# Racket dampeners: do they really reduce the vibration transmitted to the players?

D. Chadefaux, A. Herbaut, A. Paté, L. Caprioli, C. Deribreux, V. Motte, J.P.

Richard, J.-L. Le Carrou

► To cite this version:

D. Chadefaux, A. Herbaut, A. Paté, L. Caprioli, C. Deribreux, et al.. Racket dampeners: do they really reduce the vibration transmitted to the players?. Multidisciplinary Biomechanics Journal, 2025, 50th congress of the.., 10.46298/mbj.16225. hal-05191779v2

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Submitted on 23 Oct 2025

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# Racket dampeners: do they really reduce the vibration transmitted to the players?

D. Chadefaux<sup>a</sup>, A. Herbaut<sup>b</sup>, A. Paté<sup>c</sup>, L. Caprioli<sup>d</sup>, C. Deribreux<sup>b</sup>, V. Motte<sup>b</sup>, J. P. Richard<sup>b</sup>, J.-L. Le Carrou<sup>e</sup>

<sup>a</sup> Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology, EPF Engineering School, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, IBHGC-Institut de Biomécanique Humaine Georges Charpak, F-75013 Paris, France

<sup>b</sup> Decathlon, 59000 Lille, France

<sup>c</sup> Univ. Lille, CNRS, Centrale Lille, Junia, Univ. Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, UMR 8520-IEMN, F-59000 Lille, France

<sup>d</sup> Sports Engineering Laboratory, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, I-00133 Rome, Italy

<sup>e</sup> Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, Équipe Lutheries-Acoustique-Musique, Paris, F-75005, France

* Corresponding author: delphine.chadefaux@univ-paris13.fr

Received date: 04/04/2025

Accepted date: 27/06/2025

Publication date: 27/10/2025

**Keywords:** tennis, racket, dampeners, vibration

© 2025 The Authors

Licence CC-BY 4.0

Published by Société de Biomécanique

## 1. Introduction

In tennis, the repeated mechanical stress on the upper limb and the propagation of mechanical vibrations along the arm have been intuitively associated with the risk of injury (Yeh et al., 2019). However, this link has not yet been clearly established by scientific studies. Thus, the issue of vibrations generated and transmitted to the upper limb following an impact has driven manufacturers to innovate by improving the rigidity of racket frames or developing new types of anti-vibration devices, with the aim of minimizing the amount of vibration while preserving control and thus performance (Taraborrelli et al., 2019). Such dampeners are expected to reduce the racket vibrations and thus the vibrations transmitted to the upper limb (Yeh et al., 2019). Further, dampeners seem to contribute to a more comfortable playing experience, to the point where some players claim they cannot play without them. However, no scientific consensus has yet been reached regarding the effect of such a device on the mechanical stress induced on the upper limb.

Reaching such a consensus is particularly difficult due to the measurement of the vibrations transmitted to the upper limb. Indeed, it requires the use of high-performance embedded sensors (three-dimensional; measurement range over 100 g; acquisition frequency greater than 2000 Hz). Existing studies highlight the

importance of the vibratory level transmitted to the upper limb (up to around 50 g in a frequency band below about 100 Hz) as well as the effect of grip force in regulating this transmission (Stroede et al. 1999; Chadefaux et al. 2016a; Paté et al. 2024). As for dampeners, Yeh et al. (2019) underlined that they attenuate vibrations with frequencies above 200 Hz, which is beyond the frequency band transmitted to the upper limb. Therefore, how a dampener affects the vibratory content transmitted to the player is still unclear. This study is part of a broader project investigating the effect of several anti-vibration devices on the transmitted vibration, radiated sound, perceived sound and vibration under controlled conditions. This paper focused on the characterization of the effect of a classical anti-vibration device on the vibratory behavior of rackets as well as on the vibratory stresses transmitted to tennis players.

## 2. Rackets' dynamical behavior

### 2.1 Methods

The vibratory response of a tennis racket was evaluated following a ball impact. The ball was dropped 1 meter above the racket strings. Although the ball speed was obviously smaller than in playing conditions, previous studies showed that spectral content was not significantly altered between a low-energy impact and playing conditions (Chadefaux 2016a, b). The racket
was sustained in free boundary conditions with elastic bands. The resulting vibration was measured with a one-axis accelerometer (PCB Piezotronics, type 352B10, 10 mV/g, ± 500 g pk, [2-10k] Hz) bonded at the top of the racket handle and connected to an acquisition card (National Instrument, type 9234, Fs = 51200 Hz). The racket was evaluated under four conditions: strung at 15 and 25 kg; with or without dampener. Ten trials per condition were collected. For each trial, the Fourier transform of the racket's acceleration was computed to compare trends across the different tested conditions.

## 2.2 Results

Figure 1-(a) presents typical spectra derived from the collected trials, focusing on the racket response with respect to the string tension and the dampener presence. These spectra show classical pattern already reported in the literature (e.g. Chadefaux et al. 2016a). The racket response was not affected by the tested conditions up to about 200 Hz. At higher frequencies, notably in the [400-550] Hz range, results revealed an effect of the dampener on the spectra, especially for the lower tension.

# 3. Vibration transmitted to the player

## 3.1 Methods

A second experiment was conducted to outline the dampener's effect on the vibration transmitted to the player's forearm. One player was asked to perform fore-hand strokes with no specific instruction. In accordance with the foregoing, we use a racket with a relatively low tension, namely 22 kg. The resulting vibration was measured with two accelerometers bonded onto the top of the racket handle (PCB Piezotronics, type 352A21, one axis, 10 mV/g, ± 500 g pk, [1-10k] Hz) and the player's wrist (PCB Piezotronics, Buffalo, USA, type 356A45, three axes, 100 mV/g, ± 50 g pk, [0.4-10k] Hz), connected to the same acquisition card as before. The racket was alternatively fitted with and without dampener. Three trials were collected for each condition. The Fourier transform of the acceleration signals measured at the racket and the wrist were computed.

## 3.2 Results

Figure 1-(b) presents typical spectra obtained during these measurements, confirming the previous results. The dampener slightly shifted the frequency content and increased the damping coefficient of the vibration modes in the range [400-550] Hz. Further, Figure 1-(b) is

aligned with previous study (Chadefaux et al. 2016a, Yeh et al. 2019), suggesting that only the vibration content associated to the racket first bending mode (between 100 and 200 Hz) is transmitted to the player's wrist. The higher frequency content, affected by the presence of a dampener, contributes to the properties of the sound radiated by the ball impact (Paté et al. 2024).

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 1.** (a) Spectra of the acceleration signals measured at the racket handle for two string tensions, with and without dampener. (b) Spectra of the acceleration signals measured at the racket handle and the player's wrist for a racket, with and without dampener.</figcaption></figure>

# 4. Conclusions

This study examined the impact of vibration dampener on the spectral responses of tennis rackets. These preliminary findings raise reasonable doubts regarding the effect of a dampener on the vibration actually transmitted to the player's forearm and its implication in injury prevention. However, dampener affects the racket's behavior in the audible frequency range. Dampener may thus play a role in the player's auditory comfort. It may be interesting to reproduce the experimental setup on more and different rackets to investigate interactions between racket's properties and the presence of a dampener.

# Conflict of Interest Statement

None.

# Contributor Roles

DC: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing-original draft; AH, CD, VM, JPR : Conceptualization; LC:
Investigation, Data curation; AP: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing-review & editing; JLLC: Conceptualization, Validation.

References

Chadefaux, D., Rao, G., Androuet, P., Berton, E., & Vigouroux, L. (2016). Active tuning of stroke-induced vibrations by tennis players. *J. Sports Sci.*, 35(16), 1643–1651. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1227868

Chadefaux, D., Rao, G., Le Carrou, J.L., Berton, E., & Vigouroux, L. (2016). The effects of player grip on the dynamic behaviour of a tennis racket. *J. Sports Sci.*, 35(12), 1155–1164. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1213411

Paté, A., Petel, M., Belhassen, N., & Chadefaux, D. (2024). Radiated sound and transmitted vibration following the ball/racket impact of a tennis serve. *Vibration, 7*, 894–911. https://doi.org/10.3390/vibration7040047

Yeh, I.-L., Elangovan, N., Feczer, R., Khosravani, S., Mahnan, A., & Konczak, J. (2019). Vibration-Damping technology in tennis racquets: Effects on vibration transfer to the arm, muscle fatigue and tennis performance. *Sport. Med. Health Sci.*, 1, 49–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smhs.2019.09.001

Taraborrelli, L., Grant, R., Sullivan, M., Choppin, S., Spurr, J., Haake, S., & Allen, T. (2019). Materials have driven the historical development of the tennis racket. *Applied Sciences*, 9(20), 4352. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9204352

Stroede, C.L., Noble, L., & Walker, H.S. (1999). The effect of tennis racket string vibration dampers on racket handle vibrations and discomfort following impacts. *J. Sports Sci.*, 17(5), 379–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/026404199365894