This thought led me to read up on one of the most commonly discussed tennis injuries - tennis elbow.
There's a mountain of information on tennis elbow with many differing opinions. For me, I lean towards the view that tennis elbow is caused by:
- stiff and light rackets
- stiff strings strung at high tension
- playing with aged / dead strings
- recurring vibrations from non-sweetspot contact
- improper strokes
Even with tennis elbow, many players still could not stay away from the game. So I wondered if making some adjustments to the racket and / or stringing could alleviate the pain from TE.
Here is a Wilson BLX Surge racket handed to me for a "blind" modification. I merely asked how the owner felt hitting with this racket and what felt good or bad. The only instruction given was not to use poly strings.
First step was to measure all current specs like strung weight, balance point and any existing modifications. Then I cut and removed the old strings!
A quick check of the unstrung weight with overgrip on.
Preparing for re-stringing. Since the objective is comfort, I selected a soft 16g multifilament mains and a 17g synthetic gut cross to help retain tension better. A thinner gauge for cross would help to balance up the 20-30% lower tension that the cross strings would suffer due to friction.
Verifying the total weight again with the new strings. 14g added.
Here's how it looks after restringing with multifilament mains and synthetic gut cross. Nothing fanciful here. Straightforward 2-piece stringing.
Then, the weight, balance and vibration dampening modifications. Lead weight is added inside the butt cap together with foam to secure the lead. Both the lead and foam absorb vibrations.
The balance is checked a few times at various stages to ensure it does not go off too far away. Lead tape is added to the hoop at 12, 3 and 9 o'clock to add some plow-through, move the balance slightly higher and increase twist-weight for better stability on off-centre shots. The sweetspot would also be enlarged slightly and move 2-3cm higher.
Just to recap that this is purely a "blind" stringing and racket modification. The racket owner is totally unaware of the string tension, how much weight is added and balance re-tuned. Let's see how this player with TE feels.
Playtest:
- owner is not used to strings, it felt a little too loose
- owner is still unable to hit sweetspot regularly and has tendency to hit racket frame more often
- sweetspot contacts felt very nice and soft
Strings:
Pro Supex Maxim Touch 16g 1.30mm mains @ 52lbs
Pro Supex Synthetic Gut Titan 17g 1.25mm cross @ 52lbs
Hi, I had similar racquet and did some modification (prior reading this post).
ReplyDeleteMy modification were:
1. Add lead tape - 3 and 9 clock (each 2 gram) and 4 gram (inside the handle with foam act as dampener)
2. Strung with Luxilon (main) and Budget Natural Gut (Global Gut - India) both 16 and at 16 lbs
3. Add Tourna string savers (in the middle)
4. Replace the over-grip with wilson leather over-grip and using pacific over-grip
So far, it's work for me since I can hit at the sweet spots consistently and with a lot of top spins (both forehand and (double) backhand).And so far no Tennis Elbow suffered.
Nurwidiyantoro,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. A few of my friends and I are exploring the India gut too. Those who have tried mentioned it is uncoated and can unravel easily.
If not for durability issues, I think switching the gut into the mains and luxilon into the crosses would actually play much more comfortable.
Ultimately, I believe that anyone who can hit the sweetspot consistently need not worry about their racket and string setup too much.
For the strings setups, I used Luxilon as a Main and Global Natural Guts as a cross - at 60 lbs (both) so far this setup is the best for me in terms of control and feels.
ReplyDeleteI get this from tenniswarehouse site -->
" The cross string as having an influence on the main string. While you will not get the full benefit of the string's playing characteristics, the overall feel of the stringbed will be altered. For example, a soft and forgiving cross string, such as natural gut or multifilament synthetic, can soften-up a stiff and durable main string, such as polyester."
Once, I tried to switch the setups luxilon (cross) and GNatural (main), the result was not that good since its lack of control and less durable.