Pre-Stringing a Racket

[hyperion99]

Does anybody have any experience in pre-stringing a tennis racket?
If so,how do you do it?
Are there any cons for pre-stringing a racket.


Thanks

[esgee48]

I prestring all the mains before placing the racquet on the stringer. Makes it easier to do hybrids as I can cut the rest off knowing I have enough to do the mains. Then I just tension from the middle out. To me, it's faster as I do not have to find the end of the string. Just add tension.

I do not prestring crosses. Too hard with loose mains.

[Lakers4Life]

You string it just like normal, without tensioning, and leave youself a loop to tension with when you finish pre-stringing. This is normally done on a badminton racquet, but it can be done on a tennis racquet.
This is a tool that comes in handy to pull the slack.

[hyperion99]

Thanks esgee48

[hyperion99]

Thanks Lakers4life

[Faithfulfather]

I personally don't find it any faster.

[Lakers4Life]

Some tour stringers say it's too keep the string off the floor in a busy stringing room. I tried it a couple of times and did not find it was noticably faster, but very hard on the string.

[hyperion99]

Originally Posted by Lakers4Life

Some tour stringers say it's too keep the string off the floor in a busy stringing room. I tried it a couple of times and did not find it was noticably faster, but very hard on the string.

Ok thanks.
Probably stick to the old fashioned way

[CTR]

I use the pre-stringing method for badminton racquets as I find it easier and actually more time efficient to do (although not necessarily faster). I can pre-weave the racquets in my spare time, say whilst watching tv and tension it another time.

With badminton racquets I also find that it is easier on the string when it is woven/pulled though untensioned strings as there's less friction. Some do find this annoying but think it's fine. Another advantage, esp. for badminton is that some shared grommets are very tight, and so are difficult to thread with a tensioned string already inside. There are ways around it, but in some instances these can be a pain to do.

[Irvin]

I only pre the long side mains to keep the string off the floor. When doing two piece I will pre string crosses on blocked hole before blocking them and I string one ahead which is sort of pre stringing.

[bbulla]

I string loads of badminton racquets but have never prestrung anything more than the mains. Perhaps I will give it a try on the weekend and also prestring the crosses. I could see it as being a benefit with all those shared holes.

But....would it create enough friction when tensioning the mains (with all the crosses already in) to decrease the actual tension you are pulling? So if I want it to be 22 would I need to pull at 23....or more??

[Nellie]

I like prestringing the crosses. I find that weaving the crosses, especially at the bottom, is easier before I start tensioning. I do tend to throw away some string at the end, so I won't do this if I know the string length will be a little tight (e.g., using some types of gut that come in slightly shorter lenghts).

[bbulla]

So I tried this on the weekend with a badminton racquet. My first observation was that is was fairly challenging weaving the crosses on untensioned mains. A high chance of a misweave so I had to be extra cautious as I did it.

It also took about double the time from start to finish to string the racquet, as compared to doing it the normal way. Perhaps I would get faster if I tried it more. I did all of the prestringing with the racquet off of the machine.

The only thing I took from this experiment was the ease of getting though the shared holes. Perhaps in the future I would prestring the mains, and only the first few crosses that have shared holes. Otherwise, I can't see this method saving too much time.

[hyperion99]

Originally Posted by bbulla

So I tried this on the weekend with a badminton racquet. My first observation was that is was fairly challenging weaving the crosses on untensioned mains. A high chance of a misweave so I had to be extra cautious as I did it.

It also took about double the time from start to finish to string the racquet, as compared to doing it the normal way. Perhaps I would get faster if I tried it more. I did all of the prestringing with the racquet off of the machine.

The only thing I took from this experiment was the ease of getting though the shared holes. Perhaps in the future I would pre-string the mains, and only the first few crosses that have shared holes. Otherwise, I can't see this method saving too much time.

Thanks for your input.

I think it's probably better to stick to the old fashioned way than pre-stringing

[Irvin]

Drakulie started a thread once where he pre-ran as many crosses as he could in a tennis racket. I don't think it saves any time at all and causes more wear and friction on the strings, but some like it. I don't think your badminton rackets is going to be any better.

[diredesire]

Originally Posted by Irvin

Drakulie started a thread once where he pre-ran as many crosses as he could in a tennis racket. I don't think it saves any time at all and causes more wear and friction on the strings, but some like it. I don't think your badminton rackets is going to be any better.

Pre stringing crosses is a HUUUUUUGE pain in the butt. You have to pull the tensioning loop through each cross, and every pull is a hard pull. You've got an opposing string outside to limit the amount of fanning you can do, and you have to leave smaller slack so you can grab each consecutive cross with a hook/awl/whatever. I've tried it as an experiment (just weaving as many crosses as i could), and it slowed me down for sure.

[Faithfulfather]

Not worth it to me.