A few firmer poly string need a bit of "breaking in" time to soften up and become more responsive. Personally I experienced this with Solinco Confidential. I've also heard that the Tourna Big Hitter Silver 7 Tour needs some breaking in time. I'm wondering if prestretching can maybe help accelerate the breaking in process. Or would it actually make it worse since "breaking in" is basically losing some tension, and prestretched strings don't lose tension as quickly?
Does prestretching help or harm with "breaking in" a string
- Thread starter nochuola
- Start date
esgee48
G.O.A.T.
My personal opinion is neither. If you need a breaking period, i.e. strings need to lose some tension, then your ref tension is too high by a few lbs. Freshly strung frames will generally always lose a few lbs, so I make it a habit to use them at least 12 hours after stringing. Clients get the same treatment. If they want it back a soon as I finish, I generally warn them or they are already aware of this.. All pre stretching does for polyester components of strings is to remove that 'fell off a cliff' loss of tension, ie static tension loss. Once they get pass that phase, the string behaves more elastically unless you are a very big hitter. Tension is strill lost due to ball impacts, but the feel remains stable until the strings break. FWIW, if you do not break poly/copolys within 16 hours of hitting, your string is too thick.
Wheelz
Hall of Fame
Seems like a personal thing. I like Tourna tour right from the start!
ClaudTT
Semi-Pro
I noticed that Tourna BH Silver 7 17g is A LOT stiffer than what TW is showing.... so careful there with your arm. String drops off more than expected but the elastic constant is still much higher. Proceed with CAUTION... ON THIS ONE. It seems to plasticize too quickly also... which is not good.
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Dartagnan64
G.O.A.T.
Polyester strings don't typically "soften up" since they have very little resilience or "give". They just lose tension. Prestretching will just eliminate the remnant of resilience the string had at the beginning.
I'm not sure what you mean by "responsive". A non-resilient string that has lost all it's resilience can not be "responsive". It just can be tight or loose. it could be that you just like playing with a looser polyester.
Non-prestretched poly has some resilience left in it and when that goes, people notice a sudden change often which they describe as "strings going dead". You get less of that with a prestretched poly as it starts out "pre-deadened". So it just loses tension, i.e. gets looser over time and people give up when its too loose to control.
Personally I think when we discuss poly's we should discuss those that have good resilience maintenance and those that have good tension maintenance because the two are not synonymous.
ClaudTT
Semi-Pro
One problem is to find data on string resilience. The other one is available. Manufacturers are NOT interested in handing the data... IS known.
socallefty
G.O.A.T.
If you prestretch a poly, you are basically removing its resilience prematurely and it’s playability characteristic changes. So, you are playing with a different string than what the manufacturer made - as long as you like it better, it is fine. Tension maintenance is not the only thing you are changing when you prestretch a poly.
Dartagnan64
G.O.A.T.
Yeah. It's certainly possible to measure coefficient of restitution and publish it like we do for golf clubs. But doesn't seem that's on anyone's radar in the string business. Certainly arm health really depends on COR, resistance to deformation and decay time of those factors. The mid tension numbers in a 100 sq in reference frame would be nice to see.
ClaudTT
Semi-Pro
TOTALLY AGREE !!! the string business (stringers) is not technically savvy, it IS very ignorant of engineering and is afraid of accepting that they have been BS 'ing clients.
On the other hand, strings corps are competing on a dumb market because players just wanna play and beat their opponents... not 'improving' technique or mechanics of strokes... that is for the pros which are a niche used for marketing.
But things evolve, I can see how a small company willing to educate a little bit stringers can gain a good share in this pie.
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gusgrand
Rookie
Basically, always pre stretch with a little forward-thinking... If the string is known to have a break-in period like confidential orprestretch if the string is soft and bad at holding tension, then string 2lbs-3lbs lower to make up for the pre stretch and this should also help with a soft strings tension maintenance.
Not exactly an exact science, but it works for me just fine!
Not exactly an exact science, but it works for me just fine!
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