Tuesday 17 February 2015

Custom Drilling: 10x19 Spin Pattern (Part 2)

Following the poor tension holding of the poly cross (link), I decided to re-string with full synthetic gut to test how this would perform.

A thicker gauge for the mains would be paired with a thinner one for the crosses.

Playtest:
- With full synthetic gut and without looking at the racket, I could not believe there were only 10 main strings!
- Comfort went further up a notch over the previous strings and control became as good as I could remember for this racket before the conversion.
- The amount of spin did not drop at all. It maintained as vigorous as with the poly cross. 
- The loud crackling sound of the mains moving during ball impact remained, followed by the ball kicking furiously towards my partner's face level.
- I felt much more relaxed and confident with this strings and thus swung smoother and harder than with the earlier poly cross. Perhaps this was why spin levels maintained, simply due to a harder hit?
- Visually, and with my partner's verbal confirmation, full syn gut generated a heavier ball. My partner recounted more racket twists (on his own racket) receiving off-centred hits than with my previous strings. In his words, he described my shots moving "fast and furious".
- On my side, I would attribute this to the extra power from the very open stringbed, rather than me exerting greater effort. I did not do anything differently.
- Throughout the 2 hours, I did not adjust the main strings at all. There was full snapback.
- Both serves and flat shots were equally good and accurate. No mis-directions. 
- A group who booked the courts after my session noticed my racket and asked if they could try it. I relented after seeing their Pro Staff RF97 Autograph and the Pro Staff 95s in exchange. They were similarly impressed!
- Again, towards the 3 hours mark, a main string snapped. The difference this time was it played well till it broke.
- Another significant difference was the hoop width compressed 1.0 cm immediately after just one main string snapped. This showed how much extra stress the lesser number of mains were withstanding compared to the crosses. Pics below.


Hoop width after one main snapped.


Close-up to eliminate parallax error. Width was 25.0 cm.



Hoop width after strings cut was 26.0 cm. Difference of 1.0 cm.


See the difference below? I was lucky the hoop survived!






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