| HOFER TENNIS |
| Tip of the Week Archive |
| RACQUET TECHNOLOGY (DUNLOP, HEAD, PRINCE) It never ceases to amaze me how tennis racquet manufacturers are always coming up with new ways to improve their tennis racquets. Some technology is abandoned so fast you wonder if the technology really worked to improve their tennis frames. I would like to give a brief run down of some tennis racquet technology and how it has changed or died. Since I am a Dunlop Advisory Staff tennis pro and since I sell exclusively Dunlop racquets, I will start with Dunlop. DUNLOP – A few years ago, Dunlop began making tennis racquets with “hot melt”. Hot melt is a thermoplastic liquid forming a graphite skin layer over the whole racquet. This make the frames 30% stronger and 34% more powerful. Next they came up with I.C.E. technology. Internally Cooled Engineering is process of rapid cooling a tennis frame after the mold is made, by injecting cool air through hollow tubes inside the frame. This forms a crystalline fusion of resin and fibre creating maximum strength. Now for 2005 Dunlop has added M-Fil (multi filaments) fibers to the 3 and 9 o’clock areas of a tennis frame. Different types of fibers are combined to soften and give a more cushioned response. The 2 Hundred uses carbon, s-fibers and magnesium. The 3 hundred uses carbon, t-fibers and tungsten. The 5 hundred has carbon, r-fibers and boron. The 7 Hundred has carbon, e-fibers and chromium. Each blend of fibers have specific properties to enhance that racquet. At least Dunlop kept “hot melt” and just added the M-Fil technology. HEAD – Intelligent fibers were the new advance in frame technology a few years ago. They were fibers that “stiffened” on impact with the ball creating a stiff and powerful frame. Then Liquidmetal came along and intelligent fibers disappeared faster than warm Krispy Kremes on a Sunday morning. I guess they weren’t so smart after all. Liquidmetal was to give Head’s racquets new found power by placing Liquid metal in the four stratigic areas of the frame. Liquid metal has tested to be be stronger and more powerful than titanium. Now Head has a new gimmick (that’s my opinion) with Flex Point. Flex points are holes drilled in the side of the frames at 3 and 9 o’clock. Supposedly the frame is to flex on impact with a ball and “cup” the ball to offer ultimate control. Dunlop is using this same idea in their recreational racquet line of I-Zone frames. Head is still using Liquidmetal in the frames and is adding a “holes” in the sides. PRINCE – They gave us the original “oversized” tennis racquet. Lately it’s the Triple Threat technology which has fibers added to the frames at 10 and 2 o’clock and in the handle. Different frames had different fibers added. Much like Dunlop’s M-fil, Prince was using various combinations of titanium, tungsten, copper, and carbon. Next came the “More” series of racquets. These frames were glued together from 2 separate halves with holes for the strings that were made in the mold not drilled like most racquets. The claim was the strings touched the frame and gave better feel and less vibration. Now Prince has molded bigger holes and called them the “O-zone”. These huge holes are going to expand the sweet spot and eliminate vibration (string vibration before was cancelled out with dampeners place between the strings in the throat area. Does anyone remember the Wilson “Rollers” racquets with huge holes in the sides? At least it looks like Prince is still adding tungsten and titanium fibers to the 10 and 2 o’clock areas. This means Triple Threat technology was a true advancement and is here to stay. Next well look at Babolat, Volkl, Yonex, and the “king” of all technology, Wilson. Doug Hofer, USPTA & USRSA Certified March 30, 2005 |
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