How to Choose a Beginner’s Tennis Racquet?

An advanced player is quite sure about his/her need and probably does not need to know anything beforehand about the buying factors. But if you are a Beginner or want to buy a Racquet for a beginner you should clearly know what you are going to buy and why it is good for you. To answer a number of questions related to your buying decision we have prepared this article on “how to choose beginner tennis racquet”.

We will discuss what will be the price range you should go for a beginner’s racquet. In fact, we have a comprehensive guide on best tennis racquets for beginners to advanced players here on this website.

To be able to be a good racquet for a beginner it must meet the following criteria.

• That must provide power.
• That should be light in weight.
• The price should not break your bank.

But before anything about the price let’s learn the different segments of a tennis racquet and how they play a major role in your performance as a beginner.

So let’s start.

Weight

Yes, the weight of a strung racquet plays a major role if you are a beginner. You should not go for heavyweight ones as you will face difficulties to maneuver and swing it properly. On top of that, it may cause injuries to your arm.

So, to play with the comfort we recommend you to go for a lighter racquet as a beginner.

Now, what weight would you call light and what weight would be heavy for you?

Generally, the weight of a racquet varies from 8 oz to 13 oz. Anything lower than 10 oz is considered as lighter ones and above 10 oz is considered as heavy ones.

So, if you are an adult you should go for 9 – 9.8 oz and if you are a kid you should go for 8 – 8.9 oz. That’s the best option for you a beginner.

Although lighter racquets tend to provide less control than heavier ones and vibrate a bit during the ball contact. But you can easily solve the vibration problem using a vibration dampener and as a beginner, you need more power than control. You will get the power if you buy a racquet that has the larger head size which we will discuss later.

As you can solve the power issue with a larger head size and shock issue with a dampener so, you should go for lighter ones for the sake of maneuverability and swing to prevent from arm injuries.

Head Size

Larger head size provides more power and forgiving sweet spot.

Smaller head size provides less power and less forgiving sweet spot.

No, you tell me, which one should you choose as a beginner?

Of course, the one that provides more power and forgiving sweet spot, right?

Yes indeed. So you should go for the larger head size instead of the smaller head size.

Before going into the more detail of the head size, let’s discuss the sweet spot a bit more in detail in case you don’t know what that is.

The sweet spot is considered as the place or point of a head where the maximum power is transferred to the ball during the head-ball contact. Meaning when you are hitting the ball if you can hit the sweet spot the ball will get the maximum power and minimum force will be transformed to your hand. That means you will feel less vibration and will be safe from injury.

Now, what is the exact head size in measurement you should go for as a beginner?

Well, the size of the head varies from 80 – 135 sq Inches. As per the standard 80 – 94 sq inches is called the mid-size. 95 – 105 sq inches is the mid plus, 106 – 119 sq inches is considered as oversize, and 120 – 135 sq inches is said to be the super oversized head.

So, as a beginner, you should go for any oversized or super oversized head meaning anything in the range of 106 – 135 sq inches is good for you.

Frame Stiffness / Flex

Stiffness / Flex is a parameter that defines how much your racquet can produce resistance against bending once the ball contacts the racquet. That means how much flexible or stiff your racquet is.

Racquet frames are given a number ranging from 0-100 to denote the stiff/flex. If the number is greater than 69 then it is called a stiff racquet, below 69 is considered as a flexible racquet.

As a beginner, you should go for the stiffer ones as they produce more power. Of course, it is better to use vibration dampener to reduce the vibration in this case.

Balance

Balance can be defined in three terms; head heavy, headlight, balanced.

For the beginners, either head heavy or balanced racquets are good to go.

Let’s see why.

Head heavy means there is some extra weight at the head that helps to provide extra power and keep the head stable. As a result, the head will not move or twist during the ball contact.

The headlight ones have got the weight distributed at the handle hence provides less power, although they reduce the vibration and shock for your arm.

On the other hand, balanced racquets the weight is distributed evenly throughout the whole racquet. Undoubtedly this should be the best choice for you. But you can go for a head heavy one with a vibration dampener in place.

Racquet Length

The standard range of length of a tennis racquet is 27 – 29 inches, where the standard length is 27 inches. Anything lower than 27 inches is considered as the junior racquet. Higher than 27 inches is considered a longer racquet.

Although ½ – 1 inch longer than 27 inches is quite does not matter a lot and quite ok to select one that has the length of 28 inches. But as a beginner, you should restrict yourself at 27 – 28 inches range. 29 inch will not be suitable for you until you are too tall, even if you are too tall, 27 – 28 inches will be the perfect size for you.

Longer racquets help you to play groundstrokes better and also helps to serve well, but it can affect negatively in terms of handling and maneuverability of the racquet.

So, better go for 27 inches, at most 28 inches.

String Pattern

16×18, 16X19, 16X20, 18×20 are some of the string patterns and the first one is called an open string pattern and the last one is called the closed string pattern.

Before we describe which one does what, let me recommend you the pattern you should choose as a beginner. You should go for the open string pattern.

Why?

Because it provides more power than close string patterns.

If you are not sure what sure what the string pattern is, it is the number of cross strings that you on the racquet. 16 x 18 means there are 16 vertical (main) string and 18 horizontal (cross) string.

Open patterns grab the ball better and help its way to rebound with power. That is why we recommend open patterns to the beginners. That means go for 16×18 or 16X19 or 16X20 but not the 18×20 because it is a closed pattern.

Beam Width

Beam width is simply the width of the racquet if you measure the beam sidewise. Thick beam and thin beam are the two types of beam width.

The thicker beam is the one that you should go for as a beginner player as this provides more power and makes the racquet stiff.

Beam width ranges from 22mm to 28mm.

As far as the racquet construction is the concern these are all to take into your consideration. Now let’s recommend the budget you should spend to buy your first racquet.

Budget

As a beginner, we must recommend you to go for a good quality beginner friendly racquet based on the criteria we mentioned above. But you should NOT spend more than 100 USD to buy beginners one.

You will find a number of good quality racquet that is under $100, in fact under $90. If you are in doubt which one you should buy read our reviews on different beginners racquet here. Major brands like Wilson and Head manufactered some ideal racquet for beginners. We listed them on our racquet review page as well.

Final Words

As we said it should be the topmost priority to get a knowledge first and then buy a racquet when you are a beginner or just about to start tennis. Hope this guide and our review page will help you to find your desired one based your budget.

Did you find this article helpful? Please Comment below.

The post 8 Factors of Choosing a Beginner’s Tennis Racquet You Probably Never Considered appeared first on Team Sports Mania.