A question I receive often as a coach is "what tension should I have my racket strung at?" The easy answer is "it depends." But the short answer is usually going to be a lower tension than you think. Here's why... Tennis racket companies will often put a suggested range on their rackets. Typically that range is about 50-60 lbs (23-27 kg). So what do most players or parents do? They have it strung right in the middle of that recommended range, maybe dropping the tension 5-10% if stringing it with full-poly. While this could be a good starting point for some, it can also leave many benefits of the string behind because the tension is actually too high. For certain strings, the 50-60 lbs range is fine. Natural gut, synthetic gut, or multifilament strings will perform at their best in this range. I would also argue that when strung at this tension, synthetic gut and multifilament do not provide significant benefits to the players. These strings are relatively soft...
If you are serious about taking your game to the next level, which I hope you are, then you need to be serious about moving up in the court. Moving forward is not limited to getting volleys and overheads. It is about winning a court-positioning battle within the match. If you can win the court-positioning battle, everything else in the match gets a little easier and your likelihood of success increases. When you are able to move up in the court, you put pressure on your opponent in a few key ways... You take time away without even hitting the ball harder You can make your opponent move more through access to more angles You appear bigger and the court appears smaller by cutting off angles All of these combined make it very difficult for your opponent to win points. They need to move more, they have less time to react, and they have smaller windows to make their shots. If you can do this time and time again over the course of a match, your odds of winning more points increase sign...