possible to generate more power with lighter rackets?

It is possible to generate more power with a head light racket BUT the power should come from more speed; so, technically if one has a faster 'swing', one should be able to generate more power; & the speed would come from stronger wrist,arms and shoulder; But normally players want to be lazy so they use the weight of the racket (head) to generate powerful smashes...

 

heavier means more momentum, which means more power to your shots. all you have to do is to swing the racket harder. i know this sounds ridiculous, but reducing 1lb to the string tension may help if you string at more than 24lbs usually.

 

No it doesn't. It means greater mass.

Momentum = mass * velocity. The greater the mass, the more power is required to accelerate it to a given velocity in a given time (overcoming the greater inertia).

Given the same amount of power (from your arm/body), the velocity will decrease proportionately with the mass. Mass goes up, velocity goes down, momentum remains the same.

 

Ummm... I dont' know much about all this physics stuff, but I'll just say that the faster swing speed compensates for the lack of mass on the head. Just how people can get lots of power from a 3U NS9000X, and lots of power from a 2U MP100.

 

I am going to try to explain the physics, not sure if this is going to be exactly right, haven't touched physics for a while, but i think the general idea is correct.

To generate high velocity (speed with direction) on the badminton, there needs to be a transfer of momentum. For the transfer to happen, you need to first generate more momentum (due to friction) in your racket, which is done by your arm, wrist, finger...etc.

From the purely physics point of view, it doesn't matter if you have heavy or light racket because you are only able to generate that much momentum to begin with. With a heavy racket, you will have less momentum, but the mass makes up for it. For the light racket, you get less mass, but more speed. The momentum is going to be the same either way, it all really depends on your strength and technique. With the same amount of momentum in either racket, the same amount will be transferred into the shuttle (assuming there are no other factors), which will produce the same speed.

The only difference with the racket weights are, i think, the movement made when you are done hitting and trying to go back to your default position. Heavier rackets will require you to use more energy to move, and light rackets less. That is why it is easier to work with a lighter racket, simply because you waste less energy when you are not hitting anything. But if you are just focusing on speed, rackets doesn't really make a difference.

Things that could make a difference are factors that could potentially change the process that the momentum is transferred, such as flexibility of the racket, tension of the string.

 

Hm, after thinking about it some more, the lighter racket can cut down the time required to generate the same amount of momentum. So unless you are having trouble generating the power because you don't have enough time, changing to a lighter rackets shouldn't make your birdies go faster.

It isn't your rackets generating the power, it is you. The racket is merely an energy transfering tool. (You can always add a small jet engine on one side, i am sure that would definitely help).

 

Gollum, given what you're saying, you mean that lighter rackets will generate harder smashes given that the momentum is the same but velocity faster?

I think its a bit more sophisticated than that though. I think that given a certain strength, the arm can still swing a racket that is slightly head heavier than another at the same speed. Either that, or the reduction of velocity is so little that the gain in mass causes a gain in momentum despite the reduction in velocity. Having said that, I would say that different people will require rackets of different weight to generate the hardest possible smash they can. So while John may smash harder with a 3U Ti-10, Smith may smash harder with a 2U Ti-10.

 

Well i guess the thing is that a different person can generate different power with different techniques and strength.

See there is some factual evidence that if you are able to swing the racket faster it will generate more power.

Something are constant that's why you have to see what applies to what..well if some one is really free and have a good score in physics it would be good to do some research...

For me i personally think that heavier racket produce more power with less strength..

 

This topic has been discus to death already. I was lucky enough to see some high speed slow motion shot of a tennis ball impacting different racquet by design in a lab. Anyway, to sum it up. Different player need different kind of racquet. Unless you have a high speed camcorder and some equipments to study the shots, nothing beats to deom the racquet and figure if it is the one for you. Many of us stress and can not stress enough on demoing a racquet before you buy. Some are lucky has club with pro-shop to demo. Some of us not. So, please do consider your style, body type and string into your racquet consideration.

 

Here's some more points to consider.

When you have a lighter implement, you spend a greater proportion of your time decelerating the object. For example, do a heavy bench press, followed by a very lightweight "speed" bench press. With the heavy press, you strain against the weight for almost the entire movement. With the lightweight press, you're decelerating the bar for nearly the same amount of time you spent accelerating it.

What does this mean? If the racquet is so light that you're decelerating through the strike zone, then you won't get optimum power. You need a sufficiently heavy racquet that you keep acceleration going through the strike zone.

However, with each racquet there's an associated time to peak power. With the light racquet it occurs quickly, with a heavy racquet it occurs later. The benefit being able to hit peak power quickly is tremendous -> for example, if a smash takes 0.5 seconds to reach you, and you need 0.1 seconds to generate power, that leaves you with 0.4 seconds for you to react to and make a decision on your shot. If it takes you 0.2 sec to generate power, then that leaves you with 25% less time to get ready for your shot.

Of course, getting a new racquet is just the "quick fix". What you really want to do is train you power abilities -> not always an easy thing to do. Here's a bit of an outline of stuff that should be considered:

Strength training: rather than considering the racquet's weight by itself, you should think about how it is in relation to your strength. We all know the equation F=ma, so just rearrange it to get F/m = a. Therefore, acceleration is force divided by mass. What strength training does is it increases F, so consequently acceleration goes up. Alternatively, using a lighter racquet (smaller m) also increases a.

Deceleration Training: What a lot of people miss out on is the need to train the decelerators of a movement. If your deceleration ability is strong, then your body can hold off the need to decelerate until past the strike zone. Very important!

Acceleration Training: Once your decelerators are decent, then we can start thinking about how to improve acceleration. This might be improving your ability to generate force in the positive direction (concentric contraction), or it might be how well you can absorb force and power while moving in the opposite direction (i.e. eccentric contraction).

Concentric rate of force development (RFD) is usually limited by eccentric RFD, which in turn is usually limited by eccentric strength. The reason why plyometrics are effective are because they train the quick dip before the jump (eccentric RFD).

...and that's the end of another long, rambling post by me

 

No.

I'm saying that the "heavier --> more momentum" argument is fallacious.

In reality, there are many other physical factors that affect the efficiency of energy transfer. A simple reductio ad absurdum demonstrates this: if efficiency were invariant with mass, then you should be able to play with a 1000 kg racket or a 1g racket.

And, as has been said many, many times before: it depends on the player.

 

Hello, i'm having problem with my racket. It vibrates much during power shot..its extra stiff,tension 21lb(factory strung)..my arm started paining aftr 2 week play.i can make power shot,bt needed light racket,so chose nanospeed 850...how can i avoid vibration?do i have to change something??or did i choose wrong racket??plz tell me.....i badly need to fix this problem...anything anything suggestion plz plz

 

I think "Yes you can".I play with nanospeed series but my smash is"FINE".Like "GOLLUM" said it is all about player.Heavier rac mean consume you more energy to put in.Both of heavy and light have strength and weakness.But which one that suit you more or you prefer not you choose nor lke.The good combination of rac+string+tension+technique will become your extened arm as well.

 

thanks! Bt,u didn't say how can i avoid vibration...i knw i'm gud player,bt,nt only me,my other friends also say my ns850 vibrate much. I read tht xtra stiff rac cause vibrate..as i cnt change rac,shud i change string??grip??tension??

 

I'm pretty sure that if you plot a graph of weight vs power (ie. shuttle velocity) you'd end up with a curve, rather than a straight line.
To begin with, power would increase with racket weight, but after a certain point you'd find that the power lost from the reduction in swing speed will outweigh the power gained from having greater mass in the head.

Trying to find the optimum weight is really complicated, because you need to factor in the effect of shaft stiffness etc as well. In order to extract the maximum potential power from a racket, you need to be able to flex the shaft, which means being able to accelerate the racket very quickly.
If you have a very heavy and very stiff racket, you may find that you can't swing it fast enough to flex the shaft - meaning you lose power.
If the racket is slightly lighter, you may find that you can swing fast enough to flex the shaft when hitting a full-blown smash (meaning it will be very powerful), but not when playing a weaker shot - eg. wrist-smash, or backhand clear (meaning the shot will be less powerful).
If the racket is lighter still, you may be able to flex it easily and generate more power over a wider range of shots, but you will not have the same absolute maximum power.
For example, I have a racket weighing 90g, with a BP of 317mm - even though it's fairly flexible, I can't swing it fast enough to generate much power during a competitive game, yet when I get the opportunity to hit an all-out smash without being under any real pressure, the power is awesome. I also have an 84g Trinity 2 which is somewhat stiffer, yet I'm still able to flex the shaft and generate power much more easily (although the absolute maximum power isn't quite there, by comparison).

Having said that, a more head-heavy racket requires less swing speed to flex. If a racket is too head-light relative to its stiffness, then you will be able to swing it very fast, but still not fast enough to flex the shaft. If your technique is weak, and you are not capable of a fast swing speed (however light the racket), then you will find a heavier racket easier to use.

So basically, it's all very complicated - you have to consider numerous other factors, such as: balance, stiffness, strength, technique, "accessibility" (ie. Are you interested in the absolute maximum power or the power available over a wide range of shots?).

 

I like the opinion of stumblingfeet.
The rate of force development and its idea is vital for producing the "speed of the racket" as far as it goes down to develop the speed of the contractions. We normally don't think how to develop the speed of the nervous signal and to literally develop the "nervous" system and therefore the speed of the contractions, but this is may be the most vital for the real powerful smash.

 

Im surprise no one mentioned racket's "stiffness" which i think play an important role for a light/head light racket. Yes you can get as much power from a light racket given it's stiff/very stiff. This applies because what matters most is the moment of impact between the racket string bed and the shuttle. The same rule can be applied to string tention.

 

Lets compare 2 rackets; 1 is 500g and the other 20g. Im not a rocket scientist but surely the 500g racket will produce less power because it moves slower (given the same power applies), whereas the 20g racket will break even when you start swinging it. Now lets imagine there is one racket as light as a feather but as strong/stiff as a steel, this will be the most powerful racket and the frontier for racket manufacturers to break. Maybe using material from another planet