Plastic or Feather ?

Discussion in 'Shuttlecock' started by rystaman, Sep 9, 2012.

  1. rystaman

    rystaman New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2012
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Student
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Hi guys

    Should i be playing with feathers ? I am 16 and i play with mavis 10's (blue) at the moment. I have mavis 2000's and i don't like them (i kept hitting it out) i also have carlton GT1 tournament grade feathers which are worse than the mavis 2000's. I am an intermediate player and i play for a league
     
  2. CanucksDynasty

    CanucksDynasty Regular Member

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2011
    Messages:
    1,465
    Likes Received:
    3
    Occupation:
    Working to pay for badminton stuff
    Location:
    Burnaby, BC, Canada
    Depends...

    If you're a broke student...play with plastics as you'll get more games out of it.

    If you have money to spare...play with feathers (each tube comes with 12 shuttles and will last...hopefully...1 game). Keep used beat up shuttles for practice.

    If you are wanting to be really serious about badminton...go for feathers. Feathers are a different feel and (imo) you can get a better game out of it. You can get better net shots/drops/tumbles with feathers.


    My casual recreational group tried feathers for the first time yesterday. They were pleasantly surprised at how different it was compared to plastics. The girls commented on how easier it was to do a clear with feathers. All of them like the feathers more but dislike the costs.
     
  3. WoOZY

    WoOZY Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2010
    Messages:
    302
    Likes Received:
    3
    Location:
    Ottawa
    That's why your rec group should order some LiNing A+ 70 birds.. For $17.50 a tube after tax in Canada... It's a great deal :p

    And they last long too :D
     
  4. maxout

    maxout Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2012
    Messages:
    619
    Likes Received:
    19
    Location:
    Malaysia
    Mavis 2000 gives the BEST true flight among all the Yonex Mavis, I have tried all of them from Mavis 10, 300, 350, 370, 500 and now we are strictly using only Mavis 2000. It is as close to feathers as you can get at the moment and with the CORK shuttlehead, it also feel likewise on impact.

    Do note that no matter how good it is, nothing beats FEATHERS esp good one. I do suggest that you find the BEST feathers that you can comfortably AFFORD and then compare against Mavis 2000, and then make your final call from there.

    In our group here in Malaysia, we train with Mavis 2000 but play with feathers.
     
  5. speedyJT

    speedyJT Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2012
    Messages:
    853
    Likes Received:
    12
    Occupation:
    Software Engineer
    Location:
    Germany
    If you play with plastic in your league, train and play with plastic.
    Try Yonex Mavis 300 / 350. Blue is the normal playing speed.

    If you play with feather shuttlecocks, train and play with feather.
    In this case, your club should pay the costs of the feather shuttlecocks.
     
  6. maxout

    maxout Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2012
    Messages:
    619
    Likes Received:
    19
    Location:
    Malaysia
    For BIG HITTERS and SMASHERS, yes, the difference is more pronounced as the bird will zip like "on steroids" ;). Basically, if you smash hard, SURE WINNER ... (maybe that is PLUS POINT instead of neagtive !)

    For stroke and rally players, almost like feather, Mavis 2000 uses natural cork just like normal shuttle. From my untrained non-technical eyes, I think the difference in "feel" (not flight, timing or consistency) from what I can see is how the skirt is attached to the cork compared to indvidual feather being glued to the cork ... hence, when you whacked the birdy, you get a different "FEEL" ...

    NOTE: Yonex emphasised that Mavis 2000's (or other Mavis for that matter) flight, timing and consistency is as close to real feathers ... that is VERY TRUE !! Many of us testify that it almost as good as Aerosensa 30 in these aspects

    HOWEVER, they NEVER MENTIONED ABOUT THE "FEEL" ... cannot quantify and measure that ... :p TOO ABSTRACT!!

    So, while Mavis 2000 can replicate the TECHINCAL/MECHANICS of a real feather almost to perfection, it cannot duplicate the "feeling" of hitting a real feather YET ...
     
  7. Shinichi

    Shinichi Regular Member

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 2011
    Messages:
    257
    Likes Received:
    4
    Occupation:
    Teacher
    Location:
    Brunei Darussalam
    You might feel that you will need to adjust your tension if you are using feather and plastic
     
  8. TimothyHsu

    TimothyHsu Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2011
    Messages:
    215
    Likes Received:
    1
    Occupation:
    high schooler
    Location:
    Milpitas
    If you play outside of school and do many tournaments, I suggest featehred. If you play only for school then stick to plastic. If you do both, then I'd suggest feathered for off season and plastic during season
     
  9. BaggedCat

    BaggedCat Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 11, 2010
    Messages:
    109
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Video Games Designer
    Location:
    UK
    12 in 1 game!! are you miss-hit master or lin dan power?i go through 2 or 3 (break 2 still on the 3rd by the end) in an hour. 3 games-ish. singles - (offensive both players). and only cheapo as20's
     
  10. CanucksDynasty

    CanucksDynasty Regular Member

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2011
    Messages:
    1,465
    Likes Received:
    3
    Occupation:
    Working to pay for badminton stuff
    Location:
    Burnaby, BC, Canada
    Oops. :eek:

    I think you're talking about my post = (each tube comes with 12 shuttles and will last...hopefully...1 game each). Forgot the bolded word "each".

    When I first started with feathers...my friend and I could get the shuttles to last 1 game. Now that we are more familiar with them and a bit better. We get about 1.5-2 games per shuttle.
     
  11. jay_curtis001

    jay_curtis001 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2012
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    canada
    I also had the problem of hitting the Mavis 2000's but only because I bought the wrong speed shuttle. I live in Calgary Canada and because of our altitude, we need to use SLOW shuttles. I had ordered the green cap, but ended up with blue due to an error and decided to use them anyway.

    The are much better than any other plastic I have tried, and if you tip them, they work just fine. Although like Maxout mentioned, they don't FEEL like a feather shuttle.

    Don't throw your 2000s out. Tip them using the following method.

    Keep a pot of gently boiling water on the stove, and a bowl of cold water nearby. Dip each shuttle skirt into the boiling water briefly. ONLY THE SKIRT!!! don't get the cork wet. For me, I found about 3 seconds in the water was enough.

    As soon as you pull the shuttle out, dip it in the cold water.

    Work one shuttle at a time.

    What you will find is that the skirt expands a little bit. You'll notice the difference when you put the shuttle back into the tube... it will be much more snug. The wider skirt makes the shuttle fly slower. Maybe try ONE shuttle before you do the whole tube, just to see how much you need to tip them.

    I haven't noticed any aberrant flight paths during play, and with this method, I have all my 2000 blue flying at the same speed as my 350 greens.

    I hope that helps.
     
  12. fauci

    fauci Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 11, 2010
    Messages:
    456
    Likes Received:
    2
    Location:
    Slum
    Once you have proper racket skills, hitting a feather shuttle, esp. good ones like Aeroplane, is a first-class enjoyment. You would never want to go back to squeeze in a smelly economy cabin, plastic. That's one of my motivations to make more $$$.
     
  13. jay_curtis001

    jay_curtis001 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2012
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    canada
    Hey Rystaman, why didn't you like the Carlton shuttles?
     

Share This Page