Have you tried the Gosen Gold S-200 shuttlecoks? Undoubtebly the best shuttlecoks I've played with for precision, flying course, distance, etc Give 'em a try, bet you'll stick with them for life once you have!
Badminton trying to change to synthetic birds: Gunalan MUMBAI, NOV 16, 2006 (PTI) The game of badminton is following the footsteps of other sports and trying to convert bird feather-made shuttles into synthetic ones, according to the Olympic sport's world body's top official Punch Gunalan. Malaysian Gunalan, one of the foremost players of his time who is the deputy president of the Badminton World Federation (formerly International Badminton Federation), said that research is on to find the right synthetic material for making shuttles. "Badminton is the only sport which requires a live creature for its equipment and the demand is more than the supply. Therefore we are in the process of developing a synthetic shuttle which will behave like the normal bird," he said. Gunalan, who is here to watch the ongoing Indian International Badminton Tournament, said further, "Two of our scientists are doing research on developing this synthetic shuttle cock. The people from Yonex (leading badminton equipment suppliers) are also on the same job." Gunalan said that the change from 15 to 21 points was done to make the games shorter and more interesting for the TV viewers. "We had been losing out on TV viewer-ship due to the long drawn-out matches. Since we had changed the scoring pattern to 21 we have had fantastic response from television companies and viewers," he explained. "Due to this change we have also earned a lot of money which we can put back into the game,' he added. ------------------------ nice to know the scientists are working hard on this product
Can't they make synthetic fibers to replicate the feathers? It'd be great if they could, I love feathers, but I dislike the feather plucking thingy, not to mention that it'd probably be more economical this way.
After I saw international game and how Sir DinksALot play, I would like to offer few of my opinions. 1) This thread has focus on the feather and its durability. The main issue is the feather shaft durability here. 2) Why is the shaft fragile? My answer is the shaft is actually very string. The main issue here is the shaft break after miss hit. From my observation in our club, if there is no miss hit, a good feather shuttle (Victor Champ#1 or YY AS40) actually survive an entire game with no damage to the shaft. 3) For international player or Sir Dinks, their string tension is so high and they are hitting so hard that no feather shuttle will last over 6 point w/o miss hitting anyway. 4) Another factor we need to think about is the head of shuttle. It is made out of cork. The cork will get soft after a good game of smashing. Try a used perfectly good shuttle and a new shuttle out of the tube, you will see the difference. Check out the WC video, many time they replace a perfectly good shuttle because the cork is soft already. 5) Why we need to have synth shuttle? Will it be better than the current YY AS50? Depend on what your def of better is. It will be more durable for sure. It will fly more consistant without testing from batch to batch. But it will not be more consistant than any tub of AS50. Will it have better fly path? No, AS50 has perfect flying path already, nothing can be better than perfect. Will it be cheaper, it has to be or no one will buy it. 6) The biggest factor of synth feather shuttle is price. If I can mass produce the feather shuttle and reduce the cost of shuttle to $0.25 per shuttle, will we still have this discussion? No! Badminton is an expensive sport for many people and I totally agree. It is more expensive than tennis. It is more expensive than pingpong. It is more expensive than racquet ball. But I love this game and I am welling to go out to dinner 1 time less for a good tub of shuttle. I am welling to work second job so I can sub the s/h for my club to use feather shuttle. So, for love of the game, just keep using feather and let the engineer figure it out!!!
Ok lets sum this up.. 1) It would be really nice with a synthetic shuttle (less expensive than feather-shuttles) for the game.. 2) Today there is no such thing as a good syntetic shuttle. Market leader Yonex plastic shuttles for example (Mavis370/350) are a joke and plays like s-t.. 3) In utopia ther would be a cheap syntetic shuttle with proper trajectory, and non "foldable" shirt. 4) Trying to promote syntetics by "forcing" them onto badminton-players spoiled with using the feather shuttles with steep trajectory and different weight distribution, is a stupid idea!!! 5) First show us a good syntetic shuttle, then, and not before then we talk about replacing feathers.. right?!? Another thing.. Cooler mentioned that he felt syntetics are more consistent than feathers. My experience is completely opposite.. dependent on temperature, storage, batch and production date (even difference between the batches of yellow or white mavises!!) the speed of the plastics varies Extremely!! They also only come in 3 speeds fast,medium or slow.. compared to feathers witch you can get in speeds varying from 73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80!! Most good feathers are rigourously quality tested to have right speed and flight pattern, I dont thing the platcis shuttles are quality assuered at all.. just pressed and put into tubes!! Cheers, Twobeer
Gotta get an engineer into this thread. It'd be great: Cheap, economical/ecological, consistent, superior, nylon birdies.
Just wondering, if there is a slightly more flexible joining (where the feather joins the cork), will the feathers last longer on mis hits? I really want to know why someone hasnt tried to make plastic feathers and use them. Something interesting would be to get videos of matches (all levels) and see exactly how the feathers are breaking. I believe that a mishit with the top of the racket hitting a vertically descending shuttle tends to kill the feather which the racket hit. So if the feather shaft was more flexy, would that solve the problem? I know that if it is flexy, it will behave differently from a normal shuttle under that particular mishit condition, but who cares, its a mishit anyway.
Yes, and no. Yes, the shuttle feather might last longer. However, the feeather will claps during the smash or clear. The shuttle will become a fly right out of court. Also, the shaft can not be too hard and have too much strength because if you miss hit the frame, the frame will break. May be we have Bio engineer here who can GE a super bird that can produce 2X grade A feather than current mother goose?
Gene engeneer those geese to produce more good feather at the same shape. More feather mean cheaper material cost. Same shape and quality means we can make it with machine and take labor issue out of eq. If we can buy grade A shuttle @ $5 or $6 a tube, many people will be happy too.
I really don't think all the work put into cloning and GE is productive in terms of money when US companies can mass "grow" geeses like they do with chickens and cows. It's probably just because the market is so small that it hasn't happened yet. Not to mention the labor cost.
As I said before and I will say it again. I vote for shooting Canadian geese and use their feather to make shuttle...
Ha ha ha, Steven has a very good idea . Serioiusly, if modified spider silk can be produced synthetically, why not feather.
Im sure that given the right development budget an acceptable synthetic shuttle could be developed (not using nylon) but the cost would be huge and the commercial advantage would be short lived. Therefore most manufacturers will still strive for perfection using the available materials of goose feather or nylon.
synthetic shuttles are durable, they fly pretty well, but compared to using actual feather shuttles, feather shuttles are a lot more fun. Also you cant slice synthetic shuttles, becauses there are no feathers but a plastic skirt acting as wings.
Li Ning New Hybrid Shuttlecock LN is exploiting an old patent held by Prince which i think had expired or else LN wouldn't take on this remake. From the video, i see LN made some upgrade to the Prince's hybrid shuttlecock. Chinese labor costs will not stop rising, badminton feather shuttles needed a new remake. This is more environmental friendly since only bad feathers being replaced, not needing to discard the whole shuttlecock that still have some good feathers on them. I have not tried it yet but I think performance (feel and flight) of this hybrid shuttle should comes very close to the current feather shuttles. I think this time it wouldn't fade away since LN has the staying power than Prince. http://translate.google.com/transla...cn/badminton/huanyu/&rurl=translate.google.ca (sounds better if u have a good subwoofer)
Yes, I remember this one from Victor. There are several problems and I would like to point out. 1) It is good for practice. Not very good for real game play. After a point, you break a feather, you stop between point and remove the feather and put a new on on. while the other 3 players take a tea break. Or you still have to buy 3 or 4 of these shuttles in case of feather break during the game. 2) If I remember it right, you are suppose to buy or use the special feather, not the one you recycle from your used bird. If that is the case, what is the price of the replacement feather? Is it suppose 1/17 of the original shuttle? 3) The weight distribution. Victor use plastic ring to hold the shuttles in place so it will not change the weight distribution. But the plastic ring crack easily. I assume LN use AL ring for durability. To keep the shuttle at 5g and compensate the heavier metal ring, the shuttle weight distribution will change and flight path is not going to be the same. 4) Unless you can get all the feather line up in the right angle, the speed will very from 1 to next. It also wobble if you don't have it right. Again, for practice, you can recycle the used shuttles. May be it is good to have the beginner kids to replace the feather as home work for the coach for free. Other wise, why bother?
Looks interesting. Surely a step in the right direction, in terms of reusing and recycling shuttles. The ring looks plastic, not metal. Hopefully, they have figured out how to orient the feathers properly so that flight remains consistent between feather changes. Perhaps this 1st gen is good enough for practice, but I'm sure after a few gen of improvements, this will be used in tournaments and competitive play.
