A friend of a playing partner, EC, has been suffering from shoulder pain, especially during serves.
EC is in his late-30s, been enjoying tennis for a few years and has received some coaching before. My initial impressions of him from the first few rally hits was that he is very well-built and a big, strong hitter.
When he showed me his bruises from his TCM massage therapy (link) for his upper right arm and shoulder pain, I was surprised.
Then I noticed he was using the Wilson BLX Tour Limited (link). The specs (reproduced from link):
As usual, most pay attention only to total weight when buying rackets and 315 grams strung sounds really comfortable.
Until one looks at the very stiff flex of RA73, extended length of 27.5", high balance point of 34 cm and a very high swingweight of 345!
The extended length would add about another 10+ SW points to make it play closer to 355-360! That is close to, or more than what is speculated online to be Federer's and Djokovic's racket swingweights!
Really reminds me of:
Swingweight Addiction
Mysterious Arm Pain
To make matters worse, it was strung tight with thick 16 gauge full poly! Now that would be amazing if his arm didn't hurt!
Even his backup racket, a Blade 98 (18x20)(link) was not very forgiving with 16 gauge full poly tightly strung too. Although much more arm "friendlier" at 27 inches, RA 64 and SW of 335, but how many recreational players can load 16 gauge full poly in a dense 18x20 stringbed? Not to mention it was dead poly.
So I suggested good old synthetic gut...
EC added a few layers of overgrips and inadvertently added some comfort by moving the balance a little lower. That also beefed up the weight to absorb some nasty vibes. His chief gripe, was still the dead, powerless, lifeless strings.
The full poly strings weighed 18 grams.
A full bed of synthetic gut weighs only 14 grams. That 4 grams difference reduced the swingweight by approximately 8 SW points. That is significant!
Another major difference is the greater elasticity of syn gut would allow EC to load the strings better, have greater dampening and a lot more power than full poly. EC could swing the racket easier now rather than forcing every shot.
Hopefully, with some rotator cuff exercises (link) I got him to do, and the much softer synthetic gut stringbed, his shoulder and arm would get better.
In case you missed this great article written by Toby, I think it is worth a read:
http://unorthodoxstringing.blogspot.sg/2015/01/why-i-dont-like-poly.html
Play safe to enjoy tennis longer!
Since I was given quite a few packets of SPPP, I thought I'll just continue testing this string to see how to make it work.
This time, I strung it straight-up at 40 lbs based on feedback from my previous attempt. (link) If you look carefully at the pic below, it was done two piece with four knots this time.
Even at this low tension, the extreme low-power remained. I passed this racket around my partners. None liked it. Not even those who were previously fascinated by SPPP's legendary tension holding. Neither those who gave me the string.
Comments mirror those from the previous attempt:
- too low power (note my racket's stock SW is 331)
- low spin
- stiff, uncomfortable strings
- need to bash the ball
- very difficult to serve
I persisted using this up to 8 full hours of play to see if there would be any change. Still equally dead, lifeless and very low spin regardless of type of balls used. My shoulder and elbow ached.
So I decided to try it one last time in my very open 10x19 string pattern. (link) This string pattern needed really strong strings!
Such an open pattern would really stress the strings and help me load the ball with my measly swing! Even kevlar mains (link) lasted only 2+ hours in this racket!
Well... it did perform much better! The power could easily match any string setup in an AeroPro Drive.
Ball rebound and launch angle was only slightly higher than normal. This clearly indicated SPPP's incredible stiffness and tension holding. It did not yield much.
Once I adapted to the power and ball rebound angle, I started whipping the racket to test spin.
It was very, very good!
Even with its incredible power levels, almost trampoline-like, all out forward drives sent probably only 5-10% of the shots out. Most curled down in time, neatly between the service and baseline in my partner's court, then jumped about 45 degrees upwards and forward, reaching my partner's head height before descending.
By then, they were hitting the ball somewhere between the baseline and the back fence. The topspin kicked my shots about 2+ metres before my partner could hit it.
Even after 10 minutes of hitting, my partner could not get the ball timing right due to the excessive spin. It was very difficult to read and anticipate where the ball would land and how far it would jump.
Hey! Even my backhand was working super well! I could hit winners, crosscourt or down the line, when I was a little late for the ball. The power helped!
No noticeable drop in tension nor control was sensed after about 20 minutes of heavy, intense groundstrokes. So I tried serves.
Both flat and spin were good. I had little problems aiming for corners. For once in my life, I could hit topspin serves like what I saw on TV! Offensive, powerful, fast-paced and high-kicking topspin serves! The combination of power and spin in the stringbed was perfect!
My conclusion?
If you think you are a very hard hitter, this string would suit you fine. Else, reserve it for rackets with very open string patterns. Or you may find your ego very quickly and harshly tamed.
Someone whom I string for became curious about this string. He gave me a few sets and asked for my opinion in return.
It was strange that he asked me, a known non-lover of poly (link), to help him assess the strings.
Online reviews have been mixed. Some claim SPPP plays soft and comfortable, while others felt it played stiff and dead. Many suggested tensioning it really low, like low-mid 40s lbs since the tension holding was very good.
After examining the string and taking some measurements, I decided to do up a full bed using proportional stringing (link) averaging about 48 lbs. I need all the power and comfort I can get...
Initial Impressions
- This is a stiff poly with very good tension holding indeed.
- The texture was not as slick as newer polys but neither is it rough nor textured. Just round.
- Most other polys would "slip" through my fingers as I weaved, but this string did not. So I figured the "ball bite" friction should be good for this string.
- Overnight, tension by frequency dropped only about 15 hz, which was impressive since most polys I tried loses about 40+ hz overnight unplayed.
Warm Up Rallies
- Only a very slight softening was felt after half an hour.
- Power was low and pocketing was minimal.
- An abnormally large number of shots hit the tape on the net. To me, this was another indication of its low power and correspondingly, a very low angle of rebound. Most of my shots normally clear the net two to three feet above.
- Control was decent but I struggled with spin. As a result, when I tried to step up the pace, the ball flew long.
Game Play
- Serves were very easy to place due to the tight stringbed. While I could hit down the "T" or out wide quite often, the pace was significantly slower than with other poly strings I used.
- From my side, the serve did not feel offensive enough. I preferred a little more power, so I reduced the spin and hit flatter serves. Then it looked better.
- Return of serves revealed something very interesting to me. When contacted right at the sweetspot, ball impacts felt exceptionally nice, soft, comfy and powerful. But the ball flew long. Not up, but low and long. Even with follow-throughs above my shoulder.
- I noticed the same problem when returning very hard flat shots from my partner. "Trampoline" came to my mind. But only dead centre on the sweetspot. Other areas felt flat and stiff.
- This "trampoline" effect could be due to string loading, string timing and racket timing. Hard incoming shots, like serves, added a lot of "punch" to the stringbed, even with my compact swings.
- This loaded both the strings and the very flexy racket. However, there was a huge rebound timing difference between the strings and the racket, resulting in this "loss of control" feeling. Since I cannot adjust the racket flex, I need to fine tune the tension to minimize this timing gap (link).
- With almost any poly, volleys and touch shots were dead. No exception with SPPP. Totally devoid of feel and feedback even with full proportional stringing. So dead I kept volleying easy shots into the net or out long!
- Long-drawn points were disadvantageous to me since I realized the string and racket flex timings were totally out. Neither could I rely on topspin as I either could not load the strings, or I ended up hitting too clean on the sweetspot. Again, the result was either into the net or out long.
- I found it was very difficult to play with this setup. But keep in mind, I have always preferred syn gut.
Overall
- To me, the greatest strength of this string was also it's worst flaw: tension holding.
- I doubt it was the ingredients. Highly suspect this string was heavily prestretched in the factory, hence its impeccable tension stability, both overnight after stringing and after the initial session of play.
- If it was indeed prestretched, it should have been indicated on the packaging. Then I would have strung this completely differently. Discovering, or suspecting this after stringing it up was very disappointing.
- That said, all was not lost. To those very hard-hitters looking for tension stable polys, or to tame very powerful stiff rackets, this string would be an exceptionally good fit. Just a straight-up full bed somewhere in the mid-40s to mid-50s lbs would suffice.
- If I were to try this string again, I would probably go for 40 lbs or less. That's how meek my swing is!
Playing with my custom drilled 10x19 racket was fun except for very poor string durability. (link) Even kevlar lasts only about two hours. So I needed something MORE durable!!!
I rang up my old friend who is a fishing enthusiast. Knowing that I was using it for tennis, he bought me a set of 49 strand stainless steel wire meant for shark fishing!!! (link1)(link2)
It fit the job perfectly! Since I was no stranger to stringing with steel wire (link), I accepted the strings happily!
With only 10 main strings, I laced them all up before tensioning.
The wire was extremely sharp, especially the ends when it frayed. Despite applying super glue to keep it together, I still suffered a lot of pokes, nicks, scratches and cuts.
To protect the clamps, I placed small pieces of cardboard on the string before clamping.
With normal strings, weaving was extremely easy on this super open pattern. However, given the very rough textured mains, there was too much friction. I had to go super slow.
Even then, strands of synthetic gut was peeled off by the mains while pulling through. My finger tips were cut while weaving too.
Towards the last few crosses, I guess the syn gut has had enough and snapped while tensioning!
Not wanting to re-do from scratch, I used a third piece of string to fill the bottom four crosses. So it's six tie-offs in total.
Here's how it looks when done. Haven't decided whether to snip off the tails of the tied mains yet...
If you decide to string this wire, here are some learning points on hindsight:
- Wear gloves or tape up your finger tips before weaving.
- Wear safety goggles.
- Try this only on an old racket you don't mind risking damage.
- Do not straighten the mains with your fingers after tensioning. It cuts very deep!
- Plan for blocked holes. It was very difficult to move the wire aside.
- Steel wire is very heavy so a light racket with a lower SW than you normally use would be good.
Playtest:
(Opinions from 2 other hitting partners were included below)
- No surprise here. It felt similar to the previous steel wire.
- Not boardy at all! In fact, most freshly strung full polys played stiffer and deader. This had a little more power. I suspect it was due to the huge tension loss from tie-offs.
- The feel was something between a kevlar/syn gut and poly/syn gut hybrid. Soft, but the ball bite and impact feel was really good here.
- Some pocketing could be felt during impacts but the rebound angle was really low so I had to aim up. Good for folks who tend to hit the ball out.
- In short, tight, controlled and very very spinny. Plus a decent sized sweetspot!
- Downside was it lasted me only 15 minutes. If you click and zoom in on the pic below, you would see how rough the syn gut had been abraded by the wire, especially at the sweet spot.
Before anyone asks, I would not be doing this wire stringing for any one. No exceptions.
