Wood and Graphite Tennis Rackets

Tennis racket design is a continuously evolving technology. At one time, the changes took place at a somewhat slower pace than they do today. For nearly a century woodframe tennis rackets were the standard. Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, wooden tennis rackets were supplanted by metaland, subsequently, graphite compositeframes. Graphite tennis rackets offer numerous advantages over wooden ones. Despite the improvement though, tennis racket design continues to advance. Various new innovations include modifications in design engineering, as well as the introduction of new synthetic construction materials.

Tennis racket technologies can be exceedingly complex (4:84). Many of the different developments have actually served to alter the very game itself (5:100). Most of these tennis racket material and design changes have happened over the last 20 or 30 years. In the 1960s, for example, the first metal rackets were introduced. Manufacturers typically molded these from tubular aluminum and steel. Although metal rackets became widely available, their acceptance by tennis players was less than enthusiastic. Thus, the metal rackets never did completely replace traditional laminated woodframe rackets (2:127).

The next major milestone in tennis racket evolution involved racket design. In 1976, Prince Manufacturing introduced the first oversized racket (9:118). Up until that time, wood rackets had generally

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is ball than tighter strings (1:25). To support their strings' elasticity, however, racket frames must be inelastic. Although people used to think that flexible rackets could produce more power through a whip effect, research has shown that rackets do not have time to return absorbed kinetic energy to the ball. Hence, rackets that deflect less, or are stiffer, tend to be more powerful (1:25). As with increases in size though, the natural characteristics of wood and aluminum prevented manufacturers from increasing their stiffness. Most attempts ended with rackets that were too brittle. With graphite composite materials, however, brittleness was not a problem. Yet another advantage that graphite offered over wood involved weight. Studies conducted by the University of Pennsylvania have shown that increasing tennis racket mass by 33% only increases tennis ball speed by 5%. In contrast, increasing racket speed by 33%, produces a corresponding increase in ball speed of 31%. These data focused attention on lighter rackets that could be swung more quickly. Both wood and metal models had typically weighed 12.5 ounces or more. As with stiffness, attempts to make the older equipment lighter resulted in brittle rackets (1:26)
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Approximate Word count = 1631
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)