Testing racket: step by step

Discussion in 'Badminton Rackets / Equipment' started by Yoppy, Jun 5, 2011.

  1. Yoppy

    Yoppy Regular Member

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    I have seen many very good racket reviews here on BC which sometimes cover very detail aspects of the racket. What I want to find out is the methodilogy/process at which we test and hence understand the racket. Just like we test drive a car, we go through different roads and road conditions. Often our reviewer just wrote down the result of their finding with out going through what they did to come to that conclusion.

    Sometimes honestly I was surprised on how people I saw can judge a racket by just doing drives on the side of the court. And at the same time I wonder sometimes if I have cover everything on my own way of testing a racket.

    My personal habit on testing a racket is as follow:

    1. Shake and bend: this is to get first idea on overall weight, BP and stiffness
    2. High clears: I do this as long as I can during warm up ussualy about 2-5 mins. At this point I can also know how this racket will perform on drop and smash, as all of the are actually using exactly the same stroke (long). I ussually pay more attention on control and power.
    3. Drop and smash: Basically just to confirm the high clear test. Most of the time I dont find my expectation is too far off.
    4. Flat drives: I put this in the mid stroke section. This is the point where personally I pay the more attention on how the racket will perform on accecleration, speed and to some degree stability and power.
    5. Smash return: The short stroke, surprisingly I use this as control and stability test rather than more of speed test.

    I largely ignore netting test altogether simply because IMO it comes down much to tension and string type rather than the overall racket design.

    So my question is; do you guys also doing a similar thing? And why? And if so what you guys doing differently as Im eager to find out what am I missing out?

    Cheer!!
     
  2. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    I do pretty much exactly the same:

    Note dry specs;
    Bend and shadow strokes to get a prelimary feel;
    Stringing (hoop strength/degree of deformation);

    Long power - clears/smashes/high backhand (the last one is a really good indicator IME);
    Short power - stab drives/stick smash;
    Placement/accuracy;
    Defence.

    I usually add some netters to gauge the feel, but as Yoppy says the shot trajectory is largely stringbed-contingent.

    During all of the above tests I'm also focusing on feel and stability - a racket can hit as hard as it wants, but if it's a plank, or the head pirouettes off line on hard hits, it's not going in my bag:D.
     
  3. Yoppy

    Yoppy Regular Member

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    Interesting point on the high backhand, sometimes I also feel that since backhand is relatively a weaker stroke for me, therefore any flaws or assistants from the racket should be easier to spot.
     

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