Help With Strings After Time Away

[rustyheadcsse]

I was a pretty good Division III NCAA player from 2006-2008. I was a 4.5-5.0 player. I didn’t touch a tennis racquet from 2009-2019. I’ve been back at it on and off throughout the pandemic and am back near my old level. I’m a big hitter, tall guy, was once a very frequent string breaker. In college I was playing a Babolat Pure Storm Tour with a Hurricane/Xcel hybrid at 62/60. Shortly after I was playing a Head Microgel Radical Pro MP with a similar string setup. I’ve also struggled with arm issues on and off, especially as I get back into it.

I’m experimenting with the Microgel Radicals, a few Volkl V Sense 10 Tours, and a Prince Original Graphite OS. I just bought a Klippermate and plan to do some tinkering. Obviously I’m tinkering with some very different frames. I need the control of poly to reign in the POG. I’ve enjoyed a multifilament and a softer synthetic with some pop in the Volkls. Pretty typical stuff.

My question is - a lot has changed in the gear space since I followed it closely. I really enjoyed the Gosen strings I tried way back when, I’m on a bit of a budget at this point, and my instinct is to buy a reel of OGSM and a reel of Polylon and go from there. Is there a better place to start? Anything else folks would recommend? Open to any ideas on string setups for the 3 frames I mentioned as well.

 

[jimmy8]

Polylon is not a good string in my opinion. Try kirschbaum pro line evolution 1.25. It's soft, but crisp.

I recommend Head velocity 1.30 natural color. It's more consistent than syn gut and better feel and not too expensive.

 

[Honza]

I was a competetive player as well and took a long break. Started to play a year ago and been testing polys since then (musst have been like 12 different). Since i started i experienced some problems with my wrist and arm, since my body isnt used to tennis.
Best string so far was Hyper G Soft 1.25. Its arm and wrist frindly, but not too soft to lose tension after 2 hits. Spin is decent. Give it a try.

 

[PRS]

If you try a full poly setup, try dropping the tension by a lot. It used to be very common to string poly at 60+ pounds, but now it's much more common to string it in the 40's instead. It will take some adjustment, but most people love it once they get used to it.

 

[PFG1]

2nd rec for Kirschbaum Pro Line Evolution.

Another great option is Hyper in Mains, and Ghostwire/MSV Swift in crosses

Both affordable. Kirsch being super cheap

 

[Trip]

@rustyheadcsse - Welcome back to the game.

First off, since you last played, the main thing that has changed technology-wise in frames has been the inclusion of more and different types of dampening/shock-absorption materials, to try and lessen the discomfort from all this rigid poly that too many rec players have been playing with, but more so it's been an evolution in strings, which for poly have progressed a fair way at becoming more comfortable while still retaining playability. Is it worth changing racquets to find something that is more muted, probably at the cost of some feel? Maybe, maybe not. But it likely would be worth modifying your current racquet(s) and definitely your string setup, to increase comfort, per the following:

1. If it's not already there, adjust (increase) your racquet's strung recoil weight to an amount appropriate to your height/arm-length and skill level (see @Brando's table for a good starting guide).
   Doing so will allow you to swing with an optimally loose wrist coupling and fully-relaxed arm, decreasing the muscular tension in your forearm, as well as providing an optimal amount of bludgeoning force to win more of the collision with the ball, sending less shock into your arm.
2. Create a more arm-friendly string bed by lowering tension (even for a hybrid, 62/60 is pretty well on the high side, especially in tighter-patterned frames) and/or using softer, more shock-absorbent strings.
   Lowering tension will lessen the transferred collision force at impact, and using a more shock-absorbent string setup will eliminate more vibrations from reaching your arm.

As for how to increase recoil weight, consider adding some tungsten putty under the butt cap of your frame(s) and/or some lead-tape, spiral-wrapped under the base grip at about 2-4" up the handle. That will increase recoil weight, and make the racquet more head-light (ie. maneuverable), all without adding that much more, if any, amount of swing weight.

For strings, I would start by flipping the hybrid, putting the softer non-poly string in the mains, and running a softer, slick poly in the crosses. This will do 2 things: 1) it will increase the softness of the string bed considerably, as the dominant amount of forgiveness will come from the non-poly (gut, syn-gut, multi, etc) and 2) it will create a string bed that is much less likely to lock up as it ages (ie. lateral snapback will be preserved), which will uphold a higher comfort level. A golden-standard combo that I've found for this use-case is as low-powered a synthetic as you need in the mains (syn-gut, lower-powered multi like Velocity MLT, or a multiester like TF HDMX or Triax) combined with IsoSpeed Cream in the crosses, which creates a string bed that is well balanced but also permanently arm-friendly because Cream is ~50% rubber, so unlike a traditional poly, it will never fully plasticize (ie. "go dead").

All of that combined should help you stem the tide of TE, while still getting a good bulk of the performance that you want.

Hope that helps. Any questions, feel free.

 

[rustyheadcsse]

@Trip I am fascinated by that table. I don’t think I understand it at all, but I have a sudden urge to learn physics.

I really appreciate the Isospeed Cream recommendation. I’m going to give a few sets of that a good, along with a reel of the Kirsch Pro Evolution and some OGSM for a basic synthetic.

I really can’t get over how much lower tensions have gotten since I was last playing seriously. 62/60 was very middle of the road, even for a poly, and now middle of the road seems about 10 pounds lower. I’ve gotten sort of focused on my Microgel Radical Pros and am going to try stringing those up with a hybrid like you suggested at ~52-54 pounds and then go from there.