breaking crosses

[moosryan]

My brother often breaks crosses as opposed to mains. Why is this?

Thanks, moos.

[LoveThisGame]

About the only time a string break is a cross string is when you have polyester or Kevlar for main strings.

[moosryan]

nope he uses straight up livewire 16

[LoveThisGame]

Well, I said "about the only time"! I don't have a good answer.

Only thing which comes to mind. Does he "slap" the ball upon contact and generating some motion which moves the crosses. Do the cross strings move after some hits?

[raftermania]

Using a lot of sidespin on groundstrokes/volleys would put stress on the cross strings.

Same tension on X/M?

[ibemadskillzz]

Whenever I use a multifilament string like Wilson NXT, Gamma Live Wire XP, I always break the crosses first. For non frequent string breakers- (like me) they just wear out the crosses when using multifilament strings.
But whenever I use a polyester or synthetic gut I always break the mains.

[TopSpinner]

I'm a frequent string breaker and my crosses break when I use multifilament or gut in the cross no matter what the mains are but when I use string like Luxilon or any other solid core I always break the mains. I usually notch solid core strings very quickly since I use alot of top spin.

[GuyPerez]

Oddly, after switching to the PK Ki 15PSE, I have noticed that the crosses move sometimes. My mains have always moved big time with whatever I use, but this is the first time I have ever found myself adjusting my crosses back to place. I use PSG with D. Maybe the frame has an influence as well. This is the largest head I have ever played (105 in).

[Steve Huff]

I've seen a lot of multifiliments fray and break their crosses first. With LiveWire, this doesn't surprise me.

[jings]

Good spot, I'd never made the connection. Used Bab Excel and would always break crosses and now on gut mains / alu crosses I break mains .... I'm not a big string breaker, but 100% for the two outcomes.

[ibemadskillzz]

I hate tennis stringing newbies, that copy my post answers.

[SocalTennis]

There are two reasons why the cross break before main.

#1: your brother might have brush the ball too much and too little penetration on his strokes. This will cause the cross to wear out thinner and thinner like you sanding it down and eventually break.

#2: this happen to me. When I string cross, I left the cross twisted when I pull the tensions. This will only happen with multifilament strings. (I used wilson sensation).

[moosryan]

he's using liverwire, so that just may be it

[passerofgasses]

How come nobody is mentioning string construction?

With most synguts, there are a number of small threads that are twirled around a core with the result being a string with threads on a slight angle to the core, yet for the most part parallel to the core.

But what about the construction of a guitar string (one of the thick ones). It's just one string that is wrapped around an internal string. Therefore the actual surface direction of the string is in fact practically perpendicular to the internal string. A sawing action (mains) on this string (perpendicular to the core) would actually be going lengthwise along the surface, whereas a back and forth motion parallel to the length of the string (crosses) would seem to me to try to seperate the surface string apart. Once that happens the core is exposed and then the resultant sawing takes no time at all.

Makes sense to me, but I don't have a microscope to see if XP or NXT are wrapped like a guitar string. If they are, they should glue it together better. On the plus side, boy some of those last few thin filaments last a long time. Talk about hanging from a thread....