Acquiring a Stringing Machine

Pre-weave from 200m reel-to min wastages

4 point Fleet Crank Type Stringing Equipment

My first racket strung was my daughter's beat up Yonex

Done! After more than 3 hours for a first timer.

I was just lamenting how easily racket string snaps nowadays. At the rate the strings were giving way, I might as well string the rackets myself and that was exactly what Aaron has suggested to me one day. I was warming up to the idea but only a used stringing machine was all I could afford at the moment. As I was sourcing around, I met coach Collins during one of the boys training sessions. A connoisseur on badminton subject matter, my chats with him has always been enlightening. When I brought up my desire to acquire a stringing machine, I hit the jackpot. Immediately he sold me his manual stringing machine just like that.  

Thanks to coach Collins, I have bought over his Fleet crank type stringing machine c/w all accessories. When I brought it home two days later, being a curious person he is, Aaron couldn’t stop fiddling with it. I immersed myself into the art and techniques of stringing rackets and I had to accelerate my learning curve because Aaron couldn’t wait to sting his first racket. Being a fast learner, Aaron can now fully weave a racket without supervision. There were loads of “how to” videos in Youtube and great stringing resource sticky pinned in Badminton Central forum which is easily available.

The good thing about stringing my own rackets is that I could experiment with different string types and string gauges and different combinations of string tension to meet the playing preference of the boys. It has become my SOP now to pre-stretch new strings (to reduce tension loss, post stringing) and have Aaron to fully local weave the racket first before I take over on the stringing machine to save time. Our rackets now get proportional tension treatment to enlarge the sweet spot on the racket. My first racket, Kiera’s Yonex took me more than 3 hours to complete. Since then, the time has tumbled down to less than an hour (including grommet adjustments). Perhaps there is no pressure for me to speed up the stringing process since I am a meticulous DIY person by nature and pride myself in the quality of work produced. Nevertheless, the duration will come down as I get to string more rackets. For the record, the rackets I have been tweaking so far are as follows :

Yonex Arcsaber 009DX - Kiera’s                               Main 20 Lbs / Cross 22 Lbs (2 knots)

Dr Pro Ultrapower 569 – Aaron’s                               Main 22 Lbs / Cross 24 Lbs (4 knots)

Babolat X Act 85 – Colin’s                                        Main 25 Lbs / Cross 26 Lbs (2 knots)

Yonex Nanospeed 990 – Ryan’s                               Main 24 Lbs / Cross 24 Lbs (4 knots)

Protech Legendary Platinum – Aaron’s                      Main 25 Lbs / Cross 25.5 Lbs (2 knots)

Yonex Nanospeed 990 – Ryan’s                               Proportional Tension 20 – 26 Lbs (2 knots)

Protech Legendary Grand – Kiera’s                           Proportional Tension 18 – 22 Lbs (10 knots)

Wilson Dynapower 9500 – Customer’s                       Main 25 Lbs / Cross 26 Lbs (2 knots)

Protech Racket Repair

This grommetless racket has 5 strings and 10 knots strung at 18 to 21 Lbs proportionate tension.

Protech Legendary Grand - has seen better days. Its duties now relegated from competition to recreational use by my 6 year old daughter.

The frame cracked right through a string hole.

Close up on the inside after the DIY glue job.

DIY the logo stencil for a good measure.

Hi. I'm back after a 6 months hiatus due to outstation work commitments. Secondly, my pc was infected by ransomware which resulted in all my data being encrypted. I had to recover and update all lost data from my backup. Im still updating as I write. 

Anyway in my absence here, I have acquired a used stringing machine. This has occupied part of my time learning how to string the boys rackets. There will be another post for this.

One of the rackets which I bought last year, a Protech Legendary Grand, developed a crack on the frame at 10 o'clock. I love the feel of Protech rackets. Although it is light headed but with the longer and slimmer shaft, it gives a whippy feel about it. Unfortunately these rackets are fragile and need lots of care playing with it.

So Aaron clashed this new racket during his doubles sparring and what a waste to toss it away. So I decided to repair it using industrial '2 in 1' epoxy glue. Then I strung it using 5 offrun strings at proportional tension between 18 to 21 Lbs. Yes you heard that right. Thats 10 knots.The result are as in the pictorials above.

I dont expect this battle weary racket to last long anyway. It will be for Aaron to hone his stringing  skills and knotting techniques.

WHAT A YEAR IT HAS BEEN FOR AARON

2015 has been a fabulous year for Aaron. Beginning with the National Junior Circuit Leg 1 in January where Putrajaya played host, Aaron finished as semi-finalist in both U12 singles and doubles category.

In March, Aaron became champion in MSSD Putrajaya district and qualified for MSSM which he finished a dismal quarter-final round. Then in April, the Leg 2 of the National Junior Circuit in Malacca saw him advance to the quarter-finals while in the doubles, he and Jie Yang lost in the first round. Despite this, he collected enough points to qualify for both singles and doubles in the penultimate National Junior Grand-Prix finals in Kedah. 

In Kedah, nobody would have expected little Aaron finished the way he did in the semi-finals. It was a feat that surpass all our expectations. The climax of the year was when Aaron has been selected by Kem Badminton Astro for an all expense paid trip to Tokyo Japan via a birthday treat recorded by Astro and aired in Astro Arena 801.

Aaron finished the year in a high for the PJba U13 ranking selection. He was unbeaten in all his 6 games to qualify for 2016 Putrajaya state team.

2015 Achievements

Jan 2015              : National Jr Circuit Leg 1 Putrajaya           Semi-final

Mar 2015             : MSSWP Putrajaya                                   Champion

Mar 2015             : TM Sports Klang                                      Champion

Apr 2015              : National Jr Circuit Leg 1 Melaka               Quarter-final

Aug 2015              : National Jr Grand-Prix Finals, Kedah        Semi-final

Aug 2015              : FLC Sports Day, Looi Academy               Champion

Dec 2015              : Team 16 Tournament, Cheras                  Runners-up

Dec 2015              : PJba U13 Ranking, Putrajaya                     Unbeaten in his Group

2015 Training Stats

In 2015 incredibly the boys had quite a hectic training schedule which both my wife and I had to put up with.

They have occupied 302 days out of 365 days for training.
That works out to be 82.7%. On average, they train 5.79 days per week. Average training duration per session is 2+ hours but this is difficult to measure because some duration could be 3.5 hours but they may be idling due to the large group.

The highest training days per month were 28 days during Jan, Mar and Jul. The lowest was 17 days in Jun and this was during the mid year school break where Aaron also suffered ankle sprain and was resting and holidaying for 2 weeks. Note that tournament hours are included in the stats but off-court physical training eg. Jogging, sprinting etc. are not included.

Who did they train with?

29% of their training were with my wife and I.
14% were with private coaches.
49% were with Putrajaya.
9% were others eg. Astro Kasih, MSSD/M, sparring etc.

What sort of training is best?

Corrective training. We shoot video clips to playback where they'd gone wrong and we take it on court to focus on these. For the bad habits which are beyond us, thats where the private coaches come in to assist. For Putrajaya, its more of a requirement than anything but its good to keep their physical momentum going.

At this age where most kids are undergoing the transition to puberty, its more challenging to keep them disciplined. We will be looking for quality sparring groups and continue to build their skills and court temperament.

HKC SPORTS III 2015

BSU13

1st Round    :   Ryan vs Edeson Chang      11-2, 11-3
2nd Round   :   Ryan vs Tan Cheok Kee     11-4, 11-5
Quarter Final :  Ryan vs Thevan                 10-11, 6-11 

FLEX-PRO SBC SPORTS BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIP 2015 - KUANTAN

BSU12

1st Round  : Aaron (3/4) vs Bye
2nd Round : Aaron (3/4) vs Chen Yi Ming (Sing)         30 - 12
3rd Round  : Aaron (3/4) vs Wong Jia Cheng              30 - 23
Qtr Final    : Aaron (3/4) vs  Lee Qi Hong                   15-21, 21-19, 17-21

BDU13

1st Round  : Aaron/Qi Hong vs Bye
2nd Round : Aaron/Qi Hong vs Ee Yong Xin/Herman                 30-11
3rd Round  : Aaron/Qi Hong vs Anson Cheong/Chia Jeng Hon   26-30

BSU13

1st Round   : Ryan vs Hanif                                 30 -   3
2nd Round :  Ryan  vs Ainur Mohd                       30 - 14
3rd Round  :  Ryan vs Mohd Amar                         9 - 30

BDU13

1st Round  : Ryan/Wong CC vs Bye
2nd Round : Ryan/WongCC vs Md Adib/Md Zakwan                  30-10
3rd Round  : Ryan/WongCC vs Chia KL/Kevin Say                    30-25
Quarter Final : Ryan/WongCC vs Choi JS/Shaun Yeoh               8-21, 9-21

Putrajaya U12 Boys Singles Ranking

This is preparation for the 100-Plus U12 & U15 Inter-State Junior Team competition held in Johor on the 9th December 2015.

	PERSATUAN BADMINTON PUTRAJAYA U12 RANKING OCT 2015
	Rank	Aaron	Haris	Azam	Li Chai	Jie Yang	Mukris
	1)   Aaron		21 - 16 (W)	21 - 17 (W)	21 - 17 (W)	21 - 13 (W)	21 - 5 (W)
	2)   Haris	16 - 21 (L)		23 - 21 (W)	24 - 22 (W)	21 - 17 (W)	21 - 7 (W)
	3)   Azam	17 - 21 (L)	21 - 23 (L)		21 - 17 (W)	21 - 17 (W)	21 - 7 (W)
	4)   Li Chai	17 - 21 (L)	22 - 24 (L)	17 - 21 (L)		21 - 14 (W)	21 - 3 (W)
	5)   Jie Yang	13 - 21 (L)	17 - 21 (L)	17 - 21 (L)	14 - 21 (L)		21 - 11 (W)
	6)   Mukris	5 - 21   (L)	7 - 21   (L)	7 - 21   (L)	3 - 21   (L)	11 - 21 (L)