How to reduce tension of a poly string?

charaseac · Apr 16, 2008

I just strung my new racket couple days ago. I tried higher tension and man it feels like i'm hitting with a board. Now i feel quite unhappy with it. I don't want to restring it as it will cost me money.

I thought letting it sit down for a while will loosen the string sooner or later. My friend told me just hit with it as it will make the process faster. (hit with machine or just practice serving, the point is, use it)

I also let it sit outside my tennis bag. I thought leaving it outside will help too (i don't know where i got this idea from i just think it will work)

So any other suggestion? Thanks!

downey stringing master · Apr 16, 2008

leaving it outside exposes it to cold , sunrays which cracked in time.. the fibres of the graphite. or whatever material now days. some say lighly tread of the rackets with your feet and a towel.. at your desired force...risk.. and no guarantee.. or knowing howing much tension could be lost, or you could just leave it in your back for a 3-7 days and let stringing creep take its course. or CUT IT OUT =P

charaseac · Apr 16, 2008

Lol sorry what i meant by outside is outside my bag... lol i still put it in my room though lol.... Thinking about just let it sit there for a while lol....

What's with the feet and towel? Sounds kinda scary for me lol

nickb · Apr 16, 2008

Hit some baskets of serves with it or have a long hit.

Poly loses tension fast so you wont have to play with it for that long..

Nick

hoodjem · Apr 16, 2008

Place it on the floor carefully on towels or something, and step on just the strings, repeatedly. Unless you weigh 300 lbs.

Loco4Tennis · Apr 16, 2008

ive heard of people putting weights on the center of the string racquet overnight to take the tension off, something liek a 5 pound plate or something, not sure if the weight you use tells how much exacttly you take off the tension, but it should loosen it up a bit
one thing though, what ever you do to one side you must do to the other side as well for a much even result, so i would place th eweight on one side for a period of time, and flip and due the same on the other for the same time
did you do a full poly job on the racquet??

charaseac · Apr 16, 2008

nickb said:
Hit some baskets of serves with it or have a long hit.

Poly loses tension fast so you wont have to play with it for that long..

Nick

Yeah I might do this if i have time. I'm just thinking what can i do when i stay home and let the racket sit there.

hoodjem said:
Place it on the floor carefully on towels or something, and step on just the strings, repeatedly. Unless you weigh 300 lbs.

Have you ever tried this? I'm kinda scared it will break the frame. and no i dont weight 300lbs lol

Loco4Tennis said:
ive heard of people putting weights on the center of the string racquet overnight to take the tension off, something liek a 5 pound plate or something, not sure if the weight you use tells how much exacttly you take off the tension, but it should loosen it up a bit
one thing though, what ever you do to one side you must do to the other side as well for a much even result, so i would place th eweight on one side for a period of time, and flip and due the same on the other for the same time
did you do a full poly job on the racquet??

It's full poly. Babolat Pro hurricane tour to be exact

Stan · Apr 16, 2008

It's hopeless. Hurricane Tour will lose tension, but it goes dead very quickly. Time to restring with a real copolymer. Try CyberFlash or Silverstring. Stepping on it will do no good and is ill-advised.

charaseac · Apr 16, 2008

This is what i'm doing for now

This is what i'm doing for now lol...

Planning to put the weight horizontally and on both sides lol..

I think this should work and is safer than stepping on the string ^^

hyuganeji85 · Apr 16, 2008

charaseac said:
This is what i'm doing for now lol...

Planning to put the weight horizontally and on both sides lol..

I think this should work and is safer than stepping on the string ^^

your pd is not happy lol

charaseac · Apr 16, 2008

Stan said:
It's hopeless. Hurricane Tour will lose tension, but it goes dead very quickly. Time to restring with a real copolymer. Try CyberFlash or Silverstring. Stepping on it will do no good and is ill-advised.

Will try another string, but right now i have to use all my string stocks...
Still have a couple regular hurricane in my drawer.. I got it from out of country for the same price with TW, but i can't really go crazy with string and just change whenever i like because the cost of string here is just plain crazy. One hurricane pro cost $20.. Heck, even the regular hurricane cost $20, the best shop here charge you $30 for restringing including most of the string, and i know for sure the labour is $10.. lol

I don't play that much yet as the weather is still bad for playing tennis regularly.. The weather is so damn unpredictable here in Vancouver. When summer is here, i will experiment with strings..

charaseac · Apr 16, 2008

Stan said:
It's hopeless. Hurricane Tour will lose tension, but it goes dead very quickly. Time to restring with a real copolymer. Try CyberFlash or Silverstring. Stepping on it will do no good and is ill-advised.

hyuganeji85 said:
your pd is not happy lol

Lol i have some other smileys... The frowny, smileys (Regular wilson's) and one more is

Got it from out of country in indonesia where they just put a bunch of weird damepener in a jug.. lol

Loco4Tennis · Apr 16, 2008

i would actually try to stand the dumb bell on tis end, but what about a piece of wood or cd case on the string bed and then leaning one side of the dumb bell on the cd case or wood, that way the pressure is not concenterated on dirfferent points of the string, but rather the center, and the cd or flat piece of wood should disperse the weight of the dumbbell evenly on the center of the string bed where you are gonna hit the ball
again this is just a suggestion of soething i would try, not something i have tried or know too much on
to soften up your racquet next time, only string poly on mains and choose synthetic gut on crosses, thats the best combo i have found search on this site for ideas on this, plenty of setups like that, full poly, not the greatest for the arm, be carefull

charaseac · Apr 16, 2008

Loco4Tennis said:
i would actually try to stand the dumb bell on tis end, but what about a piece of wood or cd case on the string bed and then leaning one side of the dumb bell on the cd case or wood, that way the pressure is not concenterated on dirfferent points of the string, but rather the center, and the cd or flat piece of wood should disperse the weight of the dumbbell evenly on the center of the string bed where you are gonna hit the ball
again this is just a suggestion of soething i would try, not something i have tried or know too much on
to soften up your racquet next time, only string poly on mains and choose synthetic gut on crosses, thats the best combo i have found search on this site for ideas on this, plenty of setups like that, full poly, not the greatest for the arm, be carefull

What about the durability? To be honest i dont like strings that moves too much. I tried full synthetic before (Gamma professional) and it moves so much. It's just a bother when you have to fix the position of the string every now and then lol..

My friend just bought Hurricane tour + XCel combo.. (VS is too expensive) i want to see if it moves much. Anymore combination anyone would suggest? I'm looking for durability, not moving too much, and decent playability ( I would like to say excellent playability, but hey you can't have everything can you?)

Loco4Tennis · Apr 17, 2008

the poly on the mains or crosses is good to stop movement,
when the poly is on the mains, the movement is almost gone,(I like this setup)
when the poly is on the crosses, the mains are still gonna move but not as much as before (I dont like this setup)
what i have read is that once polys start to move "a lot", then its a indication that its time to change
i have poly on mains on my racquets strung at 53 lbs and it moves very little, infact only the outside ones seem to move slighttly, the crosses witch i strung at 58lbs move very little

miniRafa386 · Apr 17, 2008

put a 40 lb weight on the strings, and leave out over night and it should drop it a few lbs or so.

YonexFanatic21 · Apr 17, 2008

Yea ill go with the putting weight on the string on a pillow thing

Djokovicfan4life · Apr 17, 2008

Your PD wants you to actually hit the ball to loosen the tension instead of using a 20 pound weight. :wink:

charaseac · Apr 17, 2008

lol i put the weight on the centre yesterday for an hour for each side. It was pouring rain yesterday morning - afternoon. I played late in the evening and it works like wonder ^^ The tension loosen up to my liking although im not sure how much it loosen up lol

AmericanTemplar · Apr 18, 2008

charaseac said:
This is what i'm doing for now lol...

Planning to put the weight horizontally and on both sides lol..

I think this should work and is safer than stepping on the string ^^

So wait, are you trying to loosen up the 3 center mains & a couple of crosses at the top and bottom? Oh, I see you're going to loosen up 3 of the crosses in the center too? As long as you hit the ball within a 3x3 square in the center every time, you're good to go.:razz:

hoodjem · Apr 18, 2008

charaseac said:
Have you ever tried this? I'm kinda scared it will break the frame. and no i dont weight 300lbs lol

Yes, I have, and I was very careful, and did it rather gingerly.

charaseac · Apr 18, 2008

AmericanTemplar said:
So wait, are you trying to loosen up the 3 center mains & a couple of crosses at the top and bottom? Oh, I see you're going to loosen up 3 of the crosses in the center too? As long as you hit the ball within a 3x3 square in the center every time, you're good to go.:razz:

hoodjem said:
Yes, I have, and I was very careful, and did it rather gingerly.

This is what i did. It centered the weight nicely to the middle. and it works. Oh its not my KBlade, its a demo

Bud · Apr 18, 2008

Lol!

Your dampener doesn't look particularly happy to have that dumbell above him

charaseac · Apr 18, 2008

Bud said:
Your dampener doesn't look particularly happy to have that dumbell above him

lol ishldve put on the surprised face dampener

Loco4Tennis · Apr 18, 2008

charaseac said:
This is what i did. It centered the weight nicely to the middle. and it works. Oh its not my KBlade, its a demo

hey good job, thats what im talking about, something like this to have the weight evenly destributed on the center of the racquet as much as possible
i forgot to mention that people use to put a sand bag or similar instead, but, you make do with what you've got

How to reduce tension of a poly string?

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