Hi there, total beginner here, so I'm looking for a racket to start playing with. I have not played badminton for years, but I have a group of friends who play often. I want am looking for a racquet that can help me develop and looking to avoid the pitfalls of being a newcomer to the game and picking something that will only make me develop bad habbits in the longrun. Answers to the questions: 1. How often do you play, how serious are you? About 2-4 hours a week for now 2. What style of player are you? (Aggressive smasher, net player ...) No appreciable style =( I'm still new at this. 3. Do you care much about durability or is it all about performance? Durability at this point. If I develop more, or take some classes later on I'll worry about performance during equipement upgrades 4. How much money do you want to spend? <50 Canadian Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Under $50 Canadian won't get you very much I'm afraid. You might want to ask one of your friends whether they will sell you an older racket. You can also check the classifieds here. You can also look on ebay and buy a clone, for $50 even a clone might be better than what you can get at sport check.
Even for an intro racquet? I'm surprised, it's not like last years model is out of the question as well now.
Don't take this the wrong way but many guys on here use $100 to $250 rackets. Very few racket sport specialty shops will carry very many rackets under $50. Personally, I would take an old $100 racket for $50 over a new $50 racket at sport check. But, that's just my opinion. I'd also rather take a 3 year old Honda over a new Kia... again my opinion. Sportcheck is selling a Yonex Muscle Power 10 for $50.
I figured that was the way to go actually =) I am not looking for a premium racquet at this point as I know I can not use it. I was actually looking for a starting point for what I should look for! As I've been reading the forum quite a bit now, but I could not get an idea what I should be looking for as most people on here are looking for their ultimate racquet and not something for a beginner! I'd value any input into this so I could narrow down the choices, and focus on the feel when I go to buy! That said, Kia's are horrible cars, and the fit is REALLY fun to tool around in a manual! BUT it's pretty noisy when you push it
Actually I've been looking and I noticed Sport Mart actually has more selection in Van then most sport checks. I was looking at the Head series or Yonex as well for the <50 as well
Welcome to BC! I think spending more money on a average racket will be easier for you to learn shots. Any racket that is <50$ is pretty much dead weight racket =(
We'll what would you recommend? =) The price is always neogotitable. The main thing is not to get crazy and get a mastercraft tool when your still learning. I did read through the stickies hence why I was looking for durability
There has to be a certain amount of performance or you'll limit yourself. If you're on here and are serious at all about the game then you'll want a decen racket. If you're just playing around with some friends once a week then it won't really matter. In any case, I'd still recommend a semi decent used racket over a new low end one. One thing you might want to look into is Apacs. They make some very good rackets for the price and they have a special on right now. Buy the nano 900 red and get the white one free. It works out to $85 shipped without strings or $95 shipped with strings. See if someone else wants to split it with you.
Try black knight impluse 729 or 739. sportscheck sell them at 59 dollar. I bought it for my friend who just started the game. I tried them. they are good, very easy to play with. I am thinking of buy one for myself to play in the club. Since the life expectancy of racket in club play is about a year. Too many crushes.
well, you can look at the NS100. good racket at a great price. also, any of the Head metallix series will be a good place to start. plus, with them, you can growth with them.
I went to my sportchek and saw some Isometrics 75 i think, they seem pretty good but i forgot howmuch they went for. But ya apacs is the way to go.
hi meeker, a few months back, i was a beginner myself. the first thing i did when i found this site was check out the techniques/training section. in the stickies there's a great post called, " best way to improve your game" by Kwun. In it, it says the #1 equipment to buy is shoes to improve your footwork. I went for top shoes: yonex shb-200 $120US and a lower end racket nanospeed 200 around $65US. It has been the greatest investment i've spent. after 6 months i was ready to move up and got an ultra 2 from Dinkalot which i like a lot. Anyways, my point is for me, the equipment that made me love the game the most was not only the racket, it's a combination of grip, string and shoes.
I say go with Victor Explorer Pro 588, good beginner racket, ok sweetspot so you can learn where the sweetspot is, slightly heavy then most ( pretty good for smashing), to improve your streagth as you progress to better lighter racket ( or heavy head rackets ) and pretty good color design lool, I say put on a pretty high tension for good clears. is 56$ plus tax is 63.28$ ( if with string 5-7$ more ) Canadian money.
