Simulating Natural Gut!

Other than wanting more spin, another commonly asked question is which string plays most similarly to natural gut.

Powerful, yet soft, with incredible feel and plushy cupping action, it is little wonder why natural gut managed to seduce and mesmerize so many who have tried it.

I have tested Babolat VS (both with and without BT7), Pacific Classic, Klip Legend and Global Gut. Some clearly needs a fair bit of breaking-in while others played beautifully from the first hit.

So far, my impression of natural gut is that it:
- is soft, comfortable and powerful,
- is very resilient and quick to recover,
- offers tight pocketing and rebounds accurately, and
- holds tension very well.

Only the price is inhibiting. And it does not help that gut and moisture cannot get along at all.

For several months, I have been thinking, testing and re-testing how to replicate the feel of natural gut using a fullbed of synthetic gut. 

Exact reproduction is impossible. My aim is to balance the variables of softness, power, comfort, accuracy and resilience and try to get as close to the feel of natural gut as possible.

Probably into my 14th or 15th iteration now, I believe I am getting close. Or I have been so obsessed, I am getting delusional...

Got my old friend "M", who has one of the most sensitive pair of hands I know to try this setup in his Yonex RD-7. On several previous occasions, M could tell a mere 2 grams difference in racket weight! I value his feedback, plus he will be playing with a regular user of natural gut!

It was a mess stringing this setup. Definitely not recommended for those who prefer traditional and compliant stringing methods.

Since M prefers the raw feel of the stringbed, with only a very light dampening, I weaved and tied a rubber band across several main strings for him.

Playtest:
- M has just returned after spending half a year outstation without tennis, so his game was very rusty. Where he was, the winter months gave him little opportunity for exercise.
- With that perspective in mind, M felt that this setup was "very playable" indeed.
- He remarked this stringjob offered a lot of power but yet gave him a strong sense of being in full control. 
- For as long as I have strung his several RD-7 rackets for him, we have never been able to juggle both power and control together due to the racket's very soft flex of only RA54! So I believe this "natural gut" simulation is going in the right direction.
- In his words, he played a "much easier game" with this setup although there was "not much spin" from the fullbed syn gut. 
- That encouraged him to hit much flatter than usual. While I did not see him play, I think his sudden change from "I want more spin!" to hitting flat could be due to the very addictive plush and deep pocketing this stringing offered, just like natural gut! 
- Even when I got a non-tennis playing friend to just bounce the ball using this setup, the only comment was how comfortable the centre of the stringbed felt.
- I have strung up a similar replica on my ProStaff Classic 6.1. Will test it and update here again...

10Apr2014 update:

- Couldn't find a partner and couldn't wait, so I hit the wall with the ProStaff Classic.
- The stringbed felt a little stiff initially but softened after about 10 minutes of hitting.
- The most distinct difference I felt was in how the stringbed "pocketed" the ball.
- When hard flat shots contacted the stringbed of traditionally strung syn gut or multi, there was no "wrap-around" feeling of the strings around the ball. Just a slight cushioned feeling as the ball pressed into the stringbed.
- But with this setup, I could feel the ball slightly deeper in the stringbed like a "cupping" action. 
- Compared to normal syn gut, even multi, this rebound was very swift, accurate and powerful. It was a combined feeling of softness and tightness together.
- The loading of power was clearly felt in the strings followed by the release, which was somewhat like a mini-catapult propelling the ball forward in the intended direction.
- Off-centre hits remained unpleasant. It was mainly those which contacted near the sweetspot that offered this gut-like feel.
- When I swapped to my Yamaha racket, the stringbed felt so lifeless and tired. More energy, or a fuller swing was needed to hit the same ball above the net line on the wall, while standing the same distance away.
- I will hit some more with this and update again...


11Apr2014 update:
- Played two sets with "W" using this setup.
- Warm-up rallies were very nice. The slower pace shots gave me time to prepare and aim for better contacts which made the strings more enjoyable.
- Power remained very good and very controllable. It was nowhere near trampoline-like, as I could feel the resistance and tightening of the stringbed during pocketing. This gave me enough confidence in the stringbed for me to call any miss-hits my mistake.
- Because of the power, I no longer needed to force nor swing that hard. I let the racket and stringbed do more of the work for me. As a result, I felt my control, placement and direction improved, simply because I needed to do less.
- Generally, the axiom goes "More power, less control" and vice versa. But in this case, the "free" power allowed me to focus on control much better!
- Serves were much easier and required less work too.
- Spin was average, but on centre hits where the pocketing was deepest, a few topspin shots curled down into the court when I thought they were flying out.
- Below pic shows stringbed after 3 hours of use.

Note:
I will not be updating this post anymore. For those who think this is gibberish, feel free to treat this as fiction, or that I was drunk while writing, whichever pleases you more.