what makes a player a stringbreaker?

D

dominikk1985

Legend
sometimes I read here sentences like NG is great if you are not a stringbreaker.

what makes a player a stringbreaker? hitting hard? making a lot of off center hits?
 
Basically hitting with a lot of topspin and power. Yes hitting hard and resulting in strings breaking faster than others
 
Not counting mishitting, they have to hit exceptionally hard -- something you rarely (almost never) see at city parks -- and they are doing a few things pretty odd like using "weak", thin strings, very high tension, leaving rackets in weird temps, etc.

Myself I could launch the balls over 5 courts but I could never break any kirschbaum co-poly 17g during the first 4 weeks.
 
#3 - Hitting with power, #2 hitting with spin, and the #1 - hitting rocks.

EDIT: Forgot one, kids with side cutters.
 
Missing the ball near the frame. I am also a frequent stringbreaker because of the constant heavy spin i put. In addition, the material of the string could be weak. Like multifilament strings would last shorter than a polyester strings
 
I've never actually met a stringbreaker outside the talk tennis discussion boards. I know plenty of players who cut out their strings often because they go dead.
 
eelhc said:
I've never actually met a stringbreaker outside the talk tennis discussion boards. I know plenty of players who cut out their strings often because they go dead.
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agreed. i've yet to meet any of these gorillas who are shredding stringjobs in one hitting session. they must be pretty bad a $ $.
 
Not a poly fan, so I don't know how you poly guys gauge who's a string breaker or not. But growing up on cheap $3-4 synthetic gut 16g, if you break it within 5 days of hitting, then you're a string breaker.

I think I averaged out 8 or 9hours with synthetic gut 16g.

You can't call someone a string breaker if they break it by the frame, they just can't hit.
 
If you start or keep most of your hits basically in the middle of the frame, like I do, not a string breaker.

Now, my one buddy hits extreme topspin, and I have watched his initial contact point is near the edge of the frame. Any time you do this on purpose or by accident their is far more stress on the strings and this is why he is a "string breaker". He breaks regular strings in a couple days, and poly in a week or so. By the way, he is a 4.5-5.0 player(he goes up and down) and hits the ball very hard(but then, so do I, its just where he starts his topspin on the racket vs mine is why he has to string much more often.(I last 3 to 6 months, for example with full poly.)

I have done this, not on purpose, by nearly framing a hard hit serve and hit near the edge of the frame, the push-pull action is great out near the edges, and thus the chance of breaking strings is much greater.

Hope this helps.
 
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eelhc said:
I've never actually met a stringbreaker outside the talk tennis discussion boards. I know plenty of players who cut out their strings often because they go dead.
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tbuggle said:
agreed. i've yet to meet any of these gorillas who are shredding stringjobs in one hitting session. they must be pretty bad a $ $.
Click to expand...

One of the reasons I took up stringing is my son as 9th grader would break >10 sets of strings a week. When he went out for his HS tennis team he bought 3 Prince Approach MId rackets I strung the night before tryouts with his normal. He broke all three and borrowed a friends to brake. Brought me four rackets to string.
 
Basically it's what been said, people who who swing for the hills and mishit (they think they don't mishit because these new racquets let you get away with hitting pretty much anywhere on the bed and still getting power [funnily enough these people also are usually the ones who complain of stiff strings and TE etc but anyway]).

I've seen so many people on here say "gut doesn't last me more than half an hour in a hybrid" and such and I laugh my arse off because either they hit harder and heavier than guys like fed, murray, djoker, kolshreiber etc or they're just delusional people who swing way faster than they can actually hit the middle of the stringbed with and go oh it must be the strings fault. I mean the average person doesn't even hit with as much spin as 90's pros and they got more than half an hour out of it.

But yeah anytime I read that sort of stuff I remember the local pro telling me about this kid that would break 2 freshly strung beds of BBO in like an hour and would blame the string... yeah sure it's the string folks not your overly ambitious tennis.
 
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eelhc said:
I've never actually met a stringbreaker outside the talk tennis discussion boards. I know plenty of players who cut out their strings often because they go dead.
Click to expand...

tbuggle said:
agreed. i've yet to meet any of these gorillas who are shredding stringjobs in one hitting session. they must be pretty bad a $ $.
Click to expand...

One of the reasons I took up stringing is my son as 9th grader would break >10 sets of strings a week. When he went out for his HS tennis team he bought 3 Prince Approach MId rackets I strung the night before tryouts with his normal. He broke all three and borrowed a friends to brake. Brought me four rackets to string.
 
One of my tennis buddies is a string breaker. I've tried putting 17g in his sticks and he can play two matches with it and it pops. 16g is much better. But yeah most of hit string breaks are right in the sweet spot in the middle of the racquet. He does have a wicket forehand (nadal like).
 
I´ve breaking my strings for +30 years in less than 3 hours ,
indoor they (currently yonex ptp 1,3 prince rebel 98) usually don´t break until 5 hours . Left handed with heavy topspin forhand and kick or slice serve. So tempted to try the ESP 100T , but afraid of breaking strings.
This summer on clay I manage to break 4 new strings in one afternoon training :/
 
It also depends who you play with. My partners accuse me of breaking their strings because I hit very heavy top spin.
 
huba01 said:
I´ve breaking my strings for +30 years in less than 3 hours ,
indoor they (currently yonex ptp 1,3 prince rebel 98) usually don´t break until 5 hours . Left handed with heavy topspin forhand and kick or slice serve. So tempted to try the ESP 100T , but afraid of breaking strings.
This summer on clay I manage to break 4 new strings in one afternoon training :/
Click to expand...

I string for a D1 college player friend of mine. He breaks every string I give him in less than 3 hours, except Solinco Outlast 16. He hasn't broken them yet.

Give them a try.
 
I'm lmao at the people suggest that string breakers are merely shankers. Simply not true.

The argument that Pro's don't break strings is completely non-sensical. They switch frames into new strings every 9ish games, ie when new balls are used. They simply have to last 9 games. If you've ever watched a good D1 player, or higher in practice, they can, and do, break strings every 60 to 120 minutes. Watch Fed at a practice session. He can go through 4 to 6 frames.

I'm a string breaker. I never break the string in an off main.. ie from a shank. It's always one of the 2 center mains. I'm not an exceptionally heavy server. I do have an exceptionally heavy baseline ball from both sides.. I'm a one handed backhander. Being 1HBH I generate more spin that most 2 handers do on that side at my level.

Strings break from a combination of an open frame (which I love) and heavy spin which induces exceptional main string movement. The crosses saw into and notch mains like a saw into a log. This sawing motion is where the breakage comes from. Its not from smashing the ball hard.

Some people don't have the technique to create this string movement. They simply assume it comes from off center shots. This is not true.
 
huba01 said:
I´ve breaking my strings for +30 years in less than 3 hours ,
indoor they (currently yonex ptp 1,3 prince rebel 98) usually don´t break until 5 hours . Left handed with heavy topspin forhand and kick or slice serve. So tempted to try the ESP 100T , but afraid of breaking strings.
This summer on clay I manage to break 4 new strings in one afternoon training :/
Click to expand...

The Yonex Poly Tour Pro lasted me 3 sets of singles against a light hitting partner in the 100T ESP. That is not a durable poly at all.
 
Thanks guys, will def. try the new Prince Xc in 15g. I have tried the Solinco bite and Soft and i had shoulder pain afterwards.
The Yonex ptp and the Prince beast are some of the very few polys I can play with without having any problems. Both very comfortable in combination with the rebel 98 , so I´m having hopes for the new 15g strings from Prince. Mikeler, is the Xc as comfrotable as the beast or the Yonex ?
 
huba01 said:
Thanks guys, will def. try the new Prince Xc in 15g. I have tried the Solinco bite and Soft and i had shoulder pain afterwards.
The Yonex ptp and the Prince beast are some of the very few polys I can play with without having any problems. Both very comfortable in combination with the rebel 98 , so I´m having hopes for the new 15g strings from Prince. Mikeler, is the Xc as comfrotable as the beast or the Yonex ?
Click to expand...

I have not tried Beast yet but I'm thinking about it. To me the Prince seemed slightly softer than the Yonex.
 
Yeah, the Beast is very comfortable for a poly , along with Topspin cyber blue and Yonex ptp . Imo the Yonex play great in lower tension range around 22 kg in the Rebel 98. My daughter has a contract with yonex and plays the V-core 100 Xi with the Yonex poly tour spin in the mains and the ptp in the crosses at 21 kg (1,25). Even in a stiff frame like the Xi, both play very soft for polys.
 
Usually, bad choice of string! When I was 16/17 and I didnt know a whole lot about strings/stringing I played a multi main/poly cross set-up. Liked it, but it lasted for about 4 hours of play. Now, with me being a better player, hitting harder and with more spin, I get 6/7 hours out of my Yonex PTP set-up.

Also, "better players", to be precise, players that consistently hit the same spot on the stringbed, break strings more often as well.
 
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Wow... Good tennis players break strings. Regularly. In one of the middle eight mains in or right above center.
 
huba01 said:
Thanks guys, will def. try the new Prince Xc in 15g. I have tried the Solinco bite and Soft and i had shoulder pain afterwards.
The Yonex ptp and the Prince beast are some of the very few polys I can play with without having any problems. Both very comfortable in combination with the rebel 98 , so I´m having hopes for the new 15g strings from Prince. Mikeler, is the Xc as comfrotable as the beast or the Yonex ?
Click to expand...

I just strung the XC 1.35 in my prestige tonight. It was super easy to string for a poly so thick, way easier than 1.25 lux. I cant wait to try it on sunday. It feels super comfy bouncing a ball on the string bed.
 
Besides the obvious like hitting with power etc there may some other factors:

1. Hitting off center- I.e. I broke one full bed Babolat VS Team 17 this week, hitting towards the top of the frame and it snapped by a knot. This hasn't happened since last year, where I would have more miss hits...

2. Not being or going to an experienced stringer (who would i.e. manually pre-stretch the gut, wax it before feeding through the grommets etc).

3. Not taking care of the gut, i.e. not cleaning/waxing it, not storing it in a locker and so forth.
 
PKfan1 said:
I just strung the XC 1.35 in my prestige tonight. It was super easy to string for a poly so thick, way easier than 1.25 lux. I cant wait to try it on sunday. It feels super comfy bouncing a ball on the string bed.
Click to expand...

It is my favorite poly so far.
 
Like others has said, a lot of the really bad string breakers have high contact points on their racket and end up shanking a bunch of balls in the hoop.
 
Rjtennis said:
Like others has said, a lot of the really bad string breakers have high contact points on their racket and end up shanking a bunch of balls in the hoop.
Click to expand...

Yeah, shanking balls in the upper loop does happen. And I have snapped strings pre-maturely because I shanked a few. :evil:

I consider myself as a string breaker and I too have a high sweetspot which I consistently hit.

Here's an example, my old "rain/wet/moist" (I use gut except for moist/foggy days) racquet with Tecnifibre E-Matrix 16 after ~4hours:

IMG_6558.jpg
 
Heavy spin is definetly the main factor, hard hitting makes it even worse of course. I don´t know bout manliness mentioned before, he he... I destroy my multis in between 1,5-6 hrs. By 6 hours of use the playability is not good enough anyhow...
 
wmilas said:
I'm lmao at the people suggest that string breakers are merely shankers. Simply not true.

The argument that Pro's don't break strings is completely non-sensical. They switch frames into new strings every 9ish games, ie when new balls are used. They simply have to last 9 games. If you've ever watched a good D1 player, or higher in practice, they can, and do, break strings every 60 to 120 minutes. Watch Fed at a practice session. He can go through 4 to 6 frames.

I'm a string breaker. I never break the string in an off main.. ie from a shank. It's always one of the 2 center mains. I'm not an exceptionally heavy server. I do have an exceptionally heavy baseline ball from both sides.. I'm a one handed backhander. Being 1HBH I generate more spin that most 2 handers do on that side at my level.

Strings break from a combination of an open frame (which I love) and heavy spin which induces exceptional main string movement. The crosses saw into and notch mains like a saw into a log. This sawing motion is where the breakage comes from. Its not from smashing the ball hard.

Some people don't have the technique to create this string movement. They simply assume it comes from off center shots. This is not true.
Click to expand...

Watched fed practice today at the australian open for a couple of hours, one frame. Just because someone is D1 doesn't mean they strike clean 100 percent of the time, in fact given the weight of shot and the RHS required they're more likely to misshit especially as mentioned hitting higher in the stringbed which most modern players do.

I generate more spin than anyone I've hit with, including players who play at much higher levels than me so your argument about technique doesn't hold water. I find it difficult to believe you've only ever snapped the two centre mains but whatever, the exception doesn't disprove the rule, given that 99 percent have said the same on here. In any case if you break gut mains in half an hour as has been said on this forum you either got the worst batch of gut in history or you're hacking away, plain and simple.

I remember there davydenko played miami with one frame, one string job per match, seemed to work for him. Before someone says some bs about hitting bigger than davydenko you don't and you certainly don't face opponents who hit as big, so swallow your pride clean up your strokes and maybe you'll get more than an hour out of strings.
 
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I've watched fed in Miami, (in the heat) and in US open blow through frames like crazy in a practice. He used gut and poly at that point. Wilson gut. His stringer is here on the forums and I'm 100% sure he'll collaborate. The gut didn't last more than 60 minutes. I mainly went to watch his spin and net clearance along with his ability to spin topspin inside out and outside in. I was curios how he can spin inside out as I can really only spin outside in.

As far as the gut, I've snapped not 1, but 6+ packs of Pacific natural in a steam in under an hour each playing around with hybrids when I first got it. 5 in the sweet spot main crosses due to wear, one in a cross near the hoop in a shank. The gut turns into a mass of fibres in under 20 minutes.

In a Yonex RDIS 100 with gut mains/msv co poly crosses gut will last 4 hours unless its summer. It'll last 3ish hours then.

Your last sentence is ignorant. It depends on the frame and the technique. I can't break strings in under 6 to 8 hours in a 90in pro staff. In a blx steam 99s I shred them. I break them in the sweet spot every time. It has nothing to do with shanks. It has to do with heavy string movement and the sawing action of the crosses into the mains. The fact that you don't see that yourself means one of four things:

1) You use a poly/poly that locks its string bed. Flat hitters prefer this most often as it yields more control for them. When these strings "die" they feel boardlike, not launcher like.

2) You use a 18x20 or a 90in players frame and don't use gut. Strings don't move nearly as much in these frames. Takes me 8+ hours to break a poly/poly setup in something like a head 18x20 95 incher.

3) You are a flat hitter who doesn't generate any spin with a windshield wiper motion. You don't use spin RPM's for ball control.

4) You don't know what the hell you are talking about, or some combination of the the top 3.

Take a look at Jollyroger here on the boards. He's much better than me (hes younger) He shreds strings much faster than me. He will go through a 12 pack of frames in a flash strung lux big banger/alu. He'll break them in the exact center every time. Don't believe me? Go to the JollyRogerII thread where he posts pics in the string forum here. You might learn something.

I only have 3 frames so I can't line up 12 at a time like Jolly and show the breakage, but I'll try and post pics of mine as I break them.
 
So I busted the strings today. OGSM 16/TCS 16 @ 54/54. Pictures are as follows:

IMG_20140113_170845.jpg


IMG_20140113_170930.jpg


I normally don't bust 3 at once, but it is normal for 2 to go when they break. As you can see its non where near a shank, right in the sweet spot. Notice the deep indents on the mains on the strings that did not break. Notice the indents on the mains that did break and how they are VERY close to breaking themselves. The notches around the sweet spot are deeper than farther out on the hoop.

This was from 1 hour of baseline hitting with a partner, and 45 minutes of serve returns with cross court play out. The server hits a heavy flat, and a spinny kick second. There were a few body slices thrown in.

I did notice something interesting when talking to him about string breaking. He remarked that I tend to spin the racquet around on my backhand to hit with the same face as the forehand when I have time. I know its a bad habit, but hes right, I do tend to do it. This may also contribute to me braking strings faster.

I'm going to string up some BHB7 16 with tcs 16 crosses next and I'll show you what it looks like when it breaks. Its pretty much the same thing except little pieces of BHB7 go flying everywhere when it breaks because its more brittle.

I got one in my eye once. Its not fun :(.
 
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