String-newb needs help with new setup

[stephan_58]

Recently bought a new stick (Head Graphene Instinct MP) with Topspin Cyber Flash 1.25 strung at 57/55 lbs (26/25 kg). Now my old setup was a Head YouTek Speed Elite with Luxilon Alu Power Rough strung at 55/55 lbs (25/25 kg), so the strings/tension were pretty similar.

Now my problem is that my balls fly mostly long all the time and it's kinda ruined my game. When I was testing the new racket it was strung hybrid with a poly in the mains and some synthetic gut-string in the crosses at 62/60 lbs (28/27). It felt great, I was comfortable with it, so I bought the stick.

Now what should be my next move so that I get more control back? Keep the polys and go higher in the tension (how much more would you recommend)? I read that polys shouldn't be strung too tight, is that right? How drastic is the change from full bed poly to poly/syn. gut hybrid?

Sorry for all the question, as you can see I'm not really an expert on these matters, so any help would be appreciated.

 

[Muppet]

The Cyber Flash seems like a good choice for that racquet. What I think happened was the grommets in your new racquet seated into the racquet holes from the first stringing. So that made the strings a lot looser and less consistent when you played. I would just get it re-strung the same way and go from there. Unfortunately, finding the right string at the right tension for a given racquet and a given player is not an exact science.

 

[anubis]

Recently bought a new stick (Head Graphene Instinct MP) with Topspin Cyber Flash 1.25 strung at 57/55 lbs (26/25 kg). Now my old setup was a Head YouTek Speed Elite with Luxilon Alu Power Rough strung at 55/55 lbs (25/25 kg), so the strings/tension were pretty similar.

Now my problem is that my balls fly mostly long all the time and it's kinda ruined my game. When I was testing the new racket it was strung hybrid with a poly in the mains and some synthetic gut-string in the crosses at 62/60 lbs (28/27). It felt great, I was comfortable with it, so I bought the stick.

Now what should be my next move so that I get more control back? Keep the polys and go higher in the tension (how much more would you recommend)? I read that polys shouldn't be strung too tight, is that right? How drastic is the change from full bed poly to poly/syn. gut hybrid?

Sorry for all the question, as you can see I'm not really an expert on these matters, so any help would be appreciated.

Correct, poly shouldn't be strung too tight. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your two string choices are pretty much at polar ends of the poly spectrum.

If memory serves, Topspin cyber flash is probably the softest poly on the market. So soft in fact, I think that virtually all mono-filament syn guts are stiffer than it is.

What this means is, its a more powerful string than you're used to. You used Lux ALU power rough, that's a fairly stiff string, even for poly. this means its lower in power than the TS cyber flash.

All things being equal, you need to stiffen your stringbed in order to reduce the power... and counter that as well with additional top spin to keep the ball in play.

I recommend going up in tension, but I don't recommend raising your tension more than 2lbs each go around. Try 59/57 first. If that doesn't work, try 61/59. Keep going up by 2 lbs until you find the right stiffness for your game.

 

[stephan_58]

Correct, poly shouldn't be strung too tight. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your two string choices are pretty much at polar ends of the poly spectrum.

If memory serves, Topspin cyber flash is probably the softest poly on the market. So soft in fact, I think that virtually all mono-filament syn guts are stiffer than it is.

What this means is, its a more powerful string than you're used to. You used Lux ALU power rough, that's a fairly stiff string, even for poly. this means its lower in power than the TS cyber flash.

All things being equal, you need to stiffen your stringbed in order to reduce the power... and counter that as well with additional top spin to keep the ball in play.

I recommend going up in tension, but I don't recommend raising your tension more than 2lbs each go around. Try 59/57 first. If that doesn't work, try 61/59. Keep going up by 2 lbs until you find the right stiffness for your game.

Thanks for your answer. I am not sure about the stiffness of the strings. From what I have read the Cyber Flash doesn't seem to be higher powered than the Luxilon.

But I guess changing to a racket that's 15 Grams heavier than the old one (Speed Elite was 285 unstrung, Instinct MP is 300) could be what increased the power in my groundstrokes? I think I'll keep the poly and try going up by 2 lbs as you suggested and see what happens.

 

[Lambsscroll]

Go and ask the guy you bought the racket from the details on the hybrid. Or tell him to restring your racket with the hybrid in the test racket.

 

[stephan_58]

Go and ask the guy you bought the racket from the details on the hybrid. Or tell him to restring your racket with the hybrid in the test racket.

I did, they string their testrackets with their own brand of tennis strings. They used a co-poly 1.25 (16L) for the mains and a syn. gut 1.35 (15L) for the crosses.

Funny thing is, as I didn't have time to have my racket restrung last week I just kept on playing with the Cyber Flash a few times. And it actually feels pretty good now after a few hits. My shots aren't long all the time anymore and I'm starting to like the setup. Whether that is because I've gotten used to it or the Topspin Cyber Flash just gets better after a few hours of hitting, I'm not sure. Has anyone made the same observation with this string? I also have to say that my level isn't that high (I would rate myself a strong 3.5 or weak 4.0, I'm not sure, we have a different rating-system here) so the strings might be dead already and I just haven't noticed yet.