Written by Tim Strawn

Executive Director, IART

Tip-Easy damper installation

Installing vibration dampers in a freshly strung racquet can present some problems, especially if those dampers are the longer versions that have to be woven over and under the main strings. It’s also much more of a challenge if the racquet you’re working with has a very dense 18×20 string pattern. However, there’s a solution [see more]

You are important!

For as long as I can remember, tennis has had a fair share of misconceptions when it comes to racquets, string & tension that have been rather difficult to expose and correct. For example, when you need a new racquet who do you talk to? Once you’ve chosen your racquet who do you trust to recommend [see more]

Ashaway Introduces ZyMax® 64 TX Micro Gauge Badminton String for Superior Performance

— BETA Polymer ZyWeaVe™ core minimizes tension loss– Textured coating adds stiffness to string bed, enhances spin and control Ashaway, RI – Ashaway Racket Strings has introduced ZyMax® 64 TX, a new badminton string with a proprietary textured surface coating to enhance feel and control of the shuttle. Like its ZyMax 68 TX sibling, ZyMax [see more]

Wilson RF97 Repair

I was recently contacted by IART member Randy Orebaugh and ask about repairing his customers Wilson RF97 frame. The frame was in very poor condition, needing a new B/G set due to excess wear on the sides plus, when the racquet was brought in the bottom part of the handle had snapped off. Parts of [see more]

ESPN’s Most Dominate Athletes of 2018

  ESPN describes their recent “Best of the Best” for 2018 as a dual purpose role. It rates who was better than the best and it pays homage to the transcendent artists who didn’t spend time looking over their shoulders or into the history books. That’s because they were seeking new ways to test the [see more]

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all the very best that life has to offer in the coming new year!

Merry Christmas!

Seasons greetings to all. Here’s wishing you a wonderful holiday season and the very best in the coming New Year.

Wilson Blade 98S V6.0

Unlike the black and green palette of the previous version, the Blade 98S Countervail is updated with a more modern cosmetic with the addition of Countervail technology. Countervail is a special carbon layer used to minimize impact vibration. The Blade 98S Countervail still has Parallel Drilling technology and this model is a Spin Effect frame [see more]

Lapse in getting Wilson racquet reviews posted

Hi all Due to a few things out of my control, it’s taken me much longer to get the 2018 Wilson racquet reviews posted. Yep, the year is almost over but IMHO, better late than never so I’m going to try and get a few of those reviews done over the Christmas break.  

Recreational players & string choice – Part 3 – Why change?

Can we agree on one thing? Far too many players rely on the person stringing the racquet to choose the string and tension and that’s ok IF that person has been properly trained. Unfortunately, from my experience of 10 years presenting the IART symposiums, I found that the majority of those people have no real [see more]