Fastest way to weave poly on 18x20

as per topic,

i'm having quite a pain stringing poly crosses on my TFight 325...
any tips to make it faster and less uhm tedious?

are you stringing ahead and then tensioning them 1 at a time? that always helps me go faster

Weaving poly strings, even stiff ones isn't that bad if you do it right. Stringing one ahead is a good start. Also, if you weave the crosses by pushing the tip of the string through, you might try pushing a loop through instead. You make a loop that you push/pull through the weave instead of weaving the end of the string. You do this because of the wire-like nature of poly, the bend memory, gets in the way of the first technique where the loop push/pull works easily. In addition, if you weave straight across the racquet, try incorporating the vertical space available when weaving. That is weave at a diagonal to give yourself more space to work with.

i am doing everything that u guys suggested...

i am having problem weaving in particular... cuz the poly's slip too much and its hard to do the normal weave... they're so smooth and so stiff that its hard to pull them through...

i go one ahead... but i dont see how this one makes weaving easier... isnt this supposed to make tensioning easier not weaving?

almerickso said:

as per topic,

i'm having quite a pain stringing poly crosses on my TFight 325...
any tips to make it faster and less uhm tedious?

Click to expand...

Uhm, pratice and experience. Stringing poly becomes easier the more you work with it. Speed will come with experience. Other than that, there are no "secrets".

I take that back...I heard through the grapevine that drinking 64 oz of Red Bull and eating 6 Little Debbie Snack cakes while stringing will make you go faster than ever. Give it a whirl and see what happens.

almerickso said:

i go one ahead... but i dont see how this one makes weaving easier... isnt this supposed to make tensioning easier not weaving?

Click to expand...

It makes weaving easier because the string that you will be weaving will go over-and-under on the same strings as the last string that was tensioned, and the tensioned string slightly raise and lower the correpsonding strings.

You could speed up the process by waxing the mains, but I notice that waxed strings move more when playing and I have only done that with gut/synthetic hybrids.

almerickso said:

i go one ahead... but i dont see how this one makes weaving easier... isnt this supposed to make tensioning easier not weaving?

Click to expand...

What Stan said above. Just to add my 2 cents to it, doing one ahead positions the mains so that they are raised and lowered in a manner to create a channel that aids the next cross to be weaved correctly. The next time you do it, just look and you'll see it.

almerickso said:

i am having problem weaving in particular... cuz the poly's slip too much and its hard to do the normal weave... they're so smooth and so stiff that its hard to pull them through...

Click to expand...

Instead of just pulling the string through, if you weave leading with a loop (instead of the string tip), you can push also (in addition to pulling as appropriate). I make the loop and with the end of the loop that is shortest (the free end of the string), I push/feed the string which then naturally forces the head of the loop to grow forward which I then guide through the proper weave. So you can basically push and then guide the head of the loop to do the weave. Do this on the diagonal (vs straight across the racquet) to make it easier.

This works well with poly since it's so stiff that it's easy to push. Also, the end of the loop gives you something substantial to pull on as needed.

What do you guys mean by stringing one ahead?

LES said:

What do you guys mean by stringing one ahead?

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It's just a stringing technique where you weave a cross, but you don't tension it immediately. Instead, you weave "one ahead". After you are done weaving the one ahead cross, you then go back to tension the trailing cross (you're still tensioning one cross at a time). You keep this pattern until you're finished with the racquet: weave one ahead and then tension the trailing cross. It offers the advantages mentioned before where the mains basically "tell" you how the weave is suppose to go.

Cool I should try that next time.

just keep stringing as much as you can. you'll get it. i've strung my radicals so much i'm used to weaving 18x20s

Just stick sand paper tape on your weaving fingers. Poly is durable enough for it...