Monday 22 September 2014

Double Weaving for More Spin?

I cannot think of a proper name for this stringing pattern. Instead of alternating the mains and crosses, the crosses were woven in "pairs".



Whatever we call it, this pattern does not conform to the ITF tennis rules for a proper stringbed. (link)


All I wanted to know, was how this would play, especially in terms of spin!





Playtest:

- I had expected this to play close to the faux spaghetti pattern (link), however, it did not.
- Compared to the unwoven spaghetti, this had much more control, but still, it was just a little short of a normally interlaced stringbed.
- Because of the double weave, the cross strings could not be straightened. They bunched up together in pairs as seen in the last pic above. This slightly wider cross gaps looked like a modern spin effect racket.
- Spin was impressive. Effortlessly impressive. Normal strokes were enough to generate extra spin. Steep upward strokes made things very difficult for my partner as my shots resembled mini-lobs.
- Rebound was higher than normal. Despite aiming straight at the net tape, the ball clearance was about 3-4 feet above the net. The extra spin brought it down rapidly before the baseline so I could swing freely.
- Spin serves were wicked. The high clearance made it look like it was going long, but the spin curled it in very fast, then kicked off hard.
- Problem was returning very hard flat serves or groundstrokes as the stringbed depressed more than usual and rebounded unpredictably.
- Another would be potential short string life as there was severe notching on the sliding mains even after only an hour of play.
- Nevertheless, I think this could be a good serve and volley setup.





2 comments:

  1. Hi. First time visiting your page. Do you use this double weaving often for match play?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Miguel,

      Nope. This weaving pattern is illegal for match play.

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