My favourite racket is at700. A head heavy racket, but I set my at700's bp at 288 by putting 2 layer of thin grip. So, my at700 becomes an even balance racket. It helps my defence, but offense is still powerful. After reading a lot of ti10 reviews, I bought it. Too head light, get rid the original grip, put a thin grip. Bp is also at 288. At700 is better for smash, but.. when I use ti10, I can do drive faster, like a smash. I can hit the birdie when it's already behind my body (as high as my shoulder) with full arm stretch. My height is 174cm. The birdie can pass the net and declining. If I do this with at700, the birdie goes incline. Why is this happened? Two rackets with the same bp, the same person who swing them, but different result? Is this means that ti10 has better maneuverability or easier to handle than at700? Anyway, I still prefer my at700.
The weight of the grip/handle is almost completely irrelevant. What matters is the amount of weight in the racket's head. If you want to make the Ti-10 more head-heavy, you should add weight to the head, instead of removing it from the handle. There's nothing you can do that will make the AT-700 appreciably more maneuverable (apart from holding it higher up the handle, towards the cone).
why do so many people think that adding overgrips makes a racquet feel more head light just because the balance point changes? crazy.
When the bp of my at700 is 294 & my ti10 is 278, I got mistiming when returning smash. My ti10 miss the birdie because it goes before the birdie come. When both have same bp, mis hit not happen anymore.
Maybe it's some kind of placebo effect, or maybe you just learned to adapt to the different swing speeds of the two rackets, or maybe the thinner handle makes the racket easier to hold and move in your hand. Whatever the reason, it's got nothing to do with you altering the balance of the rackets.
I think whether the racket is good for smashing and control is just little bit effected by the BP... Some racket are really easy to do powerful smashing even thought the head are not really that heavy... The crucial point is the shaft flexibility, hidden material technology (like the material to absorb or reduce vibration) and the racket design like the wind resistance in the racket...
This is where the "swing weight" of the racket is important in determining your maneuverability, other than bp. Bp only measures the balance of weight between frame and handle. But the mass in the handle does not affect your maneuverability and power as much as in the mass in the frame. So, in your case, the at700 can be 100g in total with all the grips and string, and maybe 60g in the frame. While your ti10 is likely 95g in total with grip and string, with maybe 50g in the frame. So, that 10g difference in the frame is where you're getting the difference in power and maneuverability. Having said the above, you'll come to realize that you can make a head light racket heavier (with tape and such), but you cannot make a head heavy racket lighter (despite adding extra grips to change the bp).
