String suggestion for a 13yr old girl

pvaudio

Legend
Unfortunately then, get ready for no one to suggest anything. If she's just beginning, then strings are the least important thing to consider. She won't be able to benefit from multifilaments, let alone natural gut or further, polyester. Get her basic synthetic gut, string it in the middle of the racquet's recommended tension range, and leave it at that. She won't be breaking strings for some time yet.
 

nadalex

Rookie
natural gut, because pvaudio is right she wont be breaking strings and natural gut retains its playability longest and has the best tension maintenance of all strings. Also string it at the middle to upper portion of the tension range
 

pvaudio

Legend
I could not agree less. Why spend 40 dollars when you can spend less than 4, and she'll play exactly the same? She doesn't know what tension maintenance even is, much less playability. When you're just worried about getting the ball over the net, spend money on lessons instead of string.
 
D

Deleted member 120290

Guest
If you are rich and price is no object, then VS Team 17 gut. If you think she needs to learn the value of money, Gosen OG Micro Sheep 17. If she is a bratty step-daughter you can't stand, Kevlar at 90lbs FULL BED.
 

brownsfan456

New User
I could not agree less. Why spend 40 dollars when you can spend less than 4, and she'll play exactly the same? She doesn't know what tension maintenance even is, much less playability. When you're just worried about getting the ball over the net, spend money on lessons instead of string.

Agreed. To a starter, a natural gut will hardly make a difference. Especially on an all-power beginner or tweener frame. Get a nice and soft poly. Nothing too hard on her arm, but usable.
 

frunk

Semi-Pro
If you are rich and price is no object, then VS Team 17 gut. If you think she needs to learn the value of money, Gosen OG Micro Sheep 17. If she is a bratty step-daughter you can't stand, Kevlar at 90lbs FULL BED.

HAHAH I literally LOL'd!
 

COPEY

Hall of Fame
Agreed. To a starter, a natural gut will hardly make a difference. Especially on an all-power beginner or tweener frame. Get a nice and soft poly. Nothing too hard on her arm, but usable.


Just no is correct. The bolded part indicates where you started off on the right track, then drove off the cliff by suggesting a poly for a kid just starting out.

A basic synthetic gut is all she needs - nothing more. If she has a decent racquet and you have a stringer at home looking for a reel of suitable string, go with the Gosen OG-Micro Sheep. At $36 a reel of Micro Sheep will yield approximately 17 string jobs. The general rule of thumb for synthetics is to restring as many times in a year as you play in a week, hence a reel will last her a good while.

But definitely ignore advice/suggestions about poly or natural gut.
 

fortun8son

Hall of Fame
I agree. Stay with synthetic gut. If you string yourself, by all means go for the OGSheep. In a big store, Prince Synthetic Gut w/ Duraflex, Wilson Extreme, and Head PPS (in descending order of stiffness) will work just fine.
 

gahaha

Rookie
Thanks guys for the response, don't worry natural gut and poly is out of the question, I was looking more at synthetic strings and needed some suggestions since I play with poly mainly and not too familiar with good synthetic brands.
 

Torres

Banned
^^^ Some of the suggestions in this thread are wild.....

If you are rich and price is no object, then VS Team 17 gut. If you think she needs to learn the value of money, Gosen OG Micro Sheep 17. If she is a bratty step-daughter you can't stand, Kevlar at 90lbs FULL BED.

This is the best answer in my view.

The only other consideration I would add is how serious she is about getting into the game, how regularly she's going to be playing and what her potential is. If she's going to be playing regularly or been signed up to a weekly course at a local club (and this was my daughter), I'd buy her some nice natural gut. I really don't know why natural gut should be 'out of the question' - its likely to last the longest out of any string, maintains tension the best, will offer her the most feel on the ball, and plays well even when old and dry and starting to get more brittle. Buying a reel of Gosen is all very well and good, but unless the OP has a stringing machine at home, you're not really going to get much of a cost saving given the cost of restrings.
 
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pvaudio

Legend
You're saying that she won't get the price benefit of OGSM, and she would get the price benefit out of natural gut. She isn't putting spin on the ball, isn't making touch shots, isn't volleying authoritatively, isn't probably even serving at all, and yet, you'd pay $30+ on strings simply because for an advanced player it's the best value and she may turn into an advanced player? I don't know of a single person (at least born in my generation or after) who didn't start playing with either the stuff in their store-bought racquet, or cheap old synthetic gut. I hit with guys now who only use syn gut. It's dirt cheap, and if you know what you're doing, you can get just as much action with it as someone who plays poly regularly, but doesn't have the strokes to get the most of it.
 

Torres

Banned
^^^ Stop babbling. It’s up to her (or her parents) whether she wants to use natural gut or synthetic gut. There are ‘no fixed in stone’ rules that govern the exclusion of one string over the other (well, not unless she lives in North Korea and you are Kim Jong-Ill). If she or her parents want her to play with natural gut, rather than Gosen, then so be it. It's a better string anyway.
 
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PimpMyGame

Hall of Fame
Two concerns:

1. That the 13 y.o. girl will play in the rain, spill her drink over the strings, hit stones, etc etc etc which would mean that the price of using natural gut would be the quickest way to alienate the parents from what can be a very expensive sport.

2. That anyone who picks up a racket can use it as a rocket launcher - control is what needs to be taught. Using a high-powered string might make the game too difficult for someone who's starting out. I know that years ago, this was de rigeur; but it's all relative - her peers will probably be using syn gut or maybe poly. If she can't control the ball like them due to the natural gut it will be demoralising.

My vote goes to a good quality syn gut, such as Prince.
 

Torres

Banned
LOL. Who spills drinks all over their tennis racquet? And how many typical 13 year old girl beginner tennis players do you know that are going to want to play in the rain? And you're saying that gut offers no control but Gosen does? Those are pretty hilarious arguments against natural gut!
 
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pvaudio

Legend
You missed his point...entirely. He is simply saying that while YOU might know that the strings are worth a fortune, she won't care in the slightest what her racquet strings cost. At her age and level, they just aren't important. The likelihood that she'll take care of them religiously as you need to when playing gut is incredibly low. When she gets done with her lesson, of course she'll forget the racquet in the trunk of the car. Of course she'll try to hit rocks over a fence with it. That's normal for a player that young. Why even introduce the possibility of wasting that much money when you can save 10x as much money, and as far as you're concerned, she'll play just as well for just as long?
 

pvaudio

Legend
And I do agree on the power. For someone who cannot tame it, the power of natural gut for someone who's going to be swinging far harder than the need to, is wholly unnecessary. Get a super cheap syn gut, put her in some lessons, and wait and SEE if she breaks the strings. Wait and see if she takes to the sport and becomes a serious junior. If she does, then she'll decide if natural gut is the thing for her. I'm not just saying this as a cost issue, I'm saying this as someone who works at junior tournaments. Even in the mid west team tournament that was here this past weekend, I saw absolutely zero players with natural gut. Poly/syn gut hyrbrids, multi, full poly, syn gut, and in that order.
 

Torres

Banned
There's way too much overanalyzing going on now. People will be asking for personality profiling next.

My vote goes to freedom of choice, and the fact that its not really THAT big a deal what string she chooses.

(Natural gut is better though!)
 

TennisCJC

Legend
The best string for any beginning regardless of age is a 16 guage synthetic gut. Prince Orginal Syn Gut, or Prince Syn Gut with Duraflex, or Gosen Sheep, or Klip Kicker, or Gamma Syn Gut with wear guard, or many others. The ones listed are all solid strings and one can play quite well with any of them. There is a former div 1 all conference player on my team and he plays syn gut strings that cost in the $2-$4 range per set. He beats the heck out of everyone on the team.

Your daughter doesn't need gut - waste of money and you can string many sets of syn gut for price of 1 gut strings. No beginner can appreciate the advantages of gut nor will they have the skill to reap the benefits. This would be like buying your daughter a Ferrari sports car to learn to drive.

Your daughter doesn't need poly or co-poly. There is no such thing as a soft poly. String stiffness ratings with higher numbers being stiffer usually have gut in the 90-130 range, syn gut/multifilaments in the 150-185 range and polys in the 225-275 range. Co-poly is designed to reduce power and increase spin and control and it is specifically targeted to intermediate++++ players who have higher swing speeds. It is stiff and harder on the body. It would be child abuse to get a beginning kid a poly string job and DFACS will lock you up.
 
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Fuji

Legend
Just get some Gosen synthetic gut. I still use it whenever I'm out of my normal string, (Head Rip Control and Technifibre X1-Biphase 17).

It's cheap, pretty durable and consistent in any weather condition. That's the one thing I've noticed; since I'm in such high humidity in the afternoon and super low at night it kills my consistency unless I string a few pounds higher. (I'm a sucker for low tensions.)

-Fuji
 

pvaudio

Legend
There's way too much overanalyzing going on now. People will be asking for personality profiling next.

My vote goes to freedom of choice, and the fact that its not really THAT big a deal what string she chooses.

(Natural gut is better though!)
Um no, you're the one overanalyzing everything. This is incredibly simple, but yet you're making it incredibly complicated to justify the expense. You keep touting the benefits of natural gut, which NO ONE has denied, except for the fact that the player in question will not benefit from a single one of them. She doesn't need the power, she doesn't need lots of feel, she doesn't need lots of spin, she doesn't need great playability, she doesn't need ultimate tension maintenance and definitely won't be breaking strings for probably at least a year. For someone just picking up a racquet, that should be the least important thing that you do. Put in simple as chips synthetic gut, and put her on the court. He already agreed and said natural gut is out of the question, so I'm not sure why you keep defending which is quite honestly a ridiculous suggestion.
 

pvaudio

Legend
The best string for any beginning regardless of age is a 16 guage synthetic gut. Prince Orginal Syn Gut, or Prince Syn Gut with Duraflex, or Gosen Sheep, or Klip Kicker, or Gamma Syn Gut with wear guard, or many others. The ones listed are all solid strings and one can play quite well with any of them. There is a former div 1 all conference player on my team and he plays syn gut strings that cost in the $2-$4 range per set. He beats the heck out of everyone on the team.

Your daughter doesn't need gut - waste of money and you can string many sets of syn gut for price of 1 gut strings. No beginner can appreciate the advantages of gut nor will they have the skill to reap the benefits. This would be like buying your daughter a Ferrari sports car to learn to drive.

Your daughter doesn't need poly or co-poly. There is no such thing as a soft poly. String stiffness ratings with higher numbers being stiffer usually have gut in the 90-130 range, syn gut/multifilaments in the 150-185 range and polys in the 225-275 range. Co-poly is designed to reduce power and increase spin and control and it is specifically targeted to intermediate++++ players who have higher swing speeds. It is stiff and harder on the body. It would be child abuse to get a beginning kid a poly string job and DFACS will lock you up.
I know two D1 players at my school who still use syn gut while everyone else is using poly. One's not even American as he was recruited from Poland, IIRC. My coach, who was a former pro player and has coached top 10 pro players, still uses full synthetic gut. He can hit shots that just defy belief and still hits with the team players here half his age as well as the current coaches. People think synthetic gut is "bad" because it's what they started with (imagine that!) and "moved on" from. Not true. It's just an all around string that works for people who either don't need anything over the top, or who are so intent on just playing that it doesn't matter. If the thread title was "String suggestion for a top 5 under 14s girl", then yeah, natural gut would likely be appropriate to consider.
 

Xizel

Professional
Gosen or Prince will sponsor you for several months while you get better. After that, get a mid (plus) frame and have fun with more choices (Topspin Cyber Flash!!).
 

fortun8son

Hall of Fame
This thread has gotten silly. Use a plain vanilla Syngut or an inexpensive Multi, like Sensation or Dunlop Comfort, repeat as needed, and call me in 2 years. :)
P.S. pvaudio and Torres need to kiss and make up :p
 
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