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Tennis Racquet Feel and Touch — Part 1

Crawford Lindsey, Tennis Warehouse, San Luis Obispo, CA
May 4, 2021

What do players really feel during an impact? What do they think they feel and how do they describe what they feel? When you get right down to it, all that is felt is different degrees of shock and vibration. These sensations are due to rotation, translation, and bending of the racquet. The impact noise is "ping" or "thump" and the the outcome is either a good shot or bad shot. This all gets interpreted as a "feel." The interpretation then becomes the lens through which a player describes his feeling, which is then attributed to the strings or racquet — such as crisp, dead, grabby, clean, springy, solid, muted, touch, etc. The "feel" is as much, if not more, in the player than in the equipment. These ideas and more are discussed.