Hi just purchased a new racquet recently and strung it with BG80 (used it on all my racquets), 26lbs. I found that my new racquet is lacking of power however I do not know if it's because the string tension is too stiff or not. Any advice?
Normally you can feel it. But you have to give it a few days to test it. You can't make your mind straight away that it is too tight/loose. You mmust give it some time - so you can adjust and see if you like. Im not saying months of trying it , but not 10 minutes.
So far, I've been using my newly strung racquet for 5 games now. All my smashes are lacking of power but the control is still there compared to my previous strung racquet.
For BG80, you should take note that you are not suppose to string it at your require tension, you should string it two pounds lower. Like say you want to string it at 26lbs, you should tell the stringer 24lbs instead as the string is 10% tighter when it's strung. Now you're using 26lbs, which means it's 28lbs!
That's reading off the bible as in Yonex's recommendation? ROFL!! You can string it at the same tension regardless of which string you use.
Well, believe it or not, I don't want to take chances. Haha...Who knows what kind of trick does the evil empire have under their sleeves~ Besides, he mentioned that the tension is not good for him, so lowering it may help.
Did you actually try it for yourself? I have and there is not much of a difference. I have switched between a few different strings (ie. BG-80, BG-85, NBG-95/98, BG-68-Ti) and kept the same tension. Note these are being stringed up with a Yonex ECP machine.
Same here. I have switched a lot of strings (BG65, BG65Ti, BG70Pro, BG80, BG85, BG66, BG68Ti, NBG95). I find my optimum tension with BG80/85 is 23/25 because it feels stiff enough for me and my shoulder is not all that well at the moment. Maybe I should try them at 25/27 and see what the difference is. I only tried BG70Pro and BG68Ti at 25/27. BG70Pro feels better than BG68Ti. I will see when does my BG80 on my Arc10 break and I'll try it at 25/27.
I always think it is the other way round. You should sting at 1 or 2lb higher than your required tension because virgin string under tension will flex after days to weeks. So if you want 24lb, you should string it at 26lb instead. I have yet to hear about 'shrinking' BG-80.
Gemcat simply highlighted what is stated on the packaging (read: recommended by YY). For anyone trying out the BG80 or BG85 for the first time, it's still better to just follow the recommendation. Back to the OP, there are usually telltales if the string is too hard. The player will find it more difficult to clear, resulting in him swinging harder and probably leading to injury. The safest bet is to start with a slightly lower tension and work your way up especially with a new racket/string/stringer.
How can you tell if the tension is too stiff for you? Quite simple, ask someone to serve high to baseline as you wait there, return the shuttle using your normal strenght, watch where the shuttle land at the opposite court. if it lands before the first line, then it indicate that the string is slightly stiff. Using extra power to hit to the based line, also means stiff.
I agree, when your average over hand clear starts to take significant effort then you know your strings are too tight.
Actually, you will know whether the tension is too stiff once you fire off an overhead fore-hand. The racquet will let you know whether it is too stiff or not (vibrations, feedback, etc.). This is assuming that you have been using the racquet for some time, not when you just acquired it. That happened to me last weekend. Could it be that your racquet shaft is also very stiff?
