@ucantseeme that's why I don't say your argument or opinions are wrong. Because I am too working so that I can also afford my rackets and my shuttle and hobby. And i agree with u one hundred percent about passion. I trained badminton from 0, and now at a level which I can differenciate my needs (rackets, ball, etc). And realised that it is not such a cheap hobby. I am lucky, that with it, I got a part time job related to badminton, and can reasonably spend in it. But really. What I am saying is that it is sometimes sad, that some of my friends, who really and actually enjoy just cannot play as often as their time (and skill) allows because we ran out of feather shuttles. Because he doesn't have enough money just to keep stringing because plastics broke his strings, or vice versa, buy decent enough shuttle. On the other hand, some of my friends also just switch to something cheaper, like football (I already argued why). Eventough clearly he enjoys badminton more. In big cities in Germany, it is a lot easier. A lot of clubs understands the importance of playing with feather, so you pay a fee, and usually you get a discount on feathers. In my city? There are only 3 very small Vereine, and all play plastic. They know it's better. The clubs just ended up prioritising other sports. And my strings (and my shoulders..) just cry and cringe everytime. So yeah.. Welcome Carbonsonic.. If you are really as good as it is promised. Gesendet von meinem D5803 mit Tapatalk
@necrohiero I understand your dilemma, but if I'm right you play at unniversity sports? I don't play with entries, so shuttles are not killed by mishits etc. and if I discover a cock cracker, I tell him, that I will avoid playing with him, if he don't change anything. If your friends are beginners, the amount of wasted shuttles is higher. I suggest to play level doubles. 4 guys, each give one shuttle for the game. IMO you can steam shuttles and buy shuttles for the mid range. What's your default choice? With 4 guys and 48 shuttles you can get 12-16 games, which could be 6-10 hours and can last a week.
I'm always open to these kind of things. Cost-wise it could be an excellent alternative for advanced players. I play with both feathers and plastics and have to say I like 'm both. I don't quite understand why some can be so uptight and sniffy towards plastics. Sure, it makes it a different game in some ways, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. I can imagine though that if you already grew up with feathers and you try out plastics a few times you don't like it right away. I grew up with plastics, in an era that even the top level under 16 leagues used plastics. It is only since a few years that I reached a level of competition that I needed to play in tournaments using feathers in order to get challenged. Here in the Netherlands almost everything up to C2 level uses plastics. Of the ones playing plastics, I consider myself to be one of the better ones. I do fine in C1 with feathers, but as in my club plastics is the standard, it always takes some re-adapting to feathers (after half an hour or a few games I'm okay). I've won matches against B-level players and Dutch second division players uaing plastics, while with feathers they would be way out of my league. They were not condecending at all: they actually thought it was exellent training having to adapt to different speed of the shuttle and pace of the game. If you make a mistake with a plastic shuttle, your opponent will leave you no chance, where with feathers you have more chance of recovering and returning. That I have to carry some extra rackets (higher tension for feathers otherwise my clears will rocket out of the venue) is the price I pay, but when it comes to strenght and sometimes speed there is a lot to gain and learn from playing plastics now and then (but then again, if you do so, borrow a racket strung at lower tension to avoid that painfull shoulder and avoid injuries, think that this is where a lot of people go wrong).
You are correct! Thet were the NS-5's. I have a tube. They flew fast and the didn't feel like goose feather birds. Hard to describe but the weighting was off but they "turned" fast after being hit. I didn't try tipping them funny enough. Looking at my last three it seems you may be able to. The durability was only "ok". I took the below picture just now of my last three shuttles
I also started with plastics, but switched to feathers due more serious playing. I played a period with both and decided that this permanent switching, didn't made it easy for me to train in a same enviroment and to stay focused on me. I wanted to eliminate excuses for the switching. I discovered that the feel of feathers is IMO worth to spend more money and one day plastics became disagreeable. I also hated to have different rackets for different shuttles and this doubled tracked effort. I wanted to kill this thinking about plastics or feathers and this unfamiliar feel with both if I switched to often. I asked myself: You spend alot of money for high end rackets in your bag, you buy shoes every 6-8 month, you use thin strings and go for restrings pretty often, you broke several high end racket during doubles, why are you so generous when it comes to all this expensive equipment and on the other side you start to be cheap? Especially at the thing which makes the biggest difference? You don't go into an expensive restaurant and order just the cheapest starter and a glass of water? I felt like a guy with a high end BBQ smoker who just spend his money on the cheapest flesh from ALDI. I asked myself how much joy do have with feathers and how much with plastics? I asked myself if this extra money is worth and how much do you love badminton? I made my decision. I'm allin.
Not a true fact at all. If you play regularly and at a pace that is very active relative to your level. You'll find yourself running through shoes especially if you do tournaments and the training that runs up to it.
I understand this point completely. Especially if one uses YY shoes. Most of my friends do have to change/repair them after half a year or so. Most of them have already switched to Victor, Mizuno or Asics though and they don't experience these problems anymore. And trust me - they haven't all of a sudden changed the schedule or level of playing. =) Not gonna say all YY shoes suck but the trend is quite obvious here. Might be just some of the lower quality shoes are being delivered to my country, who knows. I opted to play in Asics myself and just change insoles from time to time. Although the oldest pair did give up on shock-absorption a bit lately but damn, they're about 40 months old with average of 10-12h of play a week with some occasional tournaments as well. Use them as a backup pair or for some leisure sessions nowadays. *went full offtopic here, sorry.
I can tell you that I used SH8500, SH8600, SHA850, SHA820 SHS80, Asics Blade 3, SHB86 in the last 5 years and all of them lasted 8-10 month. All are high end. I train and play minimum 10 hours per week. BTW I'm not a 6 stone hobbit and I don't need to wear knee braces at my age. It also depends on the floors and disciplines which you play. Impossible to wear a pair of shoes longer than a year if you are not a Thumbelina. This equals more than 1600 hours court time. Never ever. Marc Zwiebler goes through around a douzen per year and I doubt that he train more than 60 hours per week.
Everyone has his own definition of "worn out" probably. One guy here has some Asics shoes that are 9(!) years old! They do look pretty bad (I wouldn't put them on myself) but he's still quite satisfied with the way they perform. And he's quite a tall/heavy human being. Although I can't remember seeing him jumping. For sure have I had a chance to get some sponsor's shoes every month - I can't think of a reason why would I refuse. My Gel-Flare 5 which I bought in the beginning of 2014 are very much alive now. And given I use them about 9 months a year that's just around 900h of court-time in them. Also we play mostly doubles here which is probably less demanding on the shoes. They don't have any signs of wear on the upper part yet and absorption is still there (at least to my needs, I do admit I'm not the best in jumping). Don't see the reason to get another pair at the moment. And personally I'd never be able to put in 1600h per year... that's like more than 30h a week and I have some other interests in life besides badminton as well. )) PS: anyway, don't take my original comment all the way too serious.
Don't want to crash your little shoe party here, but are there any actual news regarding the Carbosonic shuttles? Maybe there are some early test samples around somewhere? Maybe @paulstewart64 has some new information to share? I have watched that promo clip a couple of times in the meantime, and that super-crisp hitting sound makes me want to give them a try myself sooo badly.
Any update on the carbon sonic shuttles ? sounded promising, but apparently Victor isn´t promoting them actively ..... ;-(
Very disappointing indeed. ☹️ @paulstewart64 Do you have any further inside information about wether the Carbonsonics will have a future or not?
When I'm in Taiwan I'll hunt some of those shuttles down and see how they are. 2 more months before I'm in Taiwan and Japan!
from a website of australian shop: Looks like they are having difficulty to make it, we all have been waiting. But there hasn't been any update since (19 july)
I hope Carbosonic shuttlecocks don't follow the same path as the General Motors EV1 car.. There is also a potential manufacturing problem for Victor to make them MORE durable than feathers. That can delay the release date. What makes plastic unpleasant to play is very much the lack of weight at impact (no feeling for spin net shots), the impossibility to use feather aerodynamics to slow down the flight during back court drops. Plastic eat the strings more than feathers too during miss hits.