The BEST string for playability. Period.
Written: Oct 27 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Maximum playability, control, feel, spin potential. Great for tennis elbow.
Cons: Bad for your wallet at $35 to string. Extremely difficult to string.
The Bottom Line: Buy this string to maximize your tennis abilities, have elbow problems, or to see what a great string plays like. Babolat makes the BEST gut.
|
|
|
| ddsthedentist's Full Review: Babolat VS Team 17g Natural Gut Tennis String |
MY INFO
I am a 5'11", all around (though I prefer heavy baseline hitting), massive topspin forehand, flat two handed backhand, tennis player who in the last year have tried every string available to improve my game and keep my tennis elbow at bay. I have two Prince NXG Tour rackets.
THE BASICS
Natural Gut is basically the best and most expensive string you can purchase. It is made from a specific part of a cow's intestines. The best natural gut comes from New Zealand, and since it is made of the naturally stretchy material, it is far superior even to most of the 'premium' synthetics such as Gamma Livewire and Wilson NXT multifiliment lines. This is by far the best natural gut that you can buy. It is used by pros such as Andy Roddick, Paradorn Schriciphan, along with most of the other top 50 players. Many people say that strings don't matter, but if that were true why do practically 100% of the touring pros and most of the tennis advisors use/recommend natural gut?
PLAYABILITY
This is where natural gut truly shines. I play with plenty of topspin off the forehand side with flatter backhand strokes. The feel is incredible and it isn't possible to describe. Every shot feels crisp and controlled. There is little vibration and while that is usually a bad thing for feel, natural gut still gives off a great amount of feel without sacraficing comfort. It seems to react to the way that you swing. Take a hard swing and the strings seem to 'pocket' the ball for an extra split second allowing you to impart more spin, angle, and power than with regular strings. Hit a little softer and the flexibility of the string gives a great amount of feel and you can literally place the ball whereever you want. These properties are especially evident while serving. These strings will improve your game if you are already a good player. Don't expect these strings to turn you into something you're not.
PERFORMANCE VS SYNTHETICS
IMHO there is no comparison from synthetics to natural gut. Even the very best synthetics are harsh on the elbow, they can reach prices of around $25, and don't hold their tension very well. Natural gut on the other hand, looses very little tension so it plays consistently from start to breakage. When I used cheaper synthetics such as Gamma TNT and Prince Duraflex, I noticed that the strings start to play differently after a couple of weeks of play because of the tension loss. These synthetics are also very harsh on your elbow and joints and you will loose all feel if you use a vibration dampener. I even switched to premium multifiliments such as Wilson NXT Tour and Gamma Livewire XP to combat my tennis, and while these strings play well, they do not compare to natural gut and after 5-10 hours of play they loose all pop and it feels like you are playing with a board.
SPIN POTENTIAL
I would be confident in saying that I probably get anywhere from about 10-20% more spin than I do with synthetics, even the topspin variety. This is due to the pocketing that you get from natural gut. Also, after the outer cover of the babolat wears down just a little, the spin potential goes up even more. My kick serve probably kicks up a foot higher and my forehand has more zip and I can hit better angles with my inside out forehand due to the massive amount of topspin.
COMFORT
The best property of natural gut is that is it very easy on your arm/elbow and you don't sacrafice an once of feel. My tennis elbow is all but gone after switching to Babolat VS Team, and I am playing better than ever. It really makes tennis more fun to play because you can hit better shots without pain.
DURABILITY
Here is the first bashing that this string is going to get. The durability is marginal at best. I get about 10-15 hours of play out of these strings where I would probably get about 25-50 out of most synthetics. I still go with natural gut because I get 10-15 hours of GREAT playability, pop, control, and spin where as I find myself wanting to cut the synthetics out of my racket after 10 hours of play because they loose so much playability. These Babolat strings will play GREAT until the moment they snap. You can cross string with a synthetic main to increase durability, but I find that really destroys the point of having natural gut as the strings become much stiffer, loose much of their playability, and don't have the spin potential and control it should.
STRINGING
Here is the second set of bashing these strings will get. Natural gut is naturally more flexible and 'sticky' than synthetics, making it very hard to string. I can string synthetic in about 30-45 minutes depending on the string, but it takes me well over an hour to string natural gut. You have to be very careful to not pull too fast, too hard, or you may create tears that will greatly reduce the durability of the strings. Also, if you're not careful, the string may unravel and then you basically have wasted $35.
COST
This is the final set of bashing these Babolat strings will get. At $35 a string, it can get EXPENSIVE to keep two rackets strung because of the lack of durability. Synthetics range from $3-$25 with the premium multifiliments ranging from $10-$25.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ddsthedentist
|
|
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.