dead strings? poly?

K

kpxbounce

New User
hey well im new to all this tennis stuff,

i keep reading around and i keep reading people talking about dead poly or dead strings?

so what exactly is that or like how does that work out?

im assuming that after certain time of playing the strings don't respond the same and you have to cut them out and re string them? is that what it is?

on average how long is that? and is this just poly only?

what is the advantage of poly anyways?
 
Polys are known to die and lose string life the quickest, long before most people can break them. In short, most poly's have a special trait where after the initial tension loss, they maintain tension very well, but then they start losing tension again after they die. ( is this only for co-polys?)

When a poly dies, they lose resiliency, responsiveness, and there is a drop=off in spin. One way to tell when poly's are dead is when you're shoulder, arm, or body starts hurting when it shouldnt. Also, when the mains dont snap back in place after moving them shows signs of a dead poly, and you'd need to re-string right away.

However, not only polys do this. Multi's can die and/or get mushy and also lose resiliency, where shock absorption would no longer take place and it would transfer into your arm.

There is no clear-cut answer, but on these boards, I think 20-30 hours, or 3-6 weeks, seems to be time to re-string. the advantage of poly's are that they are low powered and durable, which lets you hit harder and put more spin on the ball. the disadvantage is that it's really stiff, so it can hurt your arm, and you need really good swing-speed to make it work it's magic. It also dies really fast, so you need to re-string often.

Some people hybrid poly's with synthetic gut, multi's, or natural gut. Poly's in mains, other in crosses, to get more feel in the stringbend and soften it up. hope this helped; I plan on doing SPPP and gosen OG micro in a hybrid at 55/60.
 
kpxbounce said:
oh is there any reason people put crosses at a higher tension than the mains?
Click to expand...

It's personal preference. I like stringing my crosses 2 to 3 pounds lower than the mains since the crosses are shorter than the mains. Many say that the crosses are shorter and that the shorter length makes the cross tension feel higher over the much longer main strings. It seems to broaden the sweet spot in my case.

One more note on "dead polys". Some polys go dead quicker than others. One of the most notorious for a short are lux alu power while others like cyberflash and big ace can be sued for much longer periods before going dead.
 
hey got a question here.

when poly strings die, like what happens to it? does it get like really stiff or something?

like i was playing today with my APDC with full bed of pro hurricane tour and like i felt as if the string bed was as hard as a rock.

and like the racquet/strings weren't responding to my strokes like they normally did. it even makes a werid "ding" sound.

also if it dies, is that like the end of it? does it ever come back or is there a way to make it come back?
 
There's no way to bring them back so to speak. PHT does go hard as a rock as you've described. I'm using ALU at the moment and the elasticity really drops off quickly. The string loses it's ooomph and you end up trying to hit harder with diminishing returns.
 
Bengt said:
I do it because of the tension that the mains put on them. Theoretically-speaking, I'd string the mains higher if the crosses were strung first.
Click to expand...

if you are stringing a hybrid with poly mains and syn gut/multi cross you need to bump up the tension on the cross strings because those strings stretch more than the poly does. that way you get a relatively consistent feel. but you need to find what works for you. some people don't change the tension and some string crosses lower.
 
kpxbounce said:
hey got a question here.

when poly strings die, like what happens to it? does it get like really stiff or something?

like i was playing today with my APDC with full bed of pro hurricane tour and like i felt as if the string bed was as hard as a rock.

and like the racquet/strings weren't responding to my strokes like they normally did. it even makes a werid "ding" sound.

also if it dies, is that like the end of it? does it ever come back or is there a way to make it come back?
Click to expand...

when you ask yourself "why am i sucking so bad?" its time to re-string.
 
PED said:
There's no way to bring them back so to speak. PHT does go hard as a rock as you've described. I'm using ALU at the moment and the elasticity really drops off quickly. The string loses it's ooomph and you end up trying to hit harder with diminishing returns.
Click to expand...

i agree with PED. i use poly mains and multifilament crosses on my pure storm tours, and i experience everything he mentions. in addition, when i hit groundstrokes with a normal plowthrough that usually imparts spin, sometimes the ball just looks totally flat unless i hit it just right. i mean, i can literally see the ball in the area with very little movement. it also feels like i'm hitting the ball with a wooden block or something.

the reason i visited this thread was to see what other people's experiences were with poly strings gone bad. i'm a 4.0-4.5 level player and just played played a 4.0 team match where my performance was less than ideal. of course, i've been playing long enough to know that a lot of tennis can be attributable to human error or lack of skill, but i did feel a poor response from my racket yesterday that motivated me to check this stuff out. i'll be going to re-string my rackets every three weeks from now on. i personally don't find string breakage or even movement for that matter to be as indicative of poly's gone bad, at least not nearly as much as what PED described above.
 
kpxbounce said:
hey got a question here.

when poly strings die, like what happens to it? does it get like really stiff or something?

like i was playing today with my APDC with full bed of pro hurricane tour and like i felt as if the string bed was as hard as a rock.

and like the racquet/strings weren't responding to my strokes like they normally did. it even makes a werid "ding" sound.

also if it dies, is that like the end of it? does it ever come back or is there a way to make it come back?
Click to expand...

Poly strings are stiff strings. When you get your racket back from the stringer the strings are dead. Other strings (except kevlar) have more elasticity in them. After they have been strung in your racket they will have some stretch left in them and are able to stretch and recoil back into shape. Poly string do not have that property.

Therefore, when you get full poly in your racket you will have a stiff string bed. If you cut the strings you will see that they separate about a quarter of an inch. Most people blend poly with another string. If you cut the other string and poly you will see a wider gap between the ends of the strings.

Because the poly strings are so stiff they have very little power. The string manufacturers recommend you string poly strings at 10% less than you would other strings. Usually the poly strings are placed in the mains therefore it is the crosses that are strung higher.

Irvin
 
Irvin said:
Poly strings are stiff strings. When you get your racket back from the stringer the strings are dead.
Click to expand...

I disagree... poly strings definetly aren't dead when you have them fresh strung... people only re-string their poly setup if they break it or if it goes dead. this doesn't happen exactly when you get it back from the stringer.
 
PED said:
There's no way to bring them back so to speak. PHT does go hard as a rock as you've described. I'm using ALU at the moment and the elasticity really drops off quickly. The string loses it's ooomph and you end up trying to hit harder with diminishing returns.
Click to expand...
That was me this past weekend, though my fault as I knew I had to restring as the crosses where eaten up. Happy though still getting around two weeks out of a stringing.
 
Although each poly goes dead slightly differently, mostly when they start to move about like a normal multi or syn gut, feels very powerful for no reason and starts to get harsh, its dead.

From what I read about poly, it is like a shock absorber, once the resiliency is gone it starts to feel spring like, it's dead.

mawashi
 
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