CAREER
PROFILE
JOEL DISBRO
Lead Racquet Technician / Tour Equipment,
Wilson Sporting Goods
Summary
You can’t play tennis without a racket, and
that’s where Joel Disbro has focused his career
for the past ten years. As a Master Racquet
Technician, Joel helps professional tennis
players get the most out of their game. He
does this by matching athletes with the best
racket for their type of play and their particular
match. He focuses on every detail from string
material, to tension, to make certain their
racket is customized and just right.
tennis management courses as well as what
I have learned on my own. I learned a lot once
I was on the job. We have a staff that does the
design and engineering. I am more of a play
tester, providing feedback.
What science courses have you taken that
most relate to the work you’re doing?
I took racket technician and USPTA pro
courses. I learned about equipment testing
with those. There were also the professional
What exactly does a Lead Racquet
Technician do?
In Chicago, I work in the Wilson lab. In the
pro lab, we take care of our top 150 players
that we sponsor. I customize their rackets,
the handles, and do pretty much anything
you can to a racket. Some players’ rackets are
relatively easy to customize. For other players,
I take anywhere from a day to a few days
to do six to ten rackets. When I am not in
Chicago, I work with stringing on tour. Wilson
is the official stringer of the US Open and the
Miami Open tournaments. I travel to those
two tournaments every year. This year I was
on my tenth US Open to do the stringing. I
also do testing for product development. That
ranges from coming up with ideas to testing
new products on the court. We customize
to a lot of parameters, so a racket won’t leave
my room without being right on. A typical
day is checking emails and talking with our
tour team, stationed around the world. They
take care of players’ requests. I meet requests
for new rackets, or for test rackets if the player
wants to try something different. When we’re
close to the US Open and Miami tournaments
a lot of my day is spent preparing. I make sure
we’re staffed and have all we need to run
those tournaments.
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cont. on page 2
How did you choose this career path?
Going back to high school, I’d long been
interested in the equipment. I tried developing
new products, customizing rackets, even gripwrapping a racket to exactly how I wanted it.
That’s how I started—I was always a very picky
player with my rackets! That interest morphed
into wanting to improve equipment for other
people. I went into professional tennis management at Ferris University. There I got certified
on the equipment side. At college, I started
teaching tennis. I also managed a pro shop
in the DC area. The course director at the
time heard about the job here at Wilson, and
he recommended me for the interview, and
it went from there. I’ve been at Wilson since
2007.
CAREER PROFILE
JOEL DISBRO
What’s the best part of the job?
I don’t like to call myself an expert, but I think
I’m pretty good at what I do. I like to help
players become better and to be more
confident in their equipment when they
come to us. They can play their game and not
worry about the rackets. If they pick up racket
number one, it’s the same as racket number
seven. I take some pride in that. Also, I like to
give feedback on new products we’re coming
out with and help to make those better. I put
myself in the shoes of someone buying the
racket so we can feel good about what we
put out there.
It’s sometimes a challenge to interact with
players as we don’t see them a lot because
they have busy schedules. That’s why it’s good
to do those big tournaments and to see the
players. It can also be hard to figure out exactly
what a player is looking for as they might not
know the technical terms—and then decipher
what they say into something I can do to
the racket. Tour stringing can be demanding
because no matter how well you plan, there
are always small things that happen. My job
is to make sure the players are confident and
aren’t thinking about stringing or the rackets
while they’re playing.
What are some of the recent innovations
you’ve seen in your field?
I customize the rackets for each of our tour
players, so I am building to their specifications.
We have 21 different tests that we run on
a racket before it leaves us. Our engineers
mostly deal with finding materials and testing
those, to see if they’re suitable in a racket or
not. If something new comes out, and we
test it to be beneficial, then it’s my job to try
to get the players to try that.
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Tell me about the connection between the
structure and function of the racquet, and
what are the benefits of the different types
of strings used in racquets?
These players have usually been playing with
the same type of strings and the same kind of
racket for years and years. A lot of them don’t
want to change. Another part of the job is to
have them try new things but also keep some
things the same, such as the specs.
Why do different players have different
tensions in their rackets?
Most players change their string tension
on the go. If the weather is colder or humid,
they’ll string differently. On tour, they can
sense the differences, and we can make small
changes. Players aren’t going to want five or
ten pounds difference in tension. A lot of
players ask what the weather’s going to be
like, and then I’ll make adjustments based
on that.
What advances in material properties
have most affected the sport?
Carbon fiber has been pushing the sport
forward. There are all kinds of carbon and we
can put different materials into the carbon.
The K-factor racket uses a mercury-based
technology. The BLX line uses basalt rock
to make a carbon composite. Now, we have
our new one called Countervail, which uses
aerospace carbon fiber technology. The big
benefit of carbon fiber has been in power.
You can get a lot more power off of these
than you can a wooden racket. The head
size is also different, and carbon fiber is more
resilient and lasts a lot longer. There are a lot
of material advances outside of tennis so, if
we think there’s a benefit to players, we see
if it will work in a racket.
cont. on page 3
CAREER PROFILE
JOEL DISBRO
What role do human body systems play in
the design and development of equipment
for the sport?
If a player says, “My racket doesn’t feel fast
enough,” I know what that means and the
steps to take to evaluate it and change it.
While string tension plays a role, you can
only make small subtle changes in a player’s
power and control with the string tension.
But for significant changes, are made with
the racket. So when the players start talking
about bigger changes, then we start looking
at the racket specifications. That’s when we
need to decipher what the players say about
racket specifications and what will work best
for their type of play.
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Can you share any advice for
high school students?
Study anything you can. I did a lot of
certifications while I was in college to give
myself a head start in this area. I wrote articles
for different tech magazines. I had those to
showcase when this job opportunity showed
up. I also talked to people already in a position
like this, to see what their path was. I talked to
professional tennis management graduates
at college, and I found that useful. Try to learn
things on your own as well and experiment.
I experimented with my rackets through the
years and tried different things and see what
changing something did to my game. I did a
lot of experimenting, and that really helped
as well.