Choosing a child's racquet: three questions, in this order
Updated: Sep 8
The junior market is chosen by age. It is convenient, and it is the one parameter that says nothing about what the child will hold in their hands.
Three questions are enough, and the order matters as much as the answers. If it is an adult you are equipping, the logic is different and we take it in the article on beginners.
1. Length, first
It decides everything else, because it decides the lever. A racquet that is too long makes the head arrive late and pushes the child to compensate with the wrist — the hardest habit to undo later. Too short, it limits reach and gives nothing back in exchange.
Standard sizes jump in whole steps — 23, 25, 26 inches — and leave children between two sizes for months. A quarter-inch adjustment fills exactly those gaps, and we flag any step that falls outside the international federation's recommended bounds. That length adjustment is a Matcheur exclusive: half an inch either way, in quarter-inch steps, included at no extra charge.
2. Mass, relative to the arm
You do not compare a junior racquet's mass with an adult racquet's: you compare it with the strength available. A racquet that is too heavy does not show on the first rally. It shows at the end of the session, when the elbow drops and the stroke shortens.
The right marker is not an absolute number, it is a test: does the child finish the session with the same stroke they started with? If not, the racquet is too heavy for them today — not forever.
3. The string, more decisive than it looks
This is the most often neglected point, and the only one that reaches a growing arm directly. A stiff string transmits to that arm what an adult arm already absorbs badly. In a child's racquet you therefore stay at the soft end of our range — N°1 or N°2 — and you do not move up into the stiff ones because the child breaks.
If they break, you raise the gauge, never the stiffness. They are two distinct properties, and confusing them costs elbows.
What size racquet for which ball
It is not age that sets length, it is the ball format. Transition balls — red, orange, green — are not beginner accessories: they set the speed and bounce height the racquet has to answer. And it is that bounce height that decides how high the child strikes, and therefore the lever length they can actually use. A frame chosen without knowing which ball the child plays with is chosen halfway. In practice: start from the format they play at the club, derive the length range from it, and move up a step only when the format changes — not on a birthday.
Red ball — 21 to 23 inches.
Orange ball — 23 to 25 inches.
Green ball — 25 to 26 inches.
Yellow ball — 26 to 28 inches.
These bands overlap: they are not boxes. A child at the end of orange and a child at the start of green can perfectly well play the same length. That is exactly why a fine adjustment beats a jump in size. Our junior range comes in 23, 25 and 26 inches, with half an inch more or less, in quarter-inch steps, included at no extra cost: the ball format gives you the band, the adjustment places the child inside it.
Grip size, and why you round down
A handle that is too thick forces the hand to clench to hold the racquet, and that clenching travels up the forearm. In a child it is the most common fault after length, because a junior handle is often the same across two frame sizes.
The practical rule is simple: a slightly small handle beats a thick one. A small handle is corrected with an overgrip, which adds an even layer; a thick handle cannot be corrected at all. If you are between two sizes, take the smaller. We go into the measurement and its limits in the article on grip size.
When to change size
Not on a birthday. Two signals beat a calendar. The first is the change of ball format: that is what changes the strike height, and so the usable lever. The second is the stroke at the end of a session — if the elbow drops and the swing shortens when it held at the start, the racquet has become too heavy or too long for today.
Between those two, there is nothing to do. A racquet that fits, kept for as long as it fits, is not replaced as a precaution.
What you do not tune on a child's racquet
Let us say it plainly, because it is our trade and writing it costs us something: on a child's racquet you do not add lead, you do not match a pair, you do not chase a swingweight to the tenth. All of that exists to stabilise a stroke that is already stable, and a child's stroke changes every month.
Only two things have to be right, and both can be checked for free: the length and the string. The rest waits until the child has a game to amplify.
The “buy one size up so it lasts” mistake
Buying one size up “so it lasts”. A racquet that is too big for a year installs compensations that last a good deal longer than a year. A racquet that fits, replaced when the child grows, costs less than rebuilding a stroke.
Equipment does not compensate for a weakness: it amplifies a strength. In a child, the strength to amplify is freedom of movement — and it is protected by removing what restricts it, not by adding grams.
The configurator has a dedicated junior path: it asks these three questions in this order, and warns when a length falls outside the recommended band for the category.
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