I miss my wooden tennis racquet
This is my first Blog for Simcoe Tennis and quite frankly my first ever Blog! I warn you, because this is my first Blog, it may be argued that this is more like a book, but hey, that is why they call it a Blog right?!
Many of you who will hopefully read this Blog were born many years after I was and hopefully a few are close to my age (Hi Steve C and Michelle) and maybe some of you are possibly more mature in years and wisdom than I am. No mater how old you are it does not matter because our game is meant to be for one’s lifetime. I have been involved in this great sport of ours for over 40 years now and hopefully I can continue to learn more about this game we call Tennis in the next 40 years, if I am lucky!
“I Miss My Wooden Tennis Racquet’ is the title of my first Blog from “Old School” which is a nickname fondly coined by colleague and most importantly good friend and (about to be Dad and get your sleep now before it is too late) Johnny Glanville. The “nickname” I like and is apropos (do not speak French to me as I stopped in Grade 9 but I can keep score in French) because with an iron like grip I still hold onto the “Old School” traditions of Tennis such as wooden tennis racquets, which I personally miss dearly. (do not worry, I will never advocate for the Speedo like men’s tennis shorts from the 1970’s to ever make a return!!)
I want to take you back in time to close to 1,000 years ago, when tennis was first believed to have been played by French Monks in the 11th or 12th century. The first “Tennis Racquets” were said to have been made with human flesh! I personally doubt this is a fact but the statement certainly adds some medieval horror to the beginning of the history of tennis racquets doesn’t it!
Tennis was first played more like handball by hitting against a wall, then later over a crude net. (I would love to go back in time to meet this person who invented the net because our game would be much easier if that silly net in the middle of the court was never put there – hence the term when we teach “more rainbows and less bullets). I am sure you will agree with me that hitting a ball against a wall or over the net would have been uncomfortable and why it was not long before players began using gloves (I actually knew some tennis players back in the 1970’s that were hand ball players, using a racquet ball type of ball and wearing gloves to help hit the ball against a wall). Some players then tried using webbing between the fingers of the glove, while others took to using a solid wooden paddle.
A few hundred years passed and by the 14th century, players began using what could legitimately be called a tennis racquet (the spelling of tennis is one of many examples of what defines a Canadian from an American because their spelling is “racket), with strings made of gut (not cat gut because that would be cruel even though I dislike cats) bound in a wooden (my favorite material for a racquet) frame. Italians are often credited with this invention (did Christopher Columbus play tennis in 1492?). By the year 1500, tennis racquets were believed to be in widespread use. Early racquets had a long handle and a small, teardrop-shaped head (slightly smaller than 115 square inches by far). With a more oval shape to the head of the racquet, these racquets looked a lot more like a squash racquet. The game was initially somewhat like squash too because it was played indoors (no not a Barrie North Winter Tennis Club like bubble because there was no electricity silly and Thomas Edison was hundreds of years away from being even born yet) with a fairly dead ball. By this time it was becoming more like tennis not the easier game of squash (sorry squash players but your claustrophobic game is much easier compared to tennis), always played across a net, not against a wall!
In 1874, Major Walter C. Wingfield registered his patent in London (England, not Ontario) for the equipment and rules of outdoor lawn tennis, considered by most as the very first version of what the game we all play today! A year later, Major Wingfield's equipment sets had been sold for use in Russia, India, China and in Canada (no I was not around then lining up the night before to be one of the first to by the first set of lawn tennis equipment). The racquet head had grown by this time to roughly the size seen on wooden racquets used up to and during the 1970's (the first tennis boom and in my opinion the best decade of tennis ever, despite the fact that the 1970’s produced the worst fashion statements the the worst pop music – DISCO – even though and do not tell anyone – I now like DISCO). See the picture below and in person some of the racquets on the walls of the Barrie North Winter Tennis Club trailer. (I actually used the Slazenger wood racquet on the left in the picture as well as the Dunlop Maxply on the wall of the trailer during my competitive days in junior tennis over 30 years ago!)
Racquets saw very few changes from 1874 to the end of the wooden racquet era more than 100 years later (I hope as I continue to write this blog that my tears do not start to stain the paper I am typing this on with my typewriter - I mean short circuit my computer’s keyboard that I am typing this on). Wooden racquets did evolve significantly during these 100 years. There were improvements in laminating technology (count the thin layers of wood glued together on the Dunlop Maxply) and in the strings (not cat gut but lamb’s gut and today mostly synthetic nylons and synthetic gut used today). Racquets remained heavy (13-14 ounces because DA, the racquets were made of WOOD), with small heads around 65 square inches (compared to up to 120 inches for some over sized racquets today – HOW CAN ONE MISS THE BALL?). Compared to the contemporary tennis racquet today, even the best wood racquets were cumbersome and lacking in power (wanna bet, my forehand when I was 14 was lethal in power when I was barely 5 feet tall and under 100 pounds even with my 14 ounce Dunlop Maxply in my hand – just ask my former opponents – if they are still around?)
A racquet with a metal head existed as early as 1889 but it never saw widespread use (no kidding). Wood's use as a frame material didn't undergo any real challenge until 1967 (a year before the Open Era began in 1968 and a year before Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon in July 1969 – I watched this live and in colour on TV – no not the Internet – that was not invented yet and no one had computers anyway – Pong had not been invented yet – the best Video Game EVER!!) when Wilson Sporting Goods (Wilson Rules because Roger Federer uses the same racquet I use today) introduced the first popular metal racquet, the T2000 (the WORST racquet ever – I tried it – how Jimmy Connors won multiple Grand Slam titles with this racquet defied all logic and common sense). Stronger and lighter than wood, it became a top seller (go figure) because of Jimmy Connors being the most famous user of this (followed by the T3000, T4000, T5000, T6000 – all sucked as well) playing at the top of men's professional tennis game for much of the 1970's using this long-throated, small-headed steel frame (I strung tennis racquets of all kinds, including squash, racquetball and badminton racquets for many years and the only racquet that was virtually impossible to string)
In 1976, Howard Head, then working with the Prince brand (would have made sense to work for the company Head with a name like that?), introduced the first oversized racquet to gain widespread popularity, the Prince Classic (I tried it and a terrible racquet). Weed USA introduced an oversized racquet in 1975 but the Weed racquets (much bigger in square inches compared to oversized racquets) never took off but the Prince Classic and its more expensive cousin, the Prince Pro (I used this one for a few years) were top sellers. Both the Prince Classic and Prince Pro had much lighter aluminum frames and a string area more than 50 percent larger (110 square inches) compared to the standard 65 square inch wood racquet (i.e. Dunlop Maxply).
The light weight, the HUGE sweet spot (the size a small plum compared to a very large orange) and greatly increased power (I beg to differ, see my comments earlier when I was 14) of these first oversized racquets made tennis much easier for non-advanced players, but for powerful, advanced players (ME), the mixture of flexibility and power in these oversized frames resulted in too much unpredictability and where the ball would end up (my infamous slice, yes slice is nice, backhand would sail past the baseline too often when this never, well hardly ever, did with my wonderful old wood racquet. Hard off-center shots would often distort the aluminum frame and often would actually change the direction in which the string plane was facing, and the lively string bed would then send the ball rocketing off in a somewhat unintended direction. (see what I am talking about)
Advanced players (ME again) needed a stiffer frame material, and the best material proved to be a mixture of carbon fibers and a plastic resin to bind them together (NO WOOD – DON’T YOU GET IT!!). This new material was referred to as "graphite," even though this is not rue because it is not the same as the true graphite material one would find in their number HB 2 Pencil! The hallmark of a good racquet quickly became graphite construction (I keep repeating myself – WOOD WOOD WOOD). By the 1980s (when I was in the US on a tennis scholarship) racquets could pretty much be divided into two classes - inexpensive racquets made of aluminum and expensive ones made of graphite or a composite.
Wood (I am about to start crying again) no longer offered anything that another material couldn't provide better -- except for antique and collectible value can you say Ebay!). Price did come out with for a brief few years the Prince Woodie (and you though the Dunlop Maxply was heavy) but it did not last long. I tried it and thought, the best of both worlds, My Wooden Racquet is back and I will never miss an easy overhead smash again because not only is my wooden tennis racquet back, it was so much bigger. Problem – way too heavy and the racquets broker too often (had nothing to do with throwing it into the net or fence or over the fence from time to time)
Tennis racquet materials have two key properties today, stiffness and light weight (less than 10 ounces today compared to 13-14 ounces of the wood racquets in the 1970s – over 25% lighter). In other words, during the past 25 years, average racquet weights have decreased to around 10.5 ounces, with some racquets as light as 7 ounces for kids under the age of 5. New materials such as ceramics, fiberglass, boron, titanium, Kevlar, and Twaron are constantly being tried, almost always in a mix with graphite.
Many are of the opinion (as I am) that various tennis racquet makers have suffered from their own success. Unlike wood racquets, (which I have to unfortunately concede to and agree) cracked, and dried out with age and often did not last more than a few years (and for much shorter periods of time for hot head former juniors like me). Racquets today last for many years without often a noticeable loss of performance. A 10-year-old graphite type of racquet today can be so good and so durable that its owner often has little motivation to replace it. Racquet companies have met this problem with a stream of constant innovations, some of which (like the oversized head) have wider frames and have lighter weight in almost every racquet made today. Other innovations have been less universal, such as extreme head-heavy balance as seen in the Wilson Hammer racquets or the same one Roger Federer uses that I use – 12 ounces – head heavy – smaller head size – 90 square inches) and extra length, first introduced by Dunlop.
What is next (unfortunately my favorite wooden tennis racquet is not coming back, unlike wide ties and oversized sun glasses) An electronic racquet? Head has come out with a racquet that uses piezoelectric technology (WHAT – Talk to The Hand). Piezoelectric materials convert vibration or motion to and from electrical energy. Head's new racquet takes the vibration resulting from impact with the ball and converts it to electrical energy, which serves to dampen that vibration. A circuit board in the racquet's handle then amplifies that electrical energy and sends it back to the piezoelectric ceramic composites in the frame, causing those materials to stiffen (What is next – a computer generated tennis player that never misses a first serve?)
Technology has come a long way and Old School has eventually come to learn that technology is my friend and not my enemy. Even though “I Miss My Wooden Tennis Racquet,” the current racquet that I use made by Wilson (to correct earlier made false statements) the same one that Roger Federer uses, makes me miss my wooden tennis racquet much less than I once did!
