Best way to make the racket shaft stiffer while minimizing added weight

C

ChocoChipWaffle

Regular Member
So I heard one of Japanese pro players used to wrap the electric tape that comes with overgrips all the way up to near the top of the shaft, and people on the forums have reported that this makes the racket shaft to feel noticeably stiffer when playing.

So I wanted to see if I can figure out the best way to make a racket shaft stiffer, while not adding too much weight to the overall racket. I guess the easiest way to start off is finding the best material of tape I can try wrapping around the racket shaft. Electric tape is okay, but it's definitely not the lightest or thinnest of tapes. Do those familiar with engineering know of any rigid, but light and thin material I can use for this case? I'm thinking of aluminum tape, but if there's anything better I'd appreciate the input
 
The concept is like this.
Use one of your finger. Put it straight & wrap your finger with tissue & then try to bend/close your finger. It will feel harder to bend as the tissue is holding your finger. Then try to wrap abit more tissue, it will noticable more harder to bend your finger. & last instead of tissue, try using a paper that is ticker than tissue, it also become harder to bend as the paper harder structure hold your finger more than tissue. So the concept is kinda like that.

So having thinner tape, you would expect it will become to flexible to hold up the bending force while thicker would hold up better but will affect your overall spec of your racket. Another issue might be the glue. How sticky the tape is? If it lose its sticky, instead holding the bending force it will only slide reduce the holding effect & not to mention it will become messy.
 
I doubt that tape can make the shaft stiffer.

My idea is to use splints like in bone fracture immobilization. You must find at least 2 slim (or curved) STIFF splints and fix to the shaft. But the weight is not that trivial I guess.
 
What about buying a racket which suits you? Never understand this modifying rackets background. Each country will have minimum 3 available brands which all have 10+ different models. I can't imagine that somebody don't find anything useable out of 30 and more rackets.
 
Budi said:
some people are einstein type. Love to experiment with thing even when it look so dumb to us:D
This is the color of the world i guest & thats what makes our live colorfull
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if someone thinks that during swing of around 200km/h you can make carbon/graphite stick stiffer with some tape.... sorry it is way beyond dumb :)
 
Never played it but common practice in ice hockey, the more tape overlaps the stiffer the feeling. It's more for fine tuning than taking a flexi and turning it into extra-stiff. Not sure how applicable that tape is but you can get glassfibre reinforced tape and try that.
 
Martynas said:
if someone thinks that during swing of around 200km/h you can make carbon/graphite stick stiffer with some tape.... sorry it is way beyond dumb :)
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still their curiousity tickle them to experiment with it:D
Well, very long ago flying machine is a joke but now we even able to touch the moon.
 
Ouchie said:
Never played it but common practice in ice hockey, the more tape overlaps the stiffer the feeling.
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As far as I know, it's not common in ice hockey to wrap the shaft with tape, but the blade to add control and prevent the puck from bouncing off when receiving a pass. That's achieved by making it softer at impact using tape.

I hope nobody takes this thread seriously. If somebody does, I can already hear the complaints about the racket getting too heavy.

Ouchie said:
It's more for fine tuning than taking a flexi and turning it into extra-stiff. Not sure how applicable that tape is but you can get glassfibre reinforced tape and try that.
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It's not even for fine tuning, the weight difference will have a much larger impact than anything else. Do you know the length of the glass fibres in the reinforced tapes? Do you know why they add them?

And as my (hopefully) last contribution to this discussion...



... enjoy!
 
speCulatius said:
As far as I know, it's not common in ice hockey to wrap the shaft with tape, but the blade to add control and prevent the puck from bouncing off when receiving a pass. That's achieved by making it softer at impact using tape.

I hope nobody takes this thread seriously. If somebody does, I can already hear the complaints about the racket getting too heavy.

It's not even for fine tuning, the weight difference will have a much larger impact than anything else. Do you know the length of the glass fibres in the reinforced tapes? Do you know why they add them?
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The be clear - common, as in, the "common way to make the shaft a little stiffer". Making the shaft stiffer is not even remotely common as there are plenty of sticks with different levels of flex just like rackets. This does not mean it isn't a thing and does not mean it won't work - the principle is simple and proven. Whilst the obvious solution is to buy the most suitable racket if it exists rather than frankensteining an old racket think about the cost difference and the simple joys of making something rather than buying.

Anyway, here we are, looking for a LIGHT and THIN tape that will not add too much weight or width to a racket. Cloth tape (as used for hockey) is too heavy and bulky. Glass fibre reinforced tape (aka Bat Tape for cricket bats) it reasonably strong and light. The problem is that whilst the tape is flexible it does have some rigidity yet it is strong and resilient so should work well if it can be wrapped tightly enough around a ~6-7mm shaft. Any effect will have to be measured subjectively unless the OP is willing to do a before and after flex measurement.


Nobody deserved to be called a troll :mad:
 
Coming from above suggestion about reinforced tape, you can try phone screen protector.

Just like experiment about air pressure with ruler and newspaper, if you set the experiment right, there will be some result.
 
speCulatius said:
As far as I know, it's not common in ice hockey to wrap the shaft with tape, but the blade to add control and prevent the puck from bouncing off when receiving a pass. That's achieved by making it softer at impact using tape.
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hockey tape is commonly used for the blade for that reason, and it's also just as commonly used to grip the end of the shaft for grip. But a lot of players also grip the middle or sometimes all the way to the end of the shaft. Not sure how familiar you are with the sport, but I've played hockey when I was young, you can trust me on this one.

I'll try screen protector and fiberglass tape, although I don't know if there's a special one made for cricket, but there's plenty generic ones at dollar stores.

There's plenty of rackets with different stiffness, but most players can't test rackets before buying especially with your preferred string, tension and grip setup. So most times, you can't "just buy the one you like" as many people are advising in this thread. Sometimes you're stuck with a racket that's too whippy for your liking.
 
ChocoChipWaffle said:
There's plenty of rackets with different stiffness, but most players can't test rackets before buying especially with your preferred string, tension and grip setup. So most times, you can't "just buy the one you like" as many people are advising in this thread. Sometimes you're stuck with a racket that's too whippy for your liking.
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Regardless which string and grip anybody use it pretty simple to figure out if the racket head is too heavy or too light. A few smash and defend drills and some overhead shots should be enough to discover that. If you also know what you are looking for in this area you can pretty easy check this roughly. Same goes for the shaft when you do some drive drills. If you notice a lag you also can check if it is too flexible for you. IMO a much better way than looking for shabby solutions to customize something without knowing how it will turn out.

And since you play in an enviroment where are around 20 players and more are and the level is not low you will have chances to get your hands on several highend rackets from different brands. Beside that (I assume that you owned a racket previous) you have a reference point and with the help of the internet and specs of brands you can narrow down it around 3-5 rackets. If you can't get them inside your enviroment you can demo them from a store for a small fee. I really doubt that anybody won't find a racket which work well with this guide. Let's face it: The racket development is stuck for several years. I never bought a racket with excessive demoing and by the way the human is pretty good in adjusting to something which is close to the liking.

My current racket I bought the first piece 1.5 years ago was just a review by @Ch1k0. He answer 2-3 questions by me and I got superb racket. Sometimes things are easier than it seems. You are not buying a suit for a wedding.
 
ChocoChipWaffle said:
I'll try screen protector and fiberglass tape, although I don't know if there's a special one made for cricket, but there's plenty generic ones at dollar stores.
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Bat tape is just decent quality fibre reinforced tape. Probably the same as you will find at a dollar store. As long as the adhesive is good then it should reinforce the shaft when under max flex from a whipping action.

;) Much like yonex and victor cushion wrap is just generic foam underwrap with a 500% markup. Even the roll size and colours are the same :rolleyes:
 
Because the tape is not one solid body and the adhesive can be easily shifted with any flex of the shaft then surely the integrity of even the toughest tape would be rendered useless after a couple of hits ? It's not like the shaft where it will flex and then return to it's original form. It will just deform and remain deformed so I would imagine it would decrease performance/lessen repulsion power possibly?
 
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