Well, have you played with a non-spinning shuttlecock before ? They fly sooo fast and too much, and they're inaccurate. So.. what if they're rotating ? Well.. if the shuttles rotate, then the flight path will be more consistent, thus you can control the shuttle better and enjoy the whole game of badminton more.
Just curious, but don't all shuttles rotate naturally? And if there are non-spinning shuttles, who would produce them? and what would they look like?
Well, they look like normal shuttles without a couple of feathers. .. Well I mean that they *used to be* normal until someone hit it wrongly and a piece of feather clipped off.. RSL Standard shuttles do that often.. they're initially good but after one or two feathers are gone.. they start going crazy.
I assume that you are referring to axial spinning rather than tumbling. If the shuttles that you've been using do not appear to exhibit a natural spin, they are: (1) defective, (2) improperly designed, or (3) poorly manufactured. I have seen some very cheap feather shuttles that either have no spin or stop spinning in mid-flight. These shuttles should be avoided for game play. Due to the way the feathers overlap, any decent shuttle should have a natural spin in one direction. If viewed from above, a falling shuttle will adopt a counter-clockwise spin. The shuttle can be spun faster (than the inherent natural spin) by imparting a cutting motion across the cork (L to R for an overhead stroke, I think). If the shuttle is cut in the opposite direction, then the shuttle will adopt a spin that in opposite to the natural spin. If a shuttle with contrary spin is in flight long enough, its spin rate can eventually slow down and reverse so that it adopts the natural spin of the shuttle. I believe that this may happen when a left-handed player hits their standard overhead cut-drop shot (but I may be wrong about that). For some insight into the effect of spin on shuttle trajectory, check out Gollum's wiki entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badminton#Spin
Synthetic (nylon) shuttles are designed to have a natural axial spin just like feather shuttles. I have not encountered any nylon shuttles (intended for indoor play) that did not possess this natural spin.
