Tried the VTZF 4U today. At first, when using it to warm up, the shots are terrible. Mostly three quarter of the court. But after one game, when I ask my friend to hit with me, my shot is back to the court effortlessly. I can feel my smash power but it seems to be weaker. In another words, when I smash with Ti-10 it has more direct kill compare to VTZF. Besides that, I tried a few continuous smash, my arm is a little sore. Does it mean the racket doesn't suit me? Or I need more time to adapt to it? I was using AT700 first gen but then it broke and my friend borrowed his Ti-10 to me for a few months. Can I train my arms to adapt to the racket?
vtzf is a bit stiffer than the ti-10 in my opinion, so to get the same power you'll need more effort, or faster swing speed. your arm is probably not used to the racket yet, give it some time. and yes, you can train your arm to play well with the new racket and also, like what Licin said, train your arm as well.
Try hitting the gym then. Training your biceps, triceps, wrist and your core, use moderate weight with high repetition and tempo.
it is strange, but the VTZF seem to strain just a single strip of muscle in the forearm that i've almost seldom used with other racquets probably..
you have to evaluate your game play, were you playing better w/o the vtzf and what was the weakness in your play that the VTZF can help you in? for forehand shots the VTZF is flawless, it drives very well, but its a bit harder to get some control, i.e. precision unless i drop the string tension.. backhand and agility wise, its a bit less powerful to me due to strength limitations, in some ways i feel my play poorer unlike when using the at900t or mp99 or z-slash. you can train to use a racquet and revolve around it, but whether it could be counter productive is another.. not everyone's a lee chong wei i wished i was..
Recently bought the VTZF, im getting it strung this afternoon. What do I hear about a lot of people saying you have to have high tension or else the racket's potential is wasted? I used a 28lb vtzf last week from my friend, and I found a loss of power. If I string it to say, 25lb, how is it affecting the racket's potential?
danze, you should go lower on the tension to get used to the swings and the stiffness, i.e. the main wielding before going up on the tension on the next restring. it makes it easier to cope.. i went straight to 27 on mine and regretted, my friend's 24 is quite nice to play
my vtzf is a 4U model and it listed there that the maximum string tension is only 26lb. what happen if I go beyond that limit? Is it true that using BG80 (hard-feeling string) will make the racket even harder to use? Since vtzf itself is already extra stiff though
if you go beyond you void the warranty.. if you use bg80p which my stringer recommends, he says it definitely makes the racquet the "ultimate" combo.. but it needs someone very strong to wield it. he still recommends me to go for a lower tension, and learn to wield the racquet with good response and agility before going to change the strings. but i didnt bother because i'm still using other racquets, the vtzf is just a "nice to have" item in my bag
Maybe it's just not suitable for you. Z-force is a great racket but it might not suit everybody. If you cant wield the zf doesn't mean you're weak.. everybody has their own special technique and thus the variety of rackets.
Forearm exercises with light light dumbells should help, some use a squash racket and swing around with it slowly to build up the forearm muscle, I play tennis so it's harder for me to convert to a more agile racket sport