Playing Style & Matching Racket – Please Help as I am really struggling to work it out.
Danttgeek asked 3 months ago
H Guys,
Playing Style & Background
I play with an inner carbon blade with Rasanter 47 Max on the backhand and Rasanter 50 Max on the forehand.
After an appendectomy, my ability to rotate to generate power on the forehand has diminished.
My game style is
- an aggressive topspin game,
- attack with my backhand
- counterhit aggressive with my forehand
- aggressive blocking with variation on both sides
- lots of shot variety to mix it up (slow spinny)
However, when I have to generate power with the forehand, I struggle a lot and find myself going more for heavy spin shots (either top or slow side) that people block out.
The change I am seeking
One weak area is my forehand flick and also backhand flick. I am hoping to drastically improve these, but I am finding it difficult with my setup. I have tried other rackets and noticed that the ball stays longer on the rubber making it much easier to flick.
My concern is that if I go for a softer rubber, that my counterhitting and blocking game will suffer, and of course I do not want to make my existing difficulties of generating power on the forehand worse.
Possible Options?
My first question is should I change blade? I use the tenaly handle from Nittaku so a bit limited, would going to the Acoustic wood blade give me more balance or lose too much power?
What rubbers will help with flick & forehand power/spin with a weaker stroke? Any improvement on the backhand rubber? (power/spin is important here)
Danttgeek answered 3 months ago
Sorry to ask in such detail, but the details make it confusing.
So I also used to play with hurricane 3 in the past before my problem generating forehand power. I feel like the hard rubbers like R50 are good for returning spinny shots and blocking – is this actually true? Do soft rubbers make this difficult?
Hurricane was better for creating spin for serving, r50 was a step down (as was fastarc G1) – if I got to a softer rubber, will that improve or worsen serve spin?
I am so confused about all this!
Sorry I missed this part, it’s quite a personal thing as some people find hard rubbers better to block and some like softer feeling. So changing rubbers won’t necessarily worsen then spin or improve it, it’s down to how you feel with it personally
Tom Academy Coach answered 3 months ago
Hey Dan, so in my opinion you are better off sticking with the blade you have as this is they key part to a bat set up as a whole and provides most of the “feel and touch” when playing. S I would stick with the same blade for sure and look at the rubbers. I think if you are struggling to generate power then definitely don’t go for hurricane as this requires a lot of work to get the speed out of it even though the spin is fantastic. Rasanater 50 max is not a slow rubber at all, but as it’s fairly hard it may be that going t something slightly softer some players find it easier to generate speed as it’s a bit more forgiving and slightly less direct.
I don’t think your counter hitting game and blocking will suffer unless you go for something too soft, I would suggest trying the Rasanter R47 you use on the backhand on the forehand side and see how that feels as the general feeling will be similar but of course it’s slightly softer. I would leave the backhand rubber as it is at the moment as you don’t seem to be having any specific problems there. Let me know if you hav any further questions on this or any follow up.
Thanks, Tom 🙂
DanttgeekThanks Tom – yeah I can’t twiddle my bat, so I have to work something out. Disadvantage of having the Tenaly shape
