Hi all,

Has anyone experimented with weight tape to modify the characteristics of a racquet? Having recently played a lot with my Airblade 900, which is decidedly head heavy, I discovered that I don't feel as at home with my old head-light Aerogear 1000FX anymore... So I added 6 grams of weight tape to the head of the 1000FX to make it more head heavy. It turned out to be a little much, so I removed 2 grams, leaving 4 -- 2 at the 12 o'clock position, plus 1 g at 3 and 1g at 9. The racquet now weighs 88 g, and is quite head heavy. I've lost some control (it is still good though), but gained a lot of smashing power... It's now more similar to the AB900 in play. I think I'm going to keep this tape on for a while!

I used Prince weight tape (for tennis). Each strip weighs 3 g. The strips are too wide for a badminton frame, so I sliced the them length-wise into 3 parts.

This is a way of getting "new" racquet characteristics without having to buy a new racquet... I guess you'd have to start with a fairly light racquet though, or it could become too heavy.

hmmmmmm that's interesting!
Could be worth a try!

I tried altering the weight of my racquet, but I used tennis racquet head protection tape. Unfortunately, I was too lazy to trim it to fit a narrower badminton racquet and just tucked some of the tape under the edges of the racquet. It definitely altered the weight and balance of the racquet and initially I thought it gave me more powerful smashes. However, after a while, the tape started coming off the racquet head and I probably was losing as much power because of bad aerodynamics as I gained from the heavier head. I got into a really bad slump about two months ago and couldn't hit anything - even my normally very decent smash was awful, resembling a drive. Two weeks ago, I took the now loose tape off the racquet and started doing much better. Partly, this may be due to my increased use of the wrist in my shots as of late. Also, I was playing so poorly that I had nowhere else to go but up.

A word of caution: I would imagine that use of weights on the head of the racquet might void the warranty and might diminish the life of the racquet due to extra stress on the frame and shaft.

I think you should use proper weight tape if you want to try this. It's very small and can't affect the aerodynamics much.

It might possibly void the warranty, yes. But unless the racquet is strung to its very limit, I don't think adding 4 grams of weight will shorten its life span.

I have done this for over ten years, though not as much as 4 grammes

Get the Babolat lead tape instead, they come in 24g lengths. Just cut out the appropriate length/weight that you want. They're also lower in profile than the Prince lead weights. They're also easier to distribute around the frame.