Speed Stringing
 

Does anybody know how to use the the free time the tension head is pulling to do manual work and to speed up the stringing process?
Is the secret to speed stringing to do things really fast or not to waste time in unnecessary body motions?
What you think?

Easterngrip

I assume you are talking about an electronic tension head. When stringing the mains you could weave the next main. When stringing the crosses you can start to move your clamp. The clamp on the side your going to clamp is not being used to hold the last tensioned string anyway.

The secret to speed stringing is to do it as fast as possible and quality is of no concern. You don't want any miss weaves though or knot that come untied.

Thanks Irvin for your thoughts.
Do you think pre-stretching and pre-weaving the strings speed up the stringing process?

Pre-stretching could if you remove coil memory. You may prevent tangles that way. Pre-weaving will speed up the process.

One technique, I noticed is holding the end of the string while pulling the slack. That way you are not always trying to find the end of the string. I've seen some hold the end in thier mouths.

I suggest doing this (your hand, not necessarily in your mouth (unless it is tasty beef gut)) whether you are "speed stringing" or not.

there is already a thread just made about a week ago. scroll further down the page. check it out

There is an old saying (well, maybe not that old): a fast stringer is a loose stringer.
Speed stringers like the NEOS, but when you 'yank the crank' rather than pulling slowly, the tension drop is much larger.

The way to pick up time is to eliminate wasted movements, which , I think is what you are really asking.
Tournament stringers are amazingly fast, but they don't need to be concerned with how the racquet plays in thee weeks, either.

i think the tournament stringers are on a different level

Zapvor, what skills you think tournament stringers have that we, ordinary stringers, do not have?

High end machines and a lot of practice.

Indeed, they are.
No wasted movements, excellent fine motor skills, and great stamina.

We need a special utility belt to hold the end of the string.

let me say this. i used to string maybe 200 a year. this summer got busy and i did over 1300 in 5months. by doing that much in that short time 2 things happened:
1-i forced myself to get efficient
2-just through mere repetition i found myself getting faster.

so for those tournament stringers who have done easily 10000 i think along the way they figured out stuff that we have not

in fact i surprised myself. before this year my avg was about 25min. just the other day i casually timed myself for fun, and finished in under 16min. and i was going fairly casual.

exactly. the stamina is staggering.

try stand for 8hrs and just string non stop for a day, then come back and tell me how your day was

Thanks for the understanding/empathy zap.

Try 12-14hr days for 3 weeks straight. Granted, the real crush is Sat/Sun/Mon early qualies and Sat/Sun/Mon before main draw. But you're on site, ready to go for whatever is required to get sticks in hand for practice/play.

In the heyday of my retail world, I've strung as many as 50+ in a day and 220+ in a week.

But nothing kicks my rump like a Grand Slam when I'm only doing 15-35/day, because it's mostly full poly, a lot of pre-stretching non-poly, stenciling, bagging, to extreme pressure for perfection. It takes it's toll for sure.

I can teach a "home stringer" to pull off an equivalent quality string job in the end. But I can't teach them to do a less than 15 minute, mistake free, "on court" job.
That takes multiple levels of talent.

I've always expressed that there are a lot of "fast" stringers and a lot of "great" stringers out there. But very few "great and fast".

Kind of like how very few smoking hot and brilliant women are represented in the population. OK, maybe I should not have gone there, but I did;-)

Stringwalla:
Can you share with us the secrets of being a great and fast stringer?
Is there an specific set of biomechanical skills that a stringer has to develop in order to do a sub 15 minutes on-court stringjob?
What about using the time the machine is pulling to do manual work?
Does it really help the stringer to string faster?

butting in here if you dont mind-keep stringing and you will start to learn all the little things. its not just about the time when machine is pulling.

yep yep!

i can do a sub 15min job on the spot for anyone walking in the door. do i get to be great and fast? :P

I recall a line from the movie, Marrying Man. A guy fixing a flat tire (the old intertube type) says, "Do you want it done fast? or do you want it to last?"

nuf said