As long as you lead with the elbow first , then when you whip the hand forward to strike, pronation occurs naturally. Imagine it like flinging a drop of water off your thumb. Add grip tightening and you're all set.
You could try and trade the racket on the Buy and Sell section of BC. I have had a few successful trades by doing this and have found a racket I like to use. More importantly it matches the natural swing of my arm. I use a MX80 which is stiff, strung at 30lbs and don't have a problem with power. If you are going to perserver with the racket just practice clearing until you get the feel and timing right slightly modify your swing to maximise swing speed. Remember with a stiff racket to generate flex in the shaft you need to use a short, explosive acceleration in speed before contacting the shuttle, ie using your fingers, unlike using a flex shaft which is flexed more in the natural arm swing.
I found myself an old flexible racket, should I practice my stroke technique using that and then move on to the stiff racket or just practice only with the stiff racket?
practise only with the stiff racquet. force generation with a flexible racquet is fundamentally different from that of a stiff racquet. the timings and coordinations of the forearm/wrist in power generation.
I see, I still get a bit of shoulder pain when I use the stiff racket, I'm using the pronation technique as suggested although I could use some more practice with it, I just don't wanna kill my shoulder by the time I perfected my technique
Be patient, take time for ur body to adjust. I was using muscle power tour and it took me a long 3 months to get my smash back while training on the sw35! The first few sessions you might feel really week but its just ur body learning something new, u might not be able to feel the improvements but u will in time!!
