This is a very broad question when you consider the many factors involved with your chosen racket sports. How often you play coupled with your skill level are going to determine the answer here. Higher skilled players will probably know the answer based on feel but for beginners the general rule of thumb is count how many times you play in a week and double it. This is how many times you should be stringing your racket per year.

For example you play 3 times per week that’s 3 weeks x2 = 6 restrings per year.

Think of jumping up and down on a trampoline. If the bed is soft, then you will gain lots of height, your feet sinking deep. If you stray to the edges, you will not go so high and your feet will not linger on the bed. This is the same for the ball/shuttlecock on the strings.

A soft stringbed will propel the ball/shuttlecock back with almost as much speed, while a tighter stringbed will do the job quicker and take away some of the ball/shuttlecock speed. The longer the ball/shuttlecock spends on the stringbed, the less control you have over where the ball/shuttlecock ends up, as the racket is always moving.

A tighter stringbed gets rid of the ball/shuttlecock quicker and so gives less error on ball/shuttlecock placement. Low tensions are better for sore arms and shoulders as there will be less shock and the arm has to work less hard. Take the time to experiment with varying tensions so that you find the tensions that suit your own game.

Rackets and strings are high-performance equipment, so never leave the racket in the car boot to freeze or fry, and avoid the couch or backseat where someone WILL sit on them! Store at room temperature, not buried by anything heavy and never near a hot radiator. Keep separate from damp towels or clothing. Make a mark on each racket so that you can know which is which for restringing.

Strings break when they cannot stretch or when they abrade against each other. When the ball hits the middle of the stringbed, the surrounding strings stretch and take on the job of catapulting the ball back. But if the ball hits near to the racket edge, the strings next to the frame have nowhere to stretch into, and exceed their elastic limit.

When the mains (verticals) move against the crosses, the weaker of the two will gradually wear away until the fibres cannot take any more punishment and break. Multifilaments have thousands of tiny fibres inside that will get furry before they actually break. In cold weather, strings and rackets are stiffer and so you can expect strings to pop quicker in cold conditions, especially with a heavy, wet ball.

Strings are always deteriorating, performance slipping away, so it’s always good to have a spare identical racket, especially if you have to leave one with the stringer. It is not a good idea to have to borrow a friend’s racket for a match. By all means experiment with as many rackets as you want to, but when you settle on your eventual choice, stick to that for serious play.

Thats fine, then you just pay £11 for us to put the string into your racket.