Babolat Essential & Gosen 6900

I just got these, and did some test play today, both are string @ 24 pounds.

Babolat Essential

Background: kindda of a rare racket in my book, rarely see anyone mentioned it, and rare to see a shop selling it, babolat makes tennis rackets, pretty popular in the tennis world, and like wilson they're trying to catch a piece of the badminton pie. Racket is design with less main/cross (bigger square), no gormet for some of the cross (I think it's internal gormet).

Stiff: it's pretty dang stiff, beefy stocky shaft and stiff (similar to the lethal 50)

Balance: this is labled as 290+-5 bp, but i probably had the -5 end, because it was just about balance.

Power: Not a whole lot to be shown here, but i generate alot of power due to my days of being a fatty, I throw alot of weight behind my swing, so it's decent enough, it does help with my swinging style that this thing is stiff. Flexy racket doesn't work well for me.

Control: Pretty nice control... better than it's power department. And this is true to it's design, on the website this racket is lean toward a control game (if i'm reading the chart correctly it's is 3 part power 7 part control).

Paint: one of the nicest racket I've seen, nice paint scheme color, it looks pretty dam good with white string/white grip... I like to match color, i used to have a black ti-10 top to bottom, it's mean looking, this thing look like a guardian dress up.

Conclusion: nice racket, costs about 120USD i believe, is it worth the cost? probably not, my lethal 50 does just about everything + more power... and lethal 50 are around 125 on apacs canada... But this racket just looks way more expensive than the lethal 50. A semi defensive racket with it's power cut off, but saved itself with a stiff shaft.


Gosen Roots 6900 Boonsak model

Background: gosen is pretty popular in asia, not so much here, the 6900 roots is suppose to be a boonsak model (some popular badminton player). It suppose to have some kindda double kick tech to generate better power, I'm already calling ******** on it, but I had to try to see if it's true.


Stiff: It's rated max stiff on the webpage, but it's not, the unit at best is stiff (lethal 50 @ 8 then this is just a 6). Long shaft probably makes it less stiff.

balance: slightly heavy headed, 290+-5 is what's labled, it's probably around 290. Not super heavy headed.

Power: don't know if it's the double kick, the long/flex shaft, but this thing does pack a punch. might even hit harder than my lethal 50

Control: it's advertised as maximize power/control. yeah right, lol. The control is usable, decent swing speed, but not the greatest one I've used, that long shaft makes it hard to choke up and still have control.

Paint: Not loving the yellow/maroon/burgandy. atleast the yellow is more cheerful than my At300, but gee, burgandy? the dude that made it must be on crack. Makes you feel like some weirdo holding a racket with this color scheme.

Conclusion: this thing comes in a wooping 160USD. That's alot of money to pay for a none yonex racket, again probably not worth the price, it's kindda unique in it's own way, a little faulty on the advertising, just a weird racket over all, from the color to the design. One problem is that after hitting for 20 min I had a miss hit and the string went pop. didn't get a chance to play with it much. It could be a nice racket in the bag to pull out time to time for a fun change, definitely not my kindda racket.

 

on dinkalot rating it wouldda been extrastiff- so there's still 2 grades ahead. I think that's good enough for me, any stiffer it's too much IMO. but you're right, their description is pretty accurate.