Why Customize?
ATP Pro & Team TW player Marcos Giron talks about why he gets his racquets customized and how that has helped his game.
Having the right equipment is vital to a tennis player’s game. I’ve come to believe that peak performance is not achievable without it.
As a junior I noticed that my racquet strings broke often and I was more and more frequently switching racquets mid-match. While they were the same model, same grip, strung the same, the racquets still felt different. I got my racquets measured and found there was a 12 to 15 gram difference between some of them. In a sport where inches separates the top 100 from the rest of the tour I knew these few grams were making a difference.
When I started college, I was playing older, more physical, more experienced opponents, and in order to beat them I needed more power on my shots. But I loved my racquet; the feel, the accuracy. I didn’t want to switch models. I didn’t want to start over. Instead I incrementally increased the racquet's weight, a gram to the hoop and a couple grams to the handle, and eventually found the perfect balance and weight.
During the 2018 off-season I finally had to switch racquets. They had upgraded the Yonex VCore 97 to a more open string pattern which didn’t fit me. It had huge power, but lacked the control I was used to. I also was working through some weakness in my right arm that had been giving me trouble for a decent part of the year so I wanted a frame that was easier on the arm, lower flex, but still provided enough power and control, tighter string pattern. This is when I joined the Tennis Warehouse Team.
I met Paul, a professional racquet customizer from Tennis Warehouse with years of training and experience, who was able to adjust racquets to my exact needs. He helped me go lighter, dropping my racket weight from 330 grams to about 320. Again, well knowing that small changes can go big distances in tennis. With the change in weight we found that I was losing some of the stability and so we tried going to a bigger grip size which I really liked, especially on the returns, backhand and volleys. One little change led to another and the racquet felt perfect. Heavy enough to have the power and stability, but light enough to maneuver the ball and get enough racket head speed to hit the extra spin and angles.
Finding the right balance of spin, power and precision in your racquet is very personal. Every player is different. It can take some time and patience to figure out what will work best, but I highly recommend it and I think it can really help take your game to the next level.
- Marcos Giron
