Are you into tennis gear then? Do you have a preference on racket model, shoes etc.? I am nowhere near good enough to have an opinion if this or that type of racket is better for my playing style (I don’t even have a playing style yet, I think). For me they still all look the same. But my wife says she can feel the difference between hers and my racket.
Not really. My former sport (archery) is very technical and had high demands for paying attention to the equipment. I spent hours each week tweaking things and tuning the bow for the most forgiving performance, and since you can only tune as well as you can shoot, as you improve you have to keep tuning. It's a never ending thing that requires a lot of mental energy and time.
For tennis my focus was just on the form at first, then once that is engrained enough you don't think about it, I'm thinking about court position, shot selection, various strategies I can use against different players. I put very little energy into equipment.
I see many players around me always trying new racquets, new types of strings, etc. I have typically found a racquet that feels good when I hit the ball, and just use it. My coach is the one that strings my racquets, and I let him pick the string combination and tension, as he knows my game and what I need. If it feels wrong we talk about it and maybe make a change, but that's it. The thing I do the most testing on is types of overgrips I suppose, to find the one that holds up best and doesn't get slippery too fast.
I currently use a Head Gravity that is a few models years old now. Before that I was using Technofibre mostly because the president of our local club had a deal to get them at a discount, but they changed distribution and that deal went away. I have 2 identical racquets strung exactly the same, so I have a backup that feels the same.
My wife uses Babolat, and I've tried it, but it feels really strange to me, so not my thing.
For shoes I have been wearing Head shoes for some time now. They feel comfortable and stable on the court. They were the first proper tennis shoes I wore and they felt good, so I have no reason to change. Shoes tends to be the thing that I find people are the most consistent with, so once they find a brand they tend to stick with it.
Every so often the local store will bring a bunch of racquets to the courts for people to try, so I've tried some others but have never felt the need to change. The thing about testing a racquet is, so much of the feel comes from the strings that unless you have that racquet strung the same as yours is, you aren't really comparing the racquets themselves, but a whole different setup.
Hope this helps.
