Hi, I'm a beginner-intermediate player who just switched rackets: I used to use the Apacs Nano Power 9900 with Stern 9 string strung at 23/25. I switched to the Apacs Lethal 70 with BG 65 string strung at 24/26. The Lethal 70 seemed great during the first week or so but after that my observation was that although my shuttle control has improved slightly, I can no longer backhand from one end of the court to another and the strength of my smashes has decreased. Why is this happening? BTW: I also have the Apacs Tantrum 300 strung with BG 65 at 24/26. With this racket, I have improved control but I didn't feel that my backhand and smashing power were affected as significantly. I play with both feather and plastic shuttles, but only use plastic when I'm playing unseriously. Mainly it's the feather shuttles where I seem to have less power. Please give me some advice! Should I change the string/tension on one of my rackets and which string should I use? Or should I just stick with the Apacs 9900 Nano Power? Maybe you have another racket recommendation for me?
try a thinner string like BG80 at 23/24 lbs (not with plastics though) the extra repulsion will help your backhand
The main reason you don't feel the same playing with these three racquets is because each one of them is a different racquet! The Nano Power 9900 is head light with medium stiff shaft while the Lethal 70 is head heavy with very stiff shaft and the Tantrum 300 is even balance to slight head heavy with moderately stiff shaft. The reason you feel your backhand is affected with the Lethal 70 is simply because you are not used to the stiffness and head heavy characteristic of the racquet. The backhand is a forearm and wrist flick based shot and since the Lethal 70 is a lot stiffer than your usual Nano Power 9900, the same amount of effort you put into the Lethal 70 as your Nano Power 9900 is just not enough. The Tantrum 300 however is less stiff and less head heavy than the Lethal 70 and closer in characteristic to the Nano Power 9900 thus you feeling not as affected as significantly. Simply put, the Apacs Lethal 70 is not as forgiving as your two other Apacs racquets and to use it properly you would need to hone your technique. When you can play with the Lethal 70 without any problems, you can switch back to the other two and you will feel that they are a lot easier to use than before. This is also a reason why the professional players hone their technique to a point where they can use any extra difficult to master racquet and still may choose to use a more forgiving racquet (for example Peter Gade who plays good with the AT700 has chosen Arc10 for the more forgiving nature). The string that you're using and the tension when you had this analysis are almost identical in each case so that is not the main point of interest. However if you do want to change strings do remember that if you use a thinner string such as BG80 or BG66 and you depend too much on the natural repulsion (meaning that you don't hit as hard or bend the racquet shaft as you're hitting), you're very likely to fray through the string and snap them pretty quickly. The best hitting technique is to pronate your forearm and snap your wrist so that you bend the racquet shaft when you hit the shuttle so you get the best control and power.
if ur swing is fast enough. coz with light head, u can swing faster, therefore it all boils down to technique.
