Visor. Im interested to know why would you go for the lowest tension you can tolerate? I played with 26lbs the other day and the shuttle was bouncing off the bed for net shots. It was too loose.
My test for my own upper limit is just a shuttle speed test: if I can hit an underhand shot from one baseline to (at least) the opposite doubles service line, I consider that tension within my capabilities. The lower limit is tougher to define concretely - net spinners are a good gauge.
Oh... hehe... the great Panda is not me, it's Dinkalot who said that. As others have mentioned, the right tension is the one that is a compromise between power and touch/accuracy for you. For me, my upper limit is reached when I need to use more than 80% max power to clear baseline to baseline. And my lower limit is reached when my drive accuracy and netplay touch feel is impaired.
I've had some weird experiences with tension. I've played at 22lbs for a long time and it seemed to be my "sweet spot" for tension, power wise anyways, but I felt that it was lacking some "crispness". I ended up trying gradually higher tensions (23,24,25,26 lbs) and it never felt quite right. I didn't want to go over that because other tensions seemed too high for me. And then one day, I tried my friend's racket at 28lbs. I expected to not even be able to clear, but I LOVED the feeling and felt I had even more power than with lower tensions. I just assumed that I felt great that day and kept stringing my rackets at 24lbs. I did the experiment again this week, this time with the same racket. I had one Flash Boost strung at 23lbs, one at 26lbs and the other at 28lbs. Again, the racket at 28lbs seemed to be better for me. More power, more crispness, more precision, I simply loved it. Maybe the effect is psychological, but I'd be surprised since I liked the racket at 23lbs, then picked up the racket at 26lbs and it didn't quite feel good and didn't play well. When I picked up the racket at 28lbs, I thought that I wouldn't be able to generate enough power and that the game would be horrible. Games aren't the best moment to compare rackets or tensions, but it is a feeling that I got all night after switching rackets. So I'm thinking, would it be possible that we have 2 "sweet spots" for tension ?
[MENTION=75572]yan.v[/MENTION] Was it the same string? What string was it? And what was your previous racket? Perhaps your previous racket/string was stiffer than your current FB.
The first time I tried playing at 28lbs (the time I just thought I was feeling great that day) was with BG65, also strung by me. Although it's the same gauge as ZM70..
My guess is that the FB requires a whipping style of play and that you're able to generate faster racket head acceleration with it, as compared to say VZTF. Hence you find you need a stringbed with faster rebound time. What was your racket before the FB?
I played with Photons, MX London, MX JJS, VTZF 4U, MX80, MP99, and more... lol. I haven't found a racket I loved in a long time, so I've been using different rackets to find the One. The time I tried my friend's racket, I was using a MX London at 24lbs and his racket was a RSL Diamond X5 (I think) at 28lbs. His racket is 3U and feels head heavy.
I know the feeling ive done the same before where 23-24 is good then i cant hit far at all between 24-26 but towards 27-29 i can hit farther and it's just more enjoyable. I recently switched from bg65 to bg80 so im thinking 26 would be an appropriate adjustment. Might try 24 as well with bg80.
Another factor I've just found out is the type of string you use. I had been using a .66 string which kept snapping. My record was 20 minutes. They have now been thrown in the bin and 2 different types of .68 have been put in. My conclusion is .66 stings are not very good at high tensions.
