AMBelievable Could Revolutionize the Sport of Tennis

When I first saw AMBelievable’s tennis racket dampener, I’ll be honest, I was skeptical. I was skeptical about its claims, questioned the product’s ability, and wondered what impact this technology could have.

Well, two years later, I have completely changed my opinion and fully believe this technology can revolutionize the tennis world.

AMBelievable is a startup from Torino, Italy, and was started in 2022. Its mission was simple: to use metamaterial technology to make tennis more enjoyable. And, after testing its product for three months now, I can attest that I am enjoying tennis more than I ever have.

AMBelievable’s dampener is made using selective laser sintering (SLS), a 3D printing process that fuses powdered TPU into precise shapes. What makes this so interesting is how they’ve used metamaterial-inspired lattice structures to control how the dampener responds to different vibrations. These internal geometries allow it to absorb specific frequencies while staying incredibly lightweight—something that simply couldn’t be done with traditional molding.

The technology is based on these metamaterial architectural structures, as seen below. They are designed to dissipate frequencies based on a player’s preference and give a person a truly customized feel. Additionally, they are not only tuned to a player’s “feel,” but are also designed to eliminate the vibrations associated with tennis elbow.

HEAD acoustics, an independent lab, even corroborated AMBelievable’s claims with data from its own lab, and an interactive chart can be found on AMBelievable’s website for you to review the data yourself.

This is a large departure from traditional tennis racket dampeners that only target the mid (250-350 Hz) to high frequency (650-750 Hz) range produced by the strings, but leave the low frequencies (80-200 Hz) from the frame, which are linked to tennis elbow, unchecked.

I am excited to see where AMBelievable goes from here. While its CTO, Tomasso Becutti, sees their work staying in the sporting world and possibly venturing into other sports, I think meta materials like these have numerous applications outside that arena as well. Tomasso did mention Phononic-Vibes, another spin-off from the same parent company, which is exploring this technology for acoustic purposes. I think there are plenty of applications there too, like noise-cancelling headphones, soundproofing walls, and quieter car interiors.

I mean, imagine driving down the highway and not hearing the tires rolling down the road?! What bliss.

Overall, I am extremely impressed by AMBelievable, and having the HEAD study quells my biggest criticism from my first article.

If you are interested in trying the dampener yourself, they are available for purchase on the AMBelievable website. I have been using the “Universal” model, but they also offer a “Tuned” model and can customize the dampener in the shape of a logo, too. However, be warned. Because once you try its dampener, you might ditch all your Agassi rubber band dampeners forever and become an AMBelievable like me.

Images courtesy of AMBelievable.