TFP 018: How to Choose The Right Strings for Your Tennis Game with Tim Strawn

TFP 018: How to Choose the Right Strings for Your Game with Tim Strawn

Today’s guest on The Tennis Files Podcast is master racquet technician Tim Strawn. Tim is the Executive Director of The International Alliance of Racquet Technicians. He has an extensive amount of stringing and racquet knowledge, and has strung racquets at some of the best professional tournaments in the world, including Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the Sony Ericsson Open.

Tim created the grandslamstringers.com website and message board, which evolved into the International Alliance of Racquet Technicians. He also put together the annual IART Symposium to bring all those currently working or interested in the racquet and string industry together to enhance their knowledge and expertise. Tim was also the Racquet Sports Industry’s 2007 Stringer of the Year.

Tim was kind enough to tell us how we can choose the right strings to suit our racquet and our tennis game. He went into detail about the different types of strings, the right tension and gauge to have them strung, and common pitfalls that stringers and players make when stringing their racquets. This episode is a must listen for anyone who wants to optimize their string setup and play better tennis.

On this episode, you will learn:

  • The 5 types of tennis strings
  • The effects of tension and string thickness on your game
  • Why the 10% rule doesn’t work for polyester strings
  • The role of racquet technicians and how they can help your game
  • How stringing works at the biggest professional tournaments in the world
  • Tim’s favorite polyester, synthetic gut, natural gut, and multifilament strings
  • What strings and tensions the pros use in their racquets
  • How to take better care of your racquets
  • Common mistakes that novice stringers make
  • How to tell if your racquet was strung incorrectly

and more.

I learned a lot from Tim about how I can tweak my string setup to produce better results on the court, and I know you will too. Thanks for listening!

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Links Mentioned in This Episode

The International Alliance of Racquet Technicians

IART Symposium

IART Facebook Page

Volkl Cyclone Tour – my current polyester string of choice, and one of the best priced polyesters out there (only 8.99 a pack). (Note: This is an affiliate link, so I make a small commission if you click on it and make a purchase. Thanks! 🙂 ]

If you learned something useful from my episode with Tim, share this episode with a friend using the share buttons above or below this post!

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