Yesterday, I went to the local badminton specialized store (Badminton Alley, Sunnyvale) to get my racket restrung. My racket - the Yonex Aerotus 77 had strings that came with the racket when I bought it (Carlton "something" strings with 20 lbs tension) and the string was showing major signs of wear and tear so I decided to get it replaced. The Carlton strings were "recreational" strings that didn't have any pronounced features or upsides. After determining that I train with nylon shuttles (primarily the Mavis 350) almost exclusively, the store owner suggested that I get the BG-70 Pro string. I agreed to have the racket strung at 21 lbs. of tension because I could previously generate plenty of power even with the older Carlton strings at an even lower tension. When I picked it up, I immediately went to play with it to test it out. I noticed that the timing and power aspects of my game were thrown off entirely. However, the greatest difference I saw was in my clears. With the Carlton 20 lb tension strings, I could clear from the back to close to the back on the opponent's side with relative ease. With the new BG-70 Pro strings, I could only clear halfway on the opponent's courts even when exerting all my power. No matter how hard I tried, the new strings just weren't exhibiting any usefulness with smashes and clears (especially the latter). This led me to wonder if there is a period of "break-in" time for the strings to loosen up. I'd like some timely help if possible because that's the only racket I own right now and we have our first high school meet in less than two weeks. Thanks!
Yes the BG-70 Takes a bit to break in if you dont like to "dead" feeling. I'm very used to it being dead so it doesn't matter to me. From what my friend said, the string is less shock obsorbing but does last longer. The string is a average of durability and repulsion(according to Yonex) Take a few hours to swing at birds!, mainly clears and smashes during drills or something, you'll feel the tension come down somewhat (but dont expect much, it's one of the more durable strings of all the Yonex ones I've used) This is the most dominant string I use nowadays since the durability is pretty good and the string is pretty tough in terms of keeping its tension From your post, you mentioned that your old string was frailing and that's y u thought it needed replacing. It mite be that the string has fallen down to about ~18lbs of tension since when you first strung it. At lower tensions it's easier to produce power, but the down side is that net play is not as good Anyway, my suggestion is for you to hit with it as much as u can until you're comfortable with it, and best of luck to you at your school meet! Cheers!
Yeh, after a few days of badminton you'll notice the strings will begin to loosen up and things will get better. I noticed that when I first played with the BG70s my clears were good but power was horrible. After like 3 weeks my strings snapped on my primary racquet and I had to use my backup Ti-3 w/ BG70's and it felt a whole lot better but still had that dead feeling to it. I prefer the BG65's over it though.
I do believe a "break in" period is necessary. Personally, I always let the racket "rest" for 2 days before any actions. This way, I belive the string will loosen up a little bit, and tension should be more evenly distributed.
On the other side of the coin. I prefer to play with a freshly strung racquet. I think that your problem is probably just adaptation to the different type of strings with the different bounce. Once you've adjusted your timing, things will probably improve.
Thanks for the responses! Jchen, I believe that it's possible for new strings to screw up your timing that much, especially if you've only used one racket and one string since you started playing badminton. Anyway, today at practice, I arrived early to warm up by hitting all clears and a few smashes to loosen up the tension a bit as suggested. I noticed after awhile, I started becoming accustomed to the timing issues and actually felt as if my game progressed to a whole new level.
Yeh, that happens when you only use one racquet and strings. That one of the reasons why pros carry like 3-4 of the same racquet with them so they don't have to adapt to it and they use like one string.
well.. of course it felt totally different.. ^^;; youve been using 20 lb tension that probly had dropped even lower as you played, quickly jumping to 21 lb (fresh) is a big change. build some more arm strength and the 21 lbs should feel much better..
One good thing about the BG-70 is that, it keeps tension well That's one of the reasons that I chose to have my MP-88 strung with the BG-70 (20x21). It's pretty nice though
After almost a year of playing badminton and gaining tons of insight about it, I've experienced a lot as far as strings are concerned. I've tried several other Yonex strings, but still find the BG-70 to be the best overall when hitting with nylon birds (standard for the interscholastic competitions we have here). I've forgotten about this post and now I string all my rackets with BG-70 at about 24 lbs. Que diferencia hacen ocho meses!
