Frank Meehan UKRSA Professional Stringer
Congratulations to Frank for successfully completing his 929 Professional Stringer Award course with tutor David Hall on 12th June at Frinton on Sea Lawn tennis Club. Good
Course types
course now copyrighted 2016 to UKRSA Ltd.
The UKRSA Professional Stringer course involves 12 hours of learning, over one long day or two normal days. It covers all aspects of racket servicing. By the end of the course each person will have the skills, knowledge and confidence to set up their own stringing business. Its an ideal way for absolute beginners to start off or for experienced stringers to check their skills and knowledge, plus gain the certification.
Many coaches just cannot get away for the whole weekend, Saturday being their busiest day and Monday the quietest. People with normal Mon to Fri jobs have to sacrifice just the Monday.We start at 9.30am and finish at 4.30pm each day. After tea/coffee and course introduction, its straight into the practical stringing work, all very informal and no “final exam” at the end. The one-day course is preceded by a home study package that needs to be understood before attending the course. You will then sit a short test for the home study package.
Food – Each venue is different, sometimes we have a restaurant service at our disposal and sometimes we end up having a walk to the nearest cafe. Refreshments are taken as needed and food and drinks can be taken to the course.
Course fee is £249
What to bring – Pen/paper is always handy. You will be given a CD of the essential stringing skills and other course information. Rackets to work on are welcome, always good to do the work for real.
Coaching credits – If claiming LTA coach licence points, then please send your licence number when applying. The LTA awards 12 coaching credits for the Professional Stringer course and six points for the Racket Technician course.
Stringing Machines – If you already have a machine, then its sometimes handy to bring it along as you are then learning on the same machine and it can be checked for accuracy. Quite often we will have new stringing machines available for purchase after the course. These can be luxurious electronic machines at around £2295 or manual machines that cost £650.00. We only use machines that are best value and top quality. Beware of cheap machines that LOOK good but break down a few months later. Its good to test a machine out on the course and then take it home, satisfied that it suits your needs and you don’t have to unpack a very large box later on and build a strange machine.
Certification – Names need to be confirmed in advance for the printing of the certificate.
Free UKRSA membership – We create a username and password for the UKRSA members forum to ensure you are technically supported afterwards.
Tennis/Squash/Racquetball/Badminton – You will be shown how to service all types of rackets.
Liam Nolan will be your main stringing tutor and he has been working at top tournaments such as Wimbledon for 30 years, some as head stringer. David Hall covers the SE and has extensive tournament and badminton stringing skills.
Safety Aspects – Badminton – Squash – Tennis – Racquetball – Stringing Patterns – String & Frame Technology – Tensions Selection -Grommet Strip Replacement
Marketing Your Skills – Machine Calibration & Maintenance – Knots – Tennis Elbow Considerations – Tools and their uses – Frame Mounting – Problem Solving –
Customising – Gripping & Handle Resizing -Tubing & Individual Grommet Replacement -Stringing Unknown Frames – Causes Of String Breakage
Following on from the Professional Stringer level is the RACKET CUSTOMISING award. This one-day course builds upon the skills of the Professional Stringer award and is aimed at catering for the demands of the professional player and those with specific racket preparation needs. Tennis Elbow considerations, racket customising and racket matching for weight, balance and swingweight is included and course members get plenty of hands-on customising practice. As this is our highest technical level, course members must already possess a good depth of knowledge and experience. Prospective course members who have years of experience but have not been formally trained are advised to progress through the Professional Stringer award first so that they are familiar with modern racket servicing techniques. The cost of the Racket Customising course is £150. 6 CPD points.
These are one-day events designed to prepare the candidate for testing. The morning part covers the Practical Skills, the afternoon session explores the Written Test. This preparation has proved invaluable to candidates who need to refresh their skills and knowledge and to make sure they understand the theoretical questions which are very often the stumbling block. Candidates will have already signed up with the USRSA, registered for the test and received their USRSA Study Pack. They can bring along their own machines to work on if they wish (no drop weight types) Cost is £150.00. Very often we schedule the actual test for the next day.