Shock Absorber

If you play tennis, you may be familiar with the different racket customizing choices you have – common choices include string type, gauge and tension. Not so common is an inexpensive device called a shock absorber or vibration dampener. These devices have no impact on your performance, but some players can’t play without one. It’s a personal choice, and if you do use a dampener, its placement must comply with the rules of the International Tennis Federation.

What Do They Do?

Shock absorbers or vibration dampeners are small devices placed in the strings of your racket designed to absorb and eliminate any frame or string vibrations created when you hit a tennis ball. While this may the intention of the manufacturers, these devices only eliminate some of the string vibrations, states Howard Brody, tennis researcher and physics professor. The most noticeable effect is in the feel and sound you hear when you hit a tennis ball. Without a dampener, you hear a high-pitched ping sound. Playing with one deadens the feel and you hear a lower-pitched thud sound. Many believe playing with a dampener can help prevent tennis elbow, but there’s no clinical proof that this is the case.

What the Rules Say

The placement of a vibration dampener is dictated by ITF rules, which state that you can only install one below the bottom cross string or above the top cross string. You can slide it up or down to touch the cross string, but it can’t be anywhere else, including the interior of the string bed. This is because a ball hitting a dampener installed in the string bed might rebound off the strings in an odd way, which could cause your opponent to lose the point.

Design Features and Options

The more common vibration dampeners are round buttons, rubber doughnuts, tiny foam balls or 2- to 3-inch flat or round, worm-like shapes. These devices are made with solid silicone or foam, and some are filled with a silicone gel. Some companies make custom dampeners with hearts or squares, smiley faces and even school mascots.

The round type

The round designs are made with grooved edges to hold it in place between the strings. They are often shaped like a ball or a logo, and slot nicely either on your outer main strings or in between your last two cross strings at the bottom of the racket face, towards the throat.

Pros of the round type:

• small – less chance of the ball hitting it;
• quick to change in and out;
• variety – lots to choose from.

Cons of the round type:

• they can ping out on occasion, which leads to everyone playing scouring the court for the lost item;
• not quite as ‘deadening’.

The long type

The longer styles weave in and out of several strings, and are held in place by a hook or some other attachment design. In a pinch, you can even use a large rubber band and simply tie it around two strings. These types of dampener stretch across the bottom of the main strings and in theory, provide a more deadening effect, as they are holding on to more strings. These can, in some circumstances, really make you racket feel like a board, so probably best to experiment and see what you might like.

Pros of the long type:

• comprehensive deadening coverage, no doubt it will quell your vibrations;
• they are very unlikely to come out.

Cons of the long type:

• can be a little tiresome to fit;
• can make the racket feel very board like.

How to Install

To install the round dampeners with grooved edges, first, decide if you are going to install it below the bottom cross string or above the top cross string. Use your fingers to pull the two middle or long strings apart, wide enough to insert the device between the strings. Adjust the dampener so the two strings are sitting inside the grooves, and slide it against the cross string. To install the longer style, slide it through the two middle or long strings and then weave each end under and over the long strings on each side of the two middle strings. When you can’t weave it any more, attach the ends to a long string.