I think that the Spaghetti strung racquets should definitely be made legal again. These racquets did not revolutionize the game anymore than Graphite racquets did. Graphite racquets transformed the game with power while the Spaghetti strung racquets transformed the game with spin. The spaghetti racquets actually hit with very little power. Therefore, if they were made legal again, you would see greater diversity in the game...i.e....power versus spin. As Bill Scanlon writes in bad news for Mcenroe... "todays generation is the strongest and fastest and also the most boring." Do you think the spaghetti racquet would bring back diversity to the game?
Should Spaghetti racquets be made legal again?
- Thread starter intense2b
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C
Cloudbuster
Guest
What's a spaghetti strung racquet?
Ash Doyle
Professional
Thats not true spaghetti stringing. I don't think it should be made legal. It made spin totally unpredictable on the ball. Even the person hitting it didn't know what kind of spin they were putting on the ball. It took talent and skill out of the equation, and and replaced it with unpredictable randomness. It would not help the game at all.
No. Spaghetti stringing should NOT be legalized. The impact on the ball hit with a spaghetti strung racket is much more extreme than any ball hit with a graphite racket.
I base this statement on my experience many years ago in hitting against players who used graphite and one who used a spaghetti strung back when I was still using a wood racket. The graphite racket offered more pace and spin but it was not impossible to compete against it. On the other hand, a player I regularly beat up on was untouchable when he used the spaghetti strung racket because of the ungodly spin he generated. Definitely a fun racket to hit with though !
I would guess that Roddick would hit spin serves that would bounce in the stands if he were allowed to use a spaghetti strung racket. And that most excessive topspiners would hit their groundstokes into the stands on a bounce.
I base this statement on my experience many years ago in hitting against players who used graphite and one who used a spaghetti strung back when I was still using a wood racket. The graphite racket offered more pace and spin but it was not impossible to compete against it. On the other hand, a player I regularly beat up on was untouchable when he used the spaghetti strung racket because of the ungodly spin he generated. Definitely a fun racket to hit with though !
I would guess that Roddick would hit spin serves that would bounce in the stands if he were allowed to use a spaghetti strung racket. And that most excessive topspiners would hit their groundstokes into the stands on a bounce.
joe sch
Legend
There are many diff variants of speghetti style stringing. It does take experience and touch to play with this type of stringing and for those players that dont like looser stringing, this will not be for you. I think speghetti style stringing should be made legal. There will be no threat to the current game since these rackets would be great handicaps to days open level tennis game. They would only be interesting at the lower levels of play and for the senior tennis.
Here's my fuzzy recollection from many years ago when spaghetti strung rackets (SSR) were first used and were legal.
Some no name, very low ranked tour player started using an SSR and started beating everyone, including Ilie Nastase, who was a top 10 player. Nastase, quick to see the incredible advantage, then used an SSR to beat Guerillmo Vilas, the number 1 player in the world, who had won some record number of matches and/or tournaments in a row until that loss. Vilas, also understanding the advantage, then started using an SSR to keep his competitive advantage. The tennis powers that be saw the mockery and quickly banned SSRs.
From what I remember, hitting with an SSR was lots of fun and not all that difficult to get the hang of. I could hit fairly effortless groundstrokes that were virtually unreturnable. Conversely, playing someone who used an SSR was next to impossible.
Basically, SSRs very profoundly changed the nature of the game, which is why they were banned.
Some no name, very low ranked tour player started using an SSR and started beating everyone, including Ilie Nastase, who was a top 10 player. Nastase, quick to see the incredible advantage, then used an SSR to beat Guerillmo Vilas, the number 1 player in the world, who had won some record number of matches and/or tournaments in a row until that loss. Vilas, also understanding the advantage, then started using an SSR to keep his competitive advantage. The tennis powers that be saw the mockery and quickly banned SSRs.
From what I remember, hitting with an SSR was lots of fun and not all that difficult to get the hang of. I could hit fairly effortless groundstrokes that were virtually unreturnable. Conversely, playing someone who used an SSR was next to impossible.
Basically, SSRs very profoundly changed the nature of the game, which is why they were banned.
Golden Retriever
Hall of Fame
Is it possible to make a current racquet into a spaghetti racquet?
Any racket can be strung "Spaghetti" style. It's just a way that a racket is strung. The picture of the Donnay is a fairly conservative version of Spaghetti stringing.
I had a friend who spent time experimenting with various ways of Spaghetti stringing. From my recollection, his Spaghetti strung racket that had the most extreme spins had less crosses and mains than usual and he used pieces of fishing line, plastic tubing and other stuff that I can't recall for his Spaghetti strings. It looked really bizarre, but it was highly effective. He was a player I beat up regularly with conventional rackets. When he used his spaghetti strung racket I couldn't touch him.
I have no idea why this type of stringing produces such extreme results with relatively little effort, but it certainly does.
I had a friend who spent time experimenting with various ways of Spaghetti stringing. From my recollection, his Spaghetti strung racket that had the most extreme spins had less crosses and mains than usual and he used pieces of fishing line, plastic tubing and other stuff that I can't recall for his Spaghetti strings. It looked really bizarre, but it was highly effective. He was a player I beat up regularly with conventional rackets. When he used his spaghetti strung racket I couldn't touch him.
I have no idea why this type of stringing produces such extreme results with relatively little effort, but it certainly does.
Golden Retriever
Hall of Fame
Thanks, I am on my way to the hardware store.
Sc in Ma,
I respectfully have to disagree with Golden retriever and the picture of the "spaghetti racquet". First, that pic is no way near what the true Spaghetti racquet looked like. The original had, if memory serves correctly only four or five strings vertically (yes thats right only four or five). They were also strung extremely loosely. The racquet made absolutely no sound when you hit the ball , thus driving your opponent crazy. The pic of that donnay in this message board is a very poor imitiation....I would not even call it a Spoaghetti strung racquet. As to why it caused so much spin, I believe a book by Kuebler explains it and also has a pic of the original werner-fischer model. If you want to know all of the specifics as to the physics of why it caused such spin you may want to put in search terms such as werner fischer, Spaghetti string, kuebler. I also believe there is a pic from Kueblers book in a discussion on tennis warehouse in archives.
I respectfully have to disagree with Golden retriever and the picture of the "spaghetti racquet". First, that pic is no way near what the true Spaghetti racquet looked like. The original had, if memory serves correctly only four or five strings vertically (yes thats right only four or five). They were also strung extremely loosely. The racquet made absolutely no sound when you hit the ball , thus driving your opponent crazy. The pic of that donnay in this message board is a very poor imitiation....I would not even call it a Spoaghetti strung racquet. As to why it caused so much spin, I believe a book by Kuebler explains it and also has a pic of the original werner-fischer model. If you want to know all of the specifics as to the physics of why it caused such spin you may want to put in search terms such as werner fischer, Spaghetti string, kuebler. I also believe there is a pic from Kueblers book in a discussion on tennis warehouse in archives.
joe sch
Legend
That donnay borg pro is not anything like a classic speghetti strung racket. I did it myself when I was experimenting with diff stringing patterns & tensions. If I really like stringbeds and the guts were close to breaking, I would add some more crosses and or mains to prevent breakage. I took that example pretty far to see how it would hit. A true speghitti string job should have uneven tensions and patterns and often even tubies to provide slip type effects counter to the normal string beds response. Steve Huff created a close reproduction of the original Werner Fischer aluminum speghetti strung racket on a T2000. Here is a picture of a classic speghetti job :
[url]http://www.woodtennis.com/strings/t2000pasta.jpg
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[url]http://www.woodtennis.com/strings/t2000pasta.jpg
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tHANKS jOE!!!
My memory is a little foggy to say the least....the cross strings had only like 6 strings and not the vertical ones...I stand corrected....but we both agree...the donnay is no way near the original. But the question is should they be legal? Do they really make such a difference? I mean the power of todays graphites I think would blow the spaghetti off the courts or in the alternative serve as a deterrant to all the power out there. Soon we will have the most boring power tennis matches in the world such as the roddick - Johannsen match......zzzzzzzzz
My memory is a little foggy to say the least....the cross strings had only like 6 strings and not the vertical ones...I stand corrected....but we both agree...the donnay is no way near the original. But the question is should they be legal? Do they really make such a difference? I mean the power of todays graphites I think would blow the spaghetti off the courts or in the alternative serve as a deterrant to all the power out there. Soon we will have the most boring power tennis matches in the world such as the roddick - Johannsen match......zzzzzzzzz
In true spagetti pattern, the mains and crosses are not
interweaved. ITF banned any pattern that are not interweaved
or locked, not just spagetti pattern.
If we legalize that pattern, we would have to make interweaving
as non-requirement.
The free lateral movement of mains was the key reasons
why it was banned
interweaved. ITF banned any pattern that are not interweaved
or locked, not just spagetti pattern.
If we legalize that pattern, we would have to make interweaving
as non-requirement.
The free lateral movement of mains was the key reasons
why it was banned
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