Recently, there was an opponent who was exceptionally adept at generating spin with power. Maybe I'm a lousy hacker, or the people I hit with play too nice with me. But I have never encountered this levels of spin and power together.
For once, the very heavy ball I had to return challenged the control and stability of the ELT stringbed. Directional control and depth was lacking. Some return of serves kicked off at very odd angles while others sprayed long, left and right, or into the net. Has ELT met its nemesis?
This got me thinking... until I chanced upon Ivan Lendl's very interesting stringing pattern. (link1)(link2) I watched a lot of Lendl's matches when I was young. It is amazing that this idol that I adore, is now again "nudging" me to think out of the box!
This is one way for me to address the lack of control issue with that powerful and spinny shot! Why not?
I plan to use 4 knots with this hybrid. The centre 10 mains are strung with poly first. There is a short side and a long side for this centre mains.
Below pic shows me starting on the 4th cross string.
With flying clamps, a starting pin is necessary.
I'm finishing the crosses. Note I still have the clamp on the main string. This is to let the tension settle-in as I am using different tensions on mains and crosses even with just one poly string.
The poly centre strings have been completed. So I'm filling in the outer mains and crosses with synthetic gut. I am using low-tension proportional stringing on these outer strings to create a soft perimeter.
The most important step is to plan for blocked holes. You can see me threading the top crosses first before pulling tension.
Here's how the blocked holes looked like. If you look carefully, you can see two red dots on each end of the long white poly string. The red dot marks the change in tension I used from mains to crosses. If the red dot moves, it means tension may have evened out slightly. Several previous experiments have proved that they remain stable after play.
Here's the completed look. I like the white centre with black perimeter.
Playtest:
- After warming up for about 30 min with my ELT stick, I took this out for a spin. (A hard-hitting friend played with it for about 20min to help me break-in the strings)
- The immediate difference, switching from the ELT syn gut, was how stiff this stringbed played. I thought I missed the sweetspot so I tried aiming at different parts of the stringbed - high, low, left and right. Everywhere played stiff and boardy.
- I had to rely on the absence of vibrations to tell if I hit the sweetspot.
- Power level was very low. Compared to ELT syn gut, I had to swing all out to get the ball past the service line.
- Spin was negligible compared to ELT syn gut. Even with a full whip, I could not get the ball to curl in the air nor kick high off the ground. Strangely, the strings felt slippery. Smooth poly maybe?
- I could not feel any pocketing at all.
- With such a stiff bed, directional control was very good indeed. Aiming was easy. However, the lesser amounts of spin (compared to ELT syn gut) affected accuracy for some shots executed under pressure. I still prefer the high-spin setup.
- I'll test this some more later, especially against that chap who gave me problems with his spin and power.
13Jun2013 update:
- This stringbed behaved very well against that big and spinny serving chap. No problems with returns.
- At least this assures me that my service returns are fine. It's soft stringbeds that give me problems.
- Power is still very low. Full swing flat shots barely made it to the other baseline.
- Contact feel is hollow and flat. Not like the plushy synthetic gut feedback.
- One important observation is that the sweetspot moved downwards from the top third to right smack in the middle of the centre poly strings. This is the first time I experienced a sweetspot moving due to stringing and not weight.
- While I cannot say it is uncomfortable, but there is absolutely no doubt at all during play that there is a poly feel to it. Just not that harsh as a pure poly setup.
15Jun2013 update:
- The breaking-in of poly strings seems to take longer than for synthetic gut. I can feel a softening of the poly centre instead of a boardy feel.
- With the softening, power increased slightly together with pocketing.
- Spin levels have also gone up slightly compared to the first two sessions.
- A very good player named "A" tried this racket and commented that the sweetspot is unusually big for a 95 sq in. Control was good. However, off-centre hits feels dead to him. His usual stick is Pro Kennex Ki15 with kevlar/syn gut hybrid strung in the mid 50s.
16Jul2013 update:
- I cannot recall how many hours I've hit with this strings but I can clearly feel the stringbed softened a lot compared to previous sessions.
- Slightly off-centre hits gives a feeling of loss of directional control. The ball would bounce off at a tangent. I think it is due to the softer perimeter which was strung with syn gut that "gives" more than the poly centre.
- Comfort is good, but power, spin and control are seriously lacking.
Strings:
Pro Supex Big Ace Revo 1.25mm
Pro Supex Big Ace Revo 1.25mm
Pro Supex Synthetic Gut Titan 1.25mm
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