Hello and welcome back to Badminton Insight! Now we're always getting asked
what's the best badminton racket or how do I choose a racket?
So in this video we're going to give you some advice of how you can choose the
best racket for you! And we've actually been choosing our new
rackets this week so we'll also show you what we've decided on and explain why.
And stay tuned to the end of the video where we're doing a giveaway, where you
can win one of the rackets we choose, so let's get to it!
Firstly you need to look at yourself as a player and consider two things;
Your ability which we'll talk about a little bit later and secondly your
playing style, thinking about your strengths and what
you want to get out of the racket! You then need to apply your playing style to
these three main areas of a racket... and no, one of them isn't the colour! When
I was younger I actually based my choice of racket
on the colour! I now realise that was quite silly and these three areas of the
racket are really important! Firstly there is
the flexibility or stiffness of the racket
and every racket will sit somewhere on the continuum from stiff
to flexible. So should you choose a flexible or stiff racket?
well if you're a beginner then you're probably not going to be generating as
much swing speed meaning that your racket
shaft won't bend as much during your shots.
You should therefore go for a more flexible racket which will help with
this and help you gain more power. The idea is
that you can therefore focus on your technique
rather than just trying to get power in your shots and all mid-range rackets and
below focus on flexibility for this reason!
In comparison a stiffer racket requires a fast swing
action and good technique to generate power
so it's more suited to an advanced player. As the shaft
doesn't bend as much when you're hitting the shuttle it will help improve the
accuracy and control of your shots, and most top end rackets are towards the
stiff end of the continuum and that's what we'll be testing today!
Next we should look at the balance which is similar to the stiffness by being on
a continuum and this is from head heavy to head
light. A head heavy racket will give you more power in your shots like your smash
or your drive whereas a headlight racket will provide
you with more racket speed like in your defense or when you're
reacting at the net! So this is where your playing style comes into
consideration. For example if you're predominantly a
net player in doubles you might want to go for a head light racket
Or if you win a lot of points in your attack in singles you might want to go
for a head heavy racket. You may even want to gain an advantage
in your weaker areas so you opt for the opposite.
Ultimately it's what you like and what suits you best! And finally we need to
look at the weight of the racket. There are five different weight categories
ranging from 2u to 6u, 2u being the heaviest category and
6u being the lightest although 2u and 6u are not very common!
In general the weight of the racket is up to you,
you'll find most professional players won't use a racket any lighter than 80
grams but for beginners a light racket may be
good as it's going to be easier to use and maybe more forgiving on your
shoulder if you don't play regularly! An important thing to mention in this
video is grip size as you'll often see g3 g4 and g5 on a racket,
this relates to size of the grip and it can vary amongst brands and also between
Asia and Europe as asians do tend to have smaller hands.
If you're unsure and have the choice we would recommend to go with a thinner
grip as you can make it thicker if you like
however do remember that if you do this it may change the balance of your racket!
And the final consideration is of course the cost. Now usually the more you pay
the better racket you're going to get because there's more technologies used
in the making of the racket etc etc However do be aware of fake rackets as
there's lots of them about! Quite an embarrassing story but back in
the day I bought a racket off ebay, I thought it was a bargain but a week
later it broke... what a waste of money!!
So after going through the features that you need to consider when choosing a racket the next
step is to test them. After researching roughly what matches
our playing style we've chosen four rackets from Victor to test for the
upcoming season. This is the auraspeed 90k, it has quite
a stiff shaft but the weight distribution is head light.
The weight of this racket is around 87 grams. Next
is the drive 9x, this has a slightly more flexible shaft than the auraspeed 90k
and has an even balance, this is 85 grams. Next up is the thruster bxr, this has the
stiffest shaft of the four rackets that we're testing and is also the most
head-heavy. The weight of this racket is again 85
grams and finally we have the aura speed 90s.
This has a similar shaft flexibility to the drive 9x
but is very headlight, this racket is 91 grams.
So when testing your rackets we'd recommend that you go through a range of
shots and routines, similar to what we did in
last week's video! Ultimately it's what you like the feel of in your hand, what
feels comfortable for you and what matches your playing style!
Okay so after testing out our rackets over the last week here is what we've
chosen and no colour didn't play a part in it
this time! So i've chosen the thruster bxr which is a great racket!
As I mentioned earlier testing a racket is really important to try and do.
I liked the sound of the drive 9x on paper but after having a hit with it
I just didn't quite like the feel of it as much as the thruster bxr.
And I've chosen the auraspeed 90k, it's more flexible than the bxr
and also more headlight which suits my game as i'm not a heavy hitter,
I just love the feel of it in my hand, it had a real aura of speed about it!
Now before testing these rackets we made sure to string them all at the same
tension with the same string as this can play a massive part in the
feel of a racket. As we mentioned before if you're a
beginner you don't necessarily need an expensive racket as you might not feel
the benefit from it, so save your money and upgrade when you
improve! And for you we'd recommend a more mid-range racket like the Victor
light fighters, these are really flexible and also head
heavy to generate you power! And these would place around here on our
diagram from earlier. So finally on to our giveaway! As we're
getting closer to 1000 subscribers we're running our second ever giveaway
in partnership with Victor! As you've just seen we've chosen the
thruster bxr and the auraspeed 90k and now you can
win one of these two rackets and you get to decide which one! All you
need to do to enter the giveaway is subscribe to our YouTube channel,
like this video and comment below with one shot that you would like to perfect
in your game, this could be a tight serve or a crazy trick shot!
You only need a YouTube account which is very simple to set up and doesn't cost
you a penny! Oh and the giveaway is worldwide! It will close when we hit 1000
subscribers so make sure you enter and don't miss
out! We'll announce the winner on our social media pages
and here on YouTube so keep an eye out for that! Good luck and see you next Sunday!