Natural Gut vs Polyester | Tennis String Comparison 

Poly String Recommendation 👉🏻 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3CyNgcHE_uo.html

A full bed of natural gut in a powerful racket like the Pure Drive is likely to prove too hard to control for players with fast, full strokes. To get better control you would have to string in the 60s and, with a stiff racket like the Pure Drive this might prove problematic. In the "good old days" pros would typically string anywhere from the low 60s into the upper 70s. Borg was known for stringing so high that his strings would occasionally break while not even being used. Natural gut, like multifilaments, will notch and this will reduce or completely eliminate string "snapback." Not only is this annoying since it requires realigning the strings after every rally but vital spin is somewhat lessened without the contribution of the displaced string snapping back and spinning the ball. Polys are less powerful than natural gut or multifilaments but this enables a good player to swing out with maximum speed without losing control of the ball. The increased speed polys accommodate results in more spin for the same racket trajectory.

From my experience, it takes some time to adjust when you change the type of string, from poly to gut and vice versa. It’s not like you pick up full-bed of gut and can perform immediately like you normal setup. I love gut and multi, but I break it too soon and don’t wanna pay that much so I ended up using poly. I would say gut main poly cross is the best.

This was a fun video to watch. I like the commentary pre and post points

Long time poly player tries out full gut for a few minutes and rejects it. Are you sure you want to call that a test? It feels different! Of course it does. Restring full gut at higher tension, play some practice sets. String with gut in the crosses, poly in mains, play some more practice sets. Then report.

Great video and insight as ALWAYS! But Anna Roasting Nic at the end was the best! :-)

When gut was king ,( the wooden era), the racquets were strung from 65 to 68 lbs. I wonder what your experience would be if you brought the string tension up?

Although it is true that a set of natural gut costs more than a set of (good) poly, because the set of nat gut will last a lot longer than the set (or two, or three sets) of poly, the actual cost is not a whole lot more.

Back in the day when we used natural gut we strung it in the 60s. I believe the rackets back in the day were less forgiving.

I prefer Wilson Reaction over Sensation and NXT which both have more power and play closer to natural gut. Natural gut is too bouncy.

those gut volleys are straight ASMR 3:59

Dude your putting natural gut in one of the most powerful rackets made in the pure drive. Go up 3 lbs and use a dampener and you should be fine. Actually the cost is about the same if you do what is good for your arm and cut the polyester out before it goes dead.

It is not fair, please check, you don't swing in the same speed when you hold natural gut racquet. It looks much slower😂😂

Your serve went from Isner to Schwartzman thanks to that gut lol

You dont have more power with the poly. The problem is you have too much power with the natural gut, therefore less control and the ball goes long. The old players strung very high tension with the gut. Thats how they got control with it. Thats what you should have done Nick and you would be way better of :). Also, you cannot hav natural gut with a 50 pound tension in a pure drive with a 70 ra stiffnes rating and a 100 sq headsize. Its stands to reason that its not going to be controlled. You probably need to string it in the high 60s and maybe 70 for maximum control

The string movement is exactly why a denser string pattern racket like an 18/20 or a smaller racket head like a 90 or 85 sq.inch with the more open 16/19 would maximize playability and the power of a natural gut. I strung up a old school zebra radical tour mid plus with a full bed of natural gut at 63 lbs. My groundies were bullets as well as the serve. You have to marry the right racket with natural gut, otherwise it is a total disaster.

On a 100 inch head 55 pounds is not tight much for that string. I have one 95 inch raquet that I dont use so often and string it at 25kg with VS 17, if you need more control 27kg can be nice on a 100 inch head. By the way I love that string but its pretty expensive.

There was an ATP pro who used all natural gut in the modern era (retired 2014). His name was Michael Llodra; very exciting player but unfortunately only got to no. 21 in singles (would have been cool to have a serve and volleyer in the top 10 in the modern era). One thing to note about this video, is virtually every player who uses natural gut will play with an 18x20 string pattern and use string savers, neither of which is done here.

full bed of gut really works best in smaller frames with tight string patterns. in a 100" tweener framer its going to be too powerful, strings will move too much, etc.. useless comparison.

I remember reading Monica Seles' first book and she said she used natural gut, then during a match at the French Open at an important moment, the strings went, she lost the match and said she never used natural gut again. That was in 1989.

your forehand has many problems....

I usually really like your videos. But here, you’re a bit off in your reasoning and testing. You’re comparing the power of natural gut strung at 55 to poly strung in the mid to low 40’s? I get tons of power with gut compared to poly, plus my arm thanks me for it in the end. Oh yeah, not to mention the gut doesn’t start losing its tension after a few sets, which is what poly is known for. But of course, use whatever feels good to you, but speaking in such absolutes on things that are not comparable is a bit disconcerting.

haha Anna making fun of you in the end was hilarious, really nice to leave this in the editing

There's a reason why some really good pros still use it. Not an expert, but maybe, just maybe, it's because they combine it with co-polys and pro stock rackets. Not with the most used racket in the wta.

Gotta say I’m liking the kirschbaum orange strings you use. Not crazy spin but the strings snap back well. After like 5 hitting sessions the strings don’t move around. Only maybe the far side strings do a bit but that’s expected. Hits are more consistent and predictable. Also I do notice it gives more power than other dead strings I tended to use like luxilon and solinco confidential.

3:17 I have a pretty funny story whenever I watch Pete Sampras I never understood why literally after pretty much every single point he would look at his racket and reset the strings. Until I play with my friends or F 97 strong with natural gut.

the striptease we've been waiting for! LOL

Hitting mistakes doesn't happen by the strings or racket. Your reaction about Natural Gut is a bit strange after playing it for the first time

“Naked again” haha 😂. Gut is an excellent string, but the ball stays on the string bed much shorter than poly. If you don’t break strings, this is the best string for you. Full bed gut has the best tension maintenance.

I currently have the same string in my Blade v8. 55lbs. It’s very comfortable. Very nice feel. Very expensive but if I only string every 6 months it’s not too bad. There is enough power in them for a rec player. I wanted to try them just out of curiosity

That’s probably one of the worst racquets for a full bed of gut. Put that same string in one of the control racquets from Head or Yonex and it’s ten times better.

Wow, the fat jokes at the end..Ana is ruthless! 😂

Stringing with a full bed of gut is a waste of money. It won’t last long at all. Best to use it as a hybrid.

Anna with no chill lol. “When he was fat” 🪦

Its not as expensive as you think… I know the string itself costs a ton, but it has the best tension maintenence of any tennis string. So as long as you use string savers, flatten the strokes a bit and dont use it in humid weather it can stay on the racket for a year or even longer without restringing it. But it also has some negatives… Natural gut cant stand any amount of humidity/water or it will lose tension and it will break fast with enough friction.

17 Guage gut?????? You'll be replacing strings every 2 hours.

A lively string at a lively gauge on a very stiff racquet with the most open string pattern. Frankly, this was a car crash playtest video.

It's actually the opposite. Natural gut gives more power than poly. However, because it's harder to control that power you compensate by slowing down your swing speed. This is exacerbated by using a pure drive which is a powerful racquet. That's the real reason why nobody is using a full bed of natural gut in any Babolat racquets or even most modern racquets. They come with way more power than old school racquets.

I have tried the Federer set-up(Gut mains/Alu rough crosses) on my RF-97(368g) and it was by far the best string combo I have ever used, but expensive. I think Nik could experiment with Gut/poly at a higher swing weight, more H/L balance and slightly higher tension like most on ATP who use this combo. Nik seems to be using no customisation, his favourite poly at 44lb, which works very well for him, He has the size and strength to easily cope with a higher swing weight? I wonder if he has ever gone down that path in his tennis journey?

Im 60+ and I’ve been playing in league 20 yrs..I tried using poly but my elbow and shoulder could not handle it.I tried every combination but switched to cheaper Gut full set and since i have no arm issues related to tennis.I love the feel game so I no longer hit hard and try a smoother style of play.VS is too expensive but may give it a shot next year.Bottom line I love full set gut.I play Wilson Clash 98.Usually 55lbs.

i can see how much it affects ur mental game, after a few shots u dont move ur legs at all, even ur best shot the serve happens with all arms

A set of NG strings costs more than my current racket itself ))) I got Prince Tour 98 Pro in ideal condition for less than 100 bucks and I love this racket with Hyper G strings so far. But I really want to try gut someday! Edit: I don't want anymore )))) question: how often do you restring your racket?

Good video, Nick. Last time I tried a full bed of gut was in the early '80s in my PDP Open. Frames and strings have come a long way since then. I'm confused about the terminology when you talk about the Kirschbaum Super Smash. You say it's not a copolymer like Luxilon, but the Kirschbaum website lists the Super Smash Orange as a co-polyester. Is there a difference in terms?

Can you please show a gut-poly hybrid ?? Try it vs copoly. Thanks for the video as always.

My previously trusted stringer was string my poly at 32kg, didn’t find out till I got my own crank machine, absolutely ridiculous, you’re so right Nick, poly at 22kg is like a dream, nothing wedges and almost nothing went out xD

I have to say, if you live in less than ideal conditions like in Northern Europe during the autumn and spring i.e. when the balls go dead in 10 minutes or your tennis partners refuse to contribute with new balls and you just end up playing with old ones (which is the case for me)... Multifilaments are your friend. Since the balls are more dead, you are better off just having a big serve. Hitting flatter winners (most of the time) and volleying as much as you can. Of course multifilament don't last very long and are expensive so get yourself a stringing machine and just restring as soon as the strings start fluffing - arguably poly strings need to be restrung as frequently as multifilament due to tension loss and how it ruins your game

I played with natural gut I doubles it worked well there especially in volleys

I played with poly strings for years, but got tired of changing strings after every match. They just lose tension way too fast for me. I switched to NG and really liked them . I played with NG for about two years but have since switched to Wilson NXT. I honestly like the NXT better than both NG or poly strings.

Great topic, great presentation. As usual, Niko.

Yeah I couldn't agree more about the tennis ball point and have always wondered why there aren't more reviews of the various tennis ball brands and types.

I am sure you needed it a bit tighter string tension with gut. I used to play 5 above the racquet recommendation with my Head's. 62lbs was much more controllable. 55 would seem like a trampoline.

You say you strung the natural gut at 55 while you're used at 40. The loss of power is right there in my book. You didn't say how much tension you put with the polyester in your comparison. I string my Aeropro Drive with Pro Hurricane Tour, 16 gauge, at 60. When the tension goes down to 50 and under, I start "spraying" my shots. I used to wait til my strings broke but I don't anymore. Not worth the frustration. By the way, I once had a tennis elbow as well as a golfer's elbow on the same right elbow. I have a right hand forehand. I couls barely hold my racket but I kept on playing, even with the excriuciating pain that I felt each and everytime that I hit the ball. Until... Until I could barely hold my racket. And then I hit that perfect forehand that came out of my racket like a bullet and I didn't feel any pain at all. I had an epiphany moment. I just hit the ball with a very relaxed arm and wrist, with an extended arm and with the ball more in front than usual. That was the trick. It was all a matter of technique. Talk about learning the hard way. Once I understood that, I started hitting that way and, lo and behold, I got rid of the pain within a month, all the while still playing 4 times a week. That was 10 years ago. The pain never came back. I still string at 60 and don't even bother using a damper.

Thanks for this video! I've been playing NG since I was a kid in the 1970s and I DO NOT have a desire to hit a tennis ball without it (or at-least a gut mains hybrid)... If I had to use poly, I'd stop playing tennis and get involved in pickleball.... Of course, I'm S/V oriented with terrible TE.... Keep up the great work!

Yea i agree with you I found poly more powerful than natural gut which was strange considering everyone said how powerful gut was

Nick, this was a fun video. Maybe do another one like this, but instead focusing on very low tension poly string weight vs the average poly string tension? Tennis Nerd did a very interesting video on this titled "I try 12 kg / 24 lbs tension (Mannarino-style!) - Pros and cons of playing with low tensions". It made me switch from multi filament to poly. I never liked poly until I tried very low tensions. Such a video should also be a good antidote for people who like to string their rackets too tight, which seems prevalent. When I told people at my club I strung my racket at 14 kg they looked at me like I was crazy 😅

How about comparing gut hybrid setups (like gut mains poly cross or poly main gut cross vs full gut)

gut with poly crosses is great and doesnt get stuck, especially if you lube it up with silicone every now and then to keep it fresh. Technically that is illegal but for amatuers where you have the guys serve foot faults 2 feet into the court, tough luck..

Another useful video, thanks! I played with full bed of gut in a Dunlop 95sq in 16 x 19 and it worked very well. I could serve bullets and place the ball with pace...but when I had to scramble, like in a real match...the 95 was too hard to defend with or more accurately, I'm not good enough (nor will I be) to play with a 95. When I switched to a 100 sq in 16 x 19 the gut had too much power to control so I went with a synthetic and all is well.

IMO 55# in a pure drive is too low. One advantage of gut is comfort. the other is power.

I was just listening the episode but when Ana popped I started watching it.

You don’t know how to use the gut.. You should stick to poly which has more margin for error for weaker players

A bit of an exageration in the comparison, body shape and movement different when you were using your normal strings. Hitting with gut you looked as if you had persuaded yourself that your game was destroyed, shape was different, swing was different. The gut got into your head.

IMO 55# 17G vs gut in a pure drive would be a little low based on my experience. I use an 18 x 20 98" frame and VS gut at 58# is perfection. Sampras and some of the old gut users strung in the high 60's to get better control.

can you do a play test of the hyper g string?

The soft feel on the strike and the spin I can produce in whatever shot are the reasons I fully strung my Wilson ProStaff RF 97 with natural gut to use it only in doubles. For the singles I play with the 315g ProStaff 97, now using the Solinco Hyper 1.20, both full bed at 53 lbs.

Why would anyone play with this it seems like such a hassle to deal with the strings moving every single point.

Also compare multifilament with polyester as it will be more helpful. Because very few can afford natural guts

Cross this with gut on the mains and a durable elastic poly on the crosses and you get great spin too and no movement and crazy durable. I used it in combo with Weiss cannon scorpion - crazy good.

I couldn't generate any power with natural gut. My serves were hitting the net regularly. Topspin was almost impossible.

Its my favorite string too Kirschbaum super smash orange..

55lb is VERY low tension Please don't take me wrong here, but imo You are using absolute wrong racket for ut swing style.

Someone said that racquet and string reviews on the internet were worthless. Can't remember who said it right now...

need to see super smash vs. Natural Gut/SuperSmash hybrid.

It's the best string that i've ever used but expensive. Nice thing is that it doesn't loose tension like poly does

this guy always too cocky and complains and rants about everything he doesn't like, acts as if he's goat bla bla

Pure drive and natural gut are the worst combination you can think of ….

If you review your serves you will see you were clearly swinging harder (with higher racket head speed) and with more confidence on your serves with the poly than with the gut. It is well known that gut is a more powerful string than poly with a higher coefficient of elasticity. It may not suit the modern pro game because you can’t take as big a cut at the ball because gut generates less spin. Pros in the old days hit much flatter balls because they couldn’t generate enough spin to hit with both shape and power. Look at Connors’ minimal net clearance as an extreme example. Wait a couple of years when your arm feels like it is about to fall off, and you will appreciate gut a little more.

Hi! I got a little interested of Kirschbaum Super Smash! :) How much tension do you use when stinging it?

Sorry mate but you don’t have the technical ability to make these determinations.

You are getting more spin with poly, so you can hit harder and keep the ball in.

Nice banter at the end there! 😂

Hey Nick! 👋 What stringing machine do you use? Do strings have a shelf life like cans of unopened tennis 🎾 balls? Do manufacturers put packaging dates on reels?

how would natural gut feel compared to Head Reflext MLT?

I tried pro’s pro blackout pentagonal string there then bought a whole reel for £28. Just doesn’t lose its tension and works great with my vcore 100.

The orange string sounds better.....and the instructor lost some gut..lol...

i nick , is it possible to combine the natural gut with poly string? lets say, natural gut on the main and poly string on the cross? thanks

I don’t know but is your racquet the best racquet to use for the test? Of course, you’re able to notice the difference but to do proper justice to this string maybe a control - and not power - oriented racquet would be better? I’m using gut on my Yonex VCorePro (18x20 stringing) and can only say it’s a perfect combo. Also, gut doesn’t give you more spin, it’s the opposite and better suited for flat hitters.

Natgut is very powerful so you dont need to hit the ball hard

natural gut in this crappy babolat racket is a crime!

I feel like gut excelled in the smaller old school racquets with a thin beam like the PS 85 and Prestige line. Not a good combo with modern frames. Good vid Nik, thanks for sharing!

Is that in the NMB tennis court in Dixie hwy?

🫵💪👈🙏🙏Thanx again.Tommorow i gonna put a very nice mult in the main and a twisted poly in the crosses.I chaep Champions choice but,i thinks its gonna be great.I already tried it with i S.Gut in the mains and wauw.Hope u will make a video review with both set ups😉🙏? maybe the S,gut is beter becuase is stifffer and does not fray.

Thought of natural gut because of - power!!! wrong!? This is astonishing me the most. that the natural gut lacks in power. -control (in matches) bad!? for big hitters from.baseline this string might not be the best choice. might be more accurate for players with a moderate swing? Roger Federer uses natural gut in the mains! but as a hybrid, might work well (especially because he plays natural gut rather hard strung (27kg) and only completely fresh strung. ), on the crosses AluPowerRough helps with the control (and spin) 》 Roger uses STRING SAVERS!reduce permanent string movement.might be the solution? this might kill the spin? (snap back of the copolystring)

Stop using natural "gut."

Would you recommend kirschbaum super smash for rec level? I've been using poly/multi or poly/natural gut strings for half a year now and wouldn't mind some extra pop

Full bed natural is not good because you lose the incredible spin of the hybrid. As well the friction gut to gut is so high and you just do not have the string snap in place.

Well, you miss, not strings :) you just got to control the ball better with gut and get used to it and adjust your game. But It’s silly to get full bed of gut for the first time and expect your usual experience. You (again you) just missed couple of shots here and there and got too negative, then you missed everything :) sure, that’s strings)

Looks like you're using a Pure Drive maybe so presumably a 100 sq. inch head size. Note that 55 lbs. tension for full bed of natural gut in a 100 sq. inch frame is pretty low so control will suffer accordingly. Using 17G gut will further compound the control issue. I use to string my Wilson PS 85 with a full bed of 16G Gut at 60 lbs. & provided excellent control. Try bumping the tension to minimum 65 lbs. in that frame (for full bed of gut) & my guess is you'll have much better control & presumably a different conclusion.

babolat pure drive plus with poly strings hurt my arms..(and i'm likely 20+ years younger than coach nick).. i like my prostaff with full natural gut. i don't play a power game but find that i can generate my own power with the prostaff. i much prefer having the feel on the volleys.

I see a lot of comment that say what I was thinking. (Julian N, Key largo, Tan Chirasittikom) are on the right track. Look at players like Andre Gomez, and Pete Sampras had not problem with power nor control when they played with a full bed of natural gut. The racket would also need more tension. i also believe that a smaller head w/full bed of gut will give you the combination you wanted. Gut is bar far the most arm friendly string available on the market.