You have been playing badminton for a while. You are getting serious about it. And you what to exploit any opportunities to improve your game. So, you might be wondering how often you should be changing your badminton racket string. I have created this post to answer that very same question.
So, how often should you change your badminton racket string? The most common rule of thumb for intermediate players is to change the string the same amount of time a year as the times you play badminton per week. So if, for example, you play twice per week, the rule of thumb suggests changing your string twice per year.
Even though this is a good rule of thumb to get started with, there are much nuances in this answer. The answer is also different for advanced players and beginners. In the following section, we are going to have a look at all this.
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How often should you change your badminton racket string? The in-depth answer
As I just mentioned, how often you change your string depends, in my opinion, on which level you are at. So let’s have a look at this divided by levels.
How often should you change your badminton racket string when you are a beginner?
The simple answer here is, only when it breaks. Why I say that? When you are just starting, the quality of your string does not make a meaningful difference on the level of your game. Therefore, I think it is more important to focus on enjoying the game and improving your skills than it is to worry about slightly more technical issues.
Now, one caveat to this would be if your string hasn’t broken for two or three years and you feel the tension is really low compared to other players in your club, then you can maybe think about changing it.
How often should you change your badminton racket string when you are an intermediate player?
As I said at the beginning of this post, the rule of thumb is that you should change it the same amount of times a year as the amount of times you play every week. However, this is just the starting point.
For intermediate players, the string tension and the overall quality of the string make a meaningful contribution to the game quality. Even though still small contribution, I believe it is already meaningful. So, even though this rule of thumb is a good starting point, you need to keep in mind a few more things.
If, for example, you use a high tension, you probably need to add one or two extra strings a year. Why is that? Because your game is based a bit more on a high string tension, the loss of tension that occurs over time will have a bigger impact on your game. So, you should be reducing the time in between the restrings in order to overcome the major loss in tension.
Another issue to keep in mind is the amount of time you spend in every session. It is not the same to have one hour sessions than to have three-hour sessions. I would consider two hours the average you can find, so be sure to adapt the number of restrings accordingly.
One last important issue to keep in mind is the type of string you are using. Depending on how durable the string is and how good it is, the number of restrings will also vary.
How often should you change your badminton racket string when you are an advanced player?
Here, the requirements go way higher and the amount of restrings that need to be done do as well. In general, I would suggest having your rackets restrung at least every month. But this will depend a lot on how advanced as a player you are. Some pros will restring their rackets after every match in important tournaments!
Even though that is too much for the rest of us mortals, if you are an advanced player, it is not a bad idea to have your rackets restrung before the beginning of every tournament.
How long does it take to string a badminton racket?
Now that we now how often you should change your badminton racket depending on your level, you might be wondering how long it will take to string a badminton racket. Obviously, you don’t want to be left without a racket for a week!
As I mentioned in the post “How Long Does It Take to String a Badminton Racket?“, depending on the machine you use and on how experienced you or the stringer are, it can take between 15-60 minutes to string a badminton racket.
So, if you can manage to find a stringer that is quite available to restring your rackets or if you want to buy a machine and do it yourself, the task is not extremely time-consuming. So, in the case of intermediate players, having to do it 2-4 times a year is not such a big-time investment.
How much does it cost to restring a badminton racket?
After reading all the different time frames for restringing badminton rackets, and how long it takes to string a racket, you might be wondering what is the cost to string a racket. This will certainly be also part of the formula in deciding how often you want to string your rackets.
If you are on a tight budget, for example, you might be wanting to wait until the string breaks even if you are an intermediate player.
Even though the prices will vary a lot depending on where you leave, it is always good to have a reference.
In the US, prices for a restring are about $15-$20 when done by a professional, plus the price of the string. For the string, usually you can expect to pay $8-$10 for a good quality one. So, the total is around $23-$30 if you ask a professional to do it.
If you are in the UK, prices for a restring are about £15-£20 including the string. whereas buying only the string will cost you around £7-£8.
Things to keep in mind when restringing your badminton racket
When restringing your badminton racket, it is a good practice to keep a few things in mind.
If you are quite new in the game, it is a good idea to try different strings and different tensions to see what works best for you. This can be a very long process if you don’t change your strings very often and it will also change as you keep improving your game.
Always make sure that the string and tension that you want to use are clear to the stringer.
If you have broken the string and you are going to bring it to the stringer for a restrung, be sure to cut all the strings as soon as possible after one of them has broken. Because one of them is broken, the racket frame is off balance, with much more tension in certain areas than in others. If you don’t cut all the other strings, the this difference in tension could damage the frame of your racket permanently, which would make the change of string useless because you would need to buy a new racket.
Final words
And with this, we have arrived at the end of this post. Do you have any additional doubts about the frequency of your restringing? If so, let me know in the comments below.
If you have enjoyed this post, you might want to check our post “The 5 Main Causes Why Badminton Strings Break“, where we explain the causes and we give suggestions on how to make your strings more durable.
