Fancy: How About Grass Trimmer Line?

After successfully testing with fishing line (link), I thought I'll venture back on land and see how would the grass trimmer line (weed wacker) perform in a racket. 

Since this string is designed with six-sided blades to cut grass, it should not have any problems shaving some ball fur instead right?

This is the thinnest trimmer line I could find and it's still 1.7mm. The thickest tennis strings are only about 1.4mm! Fitting this through the grommets would be challenging.

While studying the string's properties, I noticed clamps leave some bite marks. So, to ease threading this thick line through the grommets, I flattened both ends with a pliers and then split the string into two to thin it out. One of the split end is removed.

Even then, it takes some force to pull through the grommet. The string is very very rough. After being cut by the fishing line last time, I now use pliers for all pulls.

There is just so much friction from the rough string that even the grommets were accidentally pulled out!

Unfortunately, one of the dislodged grommet was from a tie-off hole. So re-inserting it was almost impossible. I cut them out and replaced them with individual grommets. (!@#$%^&*~)

Just getting the mains done took me more than an hour! I did not want to rush the job and end up damaging all the grommets in this racket. All threading and pulls were slow and deliberate.

Compared to the mains, weaving the crosses was much easier! But by the last cross, I realised that fingerprints on both my index fingers (which I use to weave) were all dis-figured. That's how rough the trimmer line is!

Here's a closer look. Can you see the ridges on the blue line?

Playtest:
- There is a very low pitched pinging sound upon ball impacts. Within a few hits, my doubles partner beside me asked if this was strung at very low tension.
- Spin is above average. As usual, slices shine.
- I had no problems with directional control. The stringbed felt tight and firm but there is an odd feeling.
- Power is very good. No trampoline.
- Volleys are very nice and easy.
- After about an hour, there is zero notching on the mains.
- The odd part is the harder the hits, the better the stringbed feels. Perhaps it is due to the extra thickness of 1.7mm, any light strokes feel dull, but heavy all-out swings really come to life with very nice and soft pocketing. This aspect is very similar to my experience with freshly strung natural gut. Even the powerful rebound of this trimmer line is very close to gut.
- If this line does break-in or soften with use, then I think there is a huge potential as a comfort string.
- Another downside is this thick line feels heavier than the usual 15g or so for tennis strings. The racket's swingweight increased slightly, but I like heavy swingweight rackets.

26Aug2013 update:
- The low pitched pinging sound totally disappeared. It didn't bother me anyway.
- The stringbed seems to have softened very slightly. It does not seem to demand a full bash just to obtain that soft pocketing feel today.
- Control and spin seems to have improved, or I may just be hitting better this session.
- Again, full strokes are required. Half-hearted swings are usually punished with balls going into the net or towards the fence.
- To me, this is a very playable setup. But I still need a lot of convincing given how difficult it is to string!

28Aug2013 update:
- Despite this being a very thick line to use for tennis, its ability to stretch exceeds that of tennis synthetic gut, at least for the type of syn gut I use.
- Most of the multifilament and syn gut strings that I use have a elastic stretch ranging from about 1.5cm at 25lbs to 2.4cm at 70lbs. 
- Take a look at the chart below and see how stretchy this trimmer line is.

- This chart only shows one aspect of this string, and it is evident that this line is very elastic with very low deformation. That's why I thought it is suitable to be used for tennis and even strung my racket with it.
04Sep2013 update:
- I set this racket aside for about a fortnight to let the strings "settle-in".
- Control and spin were still very very good.
- Serves were excellent today. It had accuracy, power and spin. Against natural gut, syn gut and poly, I think this trimmer line delivered serves much better!
- The same dead feel happened with light and medium shots. Once full baseline strokes were taken, the stringbed came to live.
- Volleys, however were good. Probably because of the power and pocketing.
- Return of serves were similarly dead since I don't swing all out for returns.
- To me, the biggest disadvantage of this "dead" feel is the inability to gauge depth of ball. There is so little feedback that I cannot tell if I got the sweetspot or missed it. There is just nothing, no feel, no harshness. 
- Out of fear of hitting the ball long, I ended up blocking most shots ball back, which became sitting ducks for my partner to slam down.
- I think serve and volley players would like this setup very much. The other group that can appreciate this would be very hard and heavy baseline bashers who are thoroughly committed to their shots.

Fancy: Wilson Hammer5.8 + Poly/Syn Gut

A picture speaks a thousand words. 

Can you spot what has been done to the cross strings?

This racket has a 16x19 string pattern. Two crosses were skipped so it has been strung as 16x17 with poly in mains and syn gut in crosses.

Playtest:
- With this crosses setup, I managed to retain almost the same amount of spin while improving comfort and control as compared to the previous 16x10 stringbed. (link)
- When desired, a simple wipe of the wrist can add a lot of extra spin to make the shot more offensive.
- The traditional stiff boardy feel of the poly mains have been softened substantially so it plays very comfortable.
- Control improved tremendously since an extra 7 cross strings were strung. In exchange, there is a slight drop in power with a lower rebound angle, but it was easily overcome with a slightly longer swing.
- Another plus I liked was the great improvement in flat serves which the previous 16x10 only scored an average.
- Comfort and control were the top attributes consistently mentioned by those who have tested this setup.

Fancy: Fishing Line Anyone?

Despite having read online about others' bad experience with fishing line, I was still eager to try it.

I consulted an old friend who has been an avid angler for more than two decades. For an hour, he meticulously explained the varieties of fishing rods, methods and different types of lines to me.

Thereafter, I asked him to cut me some fishing line that's between 1.10mm to 1.30mm thick to try stringing my racket with.

As usual, the first thing I did was to test the line's elastic properties. After comparing with tennis strings and making adjustments, I started work.

The fishing line was extremely smooth and slick. Like glass. Yet I could feel friction when pulling it through the grommets. It is so clear it's almost transparent.

To pull tension, I had to use my starting clamp to secure the string at the back of the gripper to prevent it from slipping.

When tension was applied, the line stretched slightly slower than syn gut (more like natural gut) before stabilizing. The stretch recovered quickly when tension was released.

I made the mistake of tugging at the knot with my bare hand to tighten it and got a small cut. I can immediately visualize the line cutting through the ball fur. If this is playable, spin levels should be very exciting!

The synthetic gut crosses was extremely easy to weave as the fishing line was softer than and much more slick than poly.

When bouncing a ball, the stringbed feel reminded me of natural gut. It provided a very soft and deep pocketing and yet had a very fast and powerful rebound. Clearly, the string had a lot of give and was able to recover powerfully.

Playtest:
- The fishing line / syn gut hybrid is totally playable!
- From the first hit, it was very soft and comfortable. It does not seem to require any breaking-in at all. Even after 30 minutes, the feel remained constant.
- Control was very good. There was no hint at all that it was fishing line. Ball contacts felt exactly like it was strung with tennis strings. Soft, controllable and comfortable!
- Topspin was only slightly above average but slices were very good, making the ball skid after the bounce.
- Volleys were on par with full syn gut. No problem with accuracy nor depth control.
- My partner today "D" has a long history of wrist injury. I got him to test out this stringbed, telling him it's fishing line before handing him the racket. Within just a few hits, "D" liked it so much he asked if I could string this exact setup for him!
- Even from my side of the court, I could see him shaking his head in astonishment after every shot on how good the stringbed felt and how good it played! His comments echoed mine, that it felt comfortable and controlled.
- I would say that this fishing line behaved a little between a poly and natural gut. It has the crispness and slickness of poly but the pocketing, comfort and powerful resilience of natural gut.

24Aug2013 update:
- Took this out for another spin today.
- The stringbed still feels similar to the previous session. Tension holding seems good and performance seems consistent.
- I swapped between a few rackets today so when I was playing with this, it felt the most comfortable and powerful. While pocketing is deep, rebound is also fast and consistent.
- Between this fishing line and the grass trimmer line (link), I like this a little more as the thin gauge provides much better feel.

- A quick check on the weight of a half-set of fishing line (about 19ft).

26Aug2013 update:
- This is the fourth session of use. The stringbed still feels crisp and fresh, yet have very nice and deep pocketing with strong rebound. I am happy with the tension holding and durability so far.
- Against my old friend "M", I did not hold back and let it all out. Both of us stood about 2 metres (6 ft) behind the baseline and bashed the ball with full strokes. The fishing line held up very well and delivered very good power and spin with heaps of comfort. My shots landed very deep, just about a metre (3 ft) inside the baseline and kicked up. Some shots that looked like moonballs curved down hard just when I thought it was going out. So this line works better when hit hard.
- Both flat serves and spin serves worked well too! This is very likely to become one of my main setups.
- Lots of ball fur were ripped off today and still zero notching on the mains!!! See pic below.

28Aug2013 update:
- Tension, spin, control and comfort are all still holding up well for this session.
- During gameplay, I felt there was a very slight loss of elasticity. It seems the stringbed is starting to show some fatigue.
- I checked for notching in the mains and found some very very slight notches. Not sure if you can see it in the picture.
- I seriously doubt if I can snap the mains even after a few more hours of play. Whatever it is, I'll use this till it either snaps or goes "dead".

04Sep2013 update:
- There was a heavy downpour that ended just an hour before my game. So here's my chance to test how this fishing line would perform with soaking wet heavy balls.
- I have been severely bashed hit with nationally ranked players before. Other than their consistency and repertoire of tricks, the other thing that stands out was how "heavy" their shots were. Since I don't get to play with these folks often, hitting with wet balls became my substitute. 
- This fishing line scored very high marks indeed! Many aspects like pocketing, comfort, control, fast powerful rebound is very close to natural gut.
- Only feel is slightly lacking.
- I tried a variety of serves - flat, side spin, topspin - and all performed very well. Since it was not matchplay, I ratcheted up the power to 100% just to see if control could still hold up. And it did! Even swinging at maximum strength, out of about 20, I aced 3, faulted 5 and of the rest, only 4 were returned! And my partner today is an agile and fit rock climber cum regular tri-athlete competitor!
- There is still almost no notching on the fishing line but I can feel the elasticity is declining.
- I enjoy this line very much. This will be another combo that will be part of my regular setup!

07Sep2013 update:
- Two friends tried this today. One of which is a tennis coach and he liked it from the first hit. We played two-to-one against him to let him test some shots under pressure to see if the stringbed's control would perform under duress. 
- Whether is it volleys, swinging volleys, lobs, drops, flat or topspin groundstrokes on the run, he was extremely impressed despite heavy initial skepticism. He even repeatedly asked about the fishing line specs and setup after the test!
- In another previous session, another 4.5-5.0 player also expressed a strong liking for the power, comfort and control after hitting.
- The end of today's session would mark about 7 hours of use.

Overhaul: Wilson ProStaff Classic 6.1

My last few stringing experiments were mainly done on the Black Ace 98, Hammer5.8 and M-Fil300.

After heavy modifications (link1)(link2), these three are currently my most comfortable frames. That's why I conduct odd tests on them since they shield a lot of harmful and jarring vibrations from my hand.

After a few weeks, I have unconsciously become accustomed to their extremely clean ball impact feel. 

When I picked up my favourite PSC6.1 on court again, I was stunned by how punishing off-centre hits feel with this racket! How did I fall in love with this racket?

Maybe I am infected by the "blame the tool" virus (link). Nevertheless, the day of reckoning has arrived for my old faithful. It is due for a makeover!

The plan is to add some dampening into the frame to offer more protection for my wrist and elbow joints.

All measurements are taken twice and recorded. Particularly weight, balance and frequencies.

The original leather grip still looks good after all these years.

The racket serial number is clearly labeled on the bare handle.

I had expected both holes to be filled with foam. Surprisingly, only one is filled and the other is hollow!

After such a long time, the foam has become dry and brittle. I doubt if they can still fulfill their vibration dampening role well. So I dug out as much as I could, then replenished them with a mix of polystyrene beads and molding resin.

I nailed the buttcap back on to facilitate ease of removal should it be necessary later.

All the specs are perfect! So I just need to slap on a grip and it's good to go!!!

From simple ball bouncing tests, I can already clearly feel the difference. A lot of noise has been filtered out. What's left is a much purer ball impact feel.

Playtest:
- The previous harsh vibrations has been toned down significantly.
- Feedback became a little more muted than I like but the feel is not dead at all.
- I could not feel any impact on balance or power at all.

26Aug2013 update:
- I used this to play with my most regular partner "M". 
- The clearest change that stood out is that this racket has become less de-polarised. I cannot say it is polarised since there is still a significant heft in the middle but the swing has become slightly faster and much easier to accelerate.
- As a result, spin and power both increased slightly.
- Because of the faster swing, I noticed most of my shots went slightly left and carried a "diagonal" spin, something like when you brush the back of the ball from 4 o'clock to 10 instead of 6 to 12. I was contacting the ball earlier, which is good since I feel I am sometimes too slow!

What am I looking for?

While most of my tennis partners are intrigued by my unusual stringing experiments, some questioned why don't I spend more time practising my game instead?

That's the privilege of owning a stringing machine. I get to try anything that catches my eye. If I can get hold it, I'll string it!

Another more important reason is the huge fitness gap between what I am today and two decades ago. 

Back then, I would play from first light at daybreak till dark, skipping lunch completely, and sometimes even throwing in a swim or a jog in between hits! Now, I cannot even last an hour just rallying in the noon sun.

Just to improve one aspect like serve, footwork, or swing timing, I need to spend several hours training before I start seeing results. And those rigorous drills would exact a huge toll on my wrist, elbow, shoulder and knee joints.

Simply put, I play tennis to keep fit. Not keep fit to play tennis.

So I play with strings instead! And along the way, try to find a better combo that can best match my style of play.

Summarised, the tennis game involves only four aspects:

1. Serve,

2. Return of serve,

3. Net play (eg volleys, overheads), and

4. Groundstrokes.

These are the four areas I always test strings on.

As for the stringbed feel, what I lookout for includes:

1. Comfort,

2. Control,

3. Spin,

4. Power,

5. Durability (tension holding and breakage)

My top priority is always comfort and control. After all, the stringing guru advocates playing with "the loosest string tension you can still control". (link)

Any unorthodox stringings are just for fun.

In fact, I have some wicked ideas already brewing in the cauldron. Just need to find the time to cast the spell...

A Word of Caution...

This blog is to document my tennis racket stringing and modification experiments. 

I do not detail every thought or process in this blog. Otherwise, I'll be better off authoring a book instead of a blog, isn't it?

The reason I'm writing this is because I am a little saddened by an email I received. It was not a flaming email but one that was very humbly worded, asking for some stringing advice. 

A zealous reader attempted to duplicate my PK BA98 (link) stringing. Unfortunately, his favourite racket collapsed when pulling tension on the crosses.

Whenever I attempt some unproven, fanciful stringing or modifications, I do them on my "test" rackets. Never on my preferred sticks.

The reader used a crank machine whereas I used a dropweight. Crank machines are known for over-tensioning. It is in the design. And the amount it over-tensions depends on your calibration and how fast/hard you crank it. Some online posts claim it over-tensions by as much as 12 lbs!

Now, if you add 12 to 80, that's 92 lbs! My Black Ace 98 was rated to take up to 68 lbs. I overshot by about 12 lbs. But 90+ lbs on any racket would be pushing it a little too far.

If you wish to replicate any of my experiments, please do so on an old test racket that is of little value to you. More importantly, exercise care and put safety above all else.

Residual Elasticity (Part 2): Hammer5.8 (16x10 Proportional)

(Link to Part 1 is here)

Among all the strings I've tried, poly has the highest deformation factor. That's why tension loss for poly is always so high. Especially immediately after stringing!

To further test my theory on stringing based on residual elasticity, I will be stringing with used poly this time.

The used poly string will come from my Wilson Hammer 5.8 (link). It was strung a few months ago and should have seen at least 10 hours of play, maybe more.

My plan is to string 2-piece with poly in mains. The previous stringing pattern would give me plenty of extra string to play with. A new set of synthetic gut will be used for crosses. That would help me isolate any problems, if any, with the stringbed later.

Before re-use, the used poly was tested for its elasticity, resilience and deformation properties. The test results would determine the tension and stringing method to use.

To prevent unnecessary stress or damage to the used poly, I am using only both ends for testing since they will be trimmed after stringing. Each segment of string would be tested a maximum of three times with the lightest tension first and heaviest last. 

After I have arrived at my preferred tension, I will test the centre of the used poly string once to confirm consistency of results. This is because the centre of the stringbed suffers more ball impacts than the side strings.

Here's a pic of how a segment of string was marked, measured, clamped and tested. Two black dots (circled in red) marks the test length before, during and after tension was applied.

Here's two results (from the same string segment) which I felt were insightful:

Test1
Starting length: 20.1cm 
Length @ 45lbs: 20.8cm (after 1min)
Length @ 45lbs: 20.9cm (after 30min)
Ending length: 20.3cm
Elasticity @ 45lbs: (20.9 - 20.3)/20.3 = 2.95%

Test2
Starting length: 20.3cm 
Length @ 50lbs: 20.9cm (after 1min)
Length @ 50lbs: 21.0cm (after 5min)

Length @ 50lbs: 21.1cm (after 30min)

Ending length: 20.3cm
Elasticity @ 50lbs: (21.1 - 20.3)/20.3 = 3.94%

If you refer back to my chart on "Poly Stretch Test" posted in March 2013 (link), you can see that this poly starts stretching from about 45 lbs. The above test findings again confirms that.

One very important observation is the absence of additional string deformation at 50lbs after the 45lbs test was completed. Despite being re-used, this poly string stays resilient!

Thus, 50lbs was selected as the starting tension and proportional stringing was used, just like the PK Black Ace 98 (link). That's how much I like that setup!

Stringing pics below...

From the last pic, it is clear how the slick round poly mains "snap back" automatically whereas the synthetic gut strings lay crooked.

Playtest:
- It played very very close to the PK BA98 (link).
- From the first hit, it is very comfortable. There is absolutely zero trace that the poly was re-used! From my previous recollection of how the poly played when new, it felt exactly the same to me. Exactly.
- Directional control is good. But there is this same feeling of the ball "penetrating the cross strings gap" whenever I crank it up. It is not a serious mis-direction and happens only occasionally. Maybe it will go away in the second session like previously?
- Spin shines! Between this and the BA98 full syn gut, the spin levels appear very similar.
- Power level for this is slightly lower than the BA98 full syn gut. So it is very good for people who like to swing all out. The low-power and heavy spin would easily keep the ball in the court.
- I'll test it again in the next session and update later.

12Aug2013 update:
- Surprisingly, the ball "penetrating the cross strings gap" problem disappeared.
- Spin levels improved over the first session. Both serves and groundstrokes kicked up hard and fast. Slices skidded off the ground wickedly and forced my partner to scrap the racket against the floor just to return that shot.
- The used poly performed as well as, if not better, than a fresh set of similar poly string. I am thoroughly satisfied that it is possible to re-use strings as long as it is strung based on residual elasticity.
- The new synthetic gut cross string lost quite a bit of tension during play today. It started getting softer and softer. As crazy as it sounds, I prefer re-using used strings as tension holding is so much more stable.
- Similar to the PK BA98 (link), light notching can be seen only on the mains poly string. The crosses have absolutely zero notching so far. I find this strange as poly is so much stiffer than syn gut. It seems like tightly-strung syn gut could be stiffer than poly!