Due to some recent durability problems, I've finally decided to see if the grass is indeed greener on the other side.
Previous setup: BDE Rallye 16/PSG 16 at 59/61 pounds.
Current test setup: Weiss Cannon MatchPower at 51/53 pounds.
Poly is weird. This stuff definitely seems to have a preferred playing style to bring out its best. For example, the poly job handles pace and service returns way, way better than the gut hybrid. It's as if the margin for error in hard hitting situations has suddenly been expanded. There have also been a handful of situations where balls that felt like they were flying out dropped in and caught, to the point where I was caught off guard and had to continue playing the point.
It also seems like the stringbed performs better with a fast, but smooth stroke rhythm, as opposed to something more swashbuckling or slap happy. In other words, everything seems to go better if I let the ball meet the face, during acceleration, as opposed to just winging it. This was true of the gut hybrid as well, but only in terms of better strokes, more consistently, not in terms of it works one way, and doesn't work/feels nasty and shocky another.
Bottom line is that the strings seem to encourage a consistently bigger ball. I'm not sure if that makes me more effective or not. The gut hybrid had bigger moments of sizzle, but I'm pretty sure the average MPH was lower overall.
Cons: obviously, less comfort. No pain, but I can tell I need to be more careful and make a real effort to catch it square. Less feel, too - at least for when I need feel, like touch angles and stuff. Great feel when banging away. Again, I'm not sure getting rid of a tendency to screw around with touchy feely stuff is necessarily a bad thing.
I'm thinking I could go even lower in tension, or hybrid with some PSG. There have been quite a few posts from people saying they haven't noticed a difference between gut crosses and cheap synthetic, but what's the difference between full poly and poly/synthetic? And what kind of tensions do you use for synthetic in that case? I'm thinking 50/55.
Previous setup: BDE Rallye 16/PSG 16 at 59/61 pounds.
Current test setup: Weiss Cannon MatchPower at 51/53 pounds.
Poly is weird. This stuff definitely seems to have a preferred playing style to bring out its best. For example, the poly job handles pace and service returns way, way better than the gut hybrid. It's as if the margin for error in hard hitting situations has suddenly been expanded. There have also been a handful of situations where balls that felt like they were flying out dropped in and caught, to the point where I was caught off guard and had to continue playing the point.
It also seems like the stringbed performs better with a fast, but smooth stroke rhythm, as opposed to something more swashbuckling or slap happy. In other words, everything seems to go better if I let the ball meet the face, during acceleration, as opposed to just winging it. This was true of the gut hybrid as well, but only in terms of better strokes, more consistently, not in terms of it works one way, and doesn't work/feels nasty and shocky another.
Bottom line is that the strings seem to encourage a consistently bigger ball. I'm not sure if that makes me more effective or not. The gut hybrid had bigger moments of sizzle, but I'm pretty sure the average MPH was lower overall.
Cons: obviously, less comfort. No pain, but I can tell I need to be more careful and make a real effort to catch it square. Less feel, too - at least for when I need feel, like touch angles and stuff. Great feel when banging away. Again, I'm not sure getting rid of a tendency to screw around with touchy feely stuff is necessarily a bad thing.
I'm thinking I could go even lower in tension, or hybrid with some PSG. There have been quite a few posts from people saying they haven't noticed a difference between gut crosses and cheap synthetic, but what's the difference between full poly and poly/synthetic? And what kind of tensions do you use for synthetic in that case? I'm thinking 50/55.
