New stringer question: why does my freshly strung soft poly feel "dead" the second day? Please help!
- Thread starter DF Seattle
- Start date
MathieuR
Hall of Fame
When the string "locks", every little or bigger piece of that string has the same tension, and every little or bigger piece of that string will lose tension at the same rate, if it is clamped or not.
yeah ok.
Rayzor
New User
I feel for you. When I got back into tennis after a multi-decade break, I took two racquets to a pro shop to get strung with Solinco Hyper-G. For some reason I didn’t ask how much it would cost, so I was shocked when I picked them up and the bill was $82! I decided I would learn how to string.
I bought a used KlipperMate and my first 3-4 attempts took 2-3 hours. My results were inconsistent, the bed always felt loose, I missed some weaves on the crosses, etc. But I got better with each attempt.
Might I suggest getting your son’s racquet strung at the pro shop one more time? Then take the StringMeter you bought and take a measurement across 8 or so of the main strings. Take an average of this make it your “reference tension”. After you string a racquet, take some measurements, increase or decrease your machine’s tension each attempt, until you get to your “reference tension”. Also, follow the great advice already given here about using the same routine each time you string (i.e. wait 5 seconds before clamping).
I’m sure with a little more time, experience, and trail and error you will be able to figure this out (and along the way save your family tons of cash!).
DF Seattle
New User
Thanks for sharing your experience, advice, and encouragement! I also find the wearing part particularly frustrating but it's getting much better now. I learned a trick which was to use a smooth bolt to help bring the string up and down across to make the weaving faster. My son and I have learned a lot more than just stringing but also about various types of strings.
Since he's been happy with the two racquets that I strung most recently (huge relief for me!), we probably won't visit our club stringer for a while and finally start to save some money. There's one thing I noticed and questioned was his stringing method, which was one piece stringing (only two knots). Babolat recommends two piece stringing for my son's racquets. I haven't learned much about the pros and cons between the two methods yet but I heard two piece might give a more even tension? Need to delve into this a bit more...
LocNetMonster
Professional
Congrats.
The first fallacy of stringing. That's not going to happen for a few years. Sit back, grip the armrests, and enjoy the ride ... LOL ... If you can resist the urge to experiment with different strings, tension, and combinations of the two, you might actually save a couple of bucks. You are also going to need to spend money on new grommet kits and specialty tools, and you will have to buy a couple of more frames to experiment with new setups.
This ^^^^^^.
Heck, go up 10# or even 15#. You have a stringer. Don't be afraid to experiment to find out what works! Stringing is a lot of science mixed in with a healthy dose of alchemy.
graycrait
Legend
From personal experience I would be careful following this advice
That is how I have many many sets and reels of string and have given away 150+ racket experiments! It all started with me getting a used NEOS 1000!LocNetMonster
Professional
I guess I should have also told him to figure on adding 2-4 racquets to his collection every year, too
WYK
Hall of Fame
Exactly, and we are talking HyperG soft here as well, a very springy and stretchy poly that will lose tension rapidly the longer it sits on the head. If you use the method I suggested earlier to increase the over all stringbed tension and pull it with the carriage one full rotation out, you want to clamp it fairly quick as you have a lot of string there being pre-stretched.
If you have the lockout tension head parked right against the frame, it may not matter quite as much. But, in any case, you always want to clamp as soon as possible regardless of what machine you use.
Otherwise you waste the tension you set it at, and may lose consistency as well. There's no good reason to let it sit there on the tension head.
MathieuR
Hall of Fame
Wrong!
- on a lockout slow or fast clamping after lockout makes no difference. What does make a difference: the position of the tensioning mechanisme, the distance towards the frame before you start tensioning the string.
If it is "as far away" as possible, then every piece of string is tensioned twice, resulting in a stiffer stringbed.
- on a eCP (or a dropweight) you should clamp after the tensioning process is "stable" (and the lasting elongation with that ref.tension is removed)
WYK
Hall of Fame
Most of us agree with what you said.
But if you clamp at markedly different times whilst pulling a very elastic poly that you are pre-stretching, you are going to get different results because the amount you are pre-stretching then changes.
Last edited:
okay that's something I hadn't thought of, essentially prestretching the string you are about to put in the racquet next. I'll ponder it. I do something a little different: When I'm on a Neos 1500 I start a pull as close to the frame as possible, and when I get ~95% tension on the string I release the clamp on the previous string, to take any slack out of the previous string just before I finish the pull and lock the tension head. Clients seem to like it.
Yes I see the string move.
SpinControl
Rookie
Sports is such a mind Fk.
Be careful at his age that he doesn't start blaming the string job.
He definitely needs to know what he likes, but when racket strings aren't quite where he likes them, see if he can play through that and adjust his launch angle and swing speed/path.
In college, I used to string all the time. I never was satisfied with the hitting. As I'm older and watching a lot of modern swings, and adjusting my swing path and grips, it was mostly my technique and not the strings.
It isn't always about hitting 100% on all shots. Tight angles requires more finesse. But higher shots over the net require more speed to impart more spin, so definitely a balance.
As for cutting polys out after 14hours...
Maybe that's total playtime vs. time since stringing. I have rackets strung for a couple of months with poly (main) and multi (cross), and I'm still getting good feel. Hit last night and two rackets seemed a little springy (could feel the ball trampoline/pocket). I don't like that feel and it definitely can cause more injuries for me.
Be careful at his age that he doesn't start blaming the string job.
He definitely needs to know what he likes, but when racket strings aren't quite where he likes them, see if he can play through that and adjust his launch angle and swing speed/path.
In college, I used to string all the time. I never was satisfied with the hitting. As I'm older and watching a lot of modern swings, and adjusting my swing path and grips, it was mostly my technique and not the strings.
It isn't always about hitting 100% on all shots. Tight angles requires more finesse. But higher shots over the net require more speed to impart more spin, so definitely a balance.
As for cutting polys out after 14hours...
Maybe that's total playtime vs. time since stringing. I have rackets strung for a couple of months with poly (main) and multi (cross), and I'm still getting good feel. Hit last night and two rackets seemed a little springy (could feel the ball trampoline/pocket). I don't like that feel and it definitely can cause more injuries for me.
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