Today I had an 3 hr session. 1st half was played with plastic yonex birdies, the later half was with feathers. Currently I play an Arc10 for doubles and an MP99 for singles. Both strung with Nanogy 95 @ 24 pounds. I don't know if it was fatigue or not (I wasn't feeling tired) but while playing with feathers, my net shots were terrible. Generally i'm a great net player and all my returns usually just barely clear the white tape but while playing with plastic birdies. Once I switched to the feather birdies, I constantly hit the bird in to the white tape while playing net shots. It was very frustrating as my net shots are usually what generates my offense. My question is: Should I string my rackets at a different tension for feather and plastic birdy play?
People generally play at higher tensions for feather shuttles than synthetics but really it's personal preference. Maybe you should experiment with tension a bit and see if you can find something more suitable.
I know for a fact that if you up the tension for ur strings, the sweetspot on ur racket will decrease if you can't swing it fast/hard enough. Anyone usually string their racket higher than their personal preference just for feather? or string their racket lower for plastic?
Depend... What type of net shot? How did the net shot differ from feather vs plastic? If the net drop is not going over for feather, string the feather racquet 1 lb higher. If the shot goes to high, drop 1 lb. If you are talking about back court net drop not going over, switch string type to BG80 for feather.
Feather shuttles require more finesse/gentle touch, and require better technique to play with, as opposed to nylon shuttles. I used to play plastic all the time, but switched to feather as I had more $$$ to spend on equipment Plastic are fun though, if you're trying to go for the most powerful smash possible... rip great big holes into certain types of netting too! String tension CAN make a difference... Like Dan said... you should probably experiment to see what is comfortable for you.
I believe one should use a lower tension when playing with plastics. The reason is that plastics have a very slow turnover, which means it leaves the stringbed much slower than feathers. Whilst a feather shuttlecock, once hit, will in an instant reverse its base/feathers orientation from pointing towards the stringbed to pointing away. This accounts for its very high off-the stringbed speed upto nearly 350kmp. Plastics cannot do this and you feel that your shot off the stringbed travels in slow motion. Therefore, you cannot take advantage of high tension, which gives added off-the-string speed from lower trampoline effect on feathers, when using plastics.
