I'm coming back to badminton after a 15 year layoff. I'm not as quick and powerful as I used to be. I have always liked the control and head balance of my CAB 20 with 19lbs Ashaway Vantage strings. But I'm finding that my backhand overhead clears are not as powerful as they used to be (is it me or have my strings softened to less tension?). I want to stay within the Yonex line and don't like the head heaviness of the MusclePower that I swung. I play mostly doubles but am looking for a harder smash without sacrificing too much of my net accuracy and maintaining the same head/handle balance. Any ideas?
If you like CAB 20 then why change it ? The racket is considered good enough that Yonex keep it in their current line up. Go by what you know and don't get enticed by fancy marketing that promises free lunch at the nano-particle level. Ashaway Vantage sounds a bit vintage. I don't think they make them no more. I can suggest Ashaway MicroLegendXL. This string offers great power at low tension, even though it is designed as a high tension string.
Well, since it has been 15 years (and that's a long time), I would say it's probably just you. All you need to do is to play more and get back to shape.
So I guess 20 years of badminton technology is not the same as 20 years of tennis/squash racquet technology? I know the latter are a night and day difference between new and old.
As recently as 2003, Xia Xuan Ze won the World Champs men's singles using a cab20! (18 years after the cab20 first appeared) In 1999, Sun Jun also won the the World Champs Men's singles with an 'outdated' model. That was the Yonex Boron 2. If you don't mind, I'd buy your old cab20 2nd hand (after having a look at it of course)
i would stick to your cab20, but just get it restrung (bg85 are nice strings). maybe at first go for a lower tension than you use to because no doubt you will be a little bit rusty and you will benefit from lower sting tension. if you really want to get a new racket then the cab30 is nice and will be very fairly similar to your racket. hope i've helped
The cab 20 is a legendary racquet, and there have been so many variations to this day. I'd say just get another, maybe the cab 20 muscle ...
this is the first year i didn't see many pro's using cab20's at the AE though. maybe its becoming less popular
