i'm 21 & is a beginner/intermediate at this game. i'm trying to buy a good badminton racquet that is suitable for me. please advice.

Simple question, which I just thought of to guage your level of competance in your game so as to better advise you based on what I know.

Question:

How many successive baseline to baseline lobs can you do before you lose control of the shuttle?

i didnt actually count how many lobs i could make before losing control of the shuttle. I would make a rough estimation of 10.

Hmm ... that's not bad at all. If you really can do it baseline to baseline ...

It would mean that you have sufficient arm and wrist power for most of the rackets that are on the racket now. Even the slightly heavier ones actually. And your shuttle contact chould be pretty clean, else you won't get past 10 shots as far as I've observed.

So it would boil down to your preferred style of play I suppose. If you're the attcking player who prefers the 'fast and furious' kind of game, then I think you would like the head heavy ones. But if you prefer a more controlled game with some power in your shots when you need it, then even-balanced, 2U weight rackets would be your choice. But if you prefer fine touch and little emphasis on power, then 3U rackets would be of choice.

For Yonex, I'm quite familiar, So these are my takes only as below:

1. Ti-10, MP-100, ISO-600, Isometric Swing Power Ti SX

2. MP-100, Carbonex 21, Carbonex 20

3. Ti-7, Isometric Swing Power Ti SR

Do take it with a pinch of salt, it may not agree with your style of play completely.

hey

i have a junky yonex racket that just has a "U" what does that mean?

U means that its weight is above 95 grams. 2U means 85-94 grams and 3U means its 84 grams or less.

But this applies to Yonex rackets only.

I believe Yonex racquets 2U weight spec is between 90-94 grams.
3U between 86-89grams
4U between 81-85grams

And so on...
U rating was from the 95-99gram spec.
It says so in their older catalogs, and also fyi, most companies other racquet companies have adopted the same weight ratings as Yonex.

"U" means 95-99 g

If you can lob baseline to baseline, 10 times in a row I think you are a lot better than a beginner. I'd wager many beginners couldn't do it twice and a row. In fact a lot of beginners can't generate the power to go baseline to baseline even once. For a true beginner, I might suggest something like the Yonex Iso60lt. It's fairly cheap but still gives enough of the feel of a serious racquet not to throw you off (like a cheap steel / aluminum racquet would). But at your level, I agree with the previous suggestion, that more of a intermediate level racquet is appropriate.

I would try the Yonex Ti Swing Power SA because that is the lightest.

- I use that one because I'm not that strong so I just use speed to compensate for the power loss and it really comes in handy. Good maneuverability and speed as well.

- You can also try the SR or SS models as well. I don't recommend SX unless you have a good arm because your're going ot get strained after using that racket.

- I also own the Ti SS model but I use it for practice, so my SA is my main racket I use.