Another owner's diary for my second racket where I can share my experiences and keep track of strings / setup I have every session. Owners can share their opinion as well and help other fellow users out with issues that may surface. I thought it'd be best to have another since the DZS thread helped me a bunch. The main reason this even is in my hands is because (check my voltric 10dg thread) some douche stole my Voltric 10DG just a week or two after purchase. I have to confess it's been a dream of mine to own and at the same time the prospect of it happening scared me somewhat because after it I may never like any other racket as much ever again. I ended up choosing Z Strike over the ZFII but circumstances wouldn't have it. My grommets broke after 1.5 months of 30+ tensions on it as they were worn out and then all of a sudden the grommet shipment was delayed more than usual (15+ days). My Arcsaber and carbonex also broke. I had no other option but to purchase another racket if I were to play this sunday. Funny how things work out tho don't they? As soon as I purchased my ZFII my shipments suddenly appear in India and my G Tone 5 also arrives at my house. One has to wonder what sort of forces are at play that want me to own this racket LOL (jk). Day of Purchase: I called up the shop at Sadar and turned out they still had the only piece of LCW Edition ZFII left. The same piece I decided not to get when choosing the Z Strike. I thought that was quite weird no one had purchased one of the more sought after rackets here. You see the 3U version is not available here normally and LCW edition is quite rare. Oh well. I took the bus to metro and went to shop. GST hit last night so the discount wasn't there. Still way cheaper than any retail shop tho. BC'er Shreyas666 messages me about BG66, how he got it once for 300rs and how it's his favourite. There are 15 packets of discontinued BG66 in the shop from 2014 sitting there. How weird that they arrived just today because of GST from Noida right when he was messaging me about it. I grabbed one packet for him. And there is soon to be mine ZFII LCW. After purchase I went to the the stringer at Siri Fort. Every single day it is filled with rackets everywhere waiting to be strung but I had my ZFII with me so obviously the most unusual thing happens. There's a two day veteran inter state tournament going on and I can get my racket done hand to hand. Take note that this never ever happens to anyone but the superseries / pbl players when that takes place. The racket would take an hour as they were busy sorting stuff out that had come in the shop so I went to check out the veteran tournament. Got put in as a Line Judge by a friend who was doing stuff for the tourney so time passed rather quickly and I had the best seat of anyone there to spectate. Came back to the shop and caught Mr. Mukesh finishing off my racket with the absolutely gorgeous BG80 (jp coded). As I am getting ready to leave he tells me to wait a little bit. I think ok let's wait a tad. Two people that were there quickly leave and he pulls out a box of supergrap. Supergrap hasn't been available since superseries stall on 4th of april. It does not come to shops anywhere and he just has it suddenly right on the day I buy my racket? This must be a dream I think to myself. Having run out of cash I make the payment of 7 overgraps with my card and leave. It's raining heavily out there when I get out of the metro. I love rain and it's perhaps the best ending to this day. After coming back to my house I grab the electric tape, remove the original grip and put on the supergrap directly on my racket. The grip is finished right and I cut off the excess to make it as perfect as I can and the racket feels perfect in hand. (Not holding it with my racket hand in the picture) Now I turn off all modes of air circulation in the room to see what feels like with a shuttle. It's better than I expected it to be with the strings / tension I wanted and the grip I wanted on it. This marks the end to the day of purchase. As of typing this it's 5:53 am and in about 4 hours I'll be playing with it when Shreyas666 joins me. You can look forward to mine as well as his review of it soon.
Day 1: I had fever, cough, common cold and was playing at the pleasure of medicines so I didn't expect the best out of me either. But I hadn't played for a few days so it needed to happen. Setup : BG80 JP 31x32 (5%PS) / Yonex AC102EX Supergrap Yellow. Z Force II (3u): This was my first time playing with a ZFII 3u that had the string and grips a string per my preference. I had just come from playing golf. Before this the strings have been really loose and the grip turned into a coke can. Lost against the Russian guys during my first game. Forget mishits, I actually MISSED the darn shuttle three times. Only contact was with the feathers once. Timing was off. I cooled off my head and thought let's go slow and buildup my speed instead of trying to hit the hardest from the start. Started to feel the racket and it's weight next game on another court instead of going for power shots. Just punch clears, drops, slices / clears from the backhand and forehand. I was wrong to think I'd adjust right away when coming from a z strike. Started smashing again at speeds slower than 12 year old kids just to get the timing right. Adjusted and increased power ever so slightly on angled smashes while not smashing on other shots and maintaining a carefree attitude so opponent couldn't see that I couldn't smash straight up. I wrote LOL and LMAO with a smiley face on two sides of the stringbed with yonex stencil ink just so I could be lighthearted about it all myself without totally faking it. Last two sessions were much better. I started to get the hang of it and was able to get the shuttle where I wanted with 70% intent. That 70% was quite hard for the opponents to get back. It's remarkable how good this racket feels in the hand. Backhand shots are soooo nice that I never missed my DZS. The solidity is something to behold when either slicing the backhand shot or doing a clear. There's no difference between either side and I like that. Having two different sides with different feel irked me. Before, I wasn't super consistent and would be forced to lift third court or change the shot after 2/3 straight backhand above the shoulder slice shots but I was able to place it perfectly consecutively 4 times. Made it tighter every time and forced a mid court lift which was killed off easily. The statement "attack from all sides" never stuck with me when I saw the duora Z strike ad. It didn't make sense. DZS was something you played tactically with not attack all the time. Only now did I realise they made a mistake. The statement was meant for this because you can attack from all sides and put down power at angles you're uncomfortable at with ease. Don't get me wrong I love my z strike but it didn't feel like what they were trying to sell it as. It doesn't scream attack but rather outplaying your opposition. So much more to come from this racket with the only limiting factor being the user. The only thing I knew after yesterday was that I'm compatible and that I had a smile on my face after losing the final game 24-22 against a really good player. If I could only keep one racket, I think ZFII's qualities would put it up there, top of the list, first choice. Grip: Supergrap's durability amazes me and I cannot wait till RKEP G10's arrive today or tomorrow I can compare these two. God I love this racket.
Nice write up dude. Was happy to see a thread from yours about a racket I would probably like more than the dzs. Keep it going! From your dzs thread I think to remember, that you played a 4u zf ii, if I am right, how would you compare those two? How much more strength is required to go for a 3u (maybe a short Statement about how much you lift (dumbbell wise) might be helpful.) Greetings Genkz
Dumbell lifting ability has little to nothing to do with racquets Otherwise, all those hard smashing players would look like bodybuilders but they don't.
Thanks Genkz! I played extensively with a 4u ZFII LD of my previous partner (I think that was 4u. Been a long time kind of forgot) and recently started to borrow fellow BC'er Shreyas666's 4u ZF2. I also played with a 3U ZF2 quite a bit but it had or rather has BG65 at 24 pounds (month+ old string probably at 22 when I picked it up.) and a torn up grip. As someone said in the ZF2 thread, it's like the 3U was how the ZF2 was designed and then they took off some graphite layers to make the 4u version. Less bulk and more suited to doubles or people who are unable to handle a 3U HH racket in general either due to injury / general physique or they just prefer 4u. 3u ZF2 is really something tho when you do have the overhead kill opportunity. I don't do weights or any special arm training in general. The arm was developed by another game (tennis nationals) naturally. There's a long story behind the wrist from 9 years ago which involves my hand being broken / bones crushing a bit above the wrist and tearing into one another, my absolutely wonderful (bless her) physio helping me for a month and a half by making me do medicinal ball excerises and wrist dumbbell pulls on the side down and up, front down and up, curls down and up, back down and up. I can't comment because it feels just as easy as a 4u to me but another player I handed it to him and he told me it was too heavy, painfully slow, lacked power (I think 31x32lbs was too much for him) and was a waste of money. It's probably best to try one before purchase.
When I got my DZS, I expected the racquet to play similarly to my ZF2, but it felt completely different. I wouldn't really mind normally but after having played both, I found the ZF2 to be better for my style of play. I smash fairly well but I tend to play a fairly neutral game with lots of drops and slices. I seem to be more consistent overall with the ZF2. In my opinion, the DZS is not a bad racquet per se but it certainly lives in the shadow of its older Z sibling...
I agree to an extent. If one does want to speed up his progress doing stuff such as this video could help if technique wasn't the issue:
Hi Dave I am aware you cant simply compare the strength used/created by dumbbell Training, but it gives you a hint about the Person in General. While lin dan, lcw or any other pro are probably way weaker than a Fitness Guru, they still have physical strength above the average Badminton Player. The idea behind my question was to get a glimpse if swsh would be found more on the "i have done lots of sports, strength is not a problem" or more on the "Badminton is my only sport, all I need is fast reaction, good footwork and the right technique" side. Thx for Videofootage though.
Strength is a complex topic. Some people have certain muscle groups more developed than others. This affects range of motion and effective strength throughout that particular range. Some can move quickly, others exert more force but at a slower rate. All these result from a wide variety of physiological variation between different players. As for your last question, there is no such thing as a requirement for physical strength. Ratchanok Intanon used the ZF2 for a while, and she isn't a very buff individual at all. As far as winning games, superior technique will almost always dominate excellent physical fitness, although some minimum level of fitness is nevertheless needed.
Hey @swsh , could you pm me the name of the shop where you got the racket from . I am not able to find the 3u zf2- I stay in Mumbai but will ask some of my friends I to pick up incase I can get one - so most probably will call the shop and ask . Recently bought a z strike but it doesn't suit my game at all .
Sad to say but that was the final piece left and I took it. You can order JP coded 3u G5 from Proshop Yamano on Global Rakuten with paypal. They're trusty and I import quite a bit from them
Setup - Li Ning No.1 @33/34lbs (Prestrech unknown) + RKEP G10 It's been a good few days and it's seen a good few new stringjobs ever since. I've gotten a lot more used to the racket. So much so that I don't even look at the DZS in actual matches. It exudes dangerously high level of "want" so I'm glad I already own it. The overheads are extremely powerful, fast and yet insanely loud thanks to that No.1 which has aged rather well. I quite like the strings from MBS. I struggled a little yesterday early on due to change of the shuttle (I think it was a top end AS) from lower end AS. Punch clears were landing centimetres off of the line at the back. 10 or so points in I was able to adjust and play properly after which they started to land in. The racket is extremely stable no matter where you are on the court and after some slight customizations and grinding the grip down a bit, the shots are a lot sharper especially the backhand. Really it’s amazing how well you can feel the shuttle and correct your second shot even though No.1 is a much softer string than what I use generally. I really haven’t been able to place the shuttle with DZS like this. Makes me look forward to BG80 at stupidly high tensions coupled with ac402DX and wonder how it’ll feel. I guess we’ll find out in 5 or so days when my shipments arrive. It’s also remarkably easy to generate an immense amount of power from anywhere on the court. Surprised at No.1 not snapping after a few hours (it’s been 6 days). The best string in terms of power above 32ish lbs? Perhaps. I mean what else has quite decent control thanks to the rubbery coating, the repulsion + power it has and the durability at that tension. I mean yeah sure aerosonic would beat this in terms of repulsion right off the machine but would it last more than 2 hours at 34? Nanogy 98 I used last time on the Voltric Force which was awhile ago (not the Lin Dan force) and since that racket in itself isn’t a top end one, I’m not sure how much I can compare. But even if it is ever so slightly more powerful than this, it’s nowhere near this in terms of control from what I remember albeit similarly durable. It’s hard to judge this racket so I’m sorry if I come across as someone who is in complete awe of it all the time. It’s good. ZFII with Li Ning No.1 at 33/34 is really really good. In general ZFII fits really well with my lazy-ish play style and if anything it asks me to play that way. But when the time is right you can put down the power really, really well and with ease.
