There will always be people who prefer one over the other. While there are many who use ISO nowadays, u can also see that there are people who stick with OVAL. At the end of day, it's a trade off that u have to decide, feel/power vs bigger sweet spot. I think there are plenty of arguments supporting both. The way I look at it while ISO is definitly the mainstream design, oval is definitely has its place in badminton, otherwise, Gosen and Yonex wouldn't be still making oval shaped rackets. And consider this, CAB series has been around for many many years till this day, while others like isometiric, were long gone already.
imo it's better for a beginner because they cant hit the shuttle consistently.... but i think start learning badminton using an oval racket also good as it'll force a beginner to find the sweet spot thus will improve their technique better.... like lemon said, oval head give more power but iso head is more forgiving.. all pros changed to iso head as it offers bigger sweet spot, plus they already got power so they has no need for additional power from oval head.... the new scoring system also makes the game become faster, so large sweet spot really helpful.... but depends on people, i still can see there are some people who play using oval head... just my opinion....
Hi ppl For several years I ve been using iso rackets as i think they are considered the most usual and advanced nowadays and are the ones you can find a huge variety on the market. This year I ve tried an "almost oval" racket (rsl m11 heat600, has a "z-slash tipe" head) and since then I dont want any others. I dont know if this kind of head has big differences in theory from the pure oval, but i ve noticed at once what was being said about the ovals (more power in the sweet spot, less forgiving, more solid feel). long time ago I ve tried a cab21 and felt the same. It was a deja vu. I feel much more confortable playing with this kind of head (oval) and I intend to stick to it.
Personally, I love the OVAL racquets. Unfortunately, the manufacturers have stopped doing any meaningful R&D on them and what we have in the market today are re-hash of the old Carbonex technology - pity, I would love a TRI-VOLTAGE, FULLERENE/NANOPREME boosted, sound filter and sword-edge Carbonex - Carbonex-On-Steroids !
Since every body have bought an iso-head racket, there is no harm in telling the truth about it: FALSE: sweet spot would be greater TRUE: hitting off-centre probably is less jerky FALSE: does not make you a better player
There's room of R&D for racket manufacturers then. I dun mind if there will be ISOval (iso+oval) head racket coming soon LOL
at the height of consistency of my game, i prefer oval head with a solid feel when striking the shuttle in teh center of the sweetspot of a carbonex racket. but these days, i prefer isometric head just because the sweetspot is a bit bigger and it's a lot more forgiving when the shuttle is struck outside the sweetspot!!!
I myself am leaning toward converting fully to Ovals. I have never played with an Oval before, only Isometrics, but Ovals came on my radar one day when I was just practicing with a lady who used to play and was runner up in State. She has only Ovals and haven't played in years since her high school years. In fact, she is often confused about the new scoring rules and that there were even something called Isometric frames! I'm not ashamed to say this, she flat out outplayed me. It was an old Oval she pulled out of her closet, no practice, strings that were years old, she did things with that racket that put my collection of Isometrics to shame. Clearly she is a better player than me, it's not just the racket, her skills are a big part of the beating I received. Afterwards, she had me hit a couple with her racket and just that little time, I felt something, hard to explain fully but choosing the easiest word to describe, mainly it was a feeling. It just felt better than my Isometrics. So Ovals have been the main racket I pick up to play with currently. I'm still trying to find an Isometric that can match the feeling. Maybe one day I will, but Ovals have a place in my heart for now.
Hi Mater The things you ve told us may nothing to do the subject iso vs oval. Much of the feeling comes from the strings as they were years old, they were with low tension and the string itself is made of different materials than nowadays and also might be a thick one. The feeling in those conditions must be quite different and confortable than we are used to. About feelings iso vs oval, maybe a good aproach could be try an iso racket with the same balance point and string as the oval but stringing with a higher tension (2-3 lbs more). As the oval string bed is smaller, the bouncing at sweetspot is also smaller so you need the iso stringbed to be stiffer, maybe this way you ll get the same or a closer hitting feeling.
Even if we manage to find 2 rackets with exact same specs and string, only difference being head shape, IMO there will be difference in how a "hit" feels with an oval frame. It depends on personal preference though as to which one you like. For sure no one will like an off-centre hit with oval head racket though..
silvestre, you're right, there are many variables to consider and I did. Never owning or playing with an Oval, I went out and purchased a Cab21, strung w/ my usual strings and a little lower than my Iso rackets. The result was I still felt more feeling with the Cab than my other rackets. If it weren't there for me, no way would I keep the Cab. No feeling, along with a smaller sweet spot, and more money spent? I would have put it up for sale to recoup some money. Reality is I liked the play enough to grab that racket first out of the bag. sayshh, I agree, off center hits are tougher on the Ovals. I remember coming across a statement where a BC member(s) mentioned Ovals helps force one to play better and it does for me. I do focus more with Ovals because of the smaller sweet spot. For me, it is like if I have a dart to throw at a target, I concentrate more before throwing the dart if the target is smaller than larger. Or if I ask a student to serve in this general (larger) area vs serve in this specific (smaller) space. The student will concentrate more through for the smaller space. This is just my experience. The same reason how not everyone will use one specific brand and model racket, not everyone will feel the same way with Ovals. If I have everyone in our club try an Oval, some will say pretty good and go back to their own favorite racket, others will say it's terrible, they can't hit consistently with it. Next test is letting my teen son play with the Cab exclusively for a bit but that means I have to give it up. Will report back with his comments but to put it in print here first, my guess what he would say, would be "it's ok" or "I like mine better".
What is the design and function of "sharp isometric"? Is it a blend between iso and oval or otherwise?
Thanks. It feels weird. It is basic, older design, pretty much brushed aside by all manufacturers, I shouldn't like an Oval but I do. In fact, while others are talking about the latest and new Isos, I'm secretly thinking what other Ovals can I find to try. I'm even shying away from the in-betweeners, Oval-Isos! Only true Ovals. On top of that, now when I pick up one of my Isometrics, thanks to kwun, mentally it feels like I'm using this.
mater i know how you feel. personally i love ovals as well. unfortunately i haven't found any that feel as good as the classic cab 20 tour. i have all the new cabs except the 50. i'm about to try out gosen shiden and custom v next. 50 is still on my radar as well but the new yonex cabs just don't feel the same as the old ones so i'm not confident in buying it. ironically i started using a panda power revelation in the last half year and even though it doesn't feel like an oval i have started to fall in love with it.
disci, I have never played with the older classic Cabs so I cannot compare the new vs old, my own personal positive experience is based off playing with the new Cabs without comparing to the better classics. I wouldn't mind picking up a 50 as well, hard to find a good deal though. I did look at the Gosens but the price is too high for a player like myself. I was also looking at a couple Mizunos but there very limited info and I can't read any Japanese. The GP88 and GP77 both look Oval to me but I can't read any text to be certain of any specs.
Another great thread that I wish I've found much earlier! For the past 10 years, I've started with isometric rackets (start with Wilson (not sure which model), Yonex Ti-10 purple, SOTX Woven 7, APACS VH1800, Yonex AT700 old colour, and back to Ti-10 purple)... But since I've found Cab20 Tour Special (Red) 2UG5, I will never look back again (hopefully). I've never had such satisfaction when hitting the shuttle using isometric racket... Also yonex advertisement about carbonex (or oval frame) is very true: to obtain a unique and solid feeling. Of course the sweetspot is smaller and it sucks when I mishit the birdie, but it makes me selective about executing the stroke... *also one additional note: I bought Cab21 special 2UG5 before I got the Cab20 TRS and I've tried it for several hours. Although it's the same oval racket, but I don't get such a solid feeling when I use the Cab21 (compared to cab20TRS)… I don't know if it's because the cab21special is heavier/head-heavier than cab20TRS or not. Thus I'm still surprised with the consistent performance of my Cab20TRS. Happy badminton!
