I wished I had come accross this website before I bought my new Racquet.

I started playing badminton just over 6months ago. Once I knew I liked the game, I went out a bought myself a racquet. I didn't know anything about badminton racquet then so I just went out and bought the most expensive racquet that my local racquet store have. The most expensive is usually technically the best so I think. It seems ok at first because I was a squash player. I swing at the shuttle like I swing at the squash ball. With something that's a hundred times lighter than my squash racquet, it felt pretty comfortable. Can swing it really fast to...and hit pretty hard drives and overheads...given enough time to prepare for the shot that is. That's where the problem starts... when playing better players, I don't seem to have time to conduct a proper swing...hence my shots have no power. That let me to realise the wrist thing. Now that I am more reliant on my waist to generate the power, I find that I could return smashes better, take the shuttle early from the net and hit deeper clears at awkward attitudes.

This is when I realised that my MP100 is too much for me. It’s heavy…never though I would say that about a Badminton racquet. I am quite built you know. It’s also too stiff. The weight I can cope with; it’ll probably help me develop the muscles but the stiffness makes it really uncomfortable especially with backhand strokes where follow through is limited. These strokes really strain my waist joint.

Anyway, I went out and bought myself a Ti Swing power SR…a women’s racquet as it may be call but, I can play a lot better with it. Being lighter means I can react a lot faster and I can play a lot of shots with waist power alone. It’s easy on the joints too. What surprise me is, clears from the rear corners seems to take less effort and my smashes seems to be harder too. Why is that?

I also play squash too... It seems as though you play with many body parts in rotating sequence like you do in squash. You have to take into consideration that badminton is mainly wrist and very little arm and waist rotation. The racquet is not you problem, but it's your technique and the lack of strength in your wrist alone. If you want to get use to your MP-100, try playing squash on wrist only, then try playing badminton. You may notice a huge difference.

In case you're wondering, I play with a Yonex Ti-10 and Head Ti-120

I welcome u to the sport of badminton. Yes, MP100 may not suit a beginner but i think you should improve your stroke technique from drills or from proper coaching. If the technique is there, the extra grams in mp100 should matter much. Someone who know the stroke should easily accomodate a mp100, even if he/she a 8 to 12 year old kid.

If I'm not correct the SR is designed to be a lighter weight racquet, and has a lower stiffness, than the other racquets.

I suggest you brush up on the basic skills before attempting anything else wild, or you could end up injuring yourself.

Some of my weight lifting buddies go bulking up with me, try to play badminton, and they say it's a wussy sport... hehehe... I showed them what true wusses are, as they couldn't even hit the shuttle properly, and I was hitting nice easy short clears to them.. later they complained of sore shoulders, and muscles...

I told them in order to get the powerful shots, you don't necessarily have to work out and lift 1000lbs to be able to play the sport... and if they don't have proper form, and technique, the will get injured very easily as they were starting to understand what I meant.

Oh well... too bad for them, they wont play anymore, because now Badminton is "too hard to play!"
lol... oh well.
At least they have more respect now. ;)

Did you guys happen to play Jim Powers (I think that's his name)
From Calgary before???
I'm not sure if you guys play pro down in Ontario, just wondering, because I was watching this guy at the University before, and all I can say is... Wow!

Yes, you're correct... in badminton, our sports main power comes from our wrist action. Not arm swing strength, however, with a good combination of both, you will have a totally awesome shot on your smash. :)

However, it still doesn't beat the fact most of us can hit the shuttle from end court, to end court on wrist alone. :)

Too true my friend.
Like I always preach... "technique, technique, technique!!!" ;)

Also my former coaches would literally kick my butt if they ever saw me play sloppy. hehehe...

LB, it takes literally hours of training a week, to become a top level player in Canada... it sounds difficult, but in this country... hehehe... It's honestly not that hard.
I'm not sure if you live in Canada, but in Canada... if you wanted to become number 1, I would say you can do it. ;)

However, to improve your basic skills overall like Cooler mentioned... it takes hours of training on the same skills over, and over, and over, until you train your body, and mind to act that way naturally, even during game situations.
Remember... when you step onto the badminton court, you step onto the fastest court sport in the world... There's no way that any of us here in Canada, can compete with the international players, because they're sooooo much faster, and more experienced than we are... just food for thought that's all. :)

I noticed only Canadians responding here??? hehehe... :p

haha funny thing, my friends who dont play badminton with me say that badminton is a wussy sport. They have never tried it, its just a perception because they think tennis is more "manly"

You mean Jonathon Powers? He's Canada's #1, no I haven't played him yet, but I've played his brother.

Hi Don,

Have you played with the former Cdn #1 double player Darrly Young? He is recovering from his back injury right now.

Pete

That's the guy. :)
Wasn't he at one time world ranked #1?
Well... at least Canada has a few #1s somewhere!

Am I a beginner?????