Now that the weather in Singapore is turning dry, I thought it might be an opportune time for my second "pilgrimage" with the ProStaff 6.0 85. The first was completed here.
Gut/Poly hybrid is a holy grail all ProStaff 6.0 owners must try. It is touted to open up the sweetspot, add controlled power, offer incredible comfort and maximum topspin anyone can muster.
This racket has a drill pattern with skips at 7 & 9, top and bottom. With natural gut in the mains, the blocked holes can create problems for the crosses later. Using an awl or even a scrap piece of string to "unblock" the holes can stress or easily snap the completed natural gut mains.
Since I had about 20 ft of natural gut from the half-set, I calculated there was more than enough for the mains.
So, while doing the mains, I filled the top 2 and bottom 2 crosses before completing the last mains. That solved all the blocked holes problem.
Specifically (T=Top, B=Bottom):
- Complete mains 1 to 6 for both left and right sides,
- Fill 7th main on right side but do not tension,
- Using left mains, complete crosses 7B & 9B,
- Fill and tension 7th main on left side,
- Tension 7th main on right side, then complete crosses 7T & 9T,
- Complete both outer mains and tie-off at bottom.
(Or you can complete mains 1 to 6, then box the rest. However, you may need to open up a new tie-off hole.)
Other than preventing problems with blocked holes, any tension loss from tie-off is isolated from spreading to the inner mains. This offers better tension stability.
Instead of discarding the excess natural gut, using it the fill the outermost crosses helps to soften the dead spots a little, reducing vibrations. A little shorter length, maybe 3-4 ft less, of cross strings was needed to fill the rest of the crosses too.
Another advantage was having an easier time weaving the dreaded final poly cross string since there was more space away from the 6 o'clock mounting. You can see the difference immediately from the pic below!
Natural gut is a beautiful string to look at. That golden translucent glow is mesmerizing. Here's a close-up pic.
For those who think it takes a lot to wield the 85 square inch racket, know that the difference between an 85 and 95 square inch is very minor. You can see the comparison here.
Compared to syn gut, multi, or poly, gut/poly is definitely more expensive. Probably by about twice or thrice. However, most users, who were not chronic string breakers, were able to eke out at least double the playable string life, compared to their non-gut setup.
Some even claimed their gut combos lasted more than 50 hours! If you do the sums, paying twice the amount for five times as long durability, isn't gut cheaper?
Playtest:
Here's how it looked after about 2 hours of ball bashing. No need to straighten strings and absolutely zero notching.
- Comfort --> Extremely Good
- Spin --> Extremely Good
- Power --> Extremely Good
- Control --> Extremely Good
- Durability --> Still testing
- The greatest difference was how much easier gut/poly made the game. There were so many shots that I could not execute with other strings that were easily achieved with this. It's almost like legalized cheating!
After getting whipped left and right (link), I called for a wood rackets session with my mates.
Dunlop MaxPly, Yonex Couguss 2 (link) and Slazenger Centenary (link) showed up for some rallies.
Once we figured the sweetspot was in the bottom third of the stringbed, our strokes started falling in place very quickly.
Although challenging, it was not impossible to execute topspin, sidespin or slices with the 65 square inch face. Just that the mis-hit rate was slightly higher than with our modern frames.
One distinct difference was the need to consciously relax and swing the racket forward. Forcing or "muscling" the stick with a tight grip flexes the racket like a fishing rod and made us lose control.
On sweetspot hits, impacts were extremely soft, comfortable and powerful. Weighing about 370 grams, I estimate the swingweight of the woodies to be approximately 380-400 kg/cm². Yet it did not feel that heavy nor clumsy. Neither were any of us consistently late for any shots.
Off-centres hits were only "punished" by the ball falling very short, often in our side of the court, and some very low frequency vibrations. Not painful and nothing jarring, somewhat like placing your hand on a bass speaker that was turned on very loud. It was comical!
If you have never hit with a wood racket, you must try it. I think it is a great tool to teach anyone smooth fluid strokes, and to watch the ball very carefully at impact. A wonderful "sweetspot trainer".
If you have been reading this blog, you would have noticed the few number of poly stringjobs.
No matter what I tried, I just could not find favour with any. Yes, there were outstanding ones with impressive spin. Some with great comfort. Others had good tension stability and durability. But I could not find one with ALL the advantages together.
Also, I have yet to hear of any poly that either serves or volleys well! They are just too stiff and dead to offer any good sense of touch.
I came across a post on Talk Tennis forum, which I thought was very well written and expressed my sentiments on poly exactly.
With permission from the original writer, Toby, I have copied the post below for ease of reading.
(The original post can be found here)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm one to not advocate polys until you get to the upper 4.0 levels. My reasons are below.
1) Arm Health
Less experienced players have a harder time determining when to cut out the poly after it has lost it's ability to rebound in a timely matter in relationship to the ball leaving the racquet face. Even old heavily notched polys will rebound to a point, but if they do not rebound in the time that the ball is on the racquet face then you might as well wrap some Tourna around a 27 inch scrap 2X4 and go at it (I prefer pine as it is flexier). Seriously, the poly needs to be restrung fairly regulary in order to take advantage of it's properties.
2) Good Timing
You need to make contact out 'in front' on every ground stroke. This allows your entire body force to withstand the force of the on coming ball. If you make late contact on occasion, the jarring of polyester is going to have an effect on your wrist, elbow or shoulder eventually.
3) You are hurting your game
When you switch to a poly, you are taking power away from the most important stroke in the game, the serve. You have to swing harder with poly to generate the same amount of power with a synthetic, much less a natural gut string. This can lead to bad form and injury.
4) Ball speed at lower level
Contrary to popular belief, the highest speed of a 5.0 ground stroke isn't that different than the highest speed of a 3.5 ground stroke. The deal is that the AVERAGE speed of a 5.0 ground stroke is much higher than the AVERAGE speed of a 3.5 ground stroke. When you are not returning heavy ground strokes consistently, it makes it harder on the poly to do it's job as intended. On a softer shot, the ball just doesn't move the strings on the racquet face like a harder shot will. I will say that stringing poly at lower tension can offset this point as well as the new SPIN, ESP type of frames as it allows the strings to move more. Modern technology works in this case!!!
5) Cost of strings
While polys appear cheap in comparison to multis and natural gut, the required replacement every few weeks quickly makes up for the price. If you are going to use poly all the time, you better have access to a stringer or a nice friend that has one.
6) Bad technique
With all the talk about the added benefit of poly, I have seen a disturbing trend with the students and players around the courts. These are the types of players that live and die for tennis, but try to emulate the pros by swinging straight up on the ball. I see a ton of players trying to be the next Nadal or Sharapova with their own version of the Buggy Whip forehand. In order to be a good solid tennis player you need to hit through the ball. Even Nadal and Sharapova hit through the ball far more often than they do the Buggy Whip. When these lower level players attempt to do these Buggy Whips it causes arm and shoulder injuries. The real benefit of the Buggy Whip is when you are on the run and can't meet the ball out front. It allows for later contact.
I'm sure I could come up with more, but I'm tired of typing and must get some work done. I will say that if you HAVE to use poly at the lower levels please string them lower (30 to 40 lbs range) to protect your joints and give your body a fighting chance.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ironically, the group advantages (spin, comfort, power, durability, control) that I could not obtain from poly, could ALL be found in synthetic gut, together, simultaneously.
It took M three weeks to decide he must have this Yonex strung and played with (link)!!!
Not a stringjob I was looking forward to though. Had to do minor chiselling to smoothen out the sharp edges of the string holes, ensure double-string holes fit, then lightly burn-in the wood with a scrap string before stringing can start.
The very tiny gaps between strings made weaving very slow and difficult. (I actually sought help from someone with small fingers!)
With wood, the risk of frame distortion is much higher. Even the flexiest graphite frames are so much stronger and stiffer. I estimate the RA stiffness of this wood frame to be about 30+.
Had to constantly measure distortion levels and make minor adjustments along the way.
The top racket in the pic above is my Slazenger (link). The bottom racket is the Yonex. You can see how much thinner the Yonex frame and shaft is.
Still remembered I was taught to tuck the final main string under the earlier strung mains and crosses. You can see that in the pic above. Not fun at all!
I am not going to restring this wood racket in the near future. At least for the next few decades...
Notching is the groove created in the string due to wear and tear. Usually, it is the string that moves that notches. Not the one that stays still (link).
Often overlooked, the impact of notching on string tension is huge. To understand that, we must first understand how strings stretch.
Depending on the type of strings, an additional 20 lbs of tension, from 40 to 60, stretches the string only a mere extra 4 to 7 mm.
When a string notches, it weakens. The "U" shaped notch leaves the string with about half its original diameter, or less, to hold tension. As a result, the "U" is always stretched apart, looking more like a wide-mouthed "V". The string lengthens.
Since the cause is wear and tear, notching always occurs around the sweetspot. That would be the centre 8 to 10 mains, and between the middle 8 to 10 crosses.
Translated, that means about a total of 20 strings (10 mains + 10 crosses) could have about 10 notches each. Assuming all notches are equally deep, and each notch lengthens the string by 0.5 mm, that's a total of 5 mm (0.5mm x 10 notches each) relaxation PER STRING!
Based on the string stretch above, almost 20 lbs of tension is lost. It could be more!
The other implication of notching is string deflection. The rules require the mains and crosses to be alternately interweaved. So each string's path is like a sine curve, with peaks and troughs.
Since notching occurs at the intersection between mains and crosses, the peak-to-trough amplitude reduces after notching. With this lower amplitude, the total "distance" each string has to travel from grommet to grommet is reduced. So tension drops some more!
Notching is an inevitable double whammy! It cannot be prevented. We just have to manage it through regular restrings or mitigate its effect with stringsavers.
Or bear with the floppy trampoline stringbed!
Probably it's that time of the year - making new resolutions, reviewing old ones and comparing notes...
Looking back at the past year, I thought I made decent progress, and even won two chaps I always lost to!
Then dropped back down to earth when I got walloped by an elder man using a beat up WOOD racket!!!
With him leading at 3-2, I ran through my mental checklist, but everything was covered:
- Has my strings lost tension and control?
- Was my grip wet or slipping?
- Were the balls too hard or flat?
- Was I moving my feet?
- Was I hitting the ball deep enough?
- Did I attack his backhand?
- Did I open up the angles?
- Did I vary my game plan and strokes?
It ended 6-3. Not entirely a trashing. And he didn't look that old.
But still, what bothered me was the woodie! How did he wield it like that? That thing was at least 50 grams heavier than my modern graphite 98 square inch! And the headsize was ⅓ smaller!
I am grateful he was quick to soothe my embarrassment. Back in his country, he was a competitive player for many years. He learnt and trained with wood sticks but could not get used to modern rackets however he tried.
Eventually, he decided to just play his classic game, and let his competitors play theirs. Just like what Adam Smith advocated in the Theory of Comparative Advantage - "Do what you do best".
Without a doubt, his mastery of flat shots, slices, volleys and placement was superior to whatever topspin I could muster.
His flat shots were extremely power efficient. That gave him time to place those low skidders. Which in turn, gave me very little time to react and hit, and restricted the amount of topspin I could use. I became a toothless tiger!
Really makes me wonder, that if women, and even kids could handle traditional 400+ grams woodies in the past, have we regressed? The more popular rackets today all weigh only 300+ grams or so.
Is today's parabolic-curving topspin really much faster than the flat shots of yester-years?
I have my doubts. Time to polish up my footwork and review my stringing setup against wood wielders...
