I use pure Kevlar strings (on both mains and crosses, to minimize string breakage) and hit with a 5.0 level game. I have not had tennis elbow in years. Let me show you why:
The scourge of many tennis players the world over – Tennis Elbow. Tennis elbow, known medically as Epitrochlear bursitis, Lateral Epicondylitis, or Epicondrylitis – lateral, affects as many as 50% of tennis players throughout their careers. Did you know that Modern Tennis Methodology can take your chances of having tennis elbow down to 0? Let me give you a rundown of my experience first.
My name is Sean Patterson and I am a 5.0 NTRP player. I have been playing since I was 16 and am 24 at the time of this article. I used to have tennis elbow. Now a 16 year old having tennis elbow should tell you that this is not just something that happens as you get older. It can affect anybody (though it happens most to people ages 30 to 50). Back then I was using synthetic gut strings so it wasn’t like they were rough on the arm. The next softest string I could have used was natural gut but at $30 a pack it didn’t seem like a great idea.
I had tennis elbow before I picked up MTM. I was introduced to MTM and actually worked with Oscar at some clinics in St. Louis later that year. Oscar and our MTM coach at the time, John Carpenter, told us to stop holding the racquets so tight. At the time I was holding it at about a 7 on the scale of 1-10. Being young and hitting for the fences on every shot meant that racquet had to be held tight, right? Wrong. Even the old adage of “Hold the racquet like a small bird, you don’t want it to get away but you don’t want to crush it” is an overstatement. John taught us this by holding the racquet with 2 fingers and rocketing a forehand. It is all about the pendulum motion. Oscar covers this in this ESPN tip. If you hold the racquet loosely it will snap like a whip at the ball and give you even more momentum.
Back to how this helps tennis elbow though – see I hold the racquet with a ball-in-socket type of grip. The butt of the racquet fits loosely into the palm of my closed hand with this grip. I still hold a proper grip, but the tightness of the grip is extremely loose. In fact I hold the racquet as loose as I can without letting go. This allows all those vibrations to travel down the racquet and into – well – nothing. They don’t go into my arm because my arm is no longer attached to the racquet. Like I said earlier, I use pure Kevlar strings on the crosses and mains. People ask me all the time “How the heck do you use those strings? Doesn’t that destroy your arm?” Well, the grip is your answer.
Long story short – hold the racquet loosely and not only will you hit the ball better and with more momentum, but you will also avoid vibrations and tennis elbow. The biggest problem vibrations cause for me now is the ping sound the strings make. But that’s nothing that a cheap rubber band on the strings can’t fix.
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May 30, 2012
Kerry
says:Interesting article.
This would make for some pretty heated debate on various stringing forums!
What reference tensions are you using? Given the lack of elasticity in Kevlar, I’m shocked this works at all!
Jun 2, 2012
Sean Patterson
says:Hi Kerry,
Thanks for your comment! I generally string at 58 or so but since I string my own with a drop-weight machine I choose to do it a bit improperly by applying tension to two mains or crosses at the same time. I’m sure this creates a bit of a tension gap between the two strings because of the increased friction, so I would estimate the whole thing settles in at around 55lb or less after a bit of hitting.
Overall I love the feel. It is quite dead for more finesse shots but for baseline rallies, serves, and volleys it is pretty good. The lack of elasticity actually gives you quite a bit of control since you’re doing all the work rather than the racquet.
Best yet, a full stringbed of Ashaway Kevlar (the kind I bought, like $60 per reel) lasts about 4 hitting sessions of 1 1/2 – 2 hours a piece rather than polyester which lasts about 1 1/2 sessions before it pops.
Aug 9, 2012
Charazad
says:haha I practiced serinvg for hours and hours and it doesn’t pay off in game. I remember one day where I was practicing serves after weeks of horrible ones, and that day I finally got it, my serves that day were all going in, all had great form, all were awesome. that was the best day of my life. the next day though, I forgot what made the serves go in or something, since I just kept on missing serves in real games. I don’t know what to do about it either.
May 30, 2012
Stan
says:I think, holding the tacquet with two fingers is also a good way to check your technique – if you can hit like that, it’s correct. I saw Oscar do that in one of his videos and I tried that.
Jun 3, 2012
Kerry
says:Thanks for getting back!
I spent some time looking around the net regarding full Kevlar setups. It appears many folks found that full Kevlar feels about the same at 35 pounds (reference) as it does at 50, which probably has a lot to do with why it lasts so long.
I just strung up one of my rackets with full Kevlar at 42 pounds (before you had a chance to respond to my comment). So far, I like the way it plays/feels (3.0ish player… on good days…). I need more time before I can really say, though. I’ve been using low-tension full poly setups for a while. I like the way poly plays, but I didn’t find very good longevity, even when strung with methods intended to decrease tension loss. I’m hoping the full Kevlar will play with more consistency for longer, without the wild shots that dying poly seems to produce…
Definitely appears that a key concept to keep in mind is a loose grip, and generation of power with “whip”. If I get away from that, I really feel the harshness quickly. Overall, I find the Kevlar seems to force me to play more relaxed, instead of ‘muscling’ the ball so much.
Jul 10, 2012
Danny
says:For those of you like myself who are already suffering from tennis elbow, here is a link to a good article explaining the cause, symptoms, & treatment.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001485/
Jul 12, 2012
Oscar Wegner
says:Thanks for the recommendation!
Aug 9, 2012
Nana
says:damn well after my coach broke down the serve into 6 components, and going back to bsaics (starting above your head) I realized what I had to do to improve my serve and then I practiced that. It might be worth getting a coach to show you although it will probably cost a few bucks; really helped for me
Aug 9, 2012
Jandney
says:I just got my strings rutrseng at dicks sporting goods and i went in thinking that they would string it that same day or week, turns out it took two weeks for my racquet to be rutrseng. It seems that thy have one man doing all the racquet work who comes in once a week, hence thats why it took so long to get my racquet rutrseng. I would try to find a tennis specialized store, they should have a machine there and be able to do it the same day.