Horrors of the 2011 Orange Bowl Stringing Service

[coachrick]

I had two clients who remained with me throughout their junior, college and pro(1) careers. The older player was a VERY highly ranked junior, traveling the world with 12-15 strung frames each trip. On the occasion that her parent(s) would join her in Europe or other parts of the world, they would take replacement frames and bring back the others for service.

I often wondered what would happen if I were to 'disappear'. Didn't happen until they 'retired'; but one story from the Italian Junior ?Open? was revealing. The young lady needed one frame strung, just in case. At the tournament venue, she was charged the equiv. of $50 US for LABOR(with her supplied syn) in a mid-sized Prince Graphite(as in UNDER 15 minutes)! She hit about 6 balls with it and put it back in her bag. Upon her return, I could spot that racket from across the room. I'm pretty sure my Scottie could have done better and she doesn't have thumbs!!! (AND this was around the turn of the century, when FIFTY BUCKS was worth something!)

Good thing she wasn't playing in the OP tournament! SOMEbody would have some 'splainin' to do!!!

[fortun8son]

Wow! Just Wow!
I am appalled. That is just unacceptable incompetance!
For shame!
My Sports Authority trainees would do better! (Under supervision, of course, so they don't panic)

[bigmatt]

The stringer is probably the most important person at a tournament, especially one of this stature. Players are so directly affected by their strings that the organizers need to be sure they have qualified racquet technicians on hand.
Whoever ran the tournament this year needs to be replaced.

[000KFACTOR90000]

I think it should be the last time at that venue.

They had their chance and blew it.

[stringwalla]

Originally Posted by drakulie

With each string job costing $15,

That seems like a great price for a tournament. I guess you get what you pay for.
Proshops around me charge $16-25. Onsite tournament stringing charges $20-$30 where I've worked.

Drak, we should get a team together and clean up some of these events to our standards

[equinox]

Partially the players fault, teach them to never rely on unknown stringers and keep that 12-15 racquets strung coming into the event.

The supplied stringing service does sound like disorganised hell, but not unexpected for a new event location. Not even the stringers fault. Lack of planning and oversight from the event organisers. Should've brought in qualified MRT with tournament experience to oversee the stringing room? operations. Then have him use his contacts to select a few experienced proshop employees and dedicated multi lingual front desk service attendant to free the few stringers from mundane common tasks.

Old adage comes back, get what you pay for.

Was there a language barrier?

[crosbydog]

Is there a listing on the Internet somewhere of master stringers throughout the country?

[drakulie]

Originally Posted by coachrick

Follow the money.

Sounds like a total disaster. Hard to imagine they let such an important facet of the 'organization' fall through the cracks.

I think the money is what it boils down to. The city felt they could bank some money at the kids and parents expense. They most likely didn't want to contract it out.

Originally Posted by bigmatt

The stringer is probably the most important person at a tournament, especially one of this stature. Players are so directly affected by their strings that the organizers need to be sure they have qualified racquet technicians on hand.
Whoever ran the tournament this year needs to be replaced.

Originally Posted by 000KFACTOR90000

I think it should be the last time at that venue.

They had their chance and blew it.

agree with both of you. Very shameful to say the least. I agree they should not be allowed to be provided the privilege of hosting this event again.

Originally Posted by stringwalla

That seems like a great price for a tournament. I guess you get what you pay for.
Proshops around me charge $16-25. Onsite tournament stringing charges $20-$30 where I've worked.

Drak, we should get a team together and clean up some of these events to our standards

This would be awesome. Maybe we could convince bigmatt to join us.

Originally Posted by equinox

Partially the players fault, teach them to never rely on unknown stringers and keep that 12-15 racquets strung coming into the event.

The supplied stringing service does sound like disorganised hell, but not unexpected for a new event location. Not even the stringers fault. Lack of planning and oversight from the event organisers. Should've brought in qualified MRT with tournament experience to oversee the stringing room? operations. Then have him use his contacts to select a few experienced proshop employees and dedicated multi lingual front desk service attendant to free the few stringers from mundane common tasks.

Old adage comes back, get what you pay for.

Was there a language barrier?

From what I've been told by very good sources is that IT IS disorganized hell, especially when one considers reels and frames being lost, and many other frames not being complete for the days matches. Sending kids out to play with strings they have never even played with for such an event is unacceptable.

As for the language barrier, that is a good point. However, language has zero to do with doing a quality string job and providing a quality service overall.

Originally Posted by crosbydog

Is there a listing on the Internet somewhere of master stringers throughout the country?

Yes, there is. On the USRSA site.

To add, there are plenty of qualified stringers with pro tournament stringing experience in the area where the tournament was held.

[rjw]

Frank Veltri must be turning......I used to play in the former mayor's Sunday morning game, back in the day.

He was a true gentleman and an avid tennis fan.

[bigmatt]

Drak, sign me up! Let's go have some fun.
Too many tournaments slight the stringers, and a proper sourcing could solve that problem.
I think the new GSS Alliance will be how tournament stringers will be found for some time to come.

[SirGounder]

That sounds absolutely horrid. I'm a pretty new stringer so I'm slow, but I'd like to think I can produce a decent string job. Let me at it!

[spacediver]

incredible. Did the tournament organizers have anything to say about this? An apology, or excuse, or something?

[equinox]

Originally Posted by drakulie

Yes, there is. On the USRSA site.

To add, there are plenty of qualified stringers with pro tournament stringing experience in the area where the tournament was held.

Within 1/2 days word would have spread about poor stringing service.

Why didn't parents take it to the pros stringers? 12 racquets should have lasted half the event or more, plenty of time to find suitable pro stringer for QF onwards.

No one with any common sense relies on unknown stringers at junior or futures level.

Bring your own / hire stringer and do it yourself or have close traveling friend do the group of players, that's what the asians do.

Drak, if complaints were so bad and numerous, why didn't you solicit the exiting clients? Probably charge $5-10 extra.

The players and parents receive little sympathy from me.

[bigmatt]

Many folks fly to these events. It's quite tough to fly with a machine in your luggage!
Also, it's expensive enough to have a top junior as a kid these days to add to it with the cost of traveling with a personal stringer.
Most of these events do just fine in the stringing area as far as I know, which is why the participants should feel confident using the tournament-supplied guys. The organizers dropped the ball here, not the players or parents.

[drakulie]

Originally Posted by spacediver

incredible. Did the tournament organizers have anything to say about this? An apology, or excuse, or something?

Not sure. Only thing I was told is that it (the organization, not the stringing) seemed to get better towards the end of the week.

Originally Posted by equinox

Within 1/2 days word would have spread about poor stringing service.

Why didn't parents take it to the pros stringers? 12 racquets should have lasted half the event or more, plenty of time to find suitable pro stringer for QF onwards.

No one with any common sense relies on unknown stringers at junior or futures level.

Bring your own / hire stringer and do it yourself or have close traveling friend do the group of players, that's what the asians do.

Drak, if complaints were so bad and numerous, why didn't ryou solicit the exiting clients? Probably charge $5-10 extra.

The players and parents receive little sympathy from me.

Equinox, although you have raised some interesting points, I have to disagree. For example, A parent traveling with their child from Austria is not going to be familiar with the area in order to find another stringer or service, which is why the tournament is expected to do this.

The tournament is responsible for providing the service, and it should be a quality one,,,, not the parent or participant being responsible to secure thier own stringing service. Many tournaments, including the USTA demand the venue provide it or outsource it, which was the case here. At the two nationals I string at every year, the venue has to provide the service.

Secondly, it is very hard to just get a bunch of stringers together (mid-tournament) to fix it. Guys/gals that string for a living aren't just sitting at home twiddling their thumbs in the hopes of being called in case something goes wrong at a local tournament.

Most stringing "teams" prepare for tournaments such as this one weeks/months in advance. For example, I have already been hired to service two futures in January 2012. I have to now plan to hire someone else to asist me, get all the supplies together. Ensure my machines are functioning properly, etc, etc, etc. There is a lot of planning involved, including gathering a lot of supplies. This can't be done mid-tournament.

As for me soliciting some of the players..... I strung for several players privately, including the # 1 seed in the boys 18's at the request of mutual friends/clients. Many others I strung for practiced quite a bit at the club I string at, so I ended up servicing their frames. I saw many of the frames that were brought to me, including one that was warped, and the one I described with the crazy "around the world" pattern.

Lastly, as for your comment regarding "Asian players", I strung for a whole traveling team of Asians at a futures last year. None of them had ever met me, rather relied on the service provided at the venue, which happened to be me.

[tennis5]

Originally Posted by equinox

Within 1/2 days word would have spread about poor stringing service.

Why didn't parents take it to the pros stringers? 12 racquets should have lasted half the event or more, plenty of time to find suitable pro stringer for QF onwards.

No one with any common sense relies on unknown stringers at junior or futures level.

Bring your own / hire stringer and do it yourself or have close traveling friend do the group of players, that's what the asians do.

Drak, if complaints were so bad and numerous, why didn't you solicit the exiting clients? Probably charge $5-10 extra.

The players and parents receive little sympathy from me.

Can you please explain in greater detail what I bolded -
especially "have close traveling friend do the group of players"

I didn't understand what you were trying to say.

Thanks.

[jim e]

It just goes to show you that just about anyone can string a racquet, as was posted on these forums many times in the past over the years.
But it takes a special person to be able to string a quality job the proper way and professionally, and in a tournament environment be able to produce that quality over and over many times a day where the last racquet is as good as the first. As it goes like anything else, you do get what you pay for.

In an airport you pay a shoe shine person $7.00 for a shine (at least it was 4 years ago, maybe even more now) , a $3.00 tip, so for a 10min or less job $10.00 is not bad , thats approx. $60 / hour. and just about anyone on the planet can shine a pair of shoes, so do you want just about anyone string your racquet? When that happens, then issues like this come up. Evidently some corners were cut, and it comes down to the $.

[koolpatrol]

I'm not surprised. I play a lot of USTA florida tournaments, rarely is the stringing even thought of as planning for an event. I guarantee the Pro at the tournament thought, " I can handle it" and never considered how important stringing is to the kids competing in the tournament.

[fortun8son]

It doesn't sound like there was any professional oversight at all.
The venue really dropped the ball here.

[drakulie]

Originally Posted by jim e

It just goes to show you that just about anyone can string a racquet, as was posted on these forums many times in the past over the years.
But it takes a special person to be able to string a quality job the proper way and professionally, and in a tournament environment be able to produce that quality over and over many times a day where the last racquet is as good as the first. As it goes like anything else, you do get what you pay for.

In an airport you pay a shoe shine person $7.00 for a shine (at least it was 4 years ago, maybe even more now) , a $3.00 tip, so for a 10min or less job $10.00 is not bad , thats approx. $60 / hour. and just about anyone on the planet can shine a pair of shoes, so do you want just about anyone string your racquet? When that happens, then issues like this come up. Evidently some corners were cut, and it comes down to the $.

well put. I agree it definitely comes down to dollars.

Originally Posted by koolpatrol

I'm not surprised. I play a lot of USTA florida tournaments, rarely is the stringing even thought of as planning for an event. I guarantee the Pro at the tournament thought, " I can handle it" and never considered how important stringing is to the kids competing in the tournament.

Although I agree with you, I doubt this was the pros call to make. This was either the city, or tennis center itself that made this decision.

Originally Posted by fortun8son

It doesn't sound like there was any professional oversight at all.
The venue really dropped the ball here.

agreed.