Does anyone practice with an older, not so good racket? I am practicing with a old steel one, just had it restrung there. Its quite heavy for a badminton racket which i'm hoping will increase my power so that when i switch to my proper racket (Yonex mp66), my shots will be harder especially my smash and backhand shots. Just curious as to if anyone else is doing this.
Sure, though not necessarily for the same reasons as you. I think it is necessary to understand how a training works, so you can figure out when it should be used, and when it shouldn't be used. A heavy racquet has high inertia. So, starting from rest it accelerates slowly. Once at high speed, it doesn't require much to keep it that way. For the full stroke, I find that using a heavy racquet is good for developing the proper sequence of movements. With a light racquet, it is possible to swing moderately hard even if energy transfer through the body is not good. When you switch to the heavy racquet, any awkwardness in energy transfer is magnified. Then, you learn to relax and allow the high speed to be maintained through the striking zone. However, other than as a feedback aid, I'm not too fond of heavy racquet training for power strokes. I find that the heavy racquet is much more useful for fast-racquet short strokes like defensive drives and net intercepts. This is because more of the time is spent in the slow-acceleration phase. However, what's more important is quickness and positioning in the frontal plane. Once, I used a superlight racquet and I could return anything from any position. The heavy racquet is the opposite: I could only return those shots I was in good position to return. The heavy racquet gives you feedback on how good your positioning is.
Wait a minute! Your old steel racket is going to become a treasure one of these days. Are you sure you want to practice with it?
I have like 4 or 5 of those old steel rackets! This 1 is the heaviest 1. Played with it there last nite, really good. Won a game with it by quite a good margin and then i switched to my good racket, it felt so light especially in the head. It felt good to play with it. I won the match but i normally do anyway so no big shock.
I don't have something that old. I played with my Cabonex 8 when we were short of rackets. It was hard to play with. Heavy and no power. The fact that you won with it. It requires some skills. Way to go!
only reason i won is my friend is not an attacking player. he does not smash much which i have told him to do more often. I played with him once with a squash racket! No power at al and getting direction was a prob too. Kept hitting the birdie half court and even then i was not too far behind him in our game. I found this steel racket easy enough to play with. Using the wrist for some of the finer movements was harder but other than that, i could get the power no probs. Mayb this is because i got it restrung, old string broke u c.
I used to be a cheapskate, so the first five months I played badminton, I used this old, heavy (rated at 120g) Wilson aluminum badminton racket with an odd paddle-shaped head (supposedly for a bigger sweet spot). I believe it was called the "Aggressor" series and I got a pair of those as a gift back in Christmas 1997. As it turns out they were perfect for training purposes. They helped develop my wrist strength so my strokes' strength developed early. One caveat, though, is I didn't develop weak net shots that need more finesse and placement than power. Like with using heavy shuttlecocks, it's hard to be a finesse player with a heavy racket. Those things lasted a long while. Eventually the frame cracked and failed, but by then I'd already "graduated" to a proper graphite racket.
