Tennis Racquet Hittingweight

Hittingweight Tool (g)

Choose Racquets To Compare
Racquet A Racquet B

103
104

106
107

131
132

106
107

100
102

129
131

168
169

129
131

100
102

155
157

214
216

155
157

287
292

— Test Point Locations —
Vertical: 16, 19, 21, 23, 25 in. from butt.
Horizontal: 0, -3, -2, 2, 3 in. from center.

Spec	Wilson Burn 100 S	Babolat Pure Drive 2015
Length (in)	27.00	27.00
Headsize (in²)	100	100
Weight (g)	316	322
Balance (cm)	34.1	32.4
Swingweight (kg*cm²)	316	319
Twistweight (kg*cm²)	14.4	14.9
Vibration (Hz)	178	163

Explanation

Billiard Ball Analogy

Hittingwieght is how heavy the impact location behaves when it is hit. It is the effective weight behind the impact, not the entire weight of the racquet. Every location has a different hittingweight. Hittingweight is a very intuitive way at looking at racquet power. The situation can be thought of as two billiard balls colliding. One ball is the 57 gram tennis ball and the other is a billiard ball of the location's hittingweight. You will find some racquets up at the tip where the hittingweight is very close to the tennis ball's weight. If it were the same, then for a non-swinging racquet, the ball would come to a complete stop and the racquet would fly off instead, just like colliding billiard balls on a straight-on collision.

What's Happening?

Each location on the racquet behaves differently when colliding with the ball, which is to say it moves differently. Upon collision, the racquet tends to recoil backward and rotate both around a lengthwise and widthwise axis through the balance point. The further the impact from the balance point along either axis, the faster will be the rotation about that axis. In other words, the location behaves "lighter" as is indicated by its greater acceleration. A higher swingweight will indicate less rotation around the widthwise axis and a higher twistweight will indicate less rotation around the twisting (lengthwise) axis. Hittingweight is derived from both swingweight and twistweight, it is a much more intuitive parameter for understanding racquet performance.

Rule of Thumb

As a rule of thumb, the hittingweight is about one-third the actual weight for impacts near the tip, about half in the center of the strings, and the full weight at the balance point. The hittingweight indicates the inherent power of the location, but the final shot speed will depend both on the power potential of the location and its speed at impact.