Like most tennis teachers, Larry Haugness tells beginners that the quickest way to make quality contact is to shorten their swings. But for the past 14 years, Haugness, the director of tennis at the Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield, Mo., has also been preaching the joys of shortening racquets.
Haugness says his sawed-off sticks have helped him stay at a high playing level. He calls them “stubbies” because he hacks off 1 1/2 inches from standard adult 27-inch frames with a tilecutting saw, then adjusts the weights and balances.
He contends that junior length racquets give him added control because his hand is closer to the contact point, and he has more maneuverability and comfort due to the lighter weight. He also says the shorter racquet has alleviated the tennis elbow he developed from hitting 1,800 balls a day.
Before you dismiss this racquet slasher as just another whack-job, you should know that Haugness conducted a study of 28 players at his club and says that about half have switched to the shorter frame.
“And they aren’t just beginners,” he says. “They go all the way up to 3.5s. Any recreational player who lacks good stroke mechanics—maybe they’re hitting late, spraying the ball out of control, or hitting a lot of frame shots—would improve his or her game almost immediately with a stubby.”
But Haugness admits there are tradeoffs. The biggest is the loss of power because a shorter stick means less whip in the swing. “I get some of that back by using an oversize head, but yeah, I don’t strike the ball as hard as I used to.”
There’s also some loss of trajectory on serves and less reach on ground strokes, “but it’s negligible.” Of course, the shortened handle can make a two-handed backhand challenging, depending on the size of the player’s hands.
In case you want to try this at home—which, by the way, would void your racquet’s warranty—the process goes beyond just chopping off the end. When you do that, it will make the racquet too head heavy. The 3/4-ounce weight loss will also render the frame too light to withstand much impact. “Tennis is a collision sport between the racquet and the ball, and the most stable object wins,” says Steve Davis, vice president of global product management at Prince. “Junior racquets are quick through the air, but they lack sufficient mass to stand up to hard-hitting adults.”
To compensate, Haugness adds a generous amount of lead tape under the grip, which beefs up the weight and reduces the head heaviness from about 3 1/2 inches to 1/4 inch.
When he’s done reapplying the grip and securing the butt cap with heavy-duty staples, the stubby looks like a junior racquet. It draws laughter from his opponents, but that dies down when Haugness sticks a couple putaway volleys.
Originally published in the March 2010 issue of TENNIS.