Proportional Stringing Method

Discussion in 'Badminton Stringing Techniques & Tools' started by david14700, Dec 6, 2002.

  1. david14700

    david14700 Regular Member

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    Interesting stringing method

    I've read about an interesting way to string a racket at high tension without putting high stress on the corners of an isometric headshaped racket.

    The article was by the official stringer for the Danish national team, and he said that at extreme tensions approaching 30 lbs, he only tensions the centre 8 strings at those tensions, then lowers the tension gradually on the outer strings.

    This seems to make a lot of sense, since most good players will only hit with the centre of the racket and the stress on the corners of an isometric head will come from the strings towards the outside of the racket. I've seen so many Yonex iso heads break at the top corners because of tensions in the 26-28 lbs range, I want to try this new technique.

    Has anyone out there tried it, either as a stringer or a player?

    Thanks
     
  2. Winex West Can

    Winex West Can Regular Member

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    Interesting...did he mentioned by how much did he lower the tension as he moves to the outside? (1 lbs per two strings?)

    How about the cross? Did he string them from the centre out using the same technique?
     
  3. mongoose

    mongoose Regular Member

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    This is similar to what tennis stringers call "proportional stringing" method where the tension of the strings are intentionally lowered as you string away from the middle of the racket face.

    The other advantage of this method is that is produces a "softer" string bed and thus increases the sweetspot area.

    see http://talk.tennis-warehouse.com/discussions?13@185.ggcYarG7j1B^8@.ee8bb9b
     
  4. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    Hmmm... Kinda 180' opposite the way I learned about stringing. In my drop weight string machine guide, it told me to add 3-5 lbs of tension on the last outter string to prevent "losing tension" while doing the knots.

    Also, less say no matter lower or higher the tension for the out strings, since it still the same piece of string. I assume very soon, all strings will have the same tension, isn't it???
     
  5. Yong

    Yong Regular Member

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    Would be interesting to know how fast and to what level of perfection the stringbed will smoothen out to one tension.

    All depending on the friction between strings and grommets. Maybe due to less friction muscle power frames have a more consistent stringbed.

    Hmm maybe the next idea for a new racket line, wheel power : instead of grommets wheels that lead the string :D

    A test would be to grab a racket that has been strung for a longer period and where directly after stringing was lack of tension on the outer string due to doing the knot and see if that outer string is tight now.
     
  6. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    i have seen this method used by a couple of good stringer. i have watched Emmy's father and Luxis (Mr. Ng) string, and they both lower tension as they move away from the center string. the result of Luxis stringing is one of the best i have seen. there is a certain repel coming from the string that feels very nice. i can't vouch for Emmy's father stringing as i have never tried it.

    as for how many pounds to lower, i don't know. perhaps someone should pick Luxis' brain for it.

    as for why and how this method works. the first observation is that the repulsive power from a racket is determined by the natural frequency of the string. strings with different natural oscillation frequency will react differently when struck. the natural frequency of the string is determined by a few factors, the length of the string, the tension of the string, the thickness&material of the string.

    given that fact, also observe that the length of the middle string and outer strings are different. thus, if strung at exactly the same tension, the outer string will have a higher oscillation frequency than the center strings, thus creating a string bed with uneven repulsion. i believe this will make the sweetspot smaller and if overly done, will make the racket feel very "dead".

    lowering the tension of the outer string will cause the tension across the string bed to be more even and thus enlarging the sweetspot and make the racket more alive.

    i don't believe many stringers knows about this fact. and it is for this one reason that i am considering re-purchasing a stringing machine. the quality of stringing i have tried is worse than what i expected. and sending all rackets to Luxis doesn't seem to be too viable a route..... but then, i don't want a cheap drop weight machine again as they are such a pain to use. and a good crank machine is rather expensive... :(
     
  7. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    Hmmm... What should I do then???

    I mean, sounds like my method of "put 3-5 lbs extra on outter string" is a bad way to string, say, further eliminated the size of sweet spot...

    Should I just on purposly put all string to be even tension, but just 1 or 2 lbs higher than my desired ones? Say, if I want to string @20 lb, I will put 21,22 lb evenly on every single string???

    While, I have to find a way to survive on my drop weight machine for now...
     
  8. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    extra tension on the outer string is definitely a no no, IMHO. when i had a machine, i wasn't aware of the uneven tension technique and i string with even tension. the result was ok, not spectacular. nothing like Luxis' stringing.

    what i like about using a crank machine for this situation is that the crank machine has a little dial at the end to fine adjust tension. you just rotate this little knob to lower the tension as you go. for a drop weight, one must unscrew the weight, move it to the right place, and then tighten again. definitely a pain to have to perform on each string.

    so the cheapest and decent quality crank machine is the Alpha 3000. BadmintonAlley has it for around $625. nice that he is local so i can just go there and pick it up. maybe he will even give me a discount. but heck, that's a lot of money.
     
  9. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    Ok, guess start from now on, I will put 1-2 lbs extra, but even distributed among all strings for now.
     
  10. jwu

    jwu Regular Member

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    hmm so it seems like the right way to string here is to start w/ the middle strings, and lower the tension slightly, say 1/2 lbs for every couple of strings out and so on? sounds like a good project to try. Luckily I do have a racquet of my own that does require stringing. If we work with this method, suppose we want a 24lbs tension, we would start w/ 24 in the middle and by the time we reach the edge, it would be 20 lbs. Also, with this method, do we do the same thing for the cross? That seems a little harder to do for the cross.
     
  11. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    jwu,

    you can also string the cross from the center out. read my stringing guide.
     
  12. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    oh, one more thing i forgot. to determine how many pounds of tension to lower, this is one way to determine it.

    after you are done with the main strings, pluck the strings and listen to the tone. or just pluck across the string bed. if the natural frequency is uniform, then all the strings will have the same tone.

    the real experiment would be to compare rackets with different tones, try strining one with lowering tone center->side, string one with uniform tone, string one with rising tone, and see which one plays better.

    surely, some master stringer somewhere must have figured all these out already.
     
  13. cooler

    cooler Regular Member

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    they have that in tennis racquets already.
     
  14. cooler

    cooler Regular Member

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    An chinese elder had told me about this method some 14 years ago, that was before i got my stringing machine. He didn't have reasons to explain it but i knew why right away. Like everything in life, there is no one method for all situation so i dun use this method all the time.

    As for luxis, how do they take instruction from customers? or give customers their result? for example if i say i wanted 24 lbs, do i get 24 in the middle or the 24 as an average or 24 all around unless i ask for the special method?
     
    #14 cooler, Dec 9, 2002
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2002
  15. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    As far as I know, you ask for 24, you get 24 x 26lbs at Luxis.

    For the high tension racquets, you get lower tensions as the strings move away from the sweet spot.

    Not sure if they do this with the regular tensions....e.g. up to 22-23 lbs.

    Kwun, according to my rough calculations, you may only need to string 60 racquets and this can be easily acheived if using BG85 and giving me the racquets to use!!
     
  16. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    good point Cheung. if this method is indeed used to increase the sweet spot, and since lower tension generally have larger sweet spots, there will be less need to use it for lower tension.

    however, i do remember Emmy's father using it for tension of 22lbs.
     
  17. Yong

    Yong Regular Member

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    Tried the 'lowering tension' method on 2 stringing jobs and i am pleasently surprised about the results.

    Main tension : 26 lbs for the middle 4 strings. Tension was lowered on each next string, ending with 20 lbs for the outer strings.
    Cross tension : used 2 tensions : 25 for the middle, 23 for the 5 top and 5 bottom strings.
    Cross sring was done top to bottom. Want to try from strining from center some time, but with my 2 current swivel clamps, this is impossible, at least, when tensioning every string.
    Stringing job was done on a 6-point crank machine.

    Compared to the previous one-tension stringing jobs on the same racket (also done by myself), the racket absolutely felt more alive. During play, smashes were harder while control still felt good.
     
  18. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    Just a quick question on this "lowering tension" theory. When the string settles after the string job won't the string tension even out eventually? I mean say 4 middle string are strung at 26 and the lowered .25 or .5 for each string won't the string just even out eventually to an average of 24 or 23 unless you constantly string the racquet. Thanks in advance guys.

    Cheers,
    Nick
     
  19. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    If u r talking about a racket after playing for months, u r right. However, for newly strung racket, due to the huge friction between strings, and gromments, it's very hard for the tensions to be pulled to be even in short period of time. Therefore, as along as the "formation" stay in effective, the sweet spot will be relatively optimized.

    However, after certain period of time, depend on how often u use it and how hard the smashes are, the tension will move toward to be equivalent. Well, normally, after several months, we need to re-string it anyway.
     
  20. Xero

    Xero Regular Member

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    I have no experience at stringin, but won't this method damage the racket in anyway???
     

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