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By: Bjorn Frei on Fri May 9, 2008

Junior Agassis abound, but you can’t just pick up any tennis racket and start swinging your way to a top-ranked position. Here's how to go about picking a tennis racket, and what to keep on your mind when you're shopping for a beginner's tennis racket. As a beginner, you’ll be needing more control than power, and as the sport of tennis is a comparatively inexpensive sport to play (laundry bills for your tennis whites can be a bit pricey, though!), choose a decent quality tennis racket rather than a cheap one.

Tennis Racket Brand
Wilson and Prince are the heavy-hitters of the tennis racket market, and really, it’s not critical. Every manufacturer makes a wide variety of rackets to suit every type of player, so it’s more about choosing for price and racket type, than brand. Save the brand consciousness for your tennis whites, Mr. Lacoste.

Tennis Racket Material
Racket frames that are graphite composite are preferable, and you can get away with thermoplastic and fiberglass combined with graphite, or a bit of titanium. Aluminum, Kevlar and ceramic rackets are a no-no if you’re just starting – they’re too stiff and will tire you arm and maybe even cause tendonitis. Let’s not even discuss wooden rackets.

Tennis Racket Shaft Stiffness
Tennis beginners usually will have a slower or moderate swing speed, so choose a shaft with medium flexibility. This will prevent the racket from transmitting a shock to your arms, which at this point, won’t be able to absorb a lot of it until your muscles become accustomed to heavier play.

Tennis Racket Head Size
If you’re just starting, it’s best to pick a tennis racket that has an “oversize” head, which will have a larger sweet spot and forgive your off-centre swings. An oversize head is any head that’s between 110 and 125 inches squared.

Racket Head Width
Contemporary rackets tend to be wide-bodied, at 24 to 26mm. If you have options, it’s best as a beginner to choose a narrow beam with, which will allow for more control. It will somewhat hamper your power, but that’s not a necessary attribute for your racket to have when you’re just starting to play tennis.

Racket Frame Weight
I recommend a medium to heavier frame of 10 ounces. Professional tennis players use 13 to 14 ounce rackets, which don’t vibrate as much and will help your arm, whereas lighter frames (9 ounces or so) will be more maneuverable. A middle-ground is a 10 ounce or 11 ounce, and will give you the benefits of both. If you’re buying a tennis racket online, the abbreviation used to indicate that they’re oversized is “OS.”

Tennis Racket Length
Although standard racket length is 27 inches, 28 or 28.5 inches will suit you as a beginning tennis player. They’re generally labeled extended or stretch rackets, and it’s better to start with a longer racket and later move to a shorter one than the other way around. You’ll get a feel for the game, and where you need to go after.

Tennis Racket Balance
Choose a neutral balanced racket if you can, or if you’re buying a lighter racket, make sure the head is slightly heavy. This is the best configuration for beginners.

Vibration Dampening
Obviously, you have weak and puny arms that aren’t made for tennis. Not your fault, of course, but in the course of our day to day lives, we’re not really working and stressing the muscles that we need to use when we play tennis. Therefore, when you first start playing, your arm will be the most sensitive to vibration, and vibration control will stop that, and reduce the risk of injury during play.

Tennis Racket Grip
To find out what grip’s right for you, pick up the tennis racket and grip the handle with your swing hand. Take your index finger and put it in between the space on the handle between your palm and your fingertips. If it fits snugly, the racket’s the right size. For women, it tends to be 4 1/8” – 4 3/8”, and for men it’s 4 1/2” to 4 5/8”. A too small grip will twist in your hand when you hit off-center and strain your elbow. If you’re one of those types of players that goes off-center quite a bit, get a larger grip.

Tennis Racket Strings
Make sure to get your racket re-strung at least once a year!

Keep your racket in a dry and relatively cool place, and never ever leave it in heat, especially in a car in the summer, as the extreme heat can mess up the delicate configuration of your racket, and prevent you from becoming top seeded.

If your racket comes pre-strung when you've bought it, it will be strung in the middle of the manufacturer’s string tension span (which is given in pounds and typically is in the 60 pound range for oversize rackets). The recommended string tension span is usually printed on the frame shaft near the handle. If you need to get the frame strung, choose a 16 gauge synthetic string and have it strung "in the middle." If you suffer from tennis elbow, have it strung two pounds on the looser side.

If shopping for a tennis racket sounds a little too complicated, see if an experienced tennis player will accompany you as you shop for tennis racquets. The only real way to get a feel for the rackets is to go out and hit balls with two or three demo tennis rackets, and if you’ve never played tennis at all before, then you probably will not understand the concept of "feel," and just go with the recommendations.