He suggested I string the outside perimeter strings first, then the centre mains and crosses. Previously, I used a soft poly in the centre and syn gut around the perimeter.
The explanation was interesting and sounded convincing. Syn gut, being the softer string is almost always strung at a higher tension than poly. If the lower-tensioned poly was strung before the syn gut, he noticed that his racket frame would compress a little more during the syn gut stringing.
Since the frame was compressed, that led to some "tension loss" of the poly which made it play flat and dead from the first hit.
But how did he know the frame shortened since the racket was mounted?
Well... he claimed he dismounted the racket after completing the poly centre mains and crosses and measured hoop length and width. Complete with a starting clamp dangling at the side!
And he measured again after the softer perimeter strings were done. Shorter it was!
However, when the order was reversed, the dimensions remained constant, he claimed.
While I have several experimental frames to muck around with, I have no intention of finding out how my racket internals look like yet.
So for me, no dismounting halfway, but I'm game enough to give it a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Also, he added that soft poly strings play much better when strung with lock-out machines as compared to the constant tensioning of electronic and dropweight machines.
Below pic shows the higher-tensioned outer perimeter syn gut being completed first...
Could it be Lendl himself who sent the email? Or his stringer?
Playtest:
- I was pleasantly surprised how comfortable and yet controlled this stringbed played from the first hit!
- The sweetspot was right smack in the middle of the poly strings. It was very easy to find because it was so soft. I cannot recall when have I ever enjoyed this poly so much before.
- Spin seemed average to me, perhaps because I have been using so many extreme spin setups that this did not stand out. As usual, backhand slices were better than forehand topspins.
- Compared to the dead, stiff, boardy and powerless previous attempt (link), this felt like a totally different racket with different strings and different tension. Yet, everything was the same! Only the order of stringing was different!
- Pocketing was nice and harder flat hits were rewarded with accurate and powerful rebounds, with some unintended winners.
- Compared to syn gut, the poly pocketing was still "limited" in how much it gives before the feeling of hitting a wall took over.
- That was the only thing I disliked because the distinct stiff feel of poly was most clearly felt there, when the pocketing reached its limit.
No comments:
Post a Comment