Companies put out racket technologies gimmicks like the voltric or aero frame or super wind frame, nanotube, etc. Honestly, I could not feel that much difference these technologies really make when playing comparing it to my old Carbonex racket. So when a technology really makes a difference, I'm always pleasantly surprised. For me, the tech that made a difference was Victor original Bravesword's frame. I was surprised at how much faster the Bravesword frame was. Even the newer Aerosword or whatever they call it nowadays feels ordinary in my limited experience. Another is Victor's anti torsion system, It really made control easier and more precise. What has been your experience?
I definitely could feel the crappy SBZ (Snap Back Zone) and the Horizontal A Concept of the Z-Speed. Made an incredibly huge difference in terms of feel, for the worse, I should add. Brave Sword profile frame and the aerodynamic profiles of the new Li Nings are also quite noticeable. Things I could not feel any real improvement or benefit in real life/matches were: supposed steeper angle with NR900, bigger sweet spot of the NR GlanZ, NAMD of the new Astroxs, Sonic Metal of the Arc11 and the "two sides" of the Duoras.
Wait, you can feel aero frames but not the Duora frame? Or is it just not as aero as the other stuff? I can feel mine a LOT, but I've been playing nothing else. Techs I notice the most in rackets are aero/box, thin shaft for less air resistance and some of the stability things when you hit more to the side of the racket.
Sure, the Brave Sword 12 was one of the fastest rackets I've ever tried, together with the Gosen stuff. Li Ning's new stuff is also quite fast while remaining a good solid feedback. But I didn't notice a real difference between the two sides of the Duora 10. Might have been there, but not so much that it couldn't just have been in my mind. I boggles my mind that you can feel a "lot" of difference between the two Duora sides. When I had two ArcSaber Flash Boosts, I could tell the one that was 1 g heavier apart, but not the two sides.
I've got the Z strike, maybe those are different, I can feel it while hitting but also while just holding the racket and not doing much. The aero side is a lot 'longer' from the center of the frame than the box side as well. I also know someone with a D10 who doesn't feel it.
From my experience with the Duoras, you don't really "feel" a difference in performance on each side, but on overheads and during defence you feel a slightly more air resistance on the boxside, while the aero side moves a bit faster through the air. Not a totally different racket feel, but if you pay attention to it and try both sides for fun, you can notice, but it's not like night and day.
The worst I every tried is the Hopeless Duora duo frame ......... one side slightly faster than another size but it make no different in term of feel and shuttle cock velocity LOL
How about Xtra Slim Shaft tech? Can anyone feel it? We're talking about less than 1 mm difference in shaft thickness.
Having use my Duora 10 for over a year now when I play I can't tell my back hand is a more aerodynamic frame than my forehand but if I were to use on the aero frame on my forehand I can immedìatly tell and to be fair I don't really like it because I just find it a bit too fast Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
I don't mind fast frames, but the thing is that they usually have worse feel because of the lack of weight.
I would say shaft thickness makes a huge difference in it's flexibility. Take ZF1 and ZF2 the latter has thiner shaft than it's predecessor, thus clears n smashes in ZF2 seems easier compared to ZF1. Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk
I definitely notice aero, swordframe, or turbocharging frame designs that make the racket swing faster. I also notice a bigger sweet spot on rackets with the newer single pass grommet string patterns. I also notice a difference with Yonex's e-tune system since physically adding plastic weights on the frame make the racket more head heavy.
A very good question and for me 95% is easy marketing! I also think that the racket technologies are quite at their limit. You can make great rackets with Aeroframe and 75g and still string them with 13kg. But the optimum is between 80 and 90g and therefore a racket just an individual thing for me. There was a difference between wood and aluminium and carbon. Today every racket series has a different material (for example NAMD) and yet the feeling is always the same. The advantage is that you can string it with more weight. Aero or Boxframe is just an individual thing for me In the end I have to say that marketing works and of course I also have a high priced Astrox racket...
IIRC, the stiffness of a shaft increase with the 4th power of the diameter, so a 1mm increase/decrease in a shaft that is 7mm is HUGE.
Agree, I had the same feeling regarding the "lack of weight" on the "Aero" side(Duora 10 LCW), but when I dig deeper, I would rather say that the so called "lack of weight" could be more accurately describe as "lack of air resistance". If you flip through the older Yonex catalogue on "Box frame" i.e. Armortec 900 Power, you would see the word "Stability" some where, I believe the box frame design helps to focus on better stability through out the swing, comparing with Armortec 900 Technique (Aero frame) which place it's focus on reduced air resistance for faster swing speed. Having said that, of course there are also other factors that contribute to the swinging stability as well i.e. stiff shaft, etc. I guess this is for the racket manufacturers to figure out what is the best combination then.. While we as consumers happily test out our preferences. :-D
Anyone else love the super nice repulsion "Nanopreme Technology" on the Voltric 80 racket ? This is one of the technology that I appreciate the most so far. Although I believe Voltric Z Force also has the same technology but it seems to me the shaft is a tad too soft due to HH point towards the end and cause too much bending on the shaft. Overall I feel the Nanopreme seems to work super well on the VT80 frame(3U), it just makes the racket so easy to use and yet powerful. The worst case I feel is the use of complex mix of materials on different frame section on Yonex Muscle Power 99, it just screw up the hitting consistency(frame bend/flex), making a top end Yoex racket become ****.
The most noticeable things to me are: Aero vs box vs LN hex frame shapes Normal vs compact heads Different flex points (for example 88S vs 88D) Namd You could say some other things are also noticeable, like tri voltage which just makes the head extra heavy, but I wouldn't consider it to be a real racquet technology to add some extra weight in the head. Similar with duora which is noticeable but not a real technology. If anything, aerobite strings have a far more noticeable effect on playing characteristics than racquet tech recently.
