Thought I'd write my findings on teaching myself to string rackets.

It's just stuff I noticed as a complete beginner that more experienced guys take for granted so I wouldn't recommend using this as a proper guide.

There's a mass of information out there and a million and one different tools, I got a little overwhelmed by it all and decided to just have a whack at it and deal with problems as they arose.

I had an old racket,my basic machine, pliers, cutters, a pointy stick thing, a couple of clamps and a 200m reel of string I picked up for around £25

Putting the racket in the machine was straight forward enough, except that I covered up holes with each clamp.

Start again.

Right, how much string to use, a single pack comes in 10m lengths so 5m up and down (now know this is called main string) and 5m side to side (cross string, duh).

Way too sensible, I had the brainwave of counting the strings going up and down and wrapping string around the racket head that many times, wasted loads of string.

About 5m would have been better, I haven't got around to it yet but this looks like one of those things where people find their own favourite way of measuring it.

I remembered being told about cutting the string at an angle to give a pointed end to make it easier to pull through so i did that, it makes bugger all difference to the main string.

Next, put the ends of the string into the two holes either side of the middle of the head, not the T-joint, only an idiot would do that.

Start again.

With the string now in the right end, I pulled them so they were even and I could do one side at a time, if you've ever seen that scene in Bambi when he's hopelessly learning to walk, that's how I was feeling after tangling string around everything in the room.

With string everywhere, I decided to try one side by stringing it and leaving slack so I could do the tension by the the loops left at each end (almost 1m loops as I'd used so much string), and the other by pulling it through one length at a time.

The first way saves a bit on mess but I haven't been able to notice much difference in either method so make your own mind up.

Now to clamp the string, looks easy enough, probably had more trouble with this part than everything else put together.

Look up a picture and copy it, I was so relieved when I finally manged to pull a bit of string without it trying to yank out the whole lot I forget to take note of how I managed it.

Take some time on this bit, whoever said it's how you finish not how you start has never strung a racket.

Pulling the strings through, tensioning them, and using the fly clamp to hold the string is fairly painless.

I did forget to move the clamp a couple of times and had to redo a couple of bits but once I worked out how clamping on the string i'd just tightened and the one next to it worked, it kinda became instinctive.

It's a bit fiddly doing the last bit, you string in consecutive holes from 1-9 then do 11 and back through to 10.

I just forced the clamp over a bit to hold 11 and 9 but I'm not sure if this is right so I may have to edit this bit.

Now to tie a knot, wasn't really looking forward to this, seemed like a bit of a banana skin.

Look for a hole near where you've pulled the last bit (clamp the last string as close to the frame as you can). It's better if you use a hole that isn't going to be used by the cross strings, sounds really obvious now doesn't it.

I don't know if I should have done this but I cranked up the tension dial 2 notches for the last length cus i thought I might lose a bit with my hamfisted attempts at tienig a knot.

I found the knot surprisingly easy to work out.

With the string through the hole, you place it over the string already in the hole and through the gap to the next string so it's beneath it, as you feed it back up, make sure it goes through the loop created by the first part and tighten it.

I got the hang of this straight away but it might be worth looking up pictures if my description doesn't make sense.

To make the knot tight, I held the tightning part of the string in my pliers and wrapped it around a couple of times to get more purchase and tightened it.

I did another knot the same way and removed the clamp.

I was expecting all the string to flop throught the middle of the racket but it didn't, looks like I've done something right.

I was a bit concerned that the strings didn't seem very tight but thought sod it, and did the other side.

Even more concerned after I'd done the other side that the strings didn't seem very tight but thought sod it again as I was only practising on an old racket.

So, cross strings, decided I was en axpert now so stopped concentating a bit too much.

I compared another racket to see where to start the cross strings and found a nice hole to tie off my starting bit.

Threaded the string over and under, put it in the hole and tied the knots like i'd done before.

Redid the threading bit 3 times as I'd managed to cock it up but in my defence there was something on TV about Baywatch and I was distracted.

Also went through the wrong hole but thought sod it, it's only practising. The racket looked like a drunk spider's web.

Doing the cross strings bit is fiddly and time consuming but it's the same as the main strings basically so I'm sure as time goes on I'll get a quicker technique.

I was quite lucky getting the string through shared holes, the 2 or 3 that were really stubborn I managed to sort out with a safety pin with vaseline on.

Carefully put the opened pin through to nudge the existing string and gave it a wriggle, worked a treat each time.

****I did another racket afterwards and noticed the holes were minute, so I put a scrap inch of string in a couple of holes as well when I did the main string before i tightened them, worked really well****

I did snap the main string when it tried to move some of the string on the outer part of the racket with a screwdriver but I wasn't going to start again so I kept going.

I came accross a “4mm Crochet Hook” when I was looking for a safety pin and although I only had to use it once it was quite effective for safely nudging string. (No idea where this came from, my ex-wife could barely tie her own shoelaces and I don't choose girlfriends for their needlework skills)

I didn't bother trying to do the finishing knot in any particular place, I just used the hole with the biggest gap.

That's it, the racket looked riddiculous and I'd snapped a string along the way rendering it unfit for play but it was a start.

I cut out the strings, started again and after 90 minutes with very minor mistakes had a racket ready to be played with.

I know there's probably better ways to do all of the above, but I've written this to encourage people to not be overwhelmed or put off when it comes to stringing, and to highlight the mistakes I've made.

There doesn't seem to be a problem with my tester racket but I'll check about the mainstrings not feeling very tight and edit it if it needs it.

Simon