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The Complete Handbook of Tennis Racquets
A practical reference for buyers, sellers, and players: materials, geometry, stringing dynamics, and market realities
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: Understanding Tennis Racquets
What a Tennis Racquets Actually Is
A tennis racquet is a lever. It is a structural frame designed to transfer the kinetic energy of your arm and body into a ball that is coming toward you, and to do so with a predictable coefficient of restitution. The frame is made of a composite material - typically graphite, sometimes mixed with Kevlar, Twaron, or basalt fibers - bonded with an epoxy resin. This material is laid up in sheets, wrapped around a mandrel, and cured under heat and pressure. The result is a hollow, tapered beam that is widest at the top of the head and narrowest at the shaft just above the grip.
The entire racquet can be divided into four functional zones: the head, the throat, the shaft, and the handle. Each zone has a different stiffness and flexibility profile. The head holds the string bed, which is where ball contact occurs. The throat is a Y-shaped junction that connects the head to the shaft and is often the area where a racquet's stability is determined. The shaft runs from the throat to the handle and is the primary conduit for flex. The handle contains the pallets that determine grip shape and size, and beneath that, the butt cap, which often houses a trapdoor for adding weight.
You cannot understand a tennis racquet without understanding that it is a single integrated system. Change the thickness of the beam at the throat, and the entire