Cannot decide on low poly, syngut or hybrid

I play mostly counter punch style with a bit more net play at I would guess at least a 4.0 level. Never played tournaments or in the US so don't know actual rating level. Hit 2HBH and topspin off both sides. Serve wins me a lot of free easy points.

Still playing a 16x19 Prince warrior 100 Pro.

I like poly at 55lbs for control but my elbow starts to complain after a few months. I tried poly at 47lbs and while it feel great for first hour it drops off rapidly from there. Feels more like a return deep and spinney but doesn't have as much control for finishing a point.

Switch to Syn gut at 60lbs and find on first outing it plays too tight, second time out it plays amazing and third time out it feels too loose. It seems to lose tension fairly quickly then settles down until it breaks or I cut it out.

I have tried both syngut/poly and poly/syngut and either play OK. The former feels better and the latter lasts longer.

So I find that I like....

1) low tension poly for a brief period
2) higher tension poly and painkillers
3) higher tension syngut for a brief period
4) hybrid as a compromise that doesn't really seem to be amazing but doesn't hurt the arm and gives a fairly consistent string bed longer.

This leads to lots of time spent stringing and testing and generally blaming my strings instead of improving my technique.

Anyone had a similar experience where it seems difficult to find a setup you really enjoy?

got a stack of rackets that I've strung with various hybrids for playtesting, so yeah definitely in the same boat.

I have a similar racket and have been experimenting. What polys have you tried? One set-up I haven't tried yet is a thicker gauge poly w/ lower tension to offset the loss of control in a relatively open string bed. Experimenting is all part of the fun though, so I don't mind. I even have some multi-filament strings coming, which I haven't used for over a decade.

Try natural gut. I don’t just say that because it’s the rolls Royce of all strings. It’s unique in that it has excellent tension maintenance ( in a sense durability) and excellent comfort. Given your preferences, natural sounds like the answer for you.

What specific poly are you using? Some polys are more “comfortable” than others. Try some soft polys at your high tension specification. Also helps to get thinner gauge as well. Some I recommend are solinco tour bite soft, head sonic pro edge and Babolat rpm. Yonex poly tour pro gets great reviews.

Try synthetic gut again at 58. It should last longer that way.

I agree with the Natural Gut recommendation. Your elbow will be fine and you should get plenty of time out of it before it breaks (lasts way longer than multis) and pair it with a slippery round poly.

I have played the Prince Warrior Pro 100 for the last couple years and have added a Beast 100. These racquets have virtually the same specs and play so similarly that I interchange them. For years, I played Prince Syngut with duraflex 17g at 58 lbs full bed. It was fine in cooler weather but once warm weather hit, the ball sailed and my play suffered. I finally switched last summer to Tourna Big Hitter Silver 17g full bed at 55 lbs and played my best tennis in quite a while- You should give this or any fairly soft poly a try( I chose this based on reviews noting its good tension maintenance)- from your description I think you would like it

Muppet said:

Try synthetic gut again at 58. It should last longer that way.

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I enjoy it at that tension but playability falls off pretty quickly from there. I don't feel like stringing it for every week when I only play once or twice a week at most. I need the tension to settle around there when it initially loses a bit of tension

princemidplus said:

I enjoy it at that tension but playability falls off pretty quickly from there. I don't feel like stringing it for every week when I only play once or twice a week at most. I need the tension to settle around there when it initially loses a bit of tension

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So, string 3# higher so when the string bed settles, it drops to your ideal tension.

LocNetMonster said:

So, string 3# higher so when the string bed settles, it drops to your ideal tension.

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Thanks. Going to try that. Just frustrating because I only get to play about once a week so I'm not always sure if I don't like the strings because they are wrong or if I don't like them because I'm playing badly that day. Then I restring and I may not like them anyway. Maybe I needed to take my stringing machine to the courts and string immediately when playing. Only takes 20min to string up a racquet but I'm pretty sure I'll look like a ##### to the others at the club. Hahaha. Maybe I'll do it just because and maybe I'll actually find out what I like.

Thanks.you got my thinking.

princemidplus said:

Thanks. Going to try that. Just frustrating because I only get to play about once a week so ...

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Tough to maintain timing and footwork playing once a week against guys/gals your level or higher. That has got to be frustrating when you know you can play at higher level but can't because you can't put the time into it.

LocNetMonster said:

Tough to maintain timing and footwork playing once a week against guys/gals your level or higher. That has got to be frustrating when you know you can play at higher level but can't because you can't put the time into it.

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More a problem that I am one of the strongest players at my club.... The first team never come to play. So I have to try stay focused and not lose concentration. Work on ball placement and positioning rather than simply out hitting opposition

princemidplus said:

I play mostly counter punch style with a bit more net play at I would guess at least a 4.0 level. Never played tournaments or in the US so don't know actual rating level. Hit 2HBH and topspin off both sides. Serve wins me a lot of free easy points.

Still playing a 16x19 Prince warrior 100 Pro.

I like poly at 55lbs for control but my elbow starts to complain after a few months. I tried poly at 47lbs and while it feel great for first hour it drops off rapidly from there. Feels more like a return deep and spinney but doesn't have as much control for finishing a point.

Switch to Syn gut at 60lbs and find on first outing it plays too tight, second time out it plays amazing and third time out it feels too loose. It seems to lose tension fairly quickly then settles down until it breaks or I cut it out.

I have tried both syngut/poly and poly/syngut and either play OK. The former feels better and the latter lasts longer.

So I find that I like....

1) low tension poly for a brief period
2) higher tension poly and painkillers
3) higher tension syngut for a brief period
4) hybrid as a compromise that doesn't really seem to be amazing but doesn't hurt the arm and gives a fairly consistent string bed longer.

This leads to lots of time spent stringing and testing and generally blaming my strings instead of improving my technique.

Anyone had a similar experience where it seems difficult to find a setup you really enjoy?

Click to expand...

I have been through very similar issues. I ended up with a syn gut main at 56 (OG sheep micro 16g) and poly at 48 lbs (cyclone 17 g) .This way I get the control and comfort of syn main with spin of poly and the tension drop from the poly is less appreciable. I also tried the poly main but I prefer this set up . Not too many club players try a poly as cross but its my current "special sauce" that works well for me. I use the prince txt 310 .

Try your poly at 30#. It sounds like a rocket launcher, but its actually not. It's quiet, so you don't hear much of the contact, but your extra power will really surprise your opponents

Steve Huff said:

Try your poly at 30#. It sounds like a rocket launcher, but its actually not. It's quiet, so you don't hear much of the contact, but your extra power will really surprise your opponents

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Another vote for super low poly here. I use Cyclone at around 38 (or lower) and the control/spin/comfort is awesome.

you arent gonna like anything more than full bed poly or a hybrid. just gotta accept the downsides

princemidplus said:

Only takes 20min to string up a racquet ..

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You are one fast stringer buddy! Do you string professionally?
I want to bet, if you wait 10 sec or 20 second before clamping each string, string tension would not drop so much. It might take longer to get a racket string, but I have a feeling the tension would be more stable for longer amount of time.

Or look up JET or JAYCEE stringing method. Some claim longer more consistent string bed.

for me there is poly and poly..
and every poly have not the same feel, power etc..

for me, i'm a girl, love poly control (on 660 flexy frame), but like a girl, no having arm to play with full poly.

the solution who found my brother (who is my personnal stringer) is hybrid (gut/poly on winter, and poly/multi on winter).

sometime i playing on poly full bed, and for me the most important is the durability (tension stability). because dont break poly.
on this way, my brother and me having try a lot of poly to found the best tension stability and the cheaper poly.

after many months, the best (for us) are:
signum poly plasma and plasma pure. (hyperion is a good choice too)
weiss cannon silverstring, scorpion and turbotwist
yonex poly tour pro, and tough
kirschbaum competition, P2 and proline evolution.
mantis power poly and comfort poly

under 10$ for a set (many of these are under 7$!) we have good tension maintenance over 12 hours. (for me, YPTP, signum PP and weiss scorpion goes over 16 hours!.)

over 10$ i love cream isospeed, but no much shop having this on my country, and shipping cost are very expensives for two or three sets.

a very good choice (for my brother), is pro's pro concept and cyberpower.. for him (he play like 5.0 or 5.5, 1/6 or -2/6 in france), these pro's pro string are very good choice, he change his string every 6 hours, cyberpower break on 8 hours. and the cost of reel are very ridiculous!.. (under 40$ for 200m cyberpower, for him the red one is better), and he found concept isn't very far to weiss scorpion, bue concept is over 30$ for a reel...

we are playing (we are 3 tennis players), my old brother actualy 1/6, my young brother 3/6 and me 4/6...in france!. thinking it's between 5.0 and 6.0 . every one playing under 18kg, on radical IG on full poly bed it's 16kg for me ...

tennisbike said:

You are one fast stringer buddy! Do you string professionally?
I want to bet, if you wait 10 sec or 20 second before clamping each string, string tension would not drop so much. It might take longer to get a racket string, but I have a feeling the tension would be more stable for longer amount of time.

Or look up JET or JAYCEE stringing method. Some claim longer more consistent string bed.

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I don't count the time to cut put old strings. It takes me about 20min from when I start threading new strings on. Longer for o port and 18x20 patterns. And for stiffer polys that don't weave easy. Probably takes 30min total including cutting out strings and measuring new strings, etc.

Will try leaving it a bit longer before clamping as you suggest and see what difference it makes. Thanks