how often to restring?

I

i3602u

Rookie
Hi

So I know everyone says restring as often as you play in a week My question is that if you play 4 hours of tennis 1 day a week vs someone who plays tennis 1 hour of tennis 4 times a week.

You would be telling the person who plays once a week to get it strung 1 a year where as the person who plays 4 times a week you would be telling them to string 4 times a year.

Time wise they are both playing the same amount of time.


Phil
 
I don't know who is telling you what, but....

It depends on the type of string you use, how hard you hit and how much actual hitting time is on the strings.

If you search around here, you'll find that many playing poly only get 2 to 8 hours out of it. After that, it can go dead and could lead to elbow problems, etc.

If you play a syn gut or multi, you can leave them in much longer, until they break or the racquet turns into a rocket launcher, etc.

If you play natural gut, you could get the most durability...I say COULD, because all natural gut is not equal.
 
I use POSG and I restring my racquet when the string is 1/3 to 1/2 notched.

People who use poly (I have in the past) should restring every 6-20 hours of hitting with the racquet. Range is due to tension and how hard the player hits.

Most of the people I string for seem to restring whenever they feel the string bed is 'mushy', however that is defined!
 
i3602u said:
rjw that is just what is posted a lot around here on the boards. I know it depends on type of string and how often you play and how hard you play.

Yes I know poly goes dead pretty quickly.


http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=400123



This rule of thumb isn't a good one so I'm just wondering what a better way to tell would be.
Click to expand...

Well then to start with, what type of string are you playing, how hard do you hit and how often do you play (hours per week)?
 
I restring when one of my strings break. I'm like a 4.0, nothing special, but I just don't feel like I'm good enough to notice that huge of a difference to restring all the time.
 
I've played with multi i am currently experimenting with poly I play about 6-8 hours a week.

The oldest person would be in there early 40 but more 20/30s somethings.
 
i3602u said:
I've played with multi i am currently experimenting with poly I play about 6-8 hours a week.

The oldest person would be in there early 40 but more 20/30s somethings.
Click to expand...

A decent multi like nrg2 or comparable can be played until one of several things occur..

1) a string breaks
2) total loss of control
3) string frays so badly that you feel like it should be replaced.

I'm not a string breaker, so before I bought a stringing machine, I used to play until more balls went long than stayed in the court.

I'm a rec player, not competing for anything worth keeping strings all that fresh.

Currently playing around with some interesting polys, so maybe 6 hours before I cut them out.

jmo
 
When should you restring? Personally I leave them in until they break, which for me is about 2 months. I know some people that restring every week, just because they like that fresh string job feel. I know other people that restring once a year, when they feel the strings have lost too much tension. So to answer the question, restring whenever you feel like it.
 
The times/wk vs times/ year is just a guideline for people who don't string often enough.
Usually, if you wait til it breaks, you've waited too long except with nat gut.
If you see marked notching with syngut or fraying with multi, it's probably time to change.
Poly will most likely be dead after 10 or so hours and poly/synth hybrids shouldn't go longer than 6 weeks.
 
hi fortun8son

do you know who came up with this times/wk is number of times you should restring guideline? As you see in my original post you could be telling 2 people 2 different things even though the amount of time is the same. This a.ssuming same playing style same strings and racquet. The amount of time on strings could be same
 
I saw it in USRSA Digest. It's not written in stone.
I frequently get get customers who have left their 'factory' strings on for two or more years!
This rule of thumb is for them.
michael
 
Last edited:
I restring every 3 weeks, maybe 4 if I don'y play so much and I use a full bed of thin poly (SPPP 1.18). Basically when the string bed gets all notched and goes stiff and you lose spin etc it's time to change for me.
 
Yes, 18g should be changed more often.
A nice combo is BBAce112/HeadPPS18 @47/50(relative), great spin, but it doesn't last.
 
Last edited:
rjw said:
I don't know who is telling you what, but....

It depends on the type of the strings you use, how hard you hit and how much actual hitting time is on the strings.

If you search around here, you'll find that many playing poly only get 2 to 8 hours out of it. After that, it can go dead and could lead to elbow problems, etc.

If you play a syn gut or multi, you can leave them in much longer, until they break or the racquet turns into a rocket launcher, etc.

If you play natural gut, you could get the most durability...I say COULD, because all natural gut is not equal.
Click to expand...

Recently found one of my old racquet (10 years old) Yonex ProTour Ti 80.
It still has Polymono 17 on it. The racquet is great and strings still work very good. So I know for a fact some strings do keep playability for long time.

I already had very same experience with my another old Slazenger racquet which had the same strings for over 5 years (It was sitting somewhere in a closet) . And it also worked really well after all.

In the same time there are some strings which cannot stand the sun ligth or just change there characteristics if you use them long enough.

There is no ultimate advice when (how often) to change the strings.

Since you are asking this question I guess you are not breaking them often or not breaking at all. To me it means you can find finer(better) strings for yourself, since you are using something that provides too much of durability.
As results you sacrifice the playability.

You can try to get some multies at highest gauge you can find and see if it breaks at all. If it does and gives you less then two weeks them look for some stronger strings and ext. ext.
 
Last edited:
When should you restring?

the answer is similar to the answer given by Justice Potter Stewart in response to trying to define what is pornography:

"....I know it when I see it...."

Play enough and you'll just know when it's time. I don't think predetermined schedules make much sense. Play until it breaks or you feel like the racquet doesn't play as well as it was playing and you want it to play better.

like a post above, when I start to get surprised that balls are sailing a foot long that I thought would be in, it's usually time.
 
My concern is with polys....

They can go dead and yet balls don't fly.....I am mostly worried about arm,elbow, shoulder and back problems...

I've been playing around with a few polys lately, but have been cutting them out after no more than 6 hours...just to be on the safe side

Live to fight another day?
 
Did anyone really answer the OP's initial question? I am curious to hear what you guys have to say. Is 1 hour 4 days a week the same as 4 hours 1 day a week? I think string type and style are irrelevent in this scenario.
 
archman said:
Did anyone really answer the OP's initial question? I am curious to hear what you guys have to say. Is 1 hour 4 days a week the same as 4 hours 1 day a week? I think string type and style are irrelevent in this scenario.
Click to expand...

I think that using common sense was/is the correct answer.

Yes 4 x 1 = 1 x 4, but the OP was asking based on a common recommendation to restring as many times per year as you play in a week.

To say that string type and hitting style is irrelevant assumes that all strings are equal in durability and that soft and hard hitters will both get the same playing time out of the same string. Would that be the case?
 
When to re-string.

Rules of thumb:

1. Re-string as many times in a year as you play in a week. (If you play twice a week, re-string twice a year). As stated already, this is a general guideline and as the OP points out, flawed.

2. Re-string every 40 hrs of play. At one time, Babolat included this suggestion on their string packaging. This is also flawed as not everyone hits equally hard. I think most hard hitters would agree that after 20 hrs synthetics are shot.

3. Re-string when your strings have lost 20% of their original tension. If you are lucky enough to have a stringer who owns an ERT meter and he/she measures the Dynamic Tension (DT) of your racquet when it comes off the machine, a 20% drop in that reading is a pretty reliable indicator that it is time to re-string.

4. Re-string when you feel the urge to smash your racquet to smithereens. In most cases it is cheaper to re-string than purchase a new racquet. So if things are going badly on the court and you are tempted to break your racquet, it is time to re-string.
 
I read an interview with Nate Fergueson who basically said restring as often as you can afford it.

I string for myself and restring more frequently than some of the folks I string for. Does that mean I win more? Maybe. Does it mean they win less? Maybe. It's hard to tell.

One guy in particular kept b!tching about his strings only lasting 6 months. He's a buddy and we're on the same 4.5 team. In desparation, i strung him up with some Ashaway Crossfire 17/16 Kevlar/SynGut. Now he gets about a year or year and a half out of a stringjob and he's happier than a pig in slop.

:)

He plays with the old Volkl Cat 10 and his frames definitely show some wear and tear. He bought them used from another guy on the team. The grommets are crap, the grips are crap, but he keeps winning. Go figure.
 
Seems like a better rule is to restring as often in a year as you play in a month. Of course that is for conventional syn gut & maybe multis for non string breakers. Heavy topspin hitters can look at the notches & poly users can restring when the first suspect something is not right. With poly don't try to play through, thinking that you are just having a bad day, just restring.

Cheers,
kev
 
Multis I break every couple of hours or less, so I just re-string when the strings break.

Poly strings, BHBR in particular, I re-string after 5-8 hours, depending on when the string feels dead. It loses it's elasticity, you lose some power, and you lose spin. It hurts my arm too, so fresh string is needed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
How often should i restring
Replies
6
Views
1K
Devilito
Devilito
R
when am i suppose to restring?
Replies
14
Views
1K
Zhou
Z
S
How often do you restring?
Replies
12
Views
4K
Lambo
L
L
How to know when it's time to restring
Replies
44
Views
2K
Aestheticsaboveallelse
Aestheticsaboveallelse
L
Expensive string or cheap string and restring more often?
Replies
30
Views
5K
West Coast Ace
West Coast Ace
Back
Top