Choose the weight of your tennis racket

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced tennis player, the weight of the tennis racket you play with will strongly influence your performance, your risk of injury (tennis elbow) as well as several parameters of your game such as power, comfort and maneuverability… We therefore propose in this guide to give you all the keys to knowing how to choose the weight of your racket.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT WEIGHT FOR YOUR TENNIS RACKET

The choice of the weight of your racket will be made according to your age, your size and your level of play. The heavier a racket, the more power it will provide, better absorb vibrations, but will be difficult to handle and require a good technical mastery in order to exploit it. Conversely, a lightweight racket will provide maneuverability but will be less powerful. Do not overestimate your level, otherwise your progress will be limited. It is better to choose a lighter weight than too heavy in order to avoid muscle fatigue and therefore a risk of injury. You can always weight a racket with lead if it turns out to be too light.

Age and size

Age and size will be important in choosing the weight of your racket. Up to 13 years old, you will need a racket ranging on average from 255 grams to 275 grams depending on the size of the young player. Generally children’s rackets are light with a weight distributed at the head of the racket in order to provide more power.

From the age of 15, we advise players to use rackets weighing around 285 grams or more, which will provide a good compromise between maneuverability and power. Women will prefer lighter rackets to improve maneuverability and easy power. Beginners will be able to orient themselves on rackets of about 275 grams.

THE LEVEL OF PLAY

The age and the size are also to be correlated with the level of play of the player to find the ideal racket weight. Experienced players will tend to go for heavier rackets that will provide them with powerful and precise shots while beginner players will be better off going for a light and maneuverable racket.

SUMMARY TABLE

PLAYER LEVEL/TYPE	UNSTRONG WEIGHT FOR MEN	UNSTRONG WEIGHT FOR WOMEN
Young people moving to an adult racket	250-270 g	250-270 g
Seniors looking for lightness and power	240-270 g	240-265 g
Beginners and beginning of 4th series	260-275 g	255-275 g
Intermediate level (near 3rd series)	280-300 g	270-290 g
Advanced level (3rd series – close to 2nd series)	around 300 g	280-300 g
Advanced level (2nd series and +)	295-340 g Good physique required from 315g	285-315 g Good physique required from 310 g

Our tennis rackets

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES PER TENNIS RACKET WEIGHT?

LIGHTWEIGHT TENNIS RACKET

A lightweight racket will weigh up to 275 grams and will consistently have balance in mind. It will promote maneuverability, but will offer less comfort. It is good to know that a light racket absorbs less shocks. It is essential to use a multifilament string on light rackets to absorb bad vibrations as much as possible and provide more power.

Advantage: excellent maneuverability
Disadvantage: comfort

MIDDLE WEIGHT TENNIS RACKET

The average weight of a racket is between 280 grams and 300 grams. It has the advantage of offering good maneuverability as well as good power. The versatility is very good.

Advantage: good maneuverability
Disadvantage: perfectible power

HEAVY TENNIS RACKET

A heavy racket will have a mass of 300 grams and more. It has the advantage of offering good power, absorbing more bad vibrations and being more stable on impact. Conversely, it will be less manageable and will require its owner to have a good level of play to exploit its mass. Do not overestimate your level of play, otherwise your game progress will be limited.

Advantage: power, stability
Disadvantage: maneuverability

BALANCE AND WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION

The weight of a tennis racket can be distributed along its entire length. You can have a racket with the same mass, but with a difference in balance of up to 2cm. In this case, one will be much more powerful and the other much more manageable. We will therefore distinguish between rackets with a balance at the head of the racket and those with a balance at the handle:

A head-balanced racket will deliver more powerful strikes, but offer little maneuverability;
A neck-balanced racket provides great maneuverability, but will require hitting harder to regain power.

CHANGING THE WEIGHT AND BALANCE OF YOUR RACKET

If you have a racket that is too light for your needs, it is always possible to rebalance the weight of it using lead or tungsten adhesive strips. Depending on where these bands are placed, they can bring more weight to the head or the shaft in order to modify the balance of the racket. The straps can therefore be placed at the head of the racket under the practical protective strip or inside the frame, in the heart of the racket or even between the handle and its grip.