I know this is illegal for tournaments. But outside of tournaments does anyone know how to alter the speed of feather shuttlecocks to make them fly slower? I know you bend some feathers or something, but can anyone explain what you do? The step-by-step process on how to do it. Pictures or a vid would be really helpful too. Thanks!
In tournaments, usually they would have tested and selected the proper speed shuttles for the matches for that day. Normally, you would either bend the tip of the feathers inward (faster) or outward (slower) and you would start with doing one every four feathers and if need be, one very two and then every feather. Test the speed of the shuttle by hitting a full underhand stroke while standing over the back boundary line. Properly hit, the shuttle should land at the back of the opposition court between the two marker lines.
May I ask why you would want to alter the speed of a shuttle? Surely it's best to play with shuttles as close to tournament speed as possible.
they didnt say slow them from proper(correct) speed, one of the clubs i train at use AS-40's and pretty much every shuttle is too fast the under arm test from the back boundary line, would end outside of the court the other end so its tipped at either 1 in 8, 1 in 4 and occasionally 1 in 2 and some they dont bother even using if there way to fast.
OK fair, enough. Bending the feathers outwards slightly will increase drag and slow the shuttle down. Bending them inwards will give the opposite result and speed the bird up.