Yonex tolerances (e.g. VCORE 98)

Word on the courts has been that Yonex was pretty much the only brand from which you can pick up sticks off the shelf and they'd be very close to spec. Meaning also one would not have to worry about matching between them. 

I was looking at the Percept 97H, as that's pretty much the only heavy racquet on the market since the RF97A had left the show. Measured a few and was surprised and disappointed to find all of then a few grams too light and a few mm too head heavy. Sure you can get close to the 330 / 310 spec again with a slightly heavier grip, but then the fiddling around begins again...

Demoing a few other pre-selected sticks, I did like the VCORE 98 and felt drawn back to it. Although even at low tension I could feel pain in and along the whole arm, which has happened close to never in >40 years of playing at least hundreds of racquets. So not sure what's going on and why a good part of the energy needs to go in that direction...

Anyways, back to spec - in a store that only had 2 VCORE 98s, there was already a 6 (!) gram diff between them. 

Struggling still and again to find an online retailer in Europe that would find me at least 3 matching sticks, I ended up ordering 6 myself, in the hope that 3 would be closer to spec and each other. 

Turned out weight and balance were pretty close between all of them, however with 1 outlier each in weight and balance, respectively. 1 more frame that seemed close to the remaining 3 did feel a bit heavier to move around (3384900 below), despite just maybe 1 mm more head heavy balance:

SerialWeight (g)Balance (mm)
3384900305315
3384899304317
3384898304314
3384897305314
3384905305314
3384908307314

(Still can't measure swingweight at home, so trying to at least develop a feel for it - thinking since only feeling a diff later on court as well would be a problem....)

Also worth noting that without the ~2g plastic wrap around the handle, 5/6 racquets were moving from the 305g VCORE 98 spec towards 300 grams, which at least in terms of weight is the VCORE 100 spec... 

I do wonder a bit, why as a manufacturer, one wouldn't just put thin weight strips under the grip, to make final tweaks to get the racquets to fit.

Bottom line:

I think for players who care, one currently can not (no longer?) just go and buy Yonex off the shelf and expect true to spec material. 

(I feel somewhat comfortable making that claim as at max, 1 of the 10+ racquets I measured recently seemed true to spec, and most others were quite far off. Maybe Y has fallen victim to its own success, in that regard?)

Based on my limited samples, I'd say one would have to roughly double-purchase, to then possibly end up with half the racquets to one's liking. 

However as in my VCORE batch, one would still have to tinker around with the grip and / or handle - if one wanted to get to the spec that the racquets where developed and are advertised for. 

Still not there in 2024!


P.S.: FWIW, the cardboard and rubber bands holding it that come on Yonex racquets seem to weigh ~14 grams. So with the ~2g plastic wrap around the handle, what you pick up in the store weighs about as much as a strung VCORE 98. Though obviously, compared to a string job, with that weight distributed. String would add an extra ~2g in the head (~16g total), and removing the wrap would take ~2g off the handle. In other words, you'd have ~4g more in the head, affecting balance and swingweight.


Thinking differently about gear

Some of us, myself included, are always trying to find the perfect racquet and setup. Getting that right to the gram and kps. Then put much effort into ending up with additional racquets that match, including the frame itself, the string jobs, the grip feel, and so on.

However, part of the fun of playing tennis can also be experiencing different gear. Just as we can appreciate multiple stadium rock bands rather than choosing one over the other, it's OK to play with different racquets!

That experience can help us
* become more versatile by forcing us to adjust
* better understand the different characteristics
* confirm and/or re-appreciate our preferred setup, and/or 
* give us insight how to tweak that a little

Or maybe find something very different that surprisingly fits us better.

I also wouldn't shy away from trying the extremes, even if just to experience the whole spectrum. While of course being conscious of and avoiding the risk of injury.

Maybe just don't do all that on matchday or leading up to it!

Between grip sizes?

Personally I really like the shape of the classic Wilson pallets, however I (currently?) seem to fall right between sizes 2 and 3 (4 1/4 and 4 3/8).

2 options: 1) make the thicker one thinner, or 2) make the thinner one thicker.

Assuming one uses overgrips, the easiest thing is to apply them with different pull and overlap, and try different kinds brands and models there (e.g. different thickness and/or material that would stretch more or less). Obviously that again can affect the overall feel and, well, grip.

Additional options for sizing down: 

* Use a thinner replacement grip (note that leather comes in different thicknesses too). 
* Try to rewrap the existing base grip while pulling it more tightly 
* Rewrap the base it with less overlap, without introducing grooves.

The Babolat Skin feel has worked great for me in the past. Note that it's quite light, so if you replace a leather grip as I have on my RF 97, you will drop ~10 grams. This also alters balance quite a bit and does have a impact on plow through and stability.
With a thinner grip, you'll have a more direct feel, but also less dampening / comfort.

For sizing up: 

* As a quick fix, you can add an extra overgrip. If 2 of the one you're using is too much, maybe something thin like the Wilson Sensation in the middle.
* Use a thicker base grip.
* For a more permanent solution, you can also apply a heat shrink sleeve. They come in 2 sizes, to go up 1/2 or a full grip size. Note that in both cases you'll lose the edginess of the bevels a bit.

Note that you also have the option to replace the butt cap. For example, Wilson had equipped their white SixOne 95 BLX (parallel drilling) with a thicker, rounder butt cap. Well-intentioned I'm sure, but it kept me from getting the racquet around as a sized it up. So I went back to the classic edgy shape. 

Before messing around too much, maybe take a step back and see if other pallets (Babolat, Prince, Yonex, etc) suit you better, and a stock grip size works there. You can even use customization shops to put say a Wilson pallet on a Head racquet.

And/or see if you're "gripping" (in terms of holding) the racquet in the optimal-for-you way in the first place. Depending on where in the hand you make contact and if you change that, you may like different grip shapes and sizes. In other words, maybe your current discomfort is due to user error :)

Good gripping!