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Tag: racquet

  • What You Get for Your Money

    Players often ask: “Why do basement stringers charge less than store stringers?”

    The simple answer is options.

    Basement stringing customers save money because basement racquet stringers offer fewer options. Basement stringers can stack up a bunch of discount stringing racquets for five or six days and then bang them all out at the same time without having to stop and reset custom machine tension and custom string options like custom racquet stringers do.

    Custom racquet stringers, by contrast, offer many options. They typically carry a large inventory of string and can offer many more precision tension options than basement stringers with budget machines.

    Every racquet they string takes more time. It is a more careful and deliberate process. Professional racquet technicians don’t just bang out custom string jobs. They are required to stop and check the custom spec sheet before starting every racquet.

    Then…

    They strip the racquet of all string and head tape. They clean the frame, remove all tape residue and inspect it. They check to see if any grommets are missing and formulate a repair plan. Often, at this point, they have to stop and call the customer to consult with them about how they want their grommets repaired.

    Once they have mapped out the road ahead, including repairs, they set up the string and the tension on the machine and start weaving. When they are done weaving and repairing, they have another stringer verify the weave and the repairs to ensure that everything is perfect. If any flaws are found in the weave or the repairs, they back up and correct everything before tying off.

    Once the racquet is done, they enter the notes in the customer file and notify the customer by email. All of this takes time and expertise, but it guarantees that they meet customer specifications exactly.

    Finally, convenience is a major factor in stringing costs. Basement stringers often have very limited hours. Customers have very narrow windows during which they can pick up or drop off their racquets while store stringers are open long hours. As a result, pick up and drop off are generally more convenient with store stringers than with basement stringers.

    In short, store stringing is a professional stringing service with a premium price while basement stringing offers fewer options at a lower price. Here in Calgary, Racquet Network offers both stringing options to their customers.

    Racquet Network’s Custom Stringing vs Discount Stringing Table

    CUSTOM DISCOUNT
    String options Choose from all strings None
    Colour options Choose from all colours None
    Tension options Choose from full range None
    Grommet repairs Minor repairs included free None
    Head tape removal Included free None
    Frame cleaning Included free None
    Service Options
    • online option
    • in store option
    Turnaround options
    • one hour
    • one day
    • one week
    • one week
    Notifications By email None
    Early pickup options Permitted Not permitted
    Warranty options Two weeks (labour only) None
    Sponsorship credits Automatic with online orders None

  • Why Don’t Pros Break Strings?

    Broken Tennis StringsHere is a question we get asked all of the time: pros hit harder than I do, so why don’t I ever see them break their strings?

    Actually, if you watch a lot of pro tennis, you will see professional tennis players break their strings, too. However, it doesn’t happen that often because they rarely play more than an hour before changing their strings. In an average 3 hour match, most of the top 20 professional tennis players will change their racquets five to ten times.

    Recreational players tend to play a lot longer on the same set of strings than a pro ever would. Poly strings tend to go completely dead after about four hours of play. Good quality multifilaments will last about eight hours before they go dead. And natural gut, the King of Strings, will stand up to about 20 hours of play or so before losing its life. That doesn’t matter to most recreational players, though. Most, in fact, will keep right on playing until something breaks — either string or frame.

    Given the price of sting and labour, this is not surprising. Professional tennis player change racquets every hour (or less) because somebody else is paying to string them. If they were paying for their own strings and labour, we would undoubtedly see more strings breaking during professional tennis matches.

    So how often should recreational players be changing their strings?

    The answer to this question depends on what the recreational player in question wants to get out of their strings. If their goal is maximum performance, they will change poly after four hours of play, multifilament after 8 hours and natural gut after 20 hours. If keeping costs to a minimum is their goal, then they will play as long as they can, usually until something breaks.

    As racquet stringers, we chuckle when we hear players say this (which they often do): “It takes a week or two to break new strings in.” We chuckle because we understand that what they are really saying is: “I am not used to playing with good string. I’m used to playing with dead string. So when I get my racquet back with new strings in it, I don’t like. A week later, once the strings are dead, it feels normal to me. That’s when I like it.”

    We also wince inwardly when players who have been practicing for a tournament for weeks with dead strings bring their racquets in to be restrung the day before the tournament. We wince because we know exactly what is going to happen. Why would you want a brand new, lively string bed for a tournament when you have been playing with a dead one for months?

    So keep all of this the next time you watch a pro tennis match. When you see them unwrapping a new racquet between points, remember why they are doing it. As professionals with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line with every ranking point won or lost, it is essential for them to have consistency in their corner. When you have big money riding on every swing of the racquet, the last thing you want is to have a string break.


    TEST PREPARATION


    The following questions may appear on tests related to this article. Use them to test your reading comprehension and prepare for the CERTIFIED EXPERTS TEST – RACQUET SERVICE.

  • 3 Ways to Extend String Life

    BROKEN HAMMEREven hammers break. Strong as the they are, they will all break eventually. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that racquet strings break too.

    Like hammers, they can break when they are old and worn out after lots and lots of pounding or they can break when they are new, fresh out of the package. They probably shouldn’t. But if you hit a hammer hard enough the first time you use it, a hammer might break too.

    So what can you do to prolong the life of your strings and get the most out of your investment?

    Step One is to learn to play rather than pound the ball. Contrary to the way some players think, hitting every shot as hard as you can is not the right way to play any racquet sport. Hard shots have their place but rarely will they make up more than 10% of your total shots in a game or match.

    Even serves should not generally be pounded. In tennis, a first serve might be hit hard, but the second serve should not be. The second serve should be a spin serve which is rarely hit with 100% of your full force. Even the first serve, which is often flatter and harder than the second serve, rarely sees top players hitting the ball as hard at they can.

    BROKEN GROMMETSStep Two in preserving the life of your strings is to take care of your frame. Split or broken grommets are string eaters. When they are whole, they work to prevent the string from touching the sharp edges of the graphite. When they split or break, the graphite cuts through the string like a hot knife through butter.

    Step Three in preserving the life of your strings is to string at lower tension. While it is true that constant friction at the crosses may cause the strings to saw through each other, modern materials and engineering minimize this. Strings today are designed to glide easily over each other. As a result, they are much more likely to break when exposed to extreme force under high tension.

    Players today have more choices than at any point in history. They can play with natural guts, synthetic guts, polyamides, polyesters, co-polys and more. In our store alone we carry more than 150 types of string. But all of these myriad choices have one thing in common; like hammers, if you hit them hard enough, they will break.

    So as carpenters take care of their tools, players must take care of their strings. No self-respecting carpenter swings as hard as he can at every nail. And no self-respecting tennis player should swing as hard as he can at every serve. The key is to apply force skillfully in order to maximize the effectiveness of the tool.

    TEST PREPARATION

    The following questions may appear on tests related to this article. Use them to test your reading comprehension and prepare for the CERTIFIED EXPERTS TEST – RACQUET SERVICE.