Black (or dark) plastic shuttlecocks

[maidbloke]

Hi

Our UK club plays in a sports hall with pale yellow walls, pale ceiling and light coloured floor. Spotting our yellow/white shuttlecocks flying through the air is sometimes very difficult! I am looking for black or at least dark coloured plastic shuttlecocks but searching is not bringing any up. I can find kids toy ones or ones with an LED but they are no good. Does anybody have any ideas where I can find some?

Thanks!

 

[Z-Force III]

Maybe you should give Ashaways Bird 3 a go.

 

[Rimano]

Yes give ashaway bird 3 a go and then leave a review. =)

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[maidbloke]

Thanks both! I have ordered some. In the mean time, I'm open to other suggestions.

 

[visor]

Use a black sharpie permanent marker on the cork and the feathers?

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[maidbloke]

So I bought a pack of Bird 3 and our club have used them for 2 weeks, total 14 people playing doubles for 4 hours.

Almost everyone agreed they are easier to see, so that's great.

However we already have damaged shuttlecocks. One cork has come away and 2 have split. They seem to be less hardwearing than our normal yellow ones, Yonex. And they are about twice the price at about GBP 14.

So the jury is still out on whether we will change to Bird 3.

Plan B is already in place: I have marked a Yonex shuttlecock with black permanent marker, ugly as anything but who cares. We will try that next week.

 

[Rimano]

So I bought a pack of Bird 3 and our club have used them for 2 weeks, total 14 people playing doubles for 4 hours.

Almost everyone agreed they are easier to see, so that's great.

However we already have damaged shuttlecocks. One cork has come away and 2 have split. They seem to be less hardwearing than our normal yellow ones, Yonex. And they are about twice the price at about GBP 14.

So the jury is still out on whether we will change to Bird 3.

Plan B is already in place: I have marked a Yonex shuttlecock with black permanent marker, ugly as anything but who cares. We will try that next week.

View attachment 199517 View attachment 199518

The premature failure of the Cork separating was a problem with the first batch of bird2 as well, but they said they've fixed/improved this.

I did find with the bird2 that even if the skirt was damaged it still flew OK.

Also I think you can find it cheaper than £14 but it looks like your club is geared towards keeping cost as low as possible , whilst the bird shuttlecocks are suppose to close the gap between feathers and shuttles, and therefore probably cannot compete with nylon shuttles in terms of durability or cost.

No one impressed but the improved flight and hitting feel?

What are you using at the moment? One of my first clubs played with mavis 2000.

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[maidbloke]

No one impressed but the improved flight and hitting feel?

What are you using at the moment?

Someone who also plays at a club which uses feathers commented that they were closer in flight to feathered shuttlecocks.

We normally use Yonex Mavis, 300 I think.

The Bird 3s I bought are now in a sorry state after just 6h use on 3 courts - picture shows a couple of them. I'm not buying any more but the chap who runs the club has got a couple of tubes now, so we will see if his last any better.



Had a quick go with the Yonex with black permanent marker all over it and it was easy to see, so we might still go with that solution!