I play recreational badminton on the weekends with my friends, and I'm thinking of switching to feather shuttles, since a half-dozen nylon shuttles costs $15, while 1 dozen feather shuttles only costs $15-23. However, I've never played with feather shuttles before, and I don't know what to expect. How long do they last before they become completely unusable? A dozen nylon shuttles lasts forever, and I don't want to buy a dozen feather ones and find out that they only last 2 hours before they're completely frayed and unusable. Also, what "grade" of feather should I get? There's "practice" grade, for $15; "club" grade for $18, and "tournament" grade, for $23. Is there any discernable difference? Do the more expensive ones last longer? I'm just going to use these birds at the local rec center with my friends, so what quality should I go for?
I think you'd be very lucky to finish a single game with a feather shuttle....depending on how picky you are. No doubt plastic shuttles are cheaper to play with but they won't give you the "feel" offered by feather shuttles.
For intensive doubles, it's normal that a dozen feather shuttles will be gone after 5-6 games. Therefore, that's 2-3 hrs. In general, within the same brand, the lower the grade, the shorter the durability. Therefore, feather shuttles are fun to play with, but surely will cost a lot more, if you happen to play a lot.
Feather durability depends on the type of play. If all power/smashing or beginners mishitting, the shuttles will not last at all. If a full smash game, you can expect to go through at least 4 shuttles in one game. I once went through 15 shuttles in one game, it was a smashfest. However, if you play a game of all skill/drop/clear, one good shuttle could last a game or more. My suggestion, if you are OK with nylon, stick with nylon because they last 100 times longer than feather.
12 shuttles last for 5-6 games? What super-duper shuttles are you using? Don't say those Victor Green Champion No.3s I sent ya.
Damn, I knew there was a catch. I was like "wow, why are feather shuttles actually cheaper?" Ok well how do you define "usable"? It's just recreational, so we're not that picky.
I guess my usual game intensity is no where nears urs. Usually 2 shuttles could last us a 15 pt game. If more smashing and slicing involved, 3 should be good enough for us.
Personally, even if just for light drills, i consider a shuttle missing 2 or more pieces of feather is not usable. Keep in mind, constantly mis-hit (chop the feather) can cause more damage to the shuttle even more than some deadly smashes.
Alright, I just bought a few tubes of feather shuttles. I steamed a tube the other day using the kettle, and the tube got really hot. I'm worried about the heat damaging the shuttles. Is this a factor at all? Also, I was wondering something. You guys have all said that you go through several feather shuttles in one game. So how do you guys afford to play with feather shuttles? It must cost $20-30 for an afternoon of badminton.
If you want your shuttles to last a bit longer,dip the feather ends of your shuttles in tap water ;just make sure you don't wet the upper bits. Then use "massage" the water into the feathers. This can make the shuttles last maybe 20% longer (just a guess). Well get a team of players and share out the costs... Nick
1. Try not to use hot steam to steam the shuttle, at least, not for more than 15-30 sec. Use the cooler steam, such as steam in the shower room to steam the shuttle, say, 48-72 hrs prior to the usage. I usually bring the tubes into shower room, when i need to take a shower. Open the cap, let it stay in the shower room when i take shower (10-15 min). Do it 2 or 3 times prior to the usage, it's good enough. If the steam is way too hot, it will damage the shuttle (i.e. melt the glue) 2. In my clubs, ppl contribute shuttles alternately. Say, all 4 person, each one take a shuttle to bring into a game. If there's 1-2 unused ones, the original owner take it back. Of course, if u get quite a few competitve games, u can still used up quite a few easily in 1 session.
Yeah it seems I may have damaged the shuttles by heating them too much. When I tried removing them from the tube after steaming, they were stuck to each other (melted glue perhaps). And, after hitting a few clears and smashes with the shuttles, the cork gets compressed a bit, the white covering becoming a little crumpled. Maybe the heat damaged the cork somehow as well. Oh well, next time I'll know.
get yonex mavis 350 plastic shuttles. they're just as good as feather ones and they last a long time. there's a reason why most of the high schools in the usa use them.
Plastics will never be as good as feathers. Most high schools over in BC use the Mavis 300. Still, plastics is no comparsion to feather. If you want to play the way it's ment to be, use feathers. I do use Mavis 300 myself, for recreational, games, feathers.
Here in Calgary we also use Mavis 300s in High Schools. They are cheap, have an ok performance, considering how many people that damage them through misshits and such. Biggest thing that makes them popular, durability,
Yup! I have yet to hear about the so called synthetic feahter that is supposedly in the works and to be approved by the IBF.
