Specs that matter, specs that don't, and the customisations tour players actually make to stock frames.
The advice gets repeated in every corner of the internet where rackets are discussed: you do not need to pay for coaching.
Walk into almost any teaching program and you will hear a version of the same instruction: learn the continental grip first, or you will never serve, volley, or slice the way you should.
Almost every player who has been told to switch grips arrives at the same complaint: the continental grip feels wrong. The racquet face points at the sky. The ball sails long on a groundstroke.
You will get worse before you get better. That is the part nobody warns you about, and it is the most useful thing we can tell you about the continental grip: the discomfort is not a sign you are…
For most of the twentieth century, the assumption inside American tennis was straightforward: if you wanted to get better, you paid a pro.
A club player we know spent two weeks deciding between a Babolat Pure Aero 98 and a Wilson Blade 98 v9.
Here is a claim a lot of well-meaning parents have heard, sometimes from a club pro, sometimes from a YouTube video: teach the Eastern forehand grip and the full swing first, and the rest follows.