u/Astroclty

Hey, I've been trying to do some research around but I haven't seen a clear or specific answer to this situation.

For some background, I have been playing for a while now, since late 2019/early 2020 (3 years of high school tennis seasons, 3 years break, 1 year at least once weekly until present), and pretty much all of that aside from the first 2-3 months were with the 2020 Head Graphene 360+ Prestige Mid, after demoing it among an assortment of others with my high school team. I honestly have no idea what my rating would be, but probably around a 3.0 NTRP? I'd love to get rated at some point soon.

Edit: Here is a more detailed specs page. https://racketlogger.com/racket/head/graphene-360--prestige-mid For strings, I know that I last used Hawk Touch 17 strung at 60lbs and I think I currently have something similar, after getting it restrung recently following a mis-hit break. (These are unfortunately more common than they should be for me)

It's been a ton of fun to use, I enjoy it, and I don't have any conscious/active issues with it. However, it has a 93" head size, and is pretty heavy, as far as I can find. Since my break, my fitness isn't exactly where it used to be, and it certainly has been pretty tiring to play continuously.

Therefore, I'm wondering if I should consider choosing a different racket, maybe one that'd be lighter and more forgiving. As in the title, I'm wondering if I'm actually limiting myself and my growth by using something this small and heavy, rather than accelerating or improving my technique like it was intended to -- at least, at this point, after using it for so long.

I've commonly seen that strings should be considered first when trying to change your setup, but is that still the case when head size and weight are what I'm considering to be impacting me?

I've also heard that there's not as much of a reason to go out and buy something new when you could just practice and work on your game, and/or if your current racket is working for you.

Even with those in mind, I'm just not sure what to think regarding my situation. I can't find anything more than very sparse posts or videos with/talking about rackets as small as this, so it's been hard to figure out of my own.

I need to figure out what my current racket is and isn't doing for me (considering that I do really enjoy using it), and if something else is genuinely worth considering. I hope you all can help me with answering that question!

I love the control and feel of my racket, so if I were to try something else, I'd still start with those things in mind. 98" rackets in the low 300g range, like the TFIGHT 305S, Gravity Tour, Blade 98, and Pure Aero 98 would be what I'd be looking to demo in the future. The TFIGHT 305S in particular looks incredibly fun and perfectly up my alley.

Thanks everyone! Bonus thank you to the TennCom guys, I've been enjoying exploring the channel lately! C: