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Tennis Racquet Stringing Options for Competitive Juniors

Goran Vukovic

Why do so many of Alberta’s top competitive junior tennis athletes and their parents choose to string at Racquet Network?

Probably because our expert staff and coaches work with parents to protect the health of their junior athletes.

Keep in mind that we have been working with junior tennis players and their families since 2004. Over the years, we have watched these junior athletes grow up, compete, earn scholarships, graduate from college and start families of their own. Some of our athletes even have their own children enrolled in tennis programs today.

In spite of the best efforts from these players, their parents and their many coaches over many years, not one of these Calgary hopefuls ever turned pro.

Why? Because this is Calgary. We keep our fingers crossed for all of these kids, of course, but the odds of anybody from Calgary ever turning pro are very slim indeed.

The most common outcome that we have seen over the years are junior tennis players who become young adults with all of the injuries and nagging aches and pains of the pros but none of the accolades.



It breaks our heart to hear about fifteen-year-olds who cannot sleep on their right sides due extreme to shoulder pain.

That’s why our emphasis is always on who-the-athlete-is-right-now, not what-we-want-the-athlete-to-become.

Our experts never recommend that juniors use the same strings or racquets that adult pros use. Both of these are way to stiff for undeveloped muscles and joints and can lead to persistent injury and chronic pain.

Our advice to juniors is to stay away from these things until they are adults. In the meantime, use gear that is designed for athletes their age.

Polyester strings are a great example of this. Pros use polyester because their swings are extremely fast. The top players in major tournaments can also have tens of thousands of dollars riding on a single swing of the racquet. So they cannot risk having a string break at an unexpected moment.



Juniors under 14, even the best of them, are not as strong as adults. They don’t need polyester strings. Moreover, the long term injury effects of using polyester strings at too young of an age are well documented.

Our advice to junior players and their parents is to stick with multifilament string until they turn 14 or until they are swinging so hard and breaking string so often that they have no other choice.

In the meantime, Racquet Network has developed a graduated stringing program with ten different levels. Level 1 starts juniors off with soft thin string suitable for 8-10 year olds. Each succeeding level above Level 1 has slightly more durable string. The final level, Level 10 has the most durable multifilament string we can find.

Most new players entering the program start at Level 1. If the string at that level lasts for two weeks, then we consider it the right level. If not, then they move up a level and they keep moving up levels until the reach a combination that lasts two weeks or more before breaking.



Once the find their level, they stay at that level until they outgrow it. Once their swing speed develops beyond that level and they start breaking string again regularly, it’s time to move a little higher on the chart.

The more they play, the stronger athletes get. So if your athlete is breaking strings more often than they were a few months ago, it may be a sign that they are improving and hitting harder. Our level systems helps parents and athletes find the right string combination for their current level. It also gives players who are improving an idea of where to go next.

At every level, our goal is to provide junior athletes with a string that is strong enough to handle their power but soft enough to protect their growing joints and developing soft tissues. This is the best way we know to minimize chronic shoulder pain which many advanced athletes first start to experience in their third year of competitive tennis.

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Yonex Badminton String

Yonex Aerobite Badminton String

We offer a full range of Yonex ™ badminton string, including all colours imported by Yonex Canada from Yonex Japan. Customers can either visit us in-store where we offer expert service and practical advice regarding Yonex badminton string or they can order online. We offer free shipping subject to minimums and some conditions.


Yonex Badminton String

String Selector For a full list of racquets in this category, please check out our ONLINE STRING SELECTOR. You can sort by sport, gauge, diameter, colour and more
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Racquet Stringing Options

Racquet Network offers Calgary customers several options for racquet stringing services. Frequent re-stringers who want custom stringing can save the most money by pre-ordering online and submitting reviews for discounts. In most cases, online 1-week-or-less orders are completed within 24 hours and come with all of the extras offered by custom racquet stringing.

EXAMPLE: The table below shows the cost for restringing a squash racquet with Supernick XL. This is an average priced string. Other strings may cost more or less, depending on what you pick.

ORDER TYPE COST TURNAROUND
PRE-ORDERED ONLINE
(WITH DISCOUNT FOR PREVIOUS REVIEW)
$25.56 1 WEEK (OR LESS)
(USUALLY NEXT DAY)
PRE-ORDERED ONLINE
(NO DISCOUNT FOR PREVIOUS REVIEW)
$28.40 1 WEEK (OR LESS)
(USUALLY NEXT DAY)
IN-STORE $30.00 1 WEEK (OR LESS)
(USUALLY NEXT DAY)
ON-THE-SPOT
(MON-FRI 5-8 PM)
$20.00 SAME DAY
(NOT GUARANTEED)

IN A HURRY?

We do all racquets in the order in which they come in, with one exception. Customers who absolutely have to have their racquets back immediately can pay extra to jump ahead of other people in line. Guaranteed one-day service can be purchased for an additional $10.00. Guaranteed one-hour service can be purchased for an additional $20.00.

WANT TO SAVE EVEN MORE?

Calgary customers who want to save even more can pre-order from the DISCOUNT RACQUET STRINGING SERVICES section of our website. There are several options there that offer even lower prices for customers who are not in a hurry.

ON-THE-SPOT

Racquet Network’s southwest Calgary store offers on-the-spot racquet stringing while you wait every weekday evening from 5:00-8:00pm. On most nights, all customers get their racquets back in less than an hour. Please note that service is not guaranteed. On exceptionally busy nights, we may not get to all customers.

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Discount Racquet Stringing in Calgary

With more than 150 kinds of string in stock at any given moment, Racquet Network is well-known in Calgary for offering custom racquet stringing.

Since the racquet sports player network was founded in 2004, the southwest Calgary racquet store has turned out thousands of customized tennis, squash, badminton and racquetball racquets to some of our city’s best players and coaches.

“We have built our reputation on customized racquet stringing,” says owner Brent Johner. “We have always offered our customers more options than anywhere else. We offer more kinds of string, more colours, and more brands. We also offer more turnaround options. Our customers have always had the option of getting their racquets back in an hour, a day or a week.”

Discount racquet stinging is new for Racquet Network. “Discount stringing is much cheaper,” Johner notes, “because it comes with fewer options.”



Home-based discount racquet stringers charge less than custom stringing stores like Racquet Network because they offer fewer options. Most stock only a few kinds of string and have very narrow windows for picking up and dropping off. A store like Racquet Network, by contrast, is open long hours which makes pick up and drop off very convenient.

“We don’t expect to get much in the way of discount racquet stringing,” says Johner. “We expect that most of our customers will still come to us because they want their racquets back fast and they want to customize their string beds to optimize performance, but we feel it is an important service to offer.”

Racquet Network is a family business that serves both players and their families, Johner notes. In a lot of cases, Mom or Dad are serious players and want everything customized. However, they may not want the same level of customization for their kids. Discount stringing gives players who are not ready for customized racquet stringing a low-cost option. At the same time, it gives Racquet Network the opportunity to serve their customers’ entire families.

“Discount stringing is a great option for players who aren’t in a hurry and aren’t looking for any performance enhancements,” says Johner. “It may be a backup racquet or an old racquet somebody found in a closet. We don’t judge. If that’s what people want, we are happy to serve them.”

Racquet Network now offers discount racquet stringing starting at $20.00, string and labour included.