Ball Pocketing

[Shroud]

How important do you find this?

I played with kevlar strung tight for years and didnt have any ball pocketing.

Went to much lower tension (20-30lb range) and magically my volley reappeared after 15 years of disappearing...and now gut so I have even more ball pocketing.

Volleys and slices seem benefit the most.

So what is a good hybrid for ball pocketing? Obviously gut is the answer but are there other options, and what tensions do you find a full bed of poly starting to offer some ball pocketing??

 

[danbrenner]

Hey Shroud. How ya doin brotha. I'll tell you the best string even better than guy for ball pocketing is Head FXP Tour. I have never experiences pocketing like that before.

 

[Shroud]

Hey Shroud. How ya doin brotha. I'll tell you the best string even better than guy for ball pocketing is Head FXP Tour. I have never experiences pocketing like that before.

yo DB, doing great. Really excited about tennis these days. Taking some lessons that are paying off, and I finally started to address the real weakness in my game...fitness.

Also got a 4 pack demo of some spin frames on the way. This kind of prompted my question. IME open patterns naturally have that ball pocketing.

Thanks for the head tip. I never would have looked at that string!!!

THis is it right:

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Head_FXP_Tour_16_String/descpageACHEAD-HFXPT16.html

Will give it a try!

Thanks. Hope you are doing well!

 

[Seth]

I have a strong affinity for dwell time on the stringbed.

For hybrids, I found ample pocketing with Tourna Big Hitter Silver Rough in the mains and Sensation in the crosses. Strung at 57/55 I believe in a Wilson 6.1.

These days I use full synthetic gut because it's good enough for who it's for.

 

[Triskadekaphilia]

If you put gut in the main I think the pocketing will be noticeably greater. The stiffer cross string should be looser. I used a gut main with poly cross (msv cofocus) in a flexy frame. Microgel radical midplus which was tail-weighted to 12.5 oz. Tension 56/48.

This combination provided prominent ball pocketing and feel.

Kevlar is a lot stiffer than poly but presumably if you tension it even lower in the crosses you will get a similar feel.

 

[Audiophile]

I'm of the opinion that a racquet and string setup is very personal. What may work for me may not work for you. I always encourage my customers to experiment and find something they like and have confidence in. That being said, I can always help steer them in a general direction to get started.

In my junior days, I strung my racquets at 78 lbs. If I tried that today, my arm would fall off.

For me, I have found a good quality poly (there are many out there) in the 40-50 lb. range is what works best. The frame determines where I am in that tension range. I have always seemed to have good "pocketing" with that type of setup.

 

[Muppet]

I'm thinking that there's a range between pocketing and pancaking. For pancaking, you would want a very firm stringbed and a very fast stroke. A soft stringbed would allow a slower stroke and more pocketing. A fast stroke and soft strings would produce non-linear pocketing of the stringbed and control would be compromised. Putting poly in the crosses gives more of a stable stringbed, with some pocketing. For people who have slowed down their swing speeds, a full bed of natural gut still provides great pocketing and arm protection.