Had a good day at the club today. A few things happened and I'm gonna go on a long ramble.
First, I tried the Wilson Pro grip tape yesterday cut to 2/3 length, and it was way too thick. My forearm was actually a bit sore from holding onto that thick racket. I switched it out for Wilson Pro Sensation grip tape today, which is 25% thinner, and cut to 1/2 length. It was 2 grams lighter, which is inconsequential, but much thinner. My grip is now almost exactly the same as on the provincial W968, with my fingers just touching my palm when I firm up the grip.
How does it actually feel? Well, fantastic my friends, absolutely fantastic! From warm up it felt different, I was getting solid contact with every ball, and for the first time since I switched to the W968, I felt like I couldn't miss a FH loop against block. I always thought it was because the racket is faster than my old HL5 and YSE, that I had to use a bit more closed angle, and that the returned ball is also faster, that I end up mistime my shots. Turns out it was just the grip! I never thought about it because the old HL5 had the same thin handle, but I totally forgot that I actually had the same grip tape on that blade. Whether it's bending sideways to loop a ball low and close to my body or jumping out to cover my wide forehand (my partner today wasn't the best blocker) I was landing my FH shots with excellent quality. It felt amazing.
Next up is my BH attack. I'm finally getting better at adjusting to different depth of the ball, and I'm able to launch some excellent attacks during BH/BH rallies. This has improved by leaps and bounds over the last couple of weeks. Drives against opportunity balls is also way more consistent, but I haven't used it in real play much yet. Training with my regular training partner has really helped in this regard. My BH opening loop is still not instinctual yet though. In fact, it took me a good 30 minutes before I started actually using it consistently. My instinct is still to drop the racket way low to loop backspins. It's just a far, far inferior way to do things. Once I managed to switch over to the new technique, I could loop heavy backspins, half-longs, and even banana flick which I haven't even really practiced. Since my BH techniques are pretty new, I don't think it'll take that long for the new technique to become instinctual. My BH is already at a point where it's no longer a weakness, but I think in a month I'll take another level up and my BH will become a fearsome weapon.
Another nice thing is my blocking. Since my training partner is relatively weaker than me with FH loops, while I'm worse with blocking, we usually have him do a lot more FH loops while I block. My FH block is solid, so I use my BH to block. Until yesterday, the rallies would end almost always because I failed a block, but yesterday I finally found the right timing and hand pressure. I found that by besides just adjusting the blocking angle, I can also adjust how firmly I grip the racket to block loops of varying power. Today my blocks were on point. As a guy who's always aimed to attack at every possible chance, it's surprising actually just how exhilarating making some good blocks feel. I'm definitely gonna incorporate that into my game more. I've found that making that first block gives me more time to get into both physical and mental position to counter attack. A lot of people also can't re-loop with the same quality as they don't have the footwork to do it, so that makes counter attacking easier as well.
