TonyB
09-21-2008, 01:28 PM
As if most of you didn't already know, the selection of strings for each individual racquet makes a huge difference.
It has never before become so evident to me than yesterday, when I finally cut out the old, old, OLD stringbed from my newly-traded-to-me POG mid. It had some NXT Max 15L in there with what felt like about 40 lb. tension left in it. Suffice it to say, the feel and touch was incredible. Very low powered... I really had to put some pop into my shots if I wanted to hit winners. But drop shots... oh my god, they were like butter. I could grab the ball, hold it for a second, then just PLACE it anywhere I wanted. I played at least 4 sets of doubles with the old strings and I made my normally-competitive opponents look like rank beginners. Seriously. And the racquet just felt so soft, so squishy, it felt like 50 RA.
However, in my attempt to gain some power behind my serve and groundstrokes, I installed my old standby hybrid of Tonic+ (gut) mains and Silverstring (poly) crosses at 54/51, which I assumed would be fairly low. What a mistake!! Now the racquet is completely devoid of all touch and feel, but it does have decent power. When I hit a dropshot now, I have no clue whether or not the ball is going over the net or hitting the backstop. I feel totally disconnected from the ball. And the racquet feels like a piece of wood. I would swear that I've got a Babolat arm-breaker in my hands. It's horrid.
But I would have never, EVER, known about how good the POG can be with the right strings if I had just jumped the gun and cut out the old strings before playing with them. To that, I consider myself fortunate enough to have experienced the soft, controlled glory of the "old NXT Max 15L" strings.
Needless to say, I just ordered 3 sets of NXT Max (and some Ashaway Crossfire for R&D purposes) from TW today. I just hope and pray that I can recapture the feel of that original soft stringbed.
Oddly, now the POG mid feels almost IDENTICAL to my Yonex RDS 001 mids, now that they have the exact same string hybrid installed. It's wierd how close they are. Sure, they swing a little different, and feel a little different when striking the ball, but I'd guess that they're 90% identical, which is just plain wierd.
All in all, a good learning experience and something to keep in mind when either buying used racquets or demo-ing new ones. I guess I've always sort of known that strings can make a difference in how a racquet plays, but I would have never guessed that it would have been THAT much different. The POG was literally like a totally different racquet with the new strings... and not in a good way, either.
It has never before become so evident to me than yesterday, when I finally cut out the old, old, OLD stringbed from my newly-traded-to-me POG mid. It had some NXT Max 15L in there with what felt like about 40 lb. tension left in it. Suffice it to say, the feel and touch was incredible. Very low powered... I really had to put some pop into my shots if I wanted to hit winners. But drop shots... oh my god, they were like butter. I could grab the ball, hold it for a second, then just PLACE it anywhere I wanted. I played at least 4 sets of doubles with the old strings and I made my normally-competitive opponents look like rank beginners. Seriously. And the racquet just felt so soft, so squishy, it felt like 50 RA.
However, in my attempt to gain some power behind my serve and groundstrokes, I installed my old standby hybrid of Tonic+ (gut) mains and Silverstring (poly) crosses at 54/51, which I assumed would be fairly low. What a mistake!! Now the racquet is completely devoid of all touch and feel, but it does have decent power. When I hit a dropshot now, I have no clue whether or not the ball is going over the net or hitting the backstop. I feel totally disconnected from the ball. And the racquet feels like a piece of wood. I would swear that I've got a Babolat arm-breaker in my hands. It's horrid.
But I would have never, EVER, known about how good the POG can be with the right strings if I had just jumped the gun and cut out the old strings before playing with them. To that, I consider myself fortunate enough to have experienced the soft, controlled glory of the "old NXT Max 15L" strings.
Needless to say, I just ordered 3 sets of NXT Max (and some Ashaway Crossfire for R&D purposes) from TW today. I just hope and pray that I can recapture the feel of that original soft stringbed.
Oddly, now the POG mid feels almost IDENTICAL to my Yonex RDS 001 mids, now that they have the exact same string hybrid installed. It's wierd how close they are. Sure, they swing a little different, and feel a little different when striking the ball, but I'd guess that they're 90% identical, which is just plain wierd.
All in all, a good learning experience and something to keep in mind when either buying used racquets or demo-ing new ones. I guess I've always sort of known that strings can make a difference in how a racquet plays, but I would have never guessed that it would have been THAT much different. The POG was literally like a totally different racquet with the new strings... and not in a good way, either.