The Confusion


A lot of confusion seems to arise from the assumption that if we apply more grips on the handle, thereby shifting the balance point towards the handle it would make the racquet more head light. Certainly the new balance point would indicate that it is now head lighter, but is it actually more head light?

The answer is no – unless you play by gripping the racquet above the handle!


The reasoning is this...

A racquet is primarily rotated about the players hand/wrist and as this is where we would mainly feel the differences in balance, the “fulcrum” should be roughly where the hand/wrist is. So adding weight near or at the fulcrum would have no real effect on the head weight of the racquet since the moment approaches to zero.

To explain it further, if we assume (in a static model) the weight of the racquet is broken down into three main parts, head, shaft and handle. To get the real "balance" feel of the racquet I believe we should take moments about the players hand not the centre of mass of the racquet (which is what has been done conventionally).

A moment is simply the turning force applied on an object. In this case, the static loads are from the weight of the parts of the racquet.






The moment therefore is simply the sum of the leverarms of the elements multiplied by their respective weights.

M = FxD.

M = (Head Weight x D1) + (Shaft Weight x D2) + (Handle Weight x D3)




Where the leverarm distances D1, D2, D3 are the distances from the centre of mass (centroid) of the constituent part to the fulcrum (players hand).

So generally speaking the higher the moment M, the more head heavy the racquet will feel.

(Note: This is based on our static model, in a dynamic model, moments of inertia should be considered).



As you can see, in reality adding extra weight to the handle does not make much difference to the balance at all, since the additional weight of the overgrips are near/at the fulcrum (the players hand) making the leverarm D3 essentially zero. What it does do though, is increase the overall weight of the racquet, so it’s just excess weight!


The additional grip(s) effectively just increase the overall weight of the racquet. Given that the weight classes are only 5g apart, adding a few overgrips to say a 3U racquet may turn it into a 2U racquet!


However, if we were to alter the weight of the head for instance, say by adding lead weights, this would indeed alter the balance feel of the racquet as it is at a fair distance from the fulcrum.

This is simple statics, but should help to explain the balance confusion. Though for the more enthusiastic members amongst us, calculating the moment of inertia, aerodynamic effects (racquet + string) etc would give a more accurate picture.