Here is a picture I came up with comparing the Yonex Plastic Shuttle and a regular feather shuttle (Victor Champion & Hiqua Red, both IBF approved). The plastic bird drops so quickly at the end comparing with the feather's smooth fly. During the regular drive, I notice that even for a horizontal drive, the plastic bird will fly faster than normal feather ones and drops faster than normal ones. I was using the plastic bird today....and lost the match in 20 minutes just because I can't even hit the shuttle!! (5-15 & 3-15) 10 points were I just hitting the air or frame, 8 points for hitting the plastic bird way too long and 6 points were couldn't tell if it's going to be in or not when receiving service (and they were all in; all of them were sudden drop-downs at the end) So, after the game I started to wonder why can't I even touch the shuttle? even time I hit it , it would be right a the frame.....so I took a look at my freinds game (they borrowed the plastic shuttle from us), and draw the picture based on their game. Even if both types of birds are hitting the same spot, their flights are totally different. Conclusion: Plastic sucks!! I'll have to remember to bring feathers with me next time! I will NEVER use the plastic again!!
maybe my drawing isn't that sharp, but the truth is, the plastic drops very quick, much much quicker than feather!
i always thought feather drops faster than plastic... and im pretty sure its true... anyway, i dont really have a problem playing between the two either...
Hmmm, all the feather birds I used dropped faster than plastic. e.g. Slicing would be much more effective whereas the plastic would glide for 0.5sec before going down. Slicing with feather will go straight down, no lag time I guess.
bluejeff, Which plastic u using? I know it's Yonex, but which model? and what speed? i.e. say, Mavis 350 Fast, etc... Maybe somehow u using a shuttle with broken skirt? loose cork? or happend to be the "fast" model???
the flight paths should be reversed, since plastic tends to stay at a constant speed, while feather is faster at the start, but rapidly decreases in speed, which would cause it to drop faster. I don't have timing problems when switching between the two either. Phil
I find that feathers are both vertically and horizontally slower than plastics (i.e. same force and stroke will result in a feather falling closer to the net, and also up in the air longer)... this is all personal experience though as I find that when I do my jump smash, I always jump too late for plastics whereas feather's timing is perfect.
I am not sure what kind, it's a Yonex Plastic bird with yonex logo in it. I just kept looking at the flight path and draw the picture. Maybe it's damaged or something...........but I kept on watching 2 games and it's just like that. Plastic's dropping angle is way bigger than the feather's and the closer to the ground, the faster it goes. If you think they should be reversed.....well I don't know, I just drew what I saw.
well....if the plastic bird drops so quickly...then that could be used as an advantave for "attack clears' where those clears are punched so far back and just drop at the back...very good clearing technique when 'attacking and defending'..but anyways, i find that some feather birds drop very quickly too... to me, i can adjust from feather to nylon, vice versa pretty easily just by rallying for a few minutes..
When in doubt... apply physics! Plastic and feather birds are of the same weight (i've checked myself) so they should have exactly the same flight characteristics except for the effect of wind resistence. Plastic skirt can collpase while feathers do not. When comparing the physical shape, my plastic and feathered birds' skirt start and end at the same height. Feather birds has lots of holes in the skirt while the feather bird is smooth, hence plastic will create more wind distortions, which will cause it to drop faster. But plastic birds has riffles in the back that will cause it spin slower, and hence face more wind resistence. Add that all up and cancel the effects and you'd have: Plastic has relatively more resistence at low speeds and less resistence at high speeds compared to feather. Presuming you pick speeds that land at the same distance, the feather should fly faster at first and then drop slower later on. Because feather doesn't have those unsual flight characteristics of the plastic you'd expect it to have a smooth parabolic arc. Thus basic physics favours bluejeff's diagram over the opposite. When the skirt collapse the plastic bird flies faster. To stop at the same place as the feather bird, it must fly slower near the end of its trajectory. Makes sense right?
brl, -feather and plastic shuttles don't weigh the same - u said plastic is slower for short duration, however, flight profile drawn by bluejeff don't look short distance to me also, check this http://www.badmintonforum.com/vb/sh...ge=10&highlight=mavis 300 weight&pagenumber=3
That's what I assumed too since from what I read here, nylons can't be identical to be feathers mainly due to their weight ...
Cooler, feather and plastic shuttles can and often do weight the same. They just feel they weigh differently. I used to think they had different weights too until i measured their weight. I don't have a sensitive enough scale so here's what I did: Taped a string at the middle of the ruler. Taped a string 15cm to the left and another string 15cm to the right of the center. I then taped a plastic shuttle on one end (Wilson Matchpoint, Medium speed) and a feather shuttle on the other end (Victor Tourney, unsure of speed.) The ruler was approximately balanced. I then switched the shuttles to the opposite end and the ruler was still balanced. By balanced I mean fairly straight with about a 15 degree tilt. I then dropped a 0.5g mass to one of the shuttle, and the ruler became very very unbalanced. One end lifted up several inches higher with a tilt angle of about 70 degrees. Since the maximum tilt angle is less than 90 degrees, it shows that the two types of shuttles should be within 0.5g, and probably within 0.1 gram since the tilt difference was so huge. (btw I got the same tilt angle when the weight was dropped on either side.) You can verify yourself that feather and nylons weigh the same by conducting a similar test yourself. From the curve it seems clear to me that the plastic shuttle is flying relatively faster at the begginning and relatively slower at the end of the flight.
BRL, i think you should read the inhouse article on shuttles http://www.badmintoncentral.com/badminton-central/about/how-fast-can-shuttle-fly.php for the same speed, feather and plastic shuttles can't weigh the same.
