Racquet Power (updated Dec 2022)

 Below is the list of racquet with its power that I am using:

* racquet currently/recently used

Racquet	Head-size	Power	Customization
Wilson Pro Staff 97	97	Low-Med	leather grip, overgrip
Wilson Six One Team	95	Low-Med	none
Dunlop Aerogel 300	98	Med	lead, overgrip
Dunlop MFil 300	98	Med	leather grip, lead handle
Dunlop Hot Melt 200G	95	Low	leather grip
Dunlop CX 200 Tour 18x20*	95	Low	leather grip, lead
Dunlop CX 200 Tour 16x19*	95	Low	leather grip, lead
Dunlop Bio F3.0 Tour	97	Low-Med	lead, overgrip
Dunlop Aerogel 300 4D Tour	97	Low	lead, overgrip
Head YT Rad OS	107	Med	overgrip
Head MG Rad MP	95	Low-Med	overgrip
Prince Textreme Tour 100L	100	Med	lead, overgrip
Prince Warrior 107 LE	107	Med-High	leather grip, overgrip
Prince Textreme Tour 100 310*	100	Med	leather grip, overgrip, lead
Prince Textreme Tour ATS 98*	98	Low-Med	leather grip, overgrip, lead
Wilson Ultra Tour*	97	Low	leather grip, overgrip, lead
Wilson Ultra Pro*	97	Low	leather grip, overgrip, lead

Pangalengan gig (not finished)

 From early 2015 until mid 2018 I was working in a geothermal powerplant west of Bandung. Drive up from Jakarta every Monday morning around 5 am and took about 4 hours. The drive there was always epic. Woke up around 430am. Prepare hot drink and bread for the road. Filled up gas on the highway around 6am. 

Arrived in Bandung around 7am around the time people start bustling. Listening to Bandung or national radio's there when driving up the mountain. Got straight to the office around 9am. There was sort of a unstated regulation for us who commutes far that we can arrive late since we stayed there at the camp until Friday comes.

The drive there was good, sort of scenic with no steep climbing, just a lot of turns on side of cliff. The power station is inside tea plantation area, the last 30 minutes drive was inside the plantation. Compare to other geothermal power station, this area is open, visible to see other areas.

    

PS 97 weekend review

 Played mostly with PS97 this weekend. Only very slightly wrist pain. Singles on Friday and doubles on Sunday. The power and control was acceptable. On Friday, the opponent was using RF97 and I had no trouble rallying. On Sunday, I had no complaint. My other racquet that I brought was AG300 but felt too powerful because the court were had rough surface making the ball bounced higher. The PS97 was good all-round, I serve and volley. The string perform better, mishits doesn't sending shocks. Thinking of comparing this to F3.0T and CX 200 Tour now that it is not as powerful as before. In addition, I also tried the Six One Team and this time the balance was perfect I thought without overgrip. The slice was great though volleying still lack mass and pop. 

Yellow Juke

 Kudos for this yellow Juke.

Rafa vs Maria

Maria Sharapova can handles those Rafa heavy spin balls.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24gCEHVz_0s

Pat Cash 2010

Pat Cash used stock Aerogel 3hundred in 2010 leaded and leather grip, see pic below. In other pictures, he uses 300 series with 16x19 string. He seemed to favor this version.

PS97 with tecnifibre string

Just restrung my red PS97 with tecnifibre string, same string as in MFil 2hundred annd Aerogel 300 at 50lbs. The sweetspot for PS97 is smaller than both Dunlop but the control and plow through is better. Played a single mini set and won by a tie break 4-3 (6). No dampener needed.  

Crazy F1 season

 This comic cover depicts this season F1. Well done Max. The result of the race was totally a surprise. 

AG3 and F3T

 Played twice last weekend. On friday night using AG300, nice and smooth; added a dampener to lessen the racquet vibration sound when bouncing the ball to the ground. Won both sets by a game. On sunday morning played once with AG300 and twice with F3T against hard hitting player. The F3T was without overgrip and feels great with better control and power. The F3T with its tight string pattern was design for high level playing fast balls.

AG3 and RadOS

 On Friday (Nov-ish), played doubles teaming up and against higher rated players (half to one rating above, one of them was coach Joey from Debros club) using AG300 with added 1.5grams lead at throat. Loss and won a set each; not bad. Adding the lead at the throat increase the static weight without affecting the balance. The same racquet was tested with new balls against player using RF97 and did not disappoint other than slight pinging noise which could be reduced with dampener.

On Sunday, target a nice LM Rad OS, I played with YT IG RadOS with no overgrip. This racquet plays better with no overgrip. The power and feels felt good. A dampener then added to reduce the ping noise. The string moved a lot when hitting but not much when at play. Won both sets. Almost bought a LM version but with 330 swing weight it might be too hefty for me.

Added: brought these two on Dec 12 for play. Lost 1st set using RadOS; were volley bad. Then in between sets, other player ask me for a hitting session. In the hitting session, I rather use the RadOS then AG3 because then I could hit hard with better control. On the second set, I use the AG3 and played at net better and barely won 6-5.

J Aquarium

During this pandemic for 1.5 years, we went to Bandung once, zoo once, beach once, no hotels, and last weekend to aquarium, a small one compare to others but a nice one. Kids had a good time, watched animal feeding and a show. The place was packed but we had good spots. 

Radical MPs and OSs over the years

 Rad MP specs over the year from TW sites, all 18x20 unless starting graphene with 16x19 (below table). Looking at the specs, no wonder the original MG could be the best.

Type of Radical MP	Headsize sqinch	Strung weight (grams)	Beam width (mm)	Swing weight (grams)	Stiffness
Titanium (2001)	98 (95)	305	21	n/a	65
Intelligence (2003)	98 (95)	306	21	297	64
Liquid Metal (2004)	98 (95)	318	21	325	64
Flexpoint (2005)	98 (95)	315	21	330	63
Microgel (2007)	98 (95)	312	21	315	57
Youtek (2009)	98 (95)	312	21.5	324	59
Youtek IG (2012)	98 (95)	320	22	320	62
Graphene (2014)	98	317	20.5/23/21	316	64
Graphene XT (2016)	98	312	20.5/23/21	320	65
Graphene Touch (2018)	98	320	20/23/21	323	65
Graphene 360 (2020)	98	312	20/23/21	324	68
MP (2021)	98	318	20/23/21	326	65

Type of Radical MP	Headsize sqinch	Strung weight (grams)	Beam width (mm)	Swing weight (grams)	Stiffness
Bumblebee Ltd	107	340	21	334	64
Titanium (2001)	107	306	21	323	60
Intelligence (2003)	107	302	21	312	62
Liquid Metal (2004)	107	318	21	330	58
Flexpoint (2005)	107	320	21	334	58
Microgel (2007)	107	315	21	318	56
Youtek (2009)	107	315	21.5	320	56
Youtek IG (2012)	107	315	21.5	315	58
Agassi Ltd	107	343	21	338	63

MGRadMP update and Dunlop 4D 300 Tour

 I simply like MGRadMP, at its weight the power and balance is just right with no lead. The rival is 4D300Tour which I just got; stripped to hairpin at 290grams and now with new grip and overgrip at 312grams. Compare MGRMP to AG300, it is plusher and better control. Lets compare MGRMP and 4D3Tthem below from TW website.

In summary they have same string pattern (18x20), similar weight (312-320) and swingweight (315-318), though the 4D3T have higher stiffness and thus may produce more power.

Microgel Radical Midplus

 Recently catched a MG Radical MP. I stripped the racquet to hairpin and it weighted at 295 grams leaded at 3 and 9. After playing it for a set on Friday, I then took off the lead and the racquet felt better. I then won the next set playing with it. Before playing, strung it up with gamma syngut 17 gauge at 50lbs. Before playing the sit while hitting around, the racquet felt very heavy though the power was good.

On Sunday, won 2 sets playing doubles. Then at a short hitting session, the ball was flying easily. The power was good for playing but maybe not for hitting.

The condition of the racquet was good (B condition) but there was a broken knot grommet. From the look of it and how the reissue was not sold here, I think I got the original MG RadMP. I feel the racquet is quite plush. I have a YT Rad OS but the power was too much, I like the MP better and for a true 95sq inch head, it felt bigger and may provide heavy ball.

Improving serve: scratch back

 So, my serve is not flat and rarely fast. The problem was the upward swing. Saw a video from YT and noticed I had wrong technique for this time. My kick serve or slice kick was good but not on flat. For flat, the lower arm need to slide behind the elbow like when throwing a ball. You can throw above your head or slightly to the side of your head. Check out the Fed lower arm below pic, not from scratching the back.

 

Wrist lag - tennis forehand

I recorded my hitting session last week. After looking at the first one, I noticed that I had little wrist lag, more controlling. On the first one, I used CX 200 Tour while the opponent was using RF97 and feeds powerfull ball, I just returned his balls (Pic 1). The second one, I was using a heavy MFil 300 but the same opponent was using a light racquet. After seeing the first video, I tried to give a wrist lag (Pic 2). I remember, I had done this before but was using PS97 or Six One Lite, both gave me sore wrists. Using wrist lag gave you extra power but beware of the wrist injury especially with stiff racquet. The link to yt is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1la9xChBbmY. However, see this video because this might cause my previous injury https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V8Ij3Raw6w from intuitive tennis.

Trekking 26 Sept 2021

 After an in-law went trekking few weeks ago, my brother coordinated a trekking trip to the same spot. We went to Sentul, four pairs of brothers and spouses with total of 8 kids. Started with trekking along the paddy rice fields and then to Leuwi (pool under waterfall). The car trip to the spot was tough, lots of steep uphill and downhill like a roller coaster, the car was using mostly 1-2 gears. My car was a Daihatsu with 1.5L engine and RWD. My 2nd daughter was got stomach ache after swimming probably from empty stomach. Below pic of on the paddy rice. 

Tight 18x20 pattern

One of the reason I like when using tight 18x20 pattern such as in Bio F3.0T racquet below is that you can rally and although the string moved and did not snap back, the strings does not move far enough affecting the shots. Very different compare to when using open string pattern such as PS97 or Aerogel 300. Below is the picture of Bio F3.0T, I did not have to straight them out.

Dunlop racquet weight

 I mostly used Dunlops now along with PS97. Recently weight them, they are below with the customization:

Cymbal	Weight (grams)	Customization
CX 200 Tour 16x19	336	Leather grip, 3g lead, overgrip, dampener
CX 200 Tour 18x20	334	Leather grip, 3g lead, overgrip, dampener
Bio F3.0 Tour	326	3g lead, overgrip, rubber band dampener
Aerogel 300	316	4g lead, overgrip, rubber band dampener
MFil 300	319	Leather grip, overgrip
Hot Melt 200G	340+	Leather grip, overgrip

Weekend update

Emma Raducano won US Open over Leylah Fernandez, great finals from quit some time. US Open can provide more surprises than other slams (picture below).

Max over Lewis (crashed), they are both very hotheaded.

Woke up this morning with news of Medveded winning his first slam.

Played two times: on friday, singles (4-7) with stretched out string AG300 and on sunday, doubles (5-6, 4-6) with CX 200 Tour 18x20, I played well.