How do you choose a raquet?

Does your coach have rackets for you to try. You really need to try a racket for yourself.

 

http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/98987-Badminton-Rackets-Selector

 

You don't choose the racquet. The RACQUET choose YOU.

 

I agree with Iori, I've only been playing badminton myself for around 7 months, but when you go play, ask if you can borrow people's racquets and play for a bit. Give each one a good fair trial, even if it doesn't feel right the moment you pick it up, play with it for a game or two so you know you don't have to go back to it, and while you play, just see if it fits/improves your game. The main thing is just to try anything you can get your hands on, u know?

 

Taking it even further, I'd say make sure you try the racket for at least more than one session. For example, when I first tried the apacs Tantrum 300, I thought it was the best racket I had ever played with in my life. This was during the first session with it. At the next session, I thought it was still a decent racket but I started to prefer my good old Lethal 60/70. After several weeks, I still think it is a great racket, but I very much prefer the Lethal 60/70. For now, the Lethal 60/70 is probably the best racket I've ever played with, but the Yonex 3U Voltric 80 is getting up there (had it for just over 2 weeks now, across about 6-7 sessions). At first, I thought the Voltric 80 was really head heavy, but right now, I feel it's rather fast and light. I even switched to my Lethal 70 suddenly one time and couldn't really tell that much of a difference, despite the Balance Points being apparently more than 20mm different.

You can probably observe that the moral of the story is that one probably needs at least several weeks (possibly at least 10 sessions) to really get a good idea of whether the racket will work for you. Sometimes your initial impression may be very bad, but if you took time to adapt to the racket, you may find it becomes the best racket for you. This is why I cringe a little when I see the many "For Sales" in this forum with associated "played only once/twice and didn't suit me".

 

to know which racket that is suitable for you, you need to know your play style
we could help you if you can answer these questions
**however we cannot guarantee 100% it is the right racket for you as each person is different (your mileage may vary)

so.. what is your old racket? (Spec please, you can find it on the shaft for carlton I think)
what do you feel is lacking in your old racket? (power, speed, control?)

level of play? (beginner, intermediate, advance?)
are you singles or doubles player?
what is your play style? (aggressive, defensive, all around?)
are you using wrist or arm more to do the shot?
what is your strength? (smash, drop shot, net shot, etc)
what area do you want to improve? (same as above)

any preference on flex and balance point? (if you don't know, leave it blank)
brand and budget preference?

 

Apacs Lethal 60 is quite good. You can try it. It is within your budget range.

 

so.. most of your racket is medium flex and even balance

based on your description, medium flex and even balance racket is suitable for you
I don't see any reason to buy a new racket as the spec of your racket is fine
maybe just restring your racket with better string
for example Yonex BG66 ultimax, nanogy 98, or Ashaway Zymax 67
for tension, try 20-22 lbs

 

Hi rykard,

Congrate yourself for choosing badminton and you're on the right track by going for a coaching session as to improve your gameplay. As for any new player that starts to actively involved in this beautifull sport, one aspect that you need to properly decide and understand is choosing the ideal racket that suits you well. The question that you stated above will be one of the most common question, among others, that any player in your situation will ask. It's very important to choose the ideal racket that suits ideally with how you play because it plays a major role ( among other factors in badminton ) the quality of your hit thus the quality of your gameplay. You can follow any suggestion or advice or guidelines to facilitate how you will choose the ideal racket for you and all of those information you can take it it as your references but ultimately at the end, the CORRECT decision what racket you will choose will be you yourself as player since you need to personally try and test those rackets in order to feel and identify that "mutual bond". This is very important since any good racket wield in another player hand will not necessarily be a good racket wield in your hand. As a summary:

1. Understand first yourself as a player, your needs into a racket, your physical
condition and your constraint.
2. Match all the above understanding with the racket specifications that you want it to
exist in a racket.
3. Search for the racket brands that has that type of racket specifications
4. List down all the racket that has that preferred racket specifications
5. Try and test it.
6. Decide which racket that suits you the best.

For further details information for the above guide, you can read my thread here http://www.badmintoncentral.com/for...line-for-Selecting-the-Ideal-Badminton-Racket any hopefully it can help.

 

so, are you going to buy new racket or use the old one?
as I believe it is fine for now to use the old one (your finnex is fine..)

you might not want your grip becomes too big (for example using 2-3 replacement grips)
you will LOSE control
I tried it before and it was hard to control the bird (the bird didn't go to where it supposed to be)

usually what people do:
replacement grip only
replacement grip and over grip
over grip only

how about the idea restring your racket? string is also an important aspect (as your shuttlecock would make a contact with the string)
choosing the right string and string tension would increase your game quality