J is a tennis coach. He's part of a group that I hit with quite regularly.
After seeing so many weird strings and stringing patterns on my rackets, he asked if I could do one fancy setup for him on his racket. It's been a while since I did a "blind" stringing (link), so I gladly agreed!
(What "blind" means is the racket owner will have absolutely no clue how the strings were done until after the playtest.)
J has a very complete game. I cannot think of any flaws. Since he eschews syn gut, I decided to string a full bed of it to show him what can be achieved.
I have two objectives:
1. increase sweetspot size,
2. increase spin.
The racket is supposedly a made in China clone of a very popular brand.
At first look, I noticed it strongly resembles a squash racket. And the 16x20 pattern even comes with four shared holes! Amazing!
The racket specs affect feel and tension tremendously. Primarily, swingweight (link) and flex. So, before stringing, I checked.
The gripped racket weighs 300g before strings, about 315g after. Balance should be 33cm strung. I estimate the swingweight to be between 300-310. That is low for a ntrp 4.5-5.0 player.
From a pseudo "flex test", this thick beamed racket is indeed as stiff as it looks. Using my RA72 PSC6.1 as a comparison, this one gives less!
With the low swingweight and very stiff flex, I decided to drop some tension from J's usual 60 lbs to soften the stringbed slightly, tame some power and add some "cushioning" for comfort.
To simulate the full poly feel that he prefers, and to improve tension holding, I pre-stretched the syn gut by looping the string around my chin-up bar and hanging my dumb bells on it. The amount of string stretch is monitored. When the targeted 1.5% inelastic elongation was achieved, the weight was removed.
Full proportional stringing was done starting at 48lbs to compensate for the stretched string and less lively feel. The pre-stretch would make it play tighter than 48lbs so control issues would not surface. My plan was to replicate as close a stringbed stiffness (at impact) as J's preferred Pro Kennex racket. Or just slightly softer.
The 16x20 pattern was also "converted" to 16x18 to equalize string tension pressures on the frame. This step accounts A LOT towards enlarging the sweetspot.
With proportional stringing, the other little known benefit I observed is the increase in spin. This is very clear to me since I'm at the receiving end of shots hit by my partners' proportionately strung frames.
Nothing beats a real playtest, especially matchplay. I will post as soon as J updates.
Below's some pics...
The specs.
The shared holes. (I skipped a set of shared holes)
Playtest:
- J felt that the tension was a little too low and there was a lot of string movement which had to be straightened out between points. If not, the stringbed can be a little unpredictable.
- However, he found the "bite" was quite good which translated to pretty good spin.
- Overall, J rated this playable.
- I'm pretty sure he did not like the setup. No surprise though, considering he gave zero hints on how he liked his rackets to be strung. Moreover, this was a backup stick that I don't even remember seeing him use even once.
- Enough of "blind" stringing for me...
Encouraged by the unexpected great success of the first fishing line (link), I bought a thinner gauge to see how far I can push the limits. This one is only 0.90mm, which is about 21 gauge I think.
Just for reference, badminton string is only about 0.70mm.
The problem is that the previous fishing line was supposedly a very high-end premium line. My friend bought it in Japan during a tour. We cannot understand the wordings and do not even know what kind of line it is! Some angler he is huh?
To cut short this testing curve, I strung two rackets at one go. One full-bed and the other hybrid with syn gut.
All who tried the previous premium line asked about the setup. It is not straight-forward stringing. The very stretchy line had to be pre-stretched for at least 48 hours to stabilize tension holding.
I tested pre-stretching from a few hours to several days. Too little, and the tension would not hold, causing a very mushy stringbed. Too much and it plays very harsh and dead. I've even tried soaking it in cold, warm and saltwater!
Residual elasticity (link1)(link2) after the pre-stretch (or string abuse) was tested and desired stringbed stiffness and tension was then extrapolated. The result was a 20+lbs tension differential between mains and crosses! Please do not attempt this on your rackets (link).
Yet it played incredibly well! Power, control, comfort, spin and durability are all in abundance! About a dozen people have tried it so far. All loved it except one, who intensely disliked my test racket from the start, but remained inconclusively about the fishing line.
Here's some pics of the Wilson PSC6.1 done fullbed...
Below's the PK Blace Ace 98 hybrid with syn gut.
To understand how thin 0.90mm is, just compare it with the 1.25mm black synthetic cross string.
Playtest:
- The fullbed felt extremely harsh immediately after stringing. All I did was bounce a ball on the ground and the vibrations were earth shattering! Keep in mind the PSC6.1 is an extremely stiff frame at RA72. So I set it aside to let the strings settle-in.
- On the contrary, the hybrid felt very comfortable. There was nice plushy pocketing with power. The thin string bites very well too so I took it out for a hit.
- After warming up with another racket, I tested the hybrid. Immediately, it felt too softly strung. I pre-stretched this for 40+ hours and it is still insufficient.
- This "under-tensioning" (or inability to hold tension) created an out-of-sync feeling where the swing (and racket) was moving forward but the ball felt like it was moving backwards, deeper into the stringbed.
- However, when I got my timing right, the spin was absolutely incredible!
- Two 4.5+ players who tested this commented it was just a touch too soft but were impressed by the bite and spin potential.
- String movement was huge.
- Looks like it is back to the drawing board for this hybrid.
16Sep2013 update:
- After almost two weeks, the fullbed 0.90mm fishing line in the PSC6.1 lost a significant amount of tension. Even when it was totally unplayed. I only used it to bounce the ball around the house a few times.
- The harsh feel gradually disappeared and comfort set in, with some really nice pocketing.
- I took it out for some hits. The bite is extremely good. The spin really stands out.
- Surprisingly, the string did not break. Even on full baseline shots, swinging volleys and overheads. It held up well during serves too.
- After about 10 minutes, I noticed the string movement was increasing. Along with that was a dip in directional control.
- While power is very good, the loss of tension rendered the control only at borderline. I have no confidence to use this for a match.
- The Black Ace hybrid was re-strung at a much higher tension than previously. (Above the recommended tension of the racket...)
- Before stringing, both strings were also heavily pre-stretched to see if tension holding could be improved.
- And yes it did! Control was greatly improved. It almost felt like normal tennis strings except for the colour and incredible bite.
- My playing partner liked it within a few hits. He was impressed with the comfort!
- So far, I tested serves, volleys, and groundstrokes. I cannot find any fault with this setup yet. Everything performed well. Will have to monitor how this plays the second session.
- String movement is very minimal.
23Sep2013 update:
- The PSC6.1 fullbed 0.90mm fishing line was re-done at a much higher tension about a week ago.
- I have yet to play with the racket but I monitored the tension holding with a frequency meter. Without pre-stretch, the tension loss was about 35% in 24 hours. After very heavy pre-stretch, I managed to narrow this to about 18%. Note this numbers vary drastically for different types of fishing lines.
- Another note to highlight, is that the cheaper fishing lines just cannot make it as tennis strings. Most cannot hold tension. And those that do, play extremely harsh, literally elbow-breaking harsh. So far, none of the 16 different types of budget fishing lines I tested made the grade. Few made it to the tennis court as they usually break or lose heaps of tension.
- I remain intrigued by fishing line not for the price but the extremely thin gauge with amazing bite for spin. When prepared and strung appropriately, it actually plays much better than multi, syn gut, poly and even natural gut! Just imagine the string offering the comfort of gut and the bite and slickness of poly!
- Will update once I get to play with the re-done fullbed PSC6.1.
28Sep2013 update:
- The restrung fullbed 0.90mm fishing line played very well today!
- Control improved a lot over the previous stringjob. I had no problems with aiming at all this time.
- The most unexpected change was the massive increase in spin. If my memory of how my other stringjobs played is correct, this setup generates the most amount of spin most easily.
- The bite is so good that merely after 10 minutes of rally, I could see lots of ball fur stuck on my black shorts!
- My playing partner also exclaimed many times on how hard and high the ball kicked off the ground. He moved a few steps back even though my shots were still landing near the service line.
- Practise serves were good and very spinny too.
- Unfortunately, the string snapped after about 40 minutes of rally. The gauge is just too thin.
- It was not a shank nor mishit. The last shot was a good hit very near the sweetspot.
Before you start thinking this is outrageous and report this to some "Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Tennis Rackets", know that steel wire strings HAVE BEEN USED quite widely in the past. (link1)(link2)(link3)
I have not gone bonkers! What enticed me were online reports of some friends' friend's racket that they claim generated tremendous spin when they tried it. And yes, they attributed it to the steel strings.
I tested several different types of steel wires and found that some aspects of steel wire were actually very close to kevlar!
Both kevlar and steel wire:
- have very little stretch during initial tension,
- suffer huge tension loss at tie-offs, and
- "tightens back" when the crosses were installed.
My last grommets fiasco (link) has taught me to be more careful. Moreover, any blocked holes by this steel wire would probably be completely unpassable. So proper planning is crucial.
I "converted" the original 18x20 Dunlop Aerogel 200 to a 16x19 in order to:
1. eliminate blocked holes,
2. protect the grommets by tying off differently, and
3. allow more "give" in the stringbed since steel has almost zero stretch.
Before any of the more adventurous ones try stringing this, please read this first.
Before stringing, a weigh-in was done.
Steel wire is extremely kinky after being packed in coils for so long. Threading was very slow to prevent cuts to the hands and grommets. Lots of other precautions were also taken.
A closer look below.
Below pic shows how I used the grommet from the first cross string to tie-off the mains onto the mains.
I had chosen a thin wire to prevent adding too much weight after stringing. Even 23grams feel quite significant when swinging the racket around.
Playtest:
- This is playable!
- It was not uncomfortable or harsh at all. Ball impacts felt very similar to a poly/syn gut hybrid.
- Surprisingly, there is still some soft pocketing even though the stringbed felt very tight and stable. It was very easy to aim with this stick.
- Coming from my preferred ELT setups, the rebound angle of this is very low. No problem though, all I had to do is just aim higher and bash the ball fearlessly.
- Power levels are very similar to a poly/syn gut hybrid. The feel is definitely not dead. Even volleying is not difficult!
- When swinging, there is the added joy of hearing the "swishing" sound of the metal strings. After a while, I was able to distinguish how the "swish" sounds like for good shots. Bad shots either did not have the "swish" sound, or it "swished" too early before impact. Too steep a swingpath from low-to-high (to generate more spin) also produced a very different "swish" tone. I think this is a very interesting instructional cum feedback tool!
- Spin is really good. I don't understand how it could be so, but it just works. Topspin, slices and spin serves were all great and accurate!
- Sadly, to keep the weight down, I had chosen too thin a gauge. This steel wire is only 0.7mm thick. A flat serve I attempted snapped four mains simultaneously...
- This pic was taken immediately after the strings snapped. Interestingly, if you observe the gap between the four snapped strings, the spacing is similar. Does this indicate that this steel wire has some stretch and can hold tension? Maybe a thicker gauge next time?
