STRINGING FOR ARM COMFORT {2004}

By Vince Chiarelli, PTR, MRT and Owner of String Along With Vince in Largo

Three stringing factors can add up to arm comfort: tension, gauge, and string type. Tension should be as low as possible without causing the ball to fly over the baseline when hitting your normal shots. One or two pounds lower will not make an appreciable difference. Five to ten pounds would be more like it. In my opinion the adage, "String loose for power and tight for control" is only half right. You definitely get more power with looser strings, but control comes from the player, not the strings. The critical thing in control is the contact point along with the amount of spin.

Thinner gauges (17 and 18) will soften the string bed somewhat. Although thinner strings stretch more with the same load applied (ball mass and speed), they will also give slightly more power. They tend to bite the ball better giving more spin. Whether the spin will counteract the amount of power and thereby cause the ball to drop shorter or at the same point remains to be seen.

The type of string can be as big a factor as the tension when it comes to arm comfort. The stiffer the string, the more impact shock will travel up your arm. The stiffest string so far is aramid fiber; more commonly known as Dupont

Kevlar ®. The elongation, or amount of stretch at sixty pounds is only two percent! Compare that to eleven or twelve percent for a standard synthetic gut at the same tension. Polyester and PEEK strings are a little softer than aramid with PEEK being a material that can be created in various stiffnesses depending on the mix used. Of the synthetic strings, multifilaments are the softest. The down side of multifilaments is the extremely small individual strands stretch more, making them fatigue sooner than other types of strings, thereby losing tension more rapidly. Natural gut still seems to be the best string as far as playability, tension-holding properties and ease on the arm. Most people agree that it is more fragile than man-made materials, but newer processes being used by some manufacturers have helped tremendously in that area. Using a good quality wax or one of the silicone preparations available for extended string life will go a long way in preventing premature breakage due to moisture.

Some final notes about arm problems caused by playing tennis. Find a good tennis instructor for an analysis of your strokes. Often the cause of the problem is one or more very common stroke errors. Also, once you have arm problems it may take three months to a year to get over them.

Copyright 2004 (Previously published in FLORIDA TENNIS - October, 2004)
By Vince Chiarelli, PTR, MRT, Owner of String Along With Vince in Largo