My friend who plays racquetball with me has had a rash of Pro Kennex racquets break when he hits the wall (not very hard either) with his racquet trying to hit a wallpaper shot. He is to the point where now he will swing and completely miss the ball because he doesnt want to break another racquet. I on the other hand swing more aggressively at wallpaper balls and have not broke any of my Head Amp racquets. He does not like Head because he feels it hurts his elbow. Anybody else breaking Pro Kennex racquets a little too easily?

Research and Development for all the brands do an extensive amount of frame breakage trials to find the best frame for incidental wall and floor durability. Your friends' "not very hard either" hit on the wall may very well be more damaging than you think. Glancing blows do more damage than an actual full out smack against the wall. Hand,eye, wall coordination is as much of a skill and some players are much more talented than others. One player, such as yourself, can hit the wall several times with no detectable damage to the frame. Other players are so close, but make that strike just in the wrong way and totally crash the frame, unfortunately, often. Call it bad luck if you want, but its really not luck at all.We have all seen players who , after missing a huge set up, take their racquets and make a scrape or glancing blow to the wall in frustration. All it takes is one really good glancing blow to fracture these high tensile graphite frames of today's technology, after that the more it is hit, the more likely it is to crack in two altogether.
I play with guys that have amazingly super talent in putting the ball against the walls in a lob serve that it is impossible to hit it off the wall. You have to slide the racquet along the wall and hope you don't carry it when you get ahold of the ball. I smack the wall multiple times in any match I play and the floor as well and have never broken a frame. Removed a lot of paint and tore up the bumper guard, but never cracked the frame. OH not to say I don't have broken racquets in my closet, OH NO! I have the really bad fortune to have doubles partners who just can't resist to take a swing at a ball that is clearly my shot and swing right on top of my shot. I lose at least one racquet a year to double partners ball hogging style of play.
Way back when I was playing several dozen tournaments a year I had a bad habit of tapping my frame on the floor as I waited for the server to hit the ball. I was forming bubbles in the frames where I was hitting it against the floor. I asked Mr Flores of San Antonio Texas , why these frames were bubbling up on me. When I told him my serve prep habit, he laughed and told me I was doing it to myself, slowly but surely damaging my racquets little by little.
You just can not , with any logic at all, blame a brand of racquet. There is always a human factor that explains the reason for that frame to break.
In defense for the brand manufactures. It is my honest belief that every brand replaces hundreds of racquets for warranty issues that are totally player abuse.
Denial is not a river in Egypt,its a failure to realize your actions are a result of the outcome. Blaming a brand for your actions is one way of reassuring yourself that you are not to blame.
Mostly my opinion but there are reams of research that point to the fact that our racquets, all brands, of today are actually very durable.
TomKat

I would agree with Tom that all manufacturers make a good frame that can hold up to some abuse but all frames ARE NOT created equal. A lot of players blame it on a single light hit on the wall or say they broke it by just hitting the ball (no wall contact at all) when in fact the frame was already cracked due to a single big hit or multiple small ones it just happens that the last one was the one that broke the racquets back.

That being said I would go through 3-5 frames a year with Ektelon due to wall hits and one wonderful doubles Racquet to Racquet hit. In all my years with Ektelon they always replaced each racquet that I cracked (I didnt send in the doubles hit). Now in over 3 years with Gearbox I have yet to crack a frame... My play certainly didnt change but the racquet company did. Ektelon makes a great stick but they are not even in the same league Durability wise as Gearbox and a lot of that has to do with the design of the Racquets (Solid head frame design).

There are just certain frames that "rough" players should avoid.

tell your friend to either back away from the wall a bit when he is returning, or "sweep" the racquet against the wall to return it.

Or maybe have him try Gearbox? ; )

NOTE: I am not sposnsored by Pro Kennex, I just really like their racquets.

I def. get the humor injection. And he's obviously free to try whatever. I have just seen some individuals go off about how "weak" a racquet is when a revision of technique and near-wall approach could save one's racquet (and their rally).

It reminds me of brakes on a car. Brakes go bad, but the driver is constantly slamming on the brakes every time they stop. Who is to blame, the brakes, or the driver?

My point is, there are more effective (in terms of technique and cost) ways to avoid chronic racquet breakage. Obviously a doubles racquet-to-racquet slam happens here and there, but I'd be willing to bet a lot of the racquet breakage is not racquet-induced.

gflash77, my friend really likes prokennex sticks. But since he started using them he has had breakage issues. His game has not changed, only the racquet. Before he used prokennex he used eforce or eketelon, not sure which one. But I know that he did not have breakage issues. So I believe that some racquets are more prone to breakage then others. He loves the way the Prokennex plays but the durability is an issue for him.

Which PK racquet is he using? I broke some of the Kinetic Quad 170 frames, but I haven't had any breaks with the KM750. That thing is a tank.

Not sure. I will check. It is blue. ; )

I've broken five of the KM750 racquets in the past year. And all in the exact same spot, right beneath the kinetic material in the top corner, wouldn't quite call them a tank. And I'm not a racquet breaker, before playing this past season with the 750 have only broken 2 racquets total in my previous 4 years of playing.

15yearslater

Not sure. I will check. It is blue. ; )

The KQ170 that I was breaking was black & blue. If that's it & he likes the racquet, he should try the KM750 or even the new KM700. I haven't hit the 700, but the 750 is similar to the KQ170 + more power & stability + much more durable.

stych

I've broken five of the KM750 racquets in the past year. And all in the exact same spot, right beneath the kinetic material in the top corner, wouldn't quite call them a tank. And I'm not a racquet breaker, before playing this past season with the 750 have only broken 2 racquets total in my previous 4 years of playing.

Wow. I haven't even seen one break and I know 4 guys who used it all year. That really sucks.