Before Ants posted I was gonna say Taufik grips his racquet pretty low. Maybe when Lin Dan and Taufik played together during MVP cup? they exchanged ideas In all shots played I see Taufik grips his racquet at the end, whereas Lin Dan changed relatively recently. Notice Lin Dan plays some backhands with a forehand grip, it gets the job done, but the range is not as big as some other players. I can only suggest because he plays so fast, he keeps his grip change to a minimum and play with one grip only.
Early last year, my coach (after watching Lin Dan's match against Peter Gade in the AE04) said Lin Dan's only weakness is his grip. He holds it like doubles players, that's why he always dive to retrieve the shuttle especially his backhand side. Then we saw him change grip in WC05, my coach said it must be his coach's idea to wrap the grip like this. This will help him to improve his defence.
hi ants, is that an actual Taufik's racket? The grip looked so much different than what I had in mind! I thought he wrap his racket with an extremely large base and all the way up to before the cone (no wood expose), then ductape over the head thats about a thumb breadth down..
I don't see much point in guessing when the answer is obvious. Again, being the first to have the right answer, I'd like my prize racket to be a classic Ti-10 3U4 please. The top of the handle was bared to reveal the edges. The amount bared was down to preference at the time, and maybe more or maybe less on other occasions. The bare wood could be tough on the hand, so occasionally a thin layer of tape was used to give the wood a smooth surface. Even though the tape protected the hand, the sharp edges of the wood were not obstructed. As there were no useful features in the area between the edges and the cone, that area could be left as it was and won't be used much. For the people at the top of the world, they didn't need more power, nor increased reach, nor learn how to hold the racket lower down (if there was a newspaper story about this, it was a joke, and Mr highly coached panda bear should not have been so shockingly easy to be taken in). What the people at the top of the world need were infinitesimal control over their tools. Precision control was possible only when there was precise and unobscured feedback. This then was the purpose of baring those sharp edges - to facilitate minute directional control of the racket face by the use of the index finger and thumb. What they had achieved was precision engineering. Ugly ? Note a bit.
cooldoob, how abotu this: Note one: In old photo's (with his mp99) he grip his grip halfway http://www.badmintoncentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/1797/cat/530 liek that 'suddenly' with his new grip, he grips it lower http://www.badmintoncentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/2364/cat/530 http://www.badmintoncentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/2541/cat/530 even at the forecourt...he ony yplaces his fingers on the wood when he serves...
You know sometimes when we play badminton we get distracted by other thoughts such as thinking up a stratergy, deciding where to place the shuttles so and so... that we neglected or become unaware where we are gripping the racket handle.. for me I certainly experienced that, sometimes I noticed my clear isn't as deep/far as I wanted it to be, and then I quickly glance @ my grip and saw it was just an inch higher than usual... Probably the pros did it that way is to totally prevent them from gripping too high up, maximising torque of the racket for power which is extremely important in singles.. be it forgetfulness or accidental slip, guess its best to totally eliminate the problem by wrapping it like that as a constant reminder... And I agree with people in saying maximising power, so my challenge to those who disagrees, try smashing while gripping as high up below the cone.. and compare to grip right to the base..
A possible reason for LD's strange grip of part wood/part grip is to have more feel and touch and also power. For delicate net shots which require very fine thumb and index finger control, bare wood gives you the best feel. LD knows that the net and Taufik are his nightmare, and perhaps he should go to the extreme to even this out with TH. Bare wood at the top also gives your thumb and index finger a better grip for backhand shots, especially drives, taps and pushes. The best answer will be from the horse's mouth. We have some members here who seem to be close to the players and perhaps they can ask LD the next time they see him.
its like racing car. you throw away things to reduce its weight. or they want make a new trend so that people can follow their trend.
I always take the factory grip off and use towel grips, and I don't experience any discomfort at all, plus the racket is then more head heavy.
I do the same thing... but the difference is that towelgrip is a replacement grip (meant to be gripped on the wood....most of the time...) and the chickepoodles grip is an overgrip... Quite a difference, the overgrip being 0.5mm, while towelgrip is something like 1.0-1.5mm (and cushiony) Though to me, towelgrip or a standardgrip...My rackets don't become headheavier...But that's me
It might not feel head heavier but think about it, if you take weight off the grip then the balance point will be slightly different. According to the laws of physics this is correct
