My whole badminton bag with two rackets in there were stolen last week. I really like the TSF 105Ti, which I bought in China. Now I'm looking for a racket sold in U.S. so that I can quickly resume my hobby. Although I have been playing for almost 5 years, I knows little about rackets. Below are my information. Please throw your 2 cents I'm a 35 years old male player. My strength and level is OK. I like a little bit more control than smashing. Sometimes my wrist gets hurt. So I don't want a hard and heavy racket. My budget is under $300. Any input is appreciated!
There are alot rackets from several brands that can suit you. Do play more singles or doubles? Do you want one racket for 300$ or two?
Hi ucantseeme (I can see you now ) Thanks for your reply. I play both. When I play double, I'm not always standing in the front or at the back of the court. So I want a balanced racket. My budget is $300 for one racket, but of course, I want want a cheaper one if both satisfy my requirement.
Honestly this might sound a little bit harsh but there is no racket in this world that actually protects your wrist. A proper technique combined with a racket that suits oneself can prevent injuries. Anyway, I'd go into one store, grab some rackets and make some swings with them.
I've injured my wrist from badminton before, so I can give you a few recommandation. 1st and most important is to do some exercise to strengthen your wrist muscle. 2nd work on your swing technique. Both can be found on youtube. As for racket, I use rackets that are less demanding on my wrist, but more demanding on my arm and shoulder instead. Most of them are flexible, around 90g (with string and overgrip), and slightly head heavy (so I can still clear from end line to end line). These are the rackets that I'm using - Black Knight C2C Taper 40, Kason F9 (even balance for this one), Kason Carvel with "lead tape" (my favorite, because it's super cheap $60-$70 from ebay), and Yonex VT60 (sold). In short, look for racket that is flexible, around 90g (with string and overgrip), and slightly head heavy. Hope this help.
IMO 90g incl. Overgrip and string is 4U. 3U will end up around 95g. I would recommend a 3U midflex and slightly headheavy racket. This type of racket is less demanding. I would also lower the tension. You will find alot of rackets with this specs, so you have the torture of choice. Yonex: - Arc 7 - Vt70 Victor: - BS9 - MX60 Carlton - VTT Maybe you use too much wrist in your shots and this is the main problem. Working on your technique will also help to cure.
Thank you! So I should be looking for the one with "flexible" mark? I would like to get Kason, but they are not sold here. Right now I'm looking at Arcsabre 10. Do you think this would be good for my purpose?
Arc10 is rated as stiff by Yonex and is not a flexible racket, and it could be a hard racket to master for someone who has wrist problems. I think you should be looking at rackets which are flex or mid-flex. IMO there is no need to stretch to a budget of $300 for your requirement. Some of the mid-rangers from Voltric like VT7, VT60 should be a better choice.
I don't know why so many people overlook the VT 7. IMO it is a great beginner's racquet, even in general it is a very good racquet with a mid-flex head-heavy specs that some here are suggesting to the OP. And it is very light (only comes in the 4U variant).
Thank you! I'm looking at VT70. Website says it's [FONT=arial, sans-serif]"stiff", not even "medium stiff". Would this still be ok? [/FONT]
Thank you. VT series' shock absorption is the selling point to me. Do you recommend VT70? it seems that VT60 has a lot successors now.
For me definately 4u, flexible AND slightly head heavy racket. The reason is you'll be mainly rotating your shoulder and forearm to generate the power. And the flexible shaft can also take away a lot of the vibration that might further injure your wrist. 23 - 24 lbs is also a good tension to start with (move up if you think it's too bouncy). I've play with my friend's Arc 10 before, but it was too stiff and demanding for me (power was great though). Coming from a wrist injured player, I also own a few stiff to extra stiff racket which I cannot use, and I've sold most of them already: Victor BS10, BS15, MXJJS, MX70, Yonex NS7000, NS9900, VT70(4u), ARC11, and Kason C7. I hope this help.
I owned both rackets and sold them already. Shock absorption is good. But I have difficulty finding the sweet spot (maybe I just suck). Howerver, if you do hit the sweet spot, the power and "sound" is really good. VT60 is good (especially the cosmetic), but VT70 was too stiff for me...
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Can I ask what kind of wrist injury you had? do you play single or double? do you consider yourself having strong muscle power? (Sorry, I'm assuming you are a male player, from your replies)
I'm not sure how may types of wrist injury are out there, but I injured my wrist from using too much of those stiff - extra stiff rackets. At one time, I can't even do one push up because my wrist would really hurt! I mainly play double, and definitely not a strong muscle guy. Since you're in the State, maybe you can get the Adidas Adizero Pro. The spec looks very similar to what I am using.
Have you tried some exercise to build your wrist muscle? A coach here told me that i can build stronger muscle to protect wrist.
Yup, that's what I've mentioned in the OP, " 1st and most important is to do some exercise to strengthen your wrist muscle."
had this worked for you? I figure if I want to play badminton for many years and improve my skills, I have to do this, not just for protect my wrist.
