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Getting started with customizing

Q: I recently became a Certified Stringer, and now I’m interested in learning racquet customization, should I get a good scale and balance board, or go all out and get a Babolat RDC?

A: If you’re in a financial position to purchase a Babolat RDC machine, that would be a great next step. Granted, you can get started with an accurate scale and a balance board, and you can make a simple fixture that — along with a stopwatch and the on-line calculator in the USRSA members-only section of the website — allows you to measure swingweight fairly accurately. Still, the Babolat RDC offers a lot of capability in one convenient package.

The Babolat RDC machine also has a couple features you can’t duplicate with a scale, balance board, and stopwatch. Among these is the ability to check frame flex. Customizing racquets often involves matching two or more racquets so that every matched racquet feels and plays the same. You cannot easily modify the flex of the frame. Sensitive players can detect small differences in flex, and for them, even after you match every other characteristic, the racquets will still play differently. Therefore, it is best to know the flex of each racquet before you start attempting to match one to the other.

Of course, the Babolat RDC machine also measures stringbed stiffness, which can be used as a quality-control measure after each stringing, as well as a monitor of tension deterioration over time, and it has other diagnostic features you might find useful.

If you have enough room in your customizing area to spread out a bit, you can purchase separate devices. For example, you could use an RA Test, which measures balance, racquet flex, and stringbed stiffness, and an Alpha AccuSwing or the stopwatch method for swingweight, with the AccuSwing also serving as your scale. Or you could buy the new Prince PTC to get weight, balance, and swingweight, and an RA Test to measure flex. (See our review of the Prince PTC.)

This brings up the issue of how much customization work you think you’d be doing. If you don’t anticipate doing much, then you will be able to get away with slower processes, such as the stopwatch method. However, if you are going to be doing a lot of this type of work, or doing it under pressure situations (such as at tournaments, where time is always of the essence), then you should go for the quicker — but more expensive — equipment.

From the April 2006 issue
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