The strings on your tennis racquet is what makes it work right in a game, so if they’re too loose, too tight, or not the right thickness, your game performance can suffer. You can go to a store to have a professional restring your racquet every so often, but is it necessary? And should you really pay money to have your racquet restrung, or should you save money and do it yourself?

Why Do You Need To Restring Your Racquet?

As you use a racquet across the course of several games, it’s only natural that the strings may break or loosen out of their previous configuration. This affects your playstyle in a lot of different ways- it can weaken your blows, it can affect aerodynamics, and it can cause you to miss some shots. If your racquet strings give out in the middle of a game, that can be bad- so it’s best to get your racquet restrung a couple of times a year. In fact, you should restring it as many times a year as you play in a week- so if you play twice a week, you should restring your racquet twice a year.

Getting The Professional Treatment

The simplest reason not to restring your racquet yourself is that it requires a special machine to do so. The cheapest models of common restringing machines run as much as $200, but the fancier models can get into upwards of $1000. As a beginning player, you probably don’t want to drop $200 on a machine that’s both pricy and takes time to learn to use. Getting your racquet restrung with a professional is cheaper, and gives you more time to actually be on the court. You don’t have to muddle through instruction manuals and lose money to an endeavor that you may never fully master.

Professional Vs. Home-Done Racquet Restringing

The strings on your tennis racquet make or break your game. They dictate your aerodynamics, your reaction times, and even the power behind your swings. So it’s important that they’re strung right. Buying and using a stringing machine yourself can be expensive, and has a learning curve- you’re not going to be great at it right away. Frankly, it’s easier and cheaper to hire someone to restring your racquet.