If you’ve been playing tennis long enough, you’ve probably notice that most good players bring more than one racket to a match with them. In fact, if you watch a professional tennis match on television, many of the pro players bring a bag full of rackets to each match. There are several reasons why it’s a good idea to have at least one backup racket, but before you buy them, it’s important to make sure you chose the right racket.
Broken Strings
During a tennis match, there aren’t many things that are worse than breaking a string and having to use an entirely different racket, or even worse, having to forfeit the match because you don’t have any backup rackets at all.
If you’re serious enough about tennis to play on a regular basis, then you should definitely have a backup racket to rely on and it should be the same exact racket that you typically play with, including the same grip size.
Experimentation
There are many ways in which you can change the playing characteristics of a tennis racket. You can try different strings, different string tensions or add lead tape to change the weight, balance and swingweight.
The problem with making changes like this is that it can be hard to remember exactly how the racket performed prior to the change. You can easily eliminate this problem if you have more than one racket. While experimenting with changes to one of the rackets, you always have another one to return to immediately and compare the differences.
Stocking Up on Discontinued Models
If you’ve ever gone through the demoing process, you likely understand how difficult it can be to choose a tennis racket. You’ll probably find one racket that is nearly perfect with the exception of one thing that you really don’t like about it. Then you’ll find another racket that solves the one problem, but falls short in another area. As such, when people find a racket they like, they typically stick with it for a long time. In fact, many professional tennis players are playing with rackets models that are 10 to 20 years old and are painted to look like the newer models.
Most racket manufacturers change their racket lineup every year or two. Although they keep the same models, they change the specs slightly, and in many cases, a new generation of the same model can play completely different. As such, when you find a racket you like, it’s a good idea to buy as many as you can so that you have nothing to worry about when your model is discontinued. Rackets break over time and can even play differently because of wear. The best time to stock up on rackets is right after your model has been discontinued. Most online stores will sell their remaining stock at a significant discount.