so i have my NS9900 and it was great at first but then i realised that it was extremely difficult to play singles with. everything was perfect till i hit the smashing factor and it seemed that unless i hit the line, my smashes werent powerful enough to finish off the rally so i ended up just moving my opponent around at really high speeds until he gave up needless to say im back to my armortec 900 technique... now im skinny and my smash isnt very hard at all, but i'm trying to develop an extremely attacking style of play, one that boasts being able to make the bird hit the floor in 3-4 shots. i feel that when i play i move fine but its my shot quality- being able to hit the bird fast and hard in particular and being able to put speed on top of the shuttle when i clear, smash, drop, etc that i lack.. you know.. the "bang" factor. how do i improve this? anyway back to the racket situation. how do you know if you need flex or stiff racket? i enjoy stiff because i like the control it gives and i remember once i was using an at700 and then when i went to my technique i was like smashing out because i was not used to the flex. i do like stiffness but i'd prefer something that is more suited to me. how can i tell if i need the flex or not? i've been told you can hit harder without flex, and i do need the extra power. i have also been told by jennifer lee that my body type (being skinny and pencil thin) isnt suited for a stiff shaft. im not quite sure what's best. what do you guys think? yes, you're done reading now. thanks!
If you can handle a ns9900 for doubles, then for singles you should be able to wield a vt80. Will easily give you more power in clears, smashes etc that is required for singles play.
lol well i've heard some terrible things about the voltric...... why do you suggest this? and how is that different from the armortec 900 p? and what about the arcsaber z slash, would that work or would the voltric still be better (whats the difference)
Like the z slash the voltric has a thin shaft for a very quick swing but a very durable frame. The weight balance is similar to the at700 so it is more head heavy than the 900p. The stiffness I couldnt really tell if it was stiff or extra stiff because you're already swinging so fast with the thin shaft. However I'm not a head heavy player, even balance forever!
If you swing really fast than stiff If you swing at a decent rate than flex I'm pretty lazy when I play sometimes so I have a flexible racket for those instances.
This is a difficult question to answer because it is different for everyone. The best way to find out is to simply try out as many rackets as you can with different levels of stiffness to find out what your sweet spot is. Also, a stiff racket will only give more power if you have enough strength and technique to bend the shaft, otherwise it won't help at all. So you need to try it out yourself because its hard to judge these things simply by explanation.
Racket stiffness is directly related to the swing speed you are able to generate with your racket and the stiffness of your muscles to handle the jerk at impact. Let me explain what I mean...when you hit the shuttle, every racket (irrespective of stiffness) will flex to a certain extent. It then recovers to normal position in a fraction of a second. The flexibility or stiffness of the racket should be in proportion to your swing speed...meaning if you are swinging fast, the racket should be able to flex and snap back quickly to suit your speed...if your swing is slower, the racket should flex and snap back slowly...if this does not happen maximum energy tranfer may not happen at impact. This also explains why players with strong arms are able to handle stiff rackets, since they are able to swing fast, and those with lesser strength require flexible rackets. So one needs to determine one's strength and swing speed and pick up racket stiffness appropriately. The other point I made was that your muslces should be strong enough to handle jerk at impact. You may have a fast swing and may choose a stiff racket but stiff racket also means more jerk at impact and you may injure your arm...common problem being tennis elbow...so before you decide to move to stiffer rackets, ask yourself if your muscles can handle it. If you have good swing speed but are not able to handle stiffness of the racket, one way could be to generate a similar impact by using a combination of medium stiff rackets and using strings at higher tensions or the other way round...you will need to try out and see what suits your style better. Choosing between hard feel and soft feel strings also helps here. In response to the specific rackets mention by Lilyaks, AT700 is not a very stiff racket...it is much rather a stiffer medium flex racket...so not very stiff...while NS9900 is more stiff...may be that explains what you are going through Lilyaks. Hope the long explanation helps Cheers!
The AT700 is actually pretty stiff. It is one of the only Yonex racquets that responds differently to your swinging technique. The racquet has this flexing point where if you swing fast enough, the racquet actually goes from being stiff to medium flex but with the snap back speed of a stiff racquet. I have friends who use medium flex racquets such as the Apacs Tantrum 200 as their norm who are not able to play a clear all the way to the back lines with my AT700 even when though they were using the same string tension as what I had on the AT700; what does that tell you?
iMakk summarizes it very well. ..... Also you can't take shaft stiffness in isolation. You also have to take head wt into account. If you have two rackets with the exact same shaft but one head heavier than the other, then the head heavier one will feel flexier to play.
It's probably because the balance suits your technique and so you're able to "time" the shot better giving you the impression it is more powerful than head heavy racquets. Head light racquets like the NS9900 are not designed for power.
That's the issue with the current Vt80 4U for me and the reason for selling them off. If you have low swing speed, you might only have to adjust to the new handling, but if you have a very high swing speed or a very high acceleration in your swing, you have to adjust to the different timing as well. So if we come back to the headline I would say "yes". A fast and aggressive style of play can benefit from a shaft that doesn't bend that much. But if the swing speed and the acceleration is not that high, you can choose rackets with more flex without getting bothered too much with timing issues.
That is actually the property of the VT80 (both 3U and 4U nontheless) and the AT700 (both old and new version) which suits a speedy, spontaneous attacking style with a quick recovery, followed up with a tightly controlled net shot which is reminiscent of both LD and LCW's current play style. In other words the sizeable smashes with the racquets are don't too take much power input to tap into while having a quick snap back for quick instantaneous recovery. The big gun smashes on the other hand are translated very well and the racquets are able to translate all the power generated in the technique to hitting the shuttle. The more flexible racquets will suffer from having a slow snap back (which means slower recovery at the front) even though the tap smashes are easy to pull off.
I can understand your point and think you're right. For someone who often is playing competitions the time for adjusting might not be there. I, however, hadn't the time to adjust my timing and technique for that racket. Ok, enough ot.
stiff rackets will generally give you more accurate shots. there's an almost bigger chance that you can put the bird at the direction you want and at a faster pace. moreover, the development of your swing is very important if you wish to become more of an attacker.
I have VT80, ZSlash, and Iso SP900sa. Flex racket (SP900) - easy to whip every shot, hard to hammer a smash easy to generate power (hardly have to swing) , limited top power (when your strong enough to swing faster than the racket can un-flex). good for doubles. good if you have good control and want power without effort, but sacrificing top power. Stiff head heavy (VT80) - harder to whip shots, easy to hammer everything ave to swing to generate power, more top power. more tiring if you dont swing. Stiff-ish, less head heavy (Zslash) - all rounder, need slightly better racket control cos of smaller sweespot a bit between my 2 other rackets. same top power as VT80, but need to swing faster to get it, although it is easier to swing it faster. fairly easy to flick it about with wrist too. I tend to use VT80 for singles, Zslash for doubles, SP900 when im tired. Although Zslash perfectly acceptable in singles, and VT ok for doubles if your normally back court/more attacking than your partner.
