why badminton racket strings shift after hit

Badminton Cord Tension – Everything You Need To Know!

One time you lot accept chosen what string to employ from our Complete Guide To Badminton String, you need to determine your string tension. This post will outline the importance of string tension, dispel a few myths and guide yous in choosing the correct cord tension for you lot!

A simple guide to choosing your string tension:

The experience and durability is on a calibration, as this will depend on the exact tension chosen and the string used.

We will now discuss the following topics:

An overview of badminton string tension
What string tension should you lot choose?
Why do some people choose 2 tensions?
What does pre-stretch mean?
How to test badminton string tension?
Badminton racket manufacturer's guide on maximum string tension
How often should you restring your racket?

Overview of Badminton String Tension

String tension is measured in either lbs or kg depending on which country you are from. Tensions range from around 18lbs to 34lbs and the divergence between these is huge!!

A college string tension

Gives y'all more touch and control. However, this is only if you are able to consistently striking the sweet spot in the middle of the racket. The sweet spot is smaller the more than yous increment your tension . Y'all therefore demand to have bully technique and timing, with the ability to generate a fast swing speed in your hit activeness.
The higher the tension you take, the quicker your strings are likely to pause . This is of course dependent on the string you lot choose.

A lower cord tension

The string bed will be looser (like a trampoline) then the strings will absorb the shuttle more, giving you less control.
The sweetness spot is bigger, so if you don't fourth dimension the shuttle really well on every shot the string will exist more forgiving. This will mean you can hit the shuttle cleanly more ofttimes with less miss hits.
At that place will be a reduced risk of breaking strings if yous don't manage to hitting the shuttle consistently in the sweet spot. Information technology goes without saying that your strings will last a lot longer the more than y'all decrease your tension!

What Badminton String Tension Should You Cull?

The string tension you lot choose should depend on 2 things: your standard and the string you are using.

Deciding Your Tension: Your Standard

Advanced players are more suited to a college tension. A higher string tension gives you more bear upon and control. However information technology does have a smaller sweetness spot so you need to accept good technique and timing. This is why a higher tension is more suited to advanced players. A loftier tension ranges from effectually 28lbs (or 12kg) and above, going up to the extremes of around 34lbs.

Intermediate players will need a slightly larger sweet spot than advanced players and also probably won't want to pay for a restring every week! Therefore a string tension in the range of 24 – 28lbs would be suitable.

Beginner players shouldn't have a string tension to a higher place 24lbs. Technique and timing should be developed before increasing the tension.

Overall, the tighter your strings, the more you need to time your shots. If you can't generate fast racket head speed or consistently hitting that sweet spot you will be at a disadvantage using a higher tension !

If yous take tight strings and suffer from many cord breaks then this could be why, considering you're miss-hitting the shot. When y'all miss-hitting a shot the force of the shuttle goes through either the top or bottom of the dissonance. As there are simply singular strings roofing this area (as highlighted below) the strings are more likely to interruption at this signal.

If you become injured a lot in your shoulder it could be because your strings are too tight and are less forgiving when you're not hit in that smaller sweet spot.

Men may often have tighter strings than women as they are able to generate more ability. However, often with men information technology is merely an ego competition as to 'who tin take the tightest strings', but actually it's probably hindering many of these people non helping them!

Deciding Your Tension: String You Utilise

The second matter yous need to consider when deciding your tension is the string y'all use. We would recommend reducing your tension if you go for a thinner string as information technology will be less durable than a thicker cord at the aforementioned tension, but still requite you great repulsion and power.

Make certain you check out our previous weblog mail service on how to cull your badminton string hither –Badminton String: How To Choose The Best String For You

I also urge yous to effort out different tensions to run across what works best for you lot. It is a good idea to start off with a lower tension and then increase by 1lbs / 0.5kg to make sure yous are comfortable with the tension before deciding to increase information technology further. Please refer to the table at the offset of the post to determine your tension!

Why Practice Some People Choose Ii String Tensions (e.thousand. 28/30 lbs)?

Often you will hear people saying they accept a different tension in their main cord to their cross string. Nigh restringers will string rackets with 2 pieces of string, i for the mains strings and the other for the cross strings. This is to protect the integrity of the racket caput. Increasing the tension of the cross strings is another style to protect the shape of the noise.

It is recommended that the cross strings should be tensioned at 10% college than the main strings. For example if you are stringing a noise at 30lbs you lot would cord the chief strings at 30lbs and the cross strings at 33lbs.

This is why some players ask for different tensions on the cross strings, to brand sure of this. Some players may choose slightly less than 10%, others may choose more. Many players as well prefer the feel a tighter cantankerous string gives them.

It is too similar to the durability concept of Aerobite that nosotros discussed in our previous web log mail. The cross strings usually break less than the mains string. Therefore increasing the tension in the cross string doesn't have a large bear on on the durability.

If you are stringing at x% higher on the cantankerous string and this number is between two tensions then circular upward. For example, if you're stringing a racket at 27lbs you would cord the cantankerous strings at 30lbs.

What Does Pre-Stretch Mean?

Pre stretching is where you tighten each cord to a higher tension before tightening information technology to the correct tension. The idea behind this is that you remove any elasticity the string has inside of it, significant that it will hold its tension for a longer period.

It is similar to why builders reinforce concrete!

Disadvantages of using pre-stretch:

Placing this strain on the string makes it harder, meaning it'due south more likely to snap.
Many people will besides fence that pre-stretching takes the life out of a cord.

Advantages of using pre-stretch:

Maintains the string tension for longer
Some professional person players prefer the repulsion and feel it gives them (they also go their badminton string and restrings for gratuitous and then don't need to worry about immovability!)
You can hear the sound of tight strings when watching matches of professional players on TV or YouTube, and this sounds fifty-fifty nicer with the employ of pre-stretching!

Pre-stretching has varied popularity. Whilst information technology's not widely used on the tour, itis very popular in Denmark for instance. The majority of the summit players in that location take their strings pre-stretched. Many people tell me this was started by the likes of Peter Gade and Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen.

Pre-stretching is more commonly used in lawn tennis where the string is both thicker and rougher therefore creating more kinks so pre-stretching is also used as a manner to remove the strings gyre retention.

How To Pre-Stretch Badminton String – Stringers Tips

On most electronic machines there is an option to pre-stretch at either 5%, 10%, 15% or 20%. This volition so automatically pull the string to what yous have set it to then release information technology and tighten it over again for you. It simply takes slightly longer than normal.

If you wish to pre-stretch on a transmission machine then you lot should set the tension to the desired amount and tension information technology. Then wait for it to click in place and release the tension using the manual crank and then pull to the desired tension again. This volition take you significantly longer and personally for 99% of players I don't believe information technology is worth it!

Anyway, those were ii slightly more than advanced sections, now let's become back to some more generic information!

How To Exam Badminton String Tension

A racket strung with the same string at different tensions is going to audio very different. For example, a noise strung at 22lbs volition sound slow compared to a noise at 28lbs. The college the tension, the more of a 'ping' you volition hear.

This will also be dependent on the string you use – a dissonance strung with a thinner cord will audio sharper and more vibrant than a racket strung at the same tension with a thicker string.

Believe it or not, listening to the audio of the strings against your hand is the all-time manner to test the tension of a noise! In 2011 an app was launched called the Stringster (which you can bank check out here). This aims to test the tension of a racket by listening to its sound. At that place are a few other $.25 of information you accept to input to the app, such equally the string used and racket.

I take used this and plant it to be very inaccurate and quite far off the exact tension. It may be a skilful selection if you do non know what sort of sound difference to look for and merely want a very rough guide.

Y'all can also experience the strings and how much they move every bit obviously at a higher tension the less the strings will move. Similar to this you can printing into the string bed with your two thumbs and gage a crude tension by how much you can push in. The more y'all can push in the looser the strings are.

If you want to hear the sound of dissimilar tensions, make sure you lookout our video where you lot can hear the difference between a noise strung at 24lbs and 32lbs!

Annotation: Your cord tension will decrease over time! Depending on how well your rackets are strung, the tension can drop by 1 – 3lbs within 1 week subsequently a restring. This will continue to slightly drop the longer the strings are in and the more yous play.

Badminton Racket Manufacturer'southward Guide on Maximum String Tension

Whilst I have discussed stringing rackets at 30lbs and beyond, information technology is of import to mention that if you lot string over the manufacturers recommended maximum tension you are doing and so at your ain take chances! The maximum recommended tension can usually be found on the dissonance frame, or in the racket specification online.

The higher string tension you have, the more pressure y'all put through the racket. If you lot exceed the maximum recommended tension then you significantly increase the chance of the racket frame breaking after a clash of rackets, or even a powerful smash!

You should therefore have a careful think about increasing your tension if y'all don't want your racket ending upwards like this :

You will also see professional person players cutting their strings out equally soon equally they break a string because their tensions are so high. This is to relieve the tension and protect the frame from breaking.

How Ofttimes Should You Restring Your Badminton Dissonance?

A rule of pollex is that in a year you lot should get your rackets restrung the corporeality you roughly play per calendar week. And then if you play 3 times a week then 3 times per yr, bold your strings haven't cleaved earlier this. If you take a thinner gauge string over 24lbs then you are going to be likely to break your strings more than this.

However, for advanced players you should probably have a restring at least once a month if they haven't broken before this. This is because your tension will take reduced over this menstruation and the strings will have lost some of their life. Again this depends on how much you are playing and what cord and tension you have.

I string for Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith (WR 9) and in the last 2 months of training they have broken 64 strings, that's 4 each per calendar week! And that is only training once on court per day due to Coronavirus restrictions!

This is the second post I have written on badminton string. If yous haven't already then make certain you bank check out our get-go blog post here which tells you lot everything you need to know about badminton cord. This includes what string is all-time for you and your playing fashion! In this mail service I also tell you the record amount of strings I accept broken in a two hour session, and the record I have seen players in the top 10 in the world break!

Hopefully these two blog posts take covered everything you need to know about string and string tension. If you have whatever questions, or call up I take missed anything out then please let me know in the comments beneath!