- Joan Hahn
- November 5, 2021
- Last Updated on
Whether you’re a beginner or a pro tennis player, you should know how to maintain your racket. If you want to know how to restring your racket correctly, then read on and find out!
Frequency of Restringing Tennis Racquets
Restringing a tennis racket depends on how often you play tennis and the level you’re currently at.
Here’s a quick estimation of how often players use their rackets depending on their skill level:
Beginner
Beginners usually play tennis as a form of recreational activity. They would often be playing at least once a month. Because they don’t play that often, their strings wear off longer.
We recommend recreational players to re-string at least once a year, two years at most. It would also pay off to get an arm-friendly string, especially if you are a beginner player.
As you continue playing altogether, you’d find yourself looking for better and heavier rackets. You’d also be looking into newer rackets and lower string tension as you become a better player since beginners often start with higher tension ones.
Intermediate
For intermediate players who play about three times a month or at least once a week, we suggest replacing tennis strings consistently every month.
Since you may have intentions to enter tournaments or move your way to become a pro, you’d want your racket to have a consistent performance by helping it avoid losing its tension.
Strings eventually loosen as you use them more often. You may also find that the more you play, you’ll want the tension of your racket to drop lower. This would also help you avoid tennis elbow, which is a condition that’s common among tennis players.
Advanced
Advanced players are those who may play 4 to 7 times a week because of tournament preparations.
There’s no standard time frame for these kinds of players when it comes to restringing their rackets.
We found that advanced players restring their rackets depending on the type of strings they use and their overall performance characteristics.
As a general rule, restring your rackets as often as needed. Every year as you play, a problem in the tension, the different strings, or even dead strings may arise after the first few hits. If this happens, it’s time to go ahead and have your racket restrung. Being unserious about tension maintenance will negatively affect your performance.
Determine your level based on how often you play. From here, you’ll get an idea of whether you need fresh strings.
You’ll also need to understand that there are different kinds of tennis strings:
- Natural Gut
- Polyester
- Multi-filament
- Synthetic Gut
- Hybrid
Warning Signs To Look Out For
How often you play isn’t always the rule of thumb. You may hear from some experts saying that you should restring your rackets as often as you play in a week every year [1]. Here are some factors that may affect how often you should restring:
Tension Loss
Using even the best strings will not prevent your racket to lose its tension. In fact, once a racket comes off the stringing machine, the string loses its tension by about 10% within 24 hours. Your playability duration or playing time will also determine how often your racket loses tension.
String Performance
We mentioned above the different types of strings used for rackets. Each type will have a different performance and the string pattern affects this as well.
Many players generate topspin better with polyester strings. So when you feel that you’re failing to do topspins with your polyester string, then you may need to restring it.
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How to Know When It's Time to Restring Your Racquet
Aside from those mentioned above, here are some clear signs that your tennis racket needs to be restrung:
Visual Indicators
If you’re a beginner who still can’t determine the feel of a racket that needs to be restrung, here’s a good rule of thumb: check if your strings are loose, shaggy, or frayed. If you notice these signs, then it’s time to re-string. If you’re an intermediate player using a racket with a tension meant for beginners, you may see these signs more often.
If you don’t change your racket’s tension, you’d find yourself regularly restringing a few times a week even when you don’t need to.
Feel Indicators
Notice the sound of your string. Certain strings have a unique sound and if it doesn’t sound the same as when you have freshly restrung it, then you may need to get it replaced.
If you find yourself needing to swing harder than usual, then it may be because the strings have already gotten loose. We recommend restringing your racket immediately and avoid using a racket with these symptoms. It’s best that you have a spare racket as well for emergency situations like this.
Continuously using a racket that needs to be restrung will have a significant impact on your performance and physical health.
FAQS
The tools needed to restring your racquet are a stringing machine, 40 feet of a new string of your choice, an awl, needle-nose pliers, and a string bed cutter. It’s recommended to invest in a machine to accurately get the tension you prefer.
It costs around $30 to $40 on average to restring a racquet. This may go up depending on the type of string you use. It can also be cheaper when you restring it yourself.
Yes, it is certainly worth restringing a racquet. It’s one of the things every player must do as a part of proper racket maintenance. It also helps reduce shock, maintaining an injury-free match not just for a few weeks, but in the long run.
So, How Frequent Should You Restring Your Racquet?
Restringing your racquet will depend on how often you play and the type of strings you use. There is no specific rule that may apply to all kinds of players – you will need to determine this by yourself through checking your racket often and feeling if there are any changes to its performance.
As you continue playing, you’ll be more sensitive and will know immediately when your strings need to be replaced.
References:
- https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/community/fort-mill-times/article11990540.html
