By Vince Chiarelli, PTR, MRT and Owner of String Along With Vince in Largo

We don’t talk about grips very much. I guess that’s because there isn’t much to say about them; you either have one or you don’t. Right? Wrong! Even my well-informed customers don’t understand the function, concept or life of their grip. ...[continue reading]

By Vince Chiarelli, PTR, MRT and Owner of String Along With Vince in Largo

Stringing At the Australian Open

You saw plenty of news about the players at the Australian Open in the press and on television, but how about those green bags covering the freshly strung racquets? Those green bags were from TOPSERVE TENNIS, the official stringing service of the AO for 2006. I was one of the stringers filling those green bags. The team of world-renown tournament stringers had three Americans, one Japanese, one Czech, one English, and the rest Australian. A special feature of this team was the fourteen languages spoken by stringers or support staff, making players from around the world feel at ease and assured that their stringing instructions were clear. ...[continue reading]

By Vince Chiarelli, PTR, MRT and Owner of String Along With Vince in Largo

One of the first questions we ask customers seeking a new racquet is “what racquet have you been using?” Often the answer is something like: “a Hammer” or “a Liquid Metal” or “a TripleThreat.” This tells us that the racquet companies are getting across their “theme names” but consumers are not fully aware of the many significant differences within each theme family. ...[continue reading]