13 Gifts Ideas for Tennis Players: Functional Tennis Gift Guide

Fabio Molle: 00:00:24

Welcome to the Functional Tennis Podcast.

I'm your host, Fabio Molli, and usually I bring you insights and lessons from players, coaches, parents and experts who are ingrained in the world of high level tennis.

Today I'm bringing you some of my favorite products which I put together for the Functional Tennis Gift Guide, which is on our website@functionaltennis.com whether you're looking for a gift for the tennis fanatic in your life or want to treat yourself, you'll find some good suggestions here. It also features our racket and Shoe of the Year, voted by our Instagram followers.

If you think I'm missing a product that should be on the list, let me know. Okay, so to kick things off, we're going to go with our racket of the year, the Bablot Puro. It's the second year it's been our racket of the year.

It's a really, really popular racket and funnily enough, just before it won the racket of the year last year, I had my first chance testing it. I was historically never a big babylot player or Bablot fan. I just never really liked the racket. But this is the first one I really liked.

Historically, I've played with a head radical, which I think I've mentioned here in the past was given to me by my friend, former pro James McGee, and they're pro stock radical. They were slightly weighted differently. I think the string pattern was different as well, which absolutely gelled it really quickly.

And I've been using them ever since and I think it's five, five, six years now and they really suit my game and I really struggled. I'm lucky. With functional tennis. We get so many rackets to test and I never find one that just works for me.

And I tend to use a backhand test for it where they feel really, really solid on the backhand and especially in return when you're under stretch. And for me, that's my test with racket.

And I always struggle with most rackets and with the pure arrow, once I started returning, it's like this racket's amazing. And even, even striking down the middle serve volume, it's just really good at everything. Power level is really good, Spin is good, control is great.

It's just a great mix of all those attributes and like it's no wonder Alcraz is using it. Runa uses it, feels use it. Leila Fernandez, use it. Jennife ready to use it now because medically that's what they use.

I'm hoping that's what they use underneath, but you never know. But. So when I started playing with that racket, it was really good.

e did a Racket of the year in: 2023

They've just come from all of the rackets and straight into Babylon. They actually love it. So, yeah, it's a really, really good racket. And if you're looking for a new racket, it's the one to get now.

And it's the 98 is the 1 I use and that seems to be the most popular one. Now I'm going to recommend another racket also. Which one? I've always. I always wanted to play with these rackets. They look cosmetically great.

All the versions of them always look great. And it's what I've always tried to play with and it's just not. Was never for me. I don't know why. It just didn't suit my game.

Didn't feel great with it. But last year I was recommended to try it. I saw it on Jonas the Tennis Nerds, one of his YouTube videos.

He was talking about the Wilson Blade, the 100 version. And he said how it was different. It was a much nicer racket, probably easier to play with. I was like, I must give it a go.

So Wilson kindly sent me one. And yeah, I just thought, this racket is amazing. It actually plays a lot like the Pure Arrow. I don't think it's as powerful as the Pure Arrow.

It has a little bit less spin, but again, has the stability on it is really, really good and the control is good. And yeah, it's a really, really good rack. So I enjoyed. I did go through a stage of test and the Pure Aeron Blade going through the boated.

I'm trying to figure out which is the nice one. I only went with the Pure Arrow, but the Blade is a very, very close second to it.

So I don't know what pros actually use the 100 version and most of them use the 98 or to use some sort of use the 98 cosmetic. But the hundred is definitely a more friendly version of the 98 and it looks great, which is always a bonus. So they're the two rackets I recommend.

One, the Bablock Pure Arrow, which I racked a year plus it's a personal recommendation. And then clo as the Wilson Blaine. So, yeah, two. Two great rackets. Now I'm going to move on to shoes.

Funnily enough, the two shoes I'm going to mention are Asics shoes. I think they have every right to be there.

They're also our podcast sponsors which is a nice bonus for them and hopefully you're going to renew for next year. We get Asics on board for next year. More to be seen about that soon.

m I think since they came out: 2011

They were beautiful. Previously I used I always look for a light shoe.

I think I used to use was it the Federer shoe at the time Then I was between dad and I used to use the D'adoras. They were slip on like the chord FF3 and since then I don't like those slip ons anymore.

But at the time the D'Adoras were really light shoe and I thought they were really great shoe and they looked okay as well.

But when I got and used Asics from these shoes which I used to use Asics before I was using in the past as a junior and as soon as I got them I thought these shoes are amazing and ever since I've always had a pair of solution speeds in my bag and thankfully I've been luckier the past few years with Asics help me out some more shoes. But overall they're light, they're stable, they make me feel quick which is important.

Sometimes a heavier shoe could make me feel sluggish so the lightness of them makes you feel like you're moving quicker than you are. But I really feel secure when I'm moving under them. Now I'm not the quickest mover in the world, but I find them a great shoe.

Now I don't play every day the week I like to play. I know three times a week is the average lately and I tend to tend to last me a long time so I have no durability issues with them.

That's shoe number one and shoot over two is our shoe to year which is the shoot of year for the second year in a row. It's the Asics Court FF3 Novak.

It was designed heavily in conjunction with Novak, him and Rene Zandberger which we did podcast with Rene which you can listen to and see actually it's on YouTube. He talked about how Novak worked with him over, I think it was the course of 18 months and developed a shoe. But it's a really good shoe.

I find it's too good for me. Like if you're a super mover, the shoes for you because it really helps you give traction when you're on the very edge. Like it traction is amazing.

It is a bit heavier than the solution speed. It has that pouch insert so you push your foot into it and yeah, it's a really good shoe. So they're two great shoes to choose from. They're.

They're different shoes for different players and I think they have you both covered. Hopefully next year ASICS are releasing their resolution tens. Look forward to giving them a go at some stage next year.

Okay, so next we are moving on to grips. Now you're either a Turner person or you're a Wilson person.

Or some Wilson people are actually Yonex people because I find the Wilson Yonex quite similar. But Yonex do great grip for me. What I recommend is to turn a grip. The dry version. It's my go to grip. Ever since I'm a kid.

I just find it works really well. I don't like the stickiness of the Wilson or Yannick's grips. I find it too sticky. My hand gets stuck. Ireland is the most humid place in the world.

So it's not that I need it because it's so humid here and I sweat so much. I just find it really good grip. You've plenty of grip that's not too sticky. Sticky.

And yeah, the renowned if you don't know the grip, it's the blue grip. They actually turn it on a painted over the grip color. You know, there's not too many brands that own a color.

I know Wimbledon do and there's not too many more Head actually have a similar grip. So if you see their players using the blue grip, they're actually Turner grips.

But head buy them straight off Turner and then they put a red head sticker on them. So if you would ever wonder why your favorite head player uses a blue grip, that's not a Turner grip. Well, it actually is a Turner grip, so.

So yeah, they're my go to grips. The whistle grips are good too if you're into them. And Yonex is another great grip that's really recommended. And next is tennis balls.

Tennis balls are a great gift to throw in the Christmas sock. They're cheap in general. Everybody loves to get a new set of tennis balls. There's no better feeling than opening a tin and having them.

And they've been a hot topic in the program recently with players noting that they flip up so quickly resembling fur balls. And obviously players complain that they change balls all the tournaments so they get arm issues.

And just as personal recommendation, I like using the same ball all the time. I find when I change ball I don't play well.

There's nothing worse than playing a tournament or playing a match and or a league match and there's a new ball and you've been practicing all week with another ball.

So I always like to if I am playing a tournament, when I used to play tournaments, or if I know I'm going to play in a match, I like to find out what ball we're going to be using and practice with that ball because it's just one less thing to deal with. All of a sudden you're playing a match and the ball's flying off your racket a lot quicker. You're not used to it. So that's a little tip for you.

But my two favorite balls at the moment are, and have been for a while is the Wilson U.S. open and the Dunlop ATP ball. I find the U.S. open ball, the Wilson wall is a bit lighter, livelier and tends to work a bit better indoors.

I feel outdoors, especially in a windier Ireland, it tends to move around a lot more. I find the Dunlop ball a bit heavier, responds well to spin, actually probably suits me a little bit better.

I think the Wilsons might last a little bit longer, but I like prefer the Dunlop ball just that bit more. And yeah, I really like those two balls. They're really good.

I do like getting a four pack rather than a three pack because it just, it feels like you hit more balls in the practice session.

But a lot of these times it can come down to what's available in your club store and they may not stock these balls or they may do and you're always looking to pick up a ball, but they're the two that I really recommend. Now I can't put this list together without mentioning the functional tennis saber, our product. It's a train and aid racket.

It's a couple of inches shorter than normal racket, has a 37 square inch head and it really helps you improve your footwork, swing and levels of focus and understand where the contact point is. Now we've recently reached over a thousand five star reviews which is absolutely amazing.

I never thought we'd get this far and reading them is a great way to learn about the saber and I'm just Going to read two or three them here and then move on. So it just gives you a good idea how people are using the saber. Benefited from the sabre. They're here. So I've just recently left we've.

Roderick from Australia says it has the feel and balance of a real racket. It helps me hone in the sweet spot. So I'm hoping that this tool helped produce cleaner shots in the future. Highly recommended.

Then there's Christoph in the uk. I bought this for my son to help with his eye coordination with his racket. The tennis.

The small head makes it harder to hit perfectly if he isn't watching the ball hit his racket. This has turned out to be very useful and has improved his tennis. Very recommended to those looking for a challenge or to improve their play.

And last one from Brian in the US Overall I love my racket. I start every hit session with it and use it as a warm tool for 10 and 15 minutes.

Allows me to really feel like I keep the correct space and I'm really extending the contact the ball out in front like it's crazy how these reviews, they really show how the sabre is benefiting and I see so many people, if you read the reviews, they use it as a warm up tool every time they go on court to use it for between 5 and 15 minutes. Warm up and they move on to another racket and they can sort of reap the rewards of the benefits.

And if you have any questions about the same at any time, you can just reach out to me directly. And if you want to know more about also you can head over to functional tennis.com all the information's there.

There is currently the mid version, we have a light version of it and a junior version which is slightly shorter. And also we still have our Team Europe and Team World versions available.

And if you're listening to this during Black Friday weekend, it's the only time of the year we do discount. We've 10% off and we don't do discount any other time of the year. Okay.

Apart from rackets, one thing I've got most in certain functions probably and rackets and shoes are tennis bags. So I've tested a lot over the years and my wife has gone mad at me about having so many bags.

They do come in handy when you go on holidays, but there's so many. So I've got to test a lot, use a lot and see which is my favorite. And historically I've liked the head, the classic head cylinder duffel bag.

Found that great. I liked it because it's not stiff, it has some good pockets on the inside and outside. And the straps were adjustable, which was a big thing for me.

I always find you get some nice duffel bags. The straps aren't adjustable, which means sometimes the bag is full. It's just never. Your arm doesn't fit in, it doesn't feel comfortable.

So I like adjustable straps and last year Technifiber gave me their endurance duffel bag or you could call the shoulder bag. And that has become my go to bag for the gym and the court when I'm not playing matches. So I don't carry so much in it. But the bag fits.

Gym gear, fits a pair of shoes, it fits a racket or two. Now you can't close the racket, you can't close the bag with the racket in it. But it's nice and comfortable.

My car has a small boot so it fits in there nice and easy and it's a really, really nice bag. Now if you're playing a lot more matches, you do need the bigger bags for travel. I rely actually on another Technifiber bag there.

I think it's the endurance backpack as well. It holds my saber when needed along with some filming gear, mics, change of clothes, other essentials. And it's just nice.

It's water repellent which always helps and I never travel without it. I think it's two years I've been traveling with it and they have a newer version out now. So really, really nice.

Black endurance bag also has easy access areas. It's made for tennis players, but I find it really good for tennis and for travel. Finally, we're going to touch on a couple of tech products.

Obviously a big popular one is Swing Vision. It's a great way to record yourself if you don't know about it. It's an app, works on your iPhone. I actually don't know if it works on Android yet.

I don't think so. But use our camera mount or they do camera mount also. You put it back to court and you record.

If you have an Apple watch, you can watch it from your Apple watch also. But it's great way to get stats on your game so you can analyze over time. It does line and also you can get highlights of your match.

That's a really useful feature for it where you get highlights of your match. The match could be two hours long and it could scrub it down to 25 minutes. It cuts out all the non movement parts and also you can filter through.

You can say okay show me my forehand winners and shows you all your forehand winners. So it's really good for that.

So it's a nice app even to just try and see because I always hear video is the easiest way to obviously look at your game and see what you're doing right and analyze yourself. So video is a really good tool.

Even if you're not going to use Switch Vision, I recommend just getting a camera stand, filming yourself and seeing what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. And sure, it's great to see yourself play tennis.

You might get some good points and you can even send them to Functional Tennis and possibly get featured on our account. But yeah, so that's what I recommend. Also, two other tech wearable apps that I've used in the past which I keep going back to Oura Rig.

I've used a long time until actually earlier this year when I felt my finger was getting bigger and the ring wouldn't come off anymore so I had to stop using it. But Aura is a really good ring that helps you really look after your sleep. You know, you get a lot of stats on your sleep.

I personally like to use it in airplane mode for the week. I put it on once a week and then check in on your stats. I don't like to check in every day on it. It's out of the way.

It's on your finger, it's not on your wrist. So you know, if you wear a watch, you're not looking to wear another strap like the whoop, which I'm also going to talk about.

So it's a really, really good device. And I recommend if you want to track your sleep because sleep is so important. Another wearable is Whoop.

Now I recently tried Whoop in: 2019

I thought from a sleep point of view the Oura ring was much, much better. So actually it must have been. I must have had the Oura ring first, so I have missed it.

But they've gone mad and advertised and they have a partnership with the WTA. I've heard better things about it.

I see actually more people wearing the Whooped and Oura ring and so I said okay, recently, let me go back to Whoop and give it a go. So I got it. The strap is much better. The battery lasts so much longer on it.

It still has the same charging system but I just feel it works better now. I don't know why. And yeah, so you can get the set.

It does the sleep stats, I don't know if they're as good as the or one but they're probably not far off either way they give you sort of a baseline and then you can work from that. So it's, it's a good place to start.

It has obviously all the stats of your HRV like your breathing during the night and heart rate and then it gives you your strain score and all others, all other scores. So it's really good and also has an AI coach has recommendations in it and it's, it's really good actually I'm enjoying it. I'm.

I'm considering whether I keep it going or not. It's. I'll see see about that whether I go back to the or not. But I'm actually really enjoying it. I try not to check into these things every day.

Before you would have had to tell it to I'm playing tennis. You would have had to input these things.

It seems to be a lot better now at recognizing what you're going to do so you don't have to log into the app all the time and say this is what I'm doing. So that's why I like these devices.

If you can have them on and not have to interact with the app and then you can do it more on a, you know, once or twice a week check in, review everything, then do a bigger check in every month or every three months. A great wearable. They're the Oura Ring and the Whoop.

Their pricing is a bit different but they both have orders a bit more upfront and then you pay a smaller monthly rate. The whoop is you just pay the monthly rate and yeah, so the Whoop to do 30 day free trial.

I include a link to whatever I can in the show notes if you want to check them out. I hope there's some value in this list for you. If I sound a bit trody or horse. Very sorry.

I have been bit of out of sorts for the past couple of weeks so I said I need to get this out there and yeah, so hopefully there's some suggestions in here for you.

If I've missed any, let me know and if you want any info my personal opinion more on these products, feel free to send me a message and especially the Sabre. Hope to see you using the Sabre soon. Okay, thanks and thanks for listening. Bye. It.

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