I've strung my racket several times like this, and the feeling is amazing at first, but after some serious pounding, the tension just evens out. Is there any way to lock in the tension of how it was originally strung? Orthodox or unorthodox ways?
Not sure how long this post has been here for, but when I read the link you posted, I kinda disagree. RE: "not sure if you have seen this, but i have seen it on many racket, esp cab rackets. after stringing at high tension of 25+ lbs, we find the the corners of the rackets get squeezed in. and now i believe this is exactly the reason, that uniform stringing is pulling on the racket frame non-uniformly. if you have followed my argument this far, then i think you can probably deduce the rest. with progressive stringing, we are actually lowering the tension as we move towards the corner of the racket, cancelling out the 2 x sine(45) extra force acting on the racket. as a result, there is now less stress on the racket frame. i hope this makes sense." I believe the 25 lbs on the mains also puts an outward horizontal force on the frame, which you did not account for. I really don't think this can be solved by such simple math as there are many variables involved. A racket may still be under stress even if there is no frame deformation. I suppose it wont matter as long as the customer is happy with your stringing and you dont try to intentionally break their rackets. Interesting thread tho.
Have you ever tried AK Badminton in Newark? He is stringing on the Yonex ES5 Protech machine. I heard people like Tony Gunawan, Halim, Grace Peng, Mona Santoso and Tennis Pro Venus Williams like his stringing. He has also stung for Andy Murray 2 time SAP Open tennis Champion.
I think for master stringers it just adds too much time on rackets, when you are at the world championships and there are over 700 rackets to string (just guessing from 2005) changing tension constantaly just adds up. Watching the England stringers string about 14 minutes a racket and the Americans at about 18, adding extra time, and since the top players are just happy to get their rackets back, why change something that aint broke?
For badminton should string bottom to top. The top of the frame is stronger, because if you impact a racket, hitting another racket or hitting a bird, is more stronger. there is less frame on the top to break and more frame on the bottom to break. Yonex recommends to go bottom to top, as well as the 2009 Pan American string team. At the 2005 World Championships I heard a stringer was stringing top to bottom. Stringing a players racket at 34 pounds broke 3 frames in a row. did bottom to top and didnt break any thereafter. One of my friends told me that.
Just out of curiosity, if you "PLUCK" a 12" string pulled at 25 pounds and a 8" string at the same tension, should it not sound the same? they are both 25 pounds, the CONSISTANT same tension, why would you want to match the pitch of the strings (lower the shorter string tension)? Isn't that inconsistant? Yo I am down with experimenting, gotta find a club and players willing to playtest. I think I know a stringer with the Yonex ES5 Protech (The only one in Nor Cal for the moment) and he could probably get a couple of Arcsaber Z Slashes to string.
the solution then, is to lower the tension as you move outwards. the lower tension plus the short length on the outer string segments will produce similar resonance frequency and thus increases the sweet spot. and that's what you felt with Mr. Ng's stringing, in which i also agree is excellent. Out of curiousity, have you ever had AK Badminton in Newark string your racket? Just curious how he rates among stringers you know, I am sure he would hook you up if you told him you wanted to critic his stringing. I could put a good word in for you.
if they are the same length, then they should sound the same. however, if they are of different length, then they won't. the tone of vibration is governed by a few factors: - the length of the string - the tension of the string - the thickness of the string - the material of the string. it should be very easy to see that. after you finish stringing the main string of a racket, with all the string at the same tension as provided by your machine, then just glide your finger across the string bed (like playing a harp). you will find that the shorter string has higher tone than the longer strings.
kakinami (and all other stringers that may entertain my query, tks to all), slightly off topic, would you string your tennis racquets like this, below? many thanks. cheers, MetalOrange
Unfortunately Tennis rackets have 1 string pattern can't alter string pattern, i.e.skip a cross, I will let you in on a little secret, if you want to start your cross on 8, before you pull your last main (if you do #9-#12-#10 pattern) before you put in last main (#10), preweave 3 crosses (#8, #9, #10, then you can tie mains on #9 putting 3 pieces of string in #9. Do you string bottom up? Why tie cross on 14H? that is a possiable 4X more tension loss on your last cross. should just go 5H.
Progressive Stringing? Did a search but couldn't find much info. My current go-to racket is a Victor BraveSword 11 with stringing done by a local guy. It's progressively strung, meaning in the sweet-spot of the racket it's 26x28lbs, and then radiating out from there the tension gets lower as the strings approach the frame. I'm having fantastic luck with this style of stringing. I'm only a B-Grade club player so my technique isn't exactly honed by years of practice, but I find that the racket has heaps of power when you need it, and yet is very forgiving on mishits or when you just generally fluff a shot up. In short - I'm a fan. Does anyone have any experience or information about this style?
I don't think you have searched properly. Anyway my opinion on the subject is that since you're pulling progressively less tension for the mains as you move outwards, the amount of stretching when you tension will also lessen and thus ultimately the outer strings will lose tension quicker. And since all of the main strings are 'connected' the tighter strings in the centre will also pull on the outer looser string and also lose tension themselves. In essence for the first week or so the tension maybe looser for the outer strings but soon enough the strings will all stabilise and you end up with a looser tension than you may like. So your 26x28lbs which is supposed to have 26lbs in the centre will eventually settle to [>26]x28lbs overall. This method may only be recommended for 2 point mount stringing machines (rather than for protection for racquets mishits or clashes) which do not have side supports for the main strings on the outside. Although for 26x28lbs or simply just 28lbs, you would start the centre mains which are supported by the 2 point mounts with 28lbs (rather than 26lbs) and then as you reach the remaining unsupported mains you either loosen your tension progressively or just string them at 25/26lbs depending on preference. On the other hand with a 6 point mount stringing machine since you have pretty much full support on all weak sides of the frame during stringing, there would be no need for the proportional tensioning as your racquet is pretty much fully protected anyway.
I did search properly - didn't realize it's smetimes called 'proportional' stringing (although what's 'proportional' is a mystery to me). I've had my racket strung like this now for 5 months and it hasn't 'equalised' like you'd think. I think people might over estimate the amount of slippage a string that has 26lbs of tension on it that has executed two 45 degree turns.
It depends on what string you have strung. The "stretchier" strings such as BG65 and BG66M (it does drop a little tension after a while despite the thickness) are more susceptible. IMHO there really is no need for such stringing if you're not doing the work yourself since it can get a little tedious for the stringer to have to reset the tension pull after a set number of strings and then progressively lowering, all the while having to do other customers' racquets. But if you insist then a more effective way is to lower only once as according to the method I have mentioned. As I have said this method is easier to do for a 6 point mount machine although you may still risk distorting the frame a little as racquet frames are designed to take uniform tension over the whole mains strings and when you pull the cross strings at the higher tension, the racquet head may warp and end up looking elongated. You could remedy this by stringing slightly lower tension on the cross (so for lets say 31lbs then maybe you would do 32lbs for the first 6 main strings then 28lbs for the remaining mains, then 30lbs for the cross strings).
Racquet shape Hi guys..I am new to this technique and would like to try it out. I have a question though...does this kind of stringing not distort the racquet from its natural or original shape. And how about the likelihood of snapping strings because of uneven tension at gommets. Has anyone experienced reduced durability of already notorious strings like BG-85 or so with this kind of stringing. Thanks, B
