Anyone pre-weave the WHOLE racquet before pulling tension?

[tennis4me]

Similar to this ...

Watch how she weaved the cross at 0:14. I've seen a Pro shop did this. For fun, I've experimented pre-weaving a few mains, and gave up - too many lose strings everywhere in the hoop .

The people who does this claim it makes the whole stringing process much faster. I'm skeptical considering many can string in record time without pre-weaving.

 

[Irvin]

I like using an ATW pattern when I can and when I do I pre-weave 2 mains on the short side and all the mains on the long side leave a loop between the 1st mains to tension the first main.

 

[tennytive]

Pulling two strings at a time. He's pretty good grabbing those ends and tying off with those Mickey Mouse gloves on I have to say.

 

[1HBHfanatic]

Pulling two strings at a time. He's pretty good grabbing those ends and tying off with those Mickey Mouse gloves on I have to say.

I cant see it, but I think hes using one of those badminton hook tools to pull?!! they look like little meat hooks for pulling

 

[grhcan99]

They don't care about quality just speed.

 

[1HBHfanatic]

I like using an ATW pattern when I can and when I do I pre-weave 2 mains on the short side and all the mains on the long side leave a loop between the 1st mains to tension the first main.

similar method myself while working on the mains!!,
@Irvin I don't know if you remember seeing the video that @drakulie did, trying to preweave multiple cross strings, upto 5 I think,, "it did not work out too well", haa
maybe he can chime in and share his thoughts on it??!!
I tried it and did not like how it stopped the fanning of the cross strings

 

[Irvin]

@1HBHfanatic when I first started stringing I used to pre-weave as many crosses as I could but like you I found it did not work out well.

 

[tennis4me]

I cant see it, but I think hes using one of those badminton hook tools to pull?!! they look like little meat hooks for pulling

Yes, it looks like the pull mechanism is a hook, so the person always pull a loop to that hook, but then clamped just one string at a time as usual.

 

[Strawbewwy]

For science at one point i did pre-weave all the crosses (2 piece), it was a nightmare to pull the excess crosses after tensioning

the more you have pulled the stiffer the stringbed becomes and the less you can pre-weave... ie) you can do like 5 in the beginning but you should really do 1 only towards the end

my fingers were hurting that day after trying this

 

[esgee48]

I always preweave the SS mains to assure that there is enough to reach the gripper. I will preweave all the mains if it is a fan pattern just to assure that the skips are correct. Will also do it if there are shared holes because I need to place scrap pieces of string in those holes to assure the strings, when tensioned, are seated correctly w/o crossovers.

For crosses, after the 1st cross, I will preweave 4-6 crosses and tension; do it again; go to a one ahead method for remaining crosses since it gets harder to preweave as you near the throat. I do not push the preweaved crosses near each other. If you do, the friction makes it harder to get the ref tension on the crosses right.

I leave 2 long loops to tension the mains; and one long loop and several 2" loops to tension the crosses. Have to leave some slack for moving the crosses up/down/straighten.

Variations occur if I have to hybrid or the client asks for 2 piece. My records indicate I do lvery few 2 piece. Do a lot of hybrids though.

 

[Max Winther]

This is what I was taught once and now has become second nature. Thats me in the video, sorry for the lame quality

 

[lwto]

no.. why would you?

 

[cluckcluck]

This is what I was taught once and now has become second nature. Thats me in the video, sorry for the lame quality

Why lock the table for every cross pre-weave? Seems to slow you down. Also, mounting the racquet upside down, do you mount them all that way?

 

[Max Winther]

Why lock the table for every cross pre-weave? Seems to slow you down. Also, mounting the racquet upside down, do you mount them all that way?

That way the table doesnt sway back and forth when you are pulling the crosses. I think it speeds me up because I am not correcting or bracing the table with my body or hands as I pull the next cross.

And yes I have heard of mounting the racquet butt cap upright, honestly I forget about it because it doesnt matter. Do you think it matters that much?

 

[am1899]

That way the table doesnt sway back and forth when you are pulling the crosses. I think it speeds me up because I am not correcting or bracing the table with my body or hands as I pull the next cross.

Sway back and forth - do you mean while you are tensioning the string? Won’t happen if you make sure the string doesn’t enter the tension head at an angle.

Edit: never mind I see now you were locking the turntable before pre-weaving each cross, just as @cluckcluck said (duh, evidently I can’t read or process today). Anyway, I haven’t really thought about that until now. I think I lean slightly on the turn table (without even thinking about it) to prevent the turntable from moving while I’m weaving. I guess to each their own, whatever works.

It doesn’t matter which way you mount the racquet with respect to the butt cap. Some of us do it the same way every time...probably because it’s one variable we can control.

I’ve seen similar techniques employed for stringing the crosses before. It does seem to be working for you. Not the way I would do it...but that doesn’t matter. More than one way to...well, you get the picture.

If I may make a suggestion: when you are in the process of weaving crosses - try not to let go of the tip of the string. It may seem like it doesn’t take a lot of time to find the end. But when you have to do that multiple times over the course of a string job, that time really adds up.

 

[Max Winther]

Sway back and forth - do you mean while you are tensioning the string? Won’t happen if you make sure the string doesn’t enter the tension head at an angle.

It doesn’t matter if which way you mount the racquet with respect to the butt cap. Some of us do it the same way every time...probably because it’s one variable we can control.

I’ve seen similar techniques employed for stringing the crosses before. It does seem to be working for you. Not the way I would do it...but that doesn’t matter. More than one way to...well, you get the picture.

If I may make a suggestion: when you are in the process of weaving crosses - try not to let go of the tip of the string. It may seem like it doesn’t take a lot of time to find the end. But when you have to do that multiple times over the course of a string job, that time really adds up.

I meant swaying as in when you are pulling the cross through and pushing it back and forth on the mains, the friction build up turns the table annoyingly, so locking it down prevents this.

I think he meant mounting with the handle facing away from me instead of towards me as being "upside down". I weave with the handle pointing out so I dont have to dodge it as I move the racquet around.

And good call on the not dropping the end of the string as you weave. Usually I hold it lightly in my mouth, like you are biting something with your lips over your teeth, but for this video I made I needed to talk and that slowed me down a lot. I wasnt trying to demonstrate speed stringing with this video.

 

[am1899]

I think he meant mounting with the handle facing away from me instead of towards me as being "upside down". I weave with the handle pointing out so I dont have to dodge it as I move the racquet around.

Pretty sure @cluckcluck meant the butt cap - as far as upside down.