For anyone that plays a racquet sport of any kind, whether it's by badminton, squash, tennis, or even that so sport my brother likes so much called racquetball, then it's more than likely you spend way too much time and money getting you racquets restrung. At least if you're a more than once or twice a week player. If you don't play very often, your strings are probably lasting you a lifetime. However, if you're like me and play 3, 4, 5 or more times per week then it's likely you're going through a lot of strings. My personal favorite racquet sport is squash, but it doesn't really matter which one you play. You'll break strings and they'll need to be redone. What you will find different, is the price you spend. Tennis rackets are the most expensive simply because of the real estate they take up and the amount of strings required to get them done. But even for me, I pay anywhere from $30-$40 to get a racquet restrung.
So I spend, on average four times a week on the courts. I seem to go through racquet strings about every six weeks. Depending on your style of play, that may happen more frequently or less frequently. One of my squash player buddies, used to play a lot of tennis and swore up and down, that he'd go through racquet strings about every 45 minutes. Lucky for him, he's good friends with the guy who owned the Pro shop in town.
Either way, I did a lot of research on what it would be required to string my own rackets. First of all it's not an incredibly daunting skill to learn. After you've done a rocket or two, you can string a racquet in 30 to 60 minutes depending on the type of racquet and how distracting the television show your watching is. Another nice thing I found, that was a pleasant surprise, was that stringing machines aren't all that expensive. I assumed, that stringing machines would run a few thousand dollars. At least you think so based on the price that Pro shops charge for getting a racquet restrung. But for $300 on average or maybe $400-$500, you get a pretty nice racquet stringing machine that's great for the casual stringer. That is, someone who's only doing his racquet and maybe a few friends. If you buy string wholesale, or even buy it in reels, you should be able to get a pretty good price. I was able to find a price online for some squash string to do 12 rackets for about $100. And it was good string to, Ashaway PowerNick squash strings to be exact.
I figure at those prices and the way I go through strings, if I was only doing my own rackets the machine would likely pay for itself within a year or so. If I decided to do rackets for others, it would pay for itself sooner. Plus, I could likely make a few extra bucks for beer after the game while I was at it.
if you're thinking of doing your own stringing, or just want to check out some good stringing machines be sure to visit my stringing machine website. You'll find video tutorials on how to string your own rackets, and stings and machines for sale.
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