For a racquet, there are so many factors to affect its performance: 1. Whole weight (2U,3U,or 4U); 2. Balance point (headlight, headheavy); 3. Flexibility of the shaft (stiff, flex); 4. Kick point of the shaft as some manufacturer concerned (I don't know it exactly); 5. Shape of the frame (classic oval shape, isometric, Y shape) or the sweet point; 6. Width of the frame; 7. Grip size (G3, G4); 8. String style (BG 65, 66, 70....); 9. String tension. But I have heard so many opposite opinions on these factors. Now I'm just puzzled by those factors, Which ones are really important for the performance and how do they work?? For the following performances: 1. power: smash, clear, or drive. 2. control: direction control, power control. 3. maneuverability: when you need quick reflection in the game. 3. comfort: make you play for long time without hurt on the arm or wrist. I really don't know how to describe this one, but I think it's really important. Because some headheavy racquet, maybe you can smash harder than usual, after a game and you find you can not even clear in the next one. 4. analyze the technics and the racquets, which factor benefit the wrist player, which one for the arm styles??
For a racquet there must be something good for or bad for, Which style racquet fit who is the question. Everyone just want to find a better racquet for his better performance.
I agree most of them is the personal preference, so I think we should make a racquet into so many factors. Then we can just talk about the factor and minimize the personal preference here.
i think most would agree that Power -> head heavy, stiff and high tensions Control -> light headed (no pun intended), flex, lower tensions Manuverability -> light racquet i think ISO is a preference. I like ISO but power seems to be different on Ovals sorry Brooklyn i did not understand the question upon the first reading. i think its about time we made a faq on this.. plus Brooklyn has concisely listed several factors for racquets.
I'm a full swing guy, used the Yonex Ti 8, now change to Carlton AS-Ti. I found that the isometric and heavy head make me feel better when clear, but a little bit slowly for return smash. But when smash, with the AS-Ti, I can swing faster, then hit harder than the Ti 8. Ti 8's shaft is more flexible than AS-Ti, So I feel more comfortable when play for a long time, but another reason is that you can't use the arm to generate enough power with AS-Ti, unless you put all you wrist on. I think the AS-Ti's oval head make me controling the direction much better than use Ti8.
FAQ.... right. this is one of the most asked question. and most useful if answered. however, i just don't know how to answer it! whomever you ask, you will get conflicting answers. while each one of them seems to make sense but they all conflicts with each other. look at the 9 dimensions that broklyn listed and each one of them can be further expanded. and each one affects the play of the racket in some strange manner. what we have at the end is a very complicated relationship between specs and performance. i don't even know how to start! i have been working on a paper on tension vs. power. just that one single factor i already have 6 full pages on the paper, and that's not including diagram. i just don't know how to answer it. therefore you original answer really make sense, "do you like it or not" and personal preference. try it out on the court and see if you like it. even that is not too accurate as the string/grip also can change the character of the racket drastically. see the frustration mounting?
For the power, you said that the high tension means more power, but I've heard that the pros use high tension just because they want control the power better, but high tension mean less power. It's same as the tennis racquet. And I got the same feel. Maybe in a range it's right. When I change 18 lb to 22lb, I found it's more powerful, but when I change 22lb to 26lb, I felt very difficult to hit the birdy back.(
still on going work. i say 75% ready. i know i know, i promised it a long time ago, but you know how these things go...
yeah kwun, but do u think the faqs are being read? cuz it seems old topics keep coming up. not neccessarily this one
sure. the view count is not too large, but still quite ok. one of the FAQ was even cross posted in another forum : http://www.playbadminton.com/ubbthr...er=3966&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart= i think there bound to be people who ignores the FAQ and re-ask questions, that's just life. but now that we have the FAQ, it will be less frequent and if they do, we can always point them to the FAQ. and of course, the FAQ is still quite small, it will be expanded as time allows...