is it true if i put my shuttlecock in a refrigerator for a night before use can make it last longer?? i did my own experiment on sea lion green/gold n the result is surprisingly true.. can anyone explain?
Just because you put your shuttle in the fridge and it ended up lasting longer doesn't necessarily mean that the shuttle lasted longer. In short, correlation doesn't mean causation. There could have been a number of factors that resulted in your birdies lasting longer like having less frame hits, the players who were playing, whether you were playing singles or doubles, the list goes on. I don't think there has been any research done as to prove this theory. My thinking is that if you freeze birdies, the decreased temperature shouldn't last long enough for it to have a significant effect on play unless you literally had a freezer right there at the badminton gym. They would have warmed up significantly by the time you used them. Even then... I can only think that the feathers might be more brittle so they actually might be easier to break when struck.
There might be some truth in the refrigerated shuttlecocks. Water will condense on the cool shuttlecocks after they've been taken out of the fridge, thus making them less brittle. Of course, we don't know how cold the fridge is. Dannymorello's correlation would be based on his passed experience playing with non refrigerated shuttles. Assuming his standard of play is consistent, his correlation can be associated to causation here. If he's a regular frame hitter, he's not going to suddenly hit everything solid the next day. Probably the same regular group of guys playing too.. Of course, there is a chance he got a 'super batch' of shuttles that play better than usual. Probably need to test the theory a few more times before any reliable conclusion can be made.
My bad, I misread refrigerator for freezer at some points. I was just basing my observations off what he said, which is next to nil =p. There's still too many factors to take into account other than the consistency of play and who he plays with. Of course if you REALLY wanted to test this, you'd need a super controlled environment with many data tests which can still be thrown off by the quality of the batches; that is out of your control. Seeing as feather shuttles can be broken in as easy as one rally, the average life of a birdie is relatively inconsistent even at the pro level (almost no frame hits), much less club level. I'm not saying that the idea is completely wrong, but that we need more a more reliable account and study than just a one-time experiment with personal approximations as to a birdie's durability. Now if anyone has the time, effort, and money to find out, be my guest =p.
http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/6275-Storing-Shuttles same topic. might want to check that thread out first.
My friends who used to be Malaysian state players tells me that is what they do. Get a deep freezer, put the tubes into it for a few hours or overnight without the cover, then take them out say 30min-1hr before need to use them. They can go thru quite a number of shuttles per day. Good enough for them ...
