Friday, April 20, 2018

Should I do anything different with my strings in hot weather?


"Should I do anything different with my strings in hot weather?"

The answer to this question has two answers. On-court and off-court.
On the court, here in the Tampa Bay area, the answer for most players is no. It just isn't cold enough, long enough to have changed anything in your stringing due to the cold weather. Up north, players will often lower their tension to balance out the cold's effect on the ball and the strings. Around here, it is warm enough most of the year that once summer arrives, you really won't have to change anything. For some big hitters, they may notice a slight loss of depth control, so going up in tension will help. For the rest of us, unless you notice a drop in control (from strings less than 2-3 months old), you can keep them the same.
Off the court, there is something you need to do differently in really hot (mid-80's and higher) weather. Keep your rackets out of your car when possible. Living in Florida, we all know how hot our cars get in even a short time parked. This extreme heat can cause strings to lose tension far quicker than you'd think. The authors of "Technical Tennis" found in their research, “Ten minutes in a really hot car will drop the string tension by at least a few pounds, permanently."
Don't forget the racket itself. Heat can break down the frame and the grips. Over the years we have seen many rackets that broke prematurely due to being left in the car during the day.
Overall, here in the Tampa Bay area, if you are keeping your rackets out of the extreme heat of a car, there may not be any other changes you'll need to make to keep them playing great.

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