So, I have both an Arcsaber 9, and a Z Force 2. The Arcsaber 9 has BG 80 at 24 lbs. The Z Force 2 has BG80 at 25lbs. After 3 weeks with the string, I REALLY struggle with it, on both rackets. To begin with, it plays extremely well and I have no issues. But the sweet spot seems to vanish, nothing becomes crisp or powerful, and the string feels kind of numb to me. I'm far from a pro, I shouldn't be able to hit hard enough or honestly - well enough - for this to happen. With both the Arc 9 (got it restrung in October) and the ZF2 (purchased and strung mid December) I started finding the string lacking. I was having to throw more and more into the hits, until I started over pronating and causing injury/misshits. I'm a little scared of raising the tension, because if the tension is just too high for me (although I would find it odd if it were too high for me when I get the problems after the string begins to slack). Is this a fault of the string? The tension I'm playing at? Is this something BG80s are prone to? At first I honestly thought it was my Arc9's flex straining my wrist, but now I'm using the ZF2 which is a very stiff racket, it doesn't add up.
Maybe check your stringer to see if you are using a electronic pull or a crank? That makes a huge difference to how your strings feel after a certain time
They were separate stringers. The ZF2 was strung by an electric machine. The ZF2 had bent strings when I got it back - I straightened them out. However, I've bent strings again twice (usually towards the mid-upper centre); vertical string being bent sideways a little. I don't know how the Arc 9 was strung. I passed it onto a coach who got it restrung for me.
Hmm... maybe try increasing the tension by a pound. Bent strings really dont make that much of a difference. its just the way clamps are sometimes. My rackets always have bent strings, but i straighten them out after.
It shouldn't mean much, but I thought the BG 80s were a grippy string? At that tension, and with that much grip, shouldn't the string retain its position? If a racket loses 10% in 2 weeks, then maybe it's dropped down to 22-23 and that's just too low. I'm a little tempted to push it up to 27/28. At the same time, I'm tempted to try another string. I don't however, have the money to keep restringing this thing every few weeks. The other string I'd like to try is the 66UM.
To be honest, most people, including very good players, will just carry on until the strings break. I only restring after a break, if the strings look really frayed, or coming up to a competition. I have had plenty of people beat me in the past using lower tensions than me and I don't worry about strings feeling 'fresh'. There are a lot of other factors that would affect my game more - my footwork, body positioning, tactical awareness, my bounce, training drills, reading of opponents game etc In short, the freshness of the strings is a smaller factor than one thinks. It is fine to change if you have your own machine or you can afford to restring every couple of weeks with an accessible stringer. For most of us, the differences are not significant enough.
Honestly, I wouldn't be worrying about it if I didn't feel as if it were impacting my health. I've experienced elbow pain twice while playing badminton, and both times were after 3-4 weeks of BG80s on a racket.
You may want to let the tension settle for a few days after being strung. I would consider asking a good player or two to see if your string is dead (preferably someone with around your tension). In my experience with BG80, the sweet spot lasts a long time.
Yeah I didn't use the racket for 3 days after I bought it. I'll get someone to try the racket to see if the string is dead.
Definitely go up 1-2 lbs and see if you like the feel initially and as it settles lower after a few weeks
I realized I read your post wrong. It is quite normal for strings to move when hitting. VS850s are notorious for it. As others said, let the string settle a little? BG80s dont lose its feel as quick as other strings
Hey @Cheung I just did some tests and maybe you could help me out a little with feeding back. Attached is an image of a ZF2 with two areas highlighted. Anything in the purple area is like a board, there's no feeling there whatsoever. The red is where the sweetspot is, and it feels quite wide. I'm not sure what to make of this, different diagrams illustrating the sweetspot show different things. Some show similar to what I have here, others show the opposite with the sweetspot being higher up. Either way, I've been aiming for the higher section of the racket to try and produce steeper angles. Maybe this is what's causing my problems.
Agree with cheung that the problem isn't with the strings that cause your elbow pain. zforce 2 is a very stiff racquet and is very bad to shoulder and elbow. You may try using only arc9 to play for a month and see if the pain still persist.
I have a feeling that you you are chasing a red herring. I don't know about others but my frequency of hits on the stringbed is slightly further up from the sweet spot (which is dead centre). As for the elbow pain, definitely it's not something that you should be getting. But rather than trying to adapt by changing the strings, we would want to see if there are other potential causes. I don't know your level of play but usually we would look at examining stroke technique more closely first. Stiff racquets indeed are less forgiving on the elbow.
Ah alright - I was checking the string bed was normal. Most videos I've seen of players have them hitting as you said, a little above the centre. I assumed this was where the sweet spot should be. As the string bed seems normal, there must be something I'm doing poorly. I had to check it wasn't something to do with the string, seeing as it happened twice on the same string, with different rackets, at the same time period after the restring. Now I have to work out where it is I'm screwing up. I've been overthinking my forehand grip lately, but I've also been working on a lot of backhand.
I play with BG80 strings primarily and I can say it is not the strings that are giving you the pain. In my experience all pain is caused by bad technique and/or gripping the handle too tight. You add extra stress on the tendon near the elbow and thus is inflames and causes pain. Try to fix this with making sure you are hold the racket with a relaxed grip and use the pronation/supination to generate the power and not the wrist snapping action which can sometimes creep in. Also make sure you have a nice relaxed grip. The relaxed you are, the easier the shots come and with no pain. All strings move and it depends on how you play. If you slice or cut into shots, your strings will move more like mine do. I'm not a hard smasher but I use deception well with slices and cuts all over the place. My BG80 strings move less than others but still do move. That's normal. Kindest regards, -Ajay- Quote of the Day Don't ask what the meaning of life is. You define it.
This is true. If you are a good player, you break strings regularly anyway. (within, say, 2 or 3 weeks). So they will feel "fresh" anyway. If you don't break them regularly, I doubt it makes much of a difference at your level of play...
I figured out the problem by testing all three of my rackets - including my old Prince racket. I figured it would have been a combination of using a much stiffer shaft with a hard string at a high tension, but that wouldn't have explained my more recent struggles with my Arc 9. My previous soreness from the Arc9 was likely due to pushing the tension up a lot in a short time frame and requiring adjusting to it. The pain I had previously was in the tricep and pectoral area, whereas the more recent pain was more focused in the elbow. Turned out changing my grip tape to the Yonex 102EX had a much larger impact on my play than I would've ever expected. I switched to the thinner grip to avoid putting too much weight on the handle. I'm not sure if I messed up my grip with the new tape, if muscle memory wasn't serving me well with the new tape, or if the thinner grip was simply transferring more to my arm. I switched back to the Karakal grip and noticed a significant improvement almost immediately - this time to avoid moving the weight too much, I had the Karakal grip applied directly to the wood. I had a much better time since switching it back; I've had no pain while using either of my rackets. A special thanks to Ajay as well for helping me out with this matter. I figured I'd post this just to make some sort of conclusion to the thread. When I do get my racket restrung (which won't be for a while after finding out it's not the string bed causing the issue) I'll try out the 66UM just to indulge a bit of curiosity. Thanks again for all of the feedback and advice!
Glad you found a solution and got to the bottom of it. All the best with your badminton mate. Kindest regards, -Ajay- Quote of the Day Never get a mime talking. He won't stop.
