Examples of Stringing Mistakes
Posted 21st April 2025
It is not uncommon to see rackets that have been strung incorrectly. Racket stringers are human, after all, and can make mistakes. Most mistakes result from inexperience or a lack of attention to detail – in many cases, they are made by untrained ‘DIY’ stringers – and could be as trivial as missing a weave or repeating the same weave pattern on successive crosses. It is also easy to get caught out by an unfamiliar string pattern and some challenging patterns, such as fan patterns, can attract ugly improvisation when an amateur stringer inevitably gets stuck. While a missed weave may cause only a barely noticeable cosmetic defect, getting the string pattern wrong can be more serious and can negatively affect the performance of the strings and the racket.
Long before I started stringing my own rackets, I once had a squash racket returned to me that was missing the two bottom crosses. The stringer had likely cut a length of string that was too short (or didn’t have enough string left on the reel), but chose to string the racket anyway and charge full price, thinking I wouldn’t notice. This is an unfortunate (and hopefully rare) example – most stringers won’t be so brazen and will fix their mistakes before handing a racket back to the customer.
Even the most experienced stringers will occasionally make mistakes, but a good stringer is one that recognises and corrects them, even if it means starting again. As Jon Sharpe (aka String Doctor) says in his blog post on the same subject: ‘Always string the racket as if you were stringing for the World No 1.’
Here are a few examples of rackets given to me over the years that exhibited obvious (and in some cases strange) mistakes:
#1 – Directional strung frames
Some grommet strips are designed in such a way that the racket has ‘short’ and ‘long’ sides, with grooves running between specific holes to keep the strings on the outside of the frame protected. This is known as a ‘directional strung frame’ and is particularly common with Dunlop squash rackets. String one of these rackets the incorrect way round (i.e. short side on the long side), and the crosses will start on the wrong side of the frame, ending up with string loops on the outside spanning between the designated grooves. This exposes the string to damage, particularly at the top of the frame where the exposed string is most likely to come into contact with the walls and floors, leading to premature breakage. What is surprising with the Dunlop Evolution Pro pictured below is that the sides are marked as ‘S’ and ‘L’ – for ‘short’ and ‘long’ – and the holes to tie off at are clearly marked on the frame. Clearly, a lack of attention to detail given by the stringer.
The ‘short’ side of a Dunlop Evolution Pro strung incorrectly as the ‘long’ side
The Dunlop Revolution pictured below is another example of the same problem, but with a different cause. With directional strung frames, the side grommet strips are not identical and the bumper guard is not symmetrical. When fitting or replacing the grommet strips, the bumper guard has to be the correct way round in order to match the grooves in the side strips. The stringer who strung this Dunlop racket was doomed from the start, as although the crosses sat nicely in the grooves along the sides, because the bumper guard had been fitted incorrectly the strings ended up exposed along the top of the frame. Worryingly, I have seen this a few times even with brand new rackets that have had the bumper guard fitted incorrectly in the factory.
Bumper guard incorrectly fitted, resulting in exposed strings
#2 – Single string repair job
This racket has been subjected to an ‘old-school’ repair job. Rather than restringing the whole racket following a break of one the main strings, the stringer has replaced only the broken string – with an entirely different string!
Broken main string replaced with a different string
When a string breaks, it suffers a complete loss of tension, but you also get significant tension loss in the string bed as a whole. Replacing only the broken string, while common practice in the days of wooden rackets, is no longer an acceptable method of restringing as the racket will be barely usable or, at the very least, have a loose and inconsistent string bed.
#3 – Fan pattern confusion
Fan patterns are some of the trickiest patterns to master. This Eye Rackets V.Lite 125 squash racket must have really bamboozled the stringer as there are a few problems here. One of the short side main strings has been missed and the 7th long side main has been strung through the wrong hole, resulting in the second cross from the top to also be strung through the wrong holes. It looks bad and the missing / unevenly distributed strings also likely affected the racket’s performance.
Only one main string through a shared grommet requiring two strings
Strings in the wrong holes
#4 – Two knots in the same string hole
This one is a real head-scratcher! The green cross string has been tied off in the same hole that a main string has been tied off. I wonder what the stringer was thinking, given there is a free tie-off hole right next to the one that was used. The string also appears to have somehow been knotted on itself rather than on the white main string – quite impressive, but completely unnecessary.
Two knots tied in the same hole
#5 – Missing cross or crosses
Missing the top or bottom cross is quite a common mistake with rackets that have shared holes for both a main string and cross string, where it might not be immediately obvious that a string is missing unless you count the strings. The Wilson squash racket pictured below is missing the top cross, likely because the short side main string was tied off in the wrong hole (it should have been tied off at the 3rd hole from the top, not the 4th).
Top cross missing on a racket with shared grommets
Although a missing cross can seem innocuous, it can increase the risk of premature string breakage – particularly if the missing cross is at the top of the frame.
