He bought a reel of that poly based on good reviews but has never liked it. On the contrary, his experience was very different from what he read.
CK was worried if international shipping could have damaged the string through heat, humidity or other stresses. I assured him not. And poly probably has a long enough shelf life (unstrung) to remain playable even for his great great great grandchildren!
Primarily, CK wanted to know:
(1) what is the "useful tension range" of the poly, and
(2) what are my experiences after using it.
He handed me two coils of about 12 metres each in an unmarked envelope. I have asked not to be told what brand or gauge to remain unbiased.
According to his peers, CK is about a ntrp 4.0 all courter. He uses a 100 sq inch racket with 16x19 string pattern. The closest similar configuration I have is my Wilson Hammer 5.8. As mine was just restrung, CK agreed to wait until my strings are worn before I test his strings.
Physical attributes:
- It is a black coloured poly.
- Looks hexagonally shaped.
- When I tried bending and twisting a short end of the string, it felt very firm and stiff. To me, that was the first hint it could be a stiff poly.
- The string measured very close to 1.15mm on my gauge. It was consistent at ten random spots throughout the entire coil. I'm amazed as there are not many polys this thin.
I chose a poly/syn gut hybrid first, to test how it would perform in just the mains. Also, I like to start from extreme ends then work back towards the mean. So tension would be 55/53 lbs.
While stringing, I weaved a few crosses with the same piece of poly to get a feel of how stiff it was, and also to understand how easy it was to notch. The mains sliding action while playing is a common cause of notching and breakage. This poly is easily notched.
On its own, it can be difficult to assess how much spin it has. So, I always bring a familiar racket and strings setup as a benchmark. It's the Yamaha again.
Playtest observations:
- This is a stiff and low-powered poly. It played so much boardier than almost every stiff poly I've tried.
- The string did not yield much. Surprisingly, it felt very similar to dead poly - flat and lifeless.
- I thought it could be still "too fresh" from stringing, so I hit some hard and flat rally shots with us standing about 2 metres behind the baseline to try to "break-in" the strings. Still no change.
- Spin was pathetic. A poor performance considering it is hex-shaped. Even when I got my partner to feed me easy balls, I could not get my topspin to kick. Many flew out. I am beginning to understand CK's disappointment with this premium string.
- I moved my dampener to 12 o'clock. That added about 10 swingweight points to my plowthrough. Still dead.
- After an hour of hits, it still felt boardy. Any attempts to serve with heavy spin were futile. There wasn't much string movement nor ball fur stuck on the strings either.
- Compare that with the ball fur on the Yamaha with very well worn full bed syn gut below.
- Incidentally, I took a very close look at the Yamaha's syn gut and realised that the main strings' sliding action has "abraded" the cross strings and made them flat instead of round! What do you think that'll do for spin? Easier to slide?
- I'll give this poly some time to settle-in before thinking of my next course of action.
Note:
I will eventually know what brand this string is, but I will not be posting any details about the strings here.
19Mar2014 update:
- I think my strokes are too weak to soften the stringbed, so I got a big hitting poly-loving friend to play with this racket for an hour. Strangely, he loved it.
- I tracked the stringbed frequency. A day after stringing, it dropped about 18Hz. After an hour of play, dropped 13Hz. After my friend hit for an hour, dropped 7Hz. Total drop is only 38Hz so far, and at a declining rate of loss!
- This poly has very impressive tension holding and stability! 55 lbs was definitely way too high!
26Mar2014 update:
- While I enjoy string testing and exploring fanciful string patterns, my old body cannot withstand the rigours of daily tennis anymore. So I delegated this poly test to another poly loving partner of mine. I will still hit with it but only for a short while, and intermittently.
- I cut out the previous setup and restrung at 45/43 lbs. Ten pounds is a significant drop, I think.
- Through googling, I realised that there are actually factory pre-stretched poly strings for sale. To me, this defies logic. There is so little elasticity in poly, and most are already over-tensioning poly. And now factory pre-stretched? I suspect this mystery string could be one.
- Not surprisingly, after about 90 minutes of play, this friend remarked that the string played almost similar to the previous setup at 55/53 lbs! Huh? Could be a first clue this string was pre-stretched.
- As usual, I'll let the stringbed settle and try it out myself.
28Mar14 update:
- I played an hour with this setup. Perhaps my friend has already broken-in the string for me, but it felt so much softer and responsive today compared to previously.
- Spin was more than at 55 lbs but it did not wow me nor my partner.
- Comfort improved a lot. Power was still low.
- After a total of about 3 hours of hits, tension loss was a measly 28Hz, or about 2.8 lbs.
- Pretty sure this is the pre-stretched stuff now.
- Will advise CK to string this poly really low. 40 lbs could be a good start for a hybrid and high 30s for a fullbed. Reason being it was pre-stretched, and also to allow some ball pocketing, without which there would not be heavy spin.
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