hello, I'm an average recreational player, consider myself as an overall player as I do smash, net shot, drop if there's an opportunity to do so, more towards singles, currently using the old carbonex gold, budget around rm400
Nonsense. How can you recommend a racquet without knowing how the OP plays, what their preferences are or what standard they play at? And why recommend stiff top end racquets to a recreational player? kelvin316, my suggestion would be to find out what qualities you'd like from a racquet, such as balance, weight, stiffness, feel etc. Then come back and we can give you some suggestions. A racquet is a personal choice, it's an extension of your arm so only you will know how it ought to feel. If you cannot work these out for yourself, then I would say you probably wouldn't be able to take advantage of a better racquet and best to stick with your current one.
it would be easier if you go to a badminton gym, start hitting with a random partner, then in the middle of warm up just ask politely if they mind letting you borrow their racket to warm up a bit. i'm sure they won't mind too much if you ask nicely. however, it's probably etiquette that you don't play a game with it unless you know this person well and have their permission ahead of time
ok so for the current racquet which I'm using is the old yonex carbonex gold, its even balance and the stiffness is medium, it cant support high tension according to the stringer so the tension is around 18-19, overall I feel that the racquet is ok in terms of control and the speed but just lack of power when smashing perhaps due to the tension limit and well balance. So I feel that I'm looking for a racquet which provides good control and better smashing power, slightly head heavy, in terms of stiffness, I don't know if there's a big difference between stiff and medium but I don't mind trying and same goes for the weight 2u or 3u. hope this helps thanks
Then your option from Yonex would be the entry-level Voltrics. VT 5 (3U) for example (head-heavy and mid-stiff). VT 3 (3U), and VT 7 (4U)are also worth a try. Not sure any of them is available in 2U though. I bought a CAB 8800 Power (head-heavy and mid-stiff). I guess I was just lucky to find it in a store nearby. It was cheaper than the VT5 and VT 7 of course too.
May be I shouldn't have classified them as entry-level. But I don't understand what could be the problem playing with them to consider them as waste of money. Voltric 5 in its own right, is a very good racquet. IMO it is the specs you should be after. Logic of my suggestions was based on what "kind" of racquet you wanted. Of course you will get similar attributes with all Voltrics (60, 70, 80), but they are quite a bit more expensive. E.g. if you say you prefer head-heaviness VT 5 got it. If you say you want medium stiff, VT 5 got it. 3U weight VT 5 got it. In terms of price though, the VT 9 is probably the "mid-range" racquet. By all means if you have the budget, you could consider the Voltric 70 which ticks the same boxes as above (HH, mid-stiff, 3U). What you get with the higher price is the material that goes into the racquet. How much it will help your game I don't know. Good luck with your selection.
I don't mean that cheap racquets are not good, I'm just looking for something better than beginner's racquet as they cant satisfy me but thanks for the suggestion, appreciate it
I'm a little dubious with the assessment of the Taiwanese Voltrics (VT9, 7, 5 etc) being entry level or beginners rackets. Mid-range would be a better description. They are certainly not beginners raquets and should be capable of doing everything that most club players should ever need, provided they suit the individual player.
Yes, I agree the "entry-level" label (I gave in my post) was not actually appropriate. What I meant was the price range rather than the quality or the purpose they serve. Unfortunately, it seems to have sent a wrong message of them being "beginner" racquets.
I've narrowed down the list and they are yonex 3rd gen 3U ti-10, ti-10 ltd and voltric70 but I dunno which suit me best as I don't have the money to buy all of them hope you guys could help me out here