Deciding when you need to restring your tennis racket can be quite a quandary. To make things even more complicated there are over 500 different brands and types of tennis strings to choose from when you do decide to restring your racket.
So what should you do?
How often you restring will depend If you are a pro, a college player, a top junior or a competitive social player. The more you play and the more pressure you put on yourself to perform will dictate your restringing time line. The reason is that you want your racket to perform in sync with your well honed tennis skills.
Tennis racket strings start to lose tension from the very time your stringer as finished your restring. You may have had it strung at 62 pounds, but after a few hours it may be down to 61 pounds. This drop in tension can mean the difference between finding the line or shooting long. The reason is that as string tension deteriorates, the strings flex more upon impact. This cushions the ball more, reducing compression against the strings, creating more rebound and effectively more power. More than you bargained for generally resulting in an over hit.
Pros and elite college players will want to restring before every practice and match. They will sometimes have up to 10 rackets strung every day. There is a rumour around the WTA that Venus Williams has 12 rackets freshly strung everyday of a tournament.
If the pros do it regularly there must be something to be gained. Most pros have a string sponsor and college players have their athletic department pick up the tab. For juniors and social players it is another story. A restring will cost anywhere from $20 to $70 depending on brand and type of tennis string.
So the solution to the question about how often you should restring your tennis racket will depend on how serious you are about your stroke quality, how passionate you are about your game and how deep your pockets are to support your tennis habit.
My advice is that if you would like to maintain some consistency in your tennis game, then you should restring as often as possible. Buy a sturdy tennis restringing machine and learn to restring your own rackets. This will save you heaps and add to your tennis experience.
