Just before April Fool's day, a friend was dropping off two rackets to be restrung when I asked if he would like to test some new stringing idea I had.
We have done this many times, so he readily agreed, not even asking what was to be done.
This friend held a firm belief, that in order to play his very best, the strings must be freshly strung and pulled tight. He uses multi/syn gut hybrid at 67/65 lbs and restrings after every 8-10 hours of play.
For the pair of matched sticks, I strung one normally, and "experimented" with the other.
Of the total 35 (16+19) mains and crosses, I hand-pulled 20% of them, which is a total 7 strings!
Specifically, all four outer mains and crosses, plus the left mains #3, #4 and right mains #5 were tensioned by hand, aided by a starting clamp while mounted on the stringing machine!
All I intended, was to prank him and get him to loose some control. Then restring that for him at my expense. Instead, this threw up a new discovery!
From the first few hits, he noticed one racket was strung looser. "Not very much looser", he said, but "distinguishable". I was surprised he found it playable and asked him to tell me more, not revealing the secret to him yet.
Thinking it was some exotic setup, he adjusted his strokes and tried to identify areas where this setup could play well. Although looser strung, it was completely different from how his usual setup played after it had lost tension.
This was livelier and controllable! Totally unlike the loss of control and unpredictable rebound of worn strings that had lost tension!
Then I dropped the bomb...
Suffice it to say, he is now happily experimenting with slightly lower tensions and beginning to enjoy them.
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