to fixing this, from the ground up - can't get any worse, and this would make my whole wooden experience well worth it...!)

Lastly, with 3hrs on the string, the string is really dead - not returning to position at all, visibly fraying. Spin is taking a lot more effort. The X1 is going to break well before the 10 hr mark, probably at 6-8 hrs if not totally unplayable long before then....

[klacr]

Kyle and don, thanks for your replies! Roman has been so incredibly helpful over the last many years - always love dropping in to see him and his whole staff.

As for how I feel: shoulder, elbow, arm all feel great, no issues. However, I'm exhausted! I've got about 3 hours on the wood now, and it remains crushingly exhausting to play with. So much movement, so much focus required, completely exhausting. But no specific pain.

As Kyle mentioned, my current racket is a pretty ideal base to start from; my Prestiges are weighted to 368 grams (12 7/8 oz) versus 374 grams (13 1/8 oz) for the Dunlop woody - so not all that much different. I actually suspect that the swingweight (the weight that really matters) of my Prestige is higher than that of the Dunlop, though they are likely pretty close.

The effort required to play with the woody really means that I have to be relatively fresh to get anywhere with it. Tried hitting at the end of a regular practice session, and it was just a total fail - but I was hitting the Prestige just fine. The woody is super demanding, no margin for laziness or sloppiness at all.

I also must have a pretty huge fundamental issue with volleys: I can volley ok with my Prestige against a wall, but not at all with the woody. Total fail, can't make wall volleys work at all with the woody. So will spend some quality time with a pro next few weeks to see what is going on. Very odd feeling though - I've known that I don't have great volleys, but this is like complete incapability. (On a positive note, I'm looking forward to fixing this, from the ground up - can't get any worse, and this would make my whole wooden experience well worth it...!)

Lastly, with 3hrs on the string, the string is really dead - not returning to position at all, visibly fraying. Spin is taking a lot more effort. The X1 is going to break well before the 10 hr mark, probably at 6-8 hrs if not totally unplayable long before then....

Sounds like you are being fully immersed in the joys and pain of wooden racquets. It requires surgical precision while simultaneously forcing you to maintain Paul Bunyan-esque strength.

Make sure when you volley with wooden racquets you really need to drive through the ball. Modern racquets of today require (or should I say 'let you get away with') only a short bump, but woodies require a firm strike and drive through the contact. Never seen your strokes but whatever strokes you have they will be forcibly modified due to feel of the frame if you want to hit with the old school tennis timber.

Roman Prokes probably loves helping knowing you are embracing the lumber. Fantastic stuff.
Roman's son actually works down in Orlando at the lake Nona USTA National Campus as the stringing manager. He does an excellent job down there.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
New York City

[don_budge]

Leaping to conclusions - the post where I take my low level amateur skills and brief woody stroking experience and extrapolate to grandiose sweeping conclusions.....

Take away the modern equipment and high level athletes will still play a modern game....

Then again, I'm probably wrong about this - after all, my woody told me I suck at volleying and net play in general.

An "A" for effort. Now for the bad news...I hate to be the one to break it to you but in all probability you probably suck at all facets of the game. Relatively speaking. Compared to your performance with your modern day bazooka.

You can do all the experimenting you want. Wall work...hitting with others. But when push comes to shove the only way to measure the "woody" versus the modern contraptions is the ultimate acid test. Get yourself to the finals of some important competition...using your woody of course...then meet in the finals some hot dog, hotshot kid with the latest suped up version of the tennis racquet. Only in competition will you be able to make the accurate analysis regarding the equipment. If you are somehow in the position to take to the court in this fantasy scenario you are going to leave one afternoon feeling rather inadequate. Hopelessly outgunned.

Just for the sake of full comprehension get yourself a Wilson Kramer or Wilson Pro Staff like Johnny Boy McEnroe used to play with. You will get another type of feel in the racquet. Many years ago the difference was night and day. Maxply Dunlop was best left in the hands of the artistically blessed while the rest of us used something akin to the Wilson Kramer.

It's difficult to make the modern day tennis player understand the classic era of tennis was actually more demanding in every sense of the sport. Today's game is hopelessly dumbed down with Roger Federer as the "Living Proof". At 35 years of age nobody on the ATP tour has the guns to stay with the champ when conditions are normal...normal being the standard fare some 25-50 years ago. The game today has been modified much as today's society has. Dumbed down. Dumbed down. Dumbed down.