Let me start by defining normal sized rackets. They are between 66,5 cm and 67 cm for example cab15old version(66,75 cm), iso300(66,5cm), tactic tm-3iLIGHT and cab22 (66,5cm). Long rackets includes mp88( 67,5cm), forza 800 kevlar SQ(68 cm) and mp100(68 cm) This is not made in an attempt to list the lengths of rackets but to describe diffenties. lovest observation is 66,5 and highest is 68 cm. that's a mere 1,5 cm between shortest and longest. IF i recall correctly a racket isn't allowed to be longer than 68 cm, so if you know of any rackets shorter than 66,5 let me know(NO JUNIOR RACKETS PLEASE!) I used to play with normal lenght rackets and really hated the mp100(68) for being too long. I tried it for two weeks or so and i never found a rythm with it. When i found the mp88 it wasn't listed as a long racket(not even on it; ultra light weight, head heavy balance, slim shaft) - that 's why i bought it! It felt really good and,well, now i prefer playing with it. But it felt longer than my other rackets except the mp100. After a while, I tried playing with my normal lenght racket but couldn't do it. They felt strange and i had no feeling what so ever. Then i tried the mp100 and now it felt good! Another observation is the lenght of the handle. Both mp100 and 88 have rather long handles while normal sized have considerably shorter handles. i really like those long handles, it feels good! My biggest problem nowadays is a surplus of normal lenght racket....they are rather useless. It's only 1,5 cm but it feels like meters! What do you think about it? Do you prefer long or short racket? LOng handles or short handles? HAve you experienced any difficulties when changing between racket of various lenght . ...
I love long racquets because it does greatly increase your reach, and hence coverage--which is the cube of the length of the racquet. Let's compare an average normal (67cm) with a long (68cm). Coverage is 67^3=300763 for normal, and 68^3=314432. That's a 4.5% difference! Given the small size of the court relative to the total coverage of the racquet, this typically means having to run 10% less on average. That's a huge advantage for people who rarely get smashed on the body.
Wow, that's an interesting calculation. Thanks for sharing it with us! Can anyone comment on whether or how much more difficult it is to defend against shots to the body with the additional length?
I see ur point, however, I can't agree with ur calculation. If u only counts the racket's length, yeah, it's more like 67 vs 68, however, how many times ur hand is right next to ur body when u swing? I think the corrected calculation should be the total lenth of racket + arm, which is the longest u can reach, without moving ur feet. With the total length greatly increased in my calculation, then the advantage surely won't be that significant any more.
However, for "disadvantage" on long racket, I think this calculation applies. Since ur hand will be really close to ur body, so, the arm lenth can be generally disregarded (assume, a pure "close to body" defense, without foot movement). According to this calculation, there's a 4.5% difference. Since the assumption was "no foot movement", so, the disadvantage, is longer racket will have only 95% coverage as compare to normal ones. Therefore, players have to move more (10% as bigredlemom said, maybe) in order to defend "body shot".
Personally, I don't think there's much difference with that extra 1 cm. I've tried both long and regular Ti-10's for instance, and I couldn't really tell them apart. Whether I feel comfortable with a certain racquet or not is all a question of weight and balance. I don't care if it's long or regular.
I wrote a long post but it got lost... my rogers hi speed cable went offline right when i posted it. anyway, I redid the calculation by adding 60cm for an arm, and the difference came down to 2.4%. The coverage lost by having the head further out is smaller by half, so one is getting 1.2% extra coverage by getting a long racquet. Although the percentage difference is lower, the total coverage volume is actually greater than before. Factoring in movement will of course decrease the percentage difference further, while also simultaneously increaseing the total coverage difference. Basically, you will have a slight advantage. I just realized the main bonus is power. The speed of a shuttle leaving your racquet is determined by two laws of conservation: of energy, and of momentum. Energy is mass times square of speed, while momentum mass times speed. Thus, a percentage increase in speed will have an exponentially greater effect on the shuttle speed. Imagine a 20 ton tank moving 10 km/h. If it ran into a stationary bird, the bird would not move very far. If a 10 gram ruler is whipped at the bird at 50km/h, the bird will fly much further, even though the kinetic ("movement") energy of the tank is thousands of times greater than energy of the ruler. This is because the amount of energy ("power") generated is not nearly as important as the speed of your racquet. Using the same amount of energy to hit a bird, one would always hit the birdie further ("harder") with a lighter racquet (law of physics!) Many people complain that lighter racquets don't have enough power, however. I think this is because their muscles cannot swing their racquet any faster, thus they are using more energy to hit a bird with a heavier racquet. How powerful a racquet feels to someone seems to be a matter of how fast their muscles can swing, which determines how much of their total strength can be transfered to the bird. This is why badminton players have smaller arms, i think, since fast reflex msucles are small and thin, which is great for swinging fast but lack absolute strength. Strength muscles are fatter and stronger, but are slow moving. Given the same muscle size, a professional player will be able to smash harder but the other person will win in a arm wrestle. The solution to the speed limitation of most people's muscle is to increase the racquet length, which increases the effective speed of the racquet (and uses more energy in the process.) bonus: if you move the racquets laterally, along the axis of the racquet parallel to the shaft, then it does not take any extra energy to move a long racquet. Note that a head-heavy racquet mimics the power effect of a longer racquet by moving the center of mass of the racquet further away from the body, which is exactly what a longer racquet does. But a head-heavy racquet doesn't enjoy the lateral-movement bonus I mentioend above, so more energy is wasted. Basically, increasing racquet length can increase the effective head weight of the racquet without actually increasing the weight. I'm not going to do the calculations this time because it'll take far too long and a simple anaolgy does it just as well. The difference it makes is huge, however: Kwun mentioned the pinky technique for smashing. It generates alot more power because it puts the racquet further away from the body, effectively increaseing the apparent length of the racquet. THAT is why the pinky technique is so powerful. The difference between Kwun choking the cone and using the pinky is a whopping 15cm. That's a 19.4% differnce in effective racquet length. (67)^2 - (67-15)^2 / (67-15)^2 * 100% = 66% increase in energy transfer, which translates to 8% increase in bird speed. a 19.4% increase in racquet weight only at the head (making it extremely head heavy alas!) can still only increase the energy transfer by 19.4%, which only results in a 4.4% increase in bird speed. The difference is even smaller if the manufacturer distributes the extra weight more evenly. Thus, increasing the racquet length is much more effective at increasing a racquet's power than merely increasing its weight. Note that a flexible racquet has a "kick", which increases the effective speed of the racquet, and hence produce more powerful hits. I think this is also why our choice in raquet length is far more limited than our choice in racquet weight: because there is so little disadvantage but so much advantage to using a longer racquet, we are already using the longest racquet length that can handle shots on our body. The advantages and disadvantages of racquet weights, however, are evenly balanced, and thus some might prefer light or heavy. note: Sorry for the long post... but I tried to be concise! you should have seen how long my original post was!
*clap* *clap* *clap* As a side note, wouldn't it then follow that if the racquet design maintains the same durability of construction as regular length racquets, and the increased length provides sufficient energy to increase bird speed by 8%, then the resulting and corresponding increase in stress on the frame during hits would help to explain the seemingly and relatively easier breakage of newer (and long) racquets? I wouldn't imagine that the durability can be increased by much since the manufacturer needs to keep the frame just as light despite the increased length.
i rather use a short handle racquet as it one of my criterias when choosing a racquet. it feels that a longer shaft (due to the shorter handle) helps generate abit more power. Since i tension of around 25-26lbs, a longer shaft (shorter handle) helps abit. But i dislike long version shafts. just my opinion.
size of player Since the variation of the sizes of players are much big than 1cm, I don't think those quatitive arguement are relevant. There are some advantages of long racket and disadvantages as well, usually player would be able to adopt this small change easily.
Re: size of player Ur statement is true, but I can't agree. To make a fair comparison, and to choos our own "dream" racket, the only comparison we need to make is to hold the racket by ourselves (means, same person using different racket, not different ppl using different rackets). Therefore, if u use a normal racket and a longer racket, u can easily come up with ur own decision. Ur point is valid for "someone's meat is someone else' poison" theory. That's why, all the suggestions in threads are pure "advice" only, not 100% right when applied to different ppl.
Thank you.... *bows* nSmash: Interesting point, but I don't think that's the limit right now. Otherwise, we would see more breakage at the shaft (caused by stress) instead of at the head (caused by compression from high tension stringing.) Or at least not the main factor for Yonex anyway. Maybe it is important for the SLI-70, which is only 70g and offered only in the shorter version. tfc: Of course other factors are important too. I'm not suggesting that anyone can play as well as peter gade if they buy a mp77. That's just silly. I'm saying that if someone switches from a normal to a long version of an otherwise identicle racquet, that person could increase their smash speed. LazyBuddy: Thanks Oh by the way, I just realized I made the same calculation mistake as you mentioned before! But since the difference is exponential, it cancels out and should come to the same result anyway.
Agree As long as you are used to it, the 1cm difference can be adjusted easily. Generally, I needed about 20-30 mintues to be used to it after I switched to a racquet which was 1 cm longer/shorter.
longer racquets. Initially I have reservation about longer racquets. But when I tried it for a while. I got hooked to it. It gives offensive power. I'll switch to normal racquet when I plan for a defensive game or perhaps when my opponents are more offensive. Works for me. I guess it is a matter is getting used to it and get a good tension on the string to have a good game. Change your strings regularly; if you can afford it. That's what I own a stringer and buy strings in volume. rgds.
I think that a long racquet is suitable for singles because of the slower pace in a singles game. In doubles, the length of the racquet will make it quite clumsy and slow unless if you really have a powerful hand. I tried MP 77 long,even balanced for 5 months and later changed back to a normal length racquet just to find how great the normal length racquet is. (It seemed that all this while I have been developing stronger arms to cope with the long mp 77 and now after turning back to the regular racquet makes my response quicker and my smashes much faster than before).
i don't find much difference the raquet lengths only a extra cm won't make much of a difference, though when u play with them it feels slightly awkward if you move from say a carlton to a mp88 cuz then your hitting point on the raquet will be different plus there is a huge difference in yonex to carlton raquets cuz the yonex's grip is longer, shaft is shorter and the head is longer than then carlton so it kinda alters things a bit.
long rackets. One technique of overcoming the problem is to hold the racket higher on the grip area. This is how I do the switching when I am in defensive mode. Being a competitive player, you need to be flexible in your hands and legs. Keep it nimble, fast and wack with power. rgds
