Last night I was having a discussion with a player. I handled his racquet and compared it with mine. We were discussing a forecourt technique and about holding the racquet. For my racquet, each of the bevels are quite obvious. Mine is a G5, with a thin grip under layer and the bevels are quite obvious. When demonstrating, I noticed his short bevels were not so clear as my racquet and his racquet handle feels more circular. I didnt think to mention it at the time because we were concentrating on other things. However , reflecting later, it’s possible at the learning stage of changing technique, this lack of the short bevel might be a detriment. Anybody have an opinion on that? I also notice in Asia, people tend to have much thinner grip diameters. For instance YY G4 I don’t think I have seen in Asia for many years.
For sure when still learning grips I think it is important to clearly feel the bevels. I did once have a racket with quite a thick grip... But in my room I had another racket with stock grip (so very thin grip) and I could play around with that and feel the bevels very clearly. So I had a good idea what was where on the racket with the thicker grip. So it wasn't absolutely 100 percent necessary to play with a racket where the bevels were all blatant.. I could manage without it. So every day at home I could still learn well what was what and feel them all and feel changing from one grip to another in a very clear way.
This echoes my experience when trying to learn backhand clears. Couldnt get the timing and placing right since with grips on since i cant feel the diagonal bevels with my thumb. After minimal progress with backhands for about 2 months, coach recommended I temporarily change my racket just for the handle part. Had to buy a dirt cheap decathlon racket that had the old G3/G4 grip size where I can clearly feel the wide bevels. MUCH easier with timing backhand clears. Heck I can backhand cross drop or a weak smash now! Weee. The rough positioning of my thumb sides are pretty much muscle memory now so not having to feel the bevels no longer matters much. But in you and your friends case, its forehand technique..... Disclaimer: I am still a beginner. My opinion and anecdotes should be taken with a pile of salt.
As others have said, I don't think having a very clear bevel is essential to an experienced player (within reason), providing the wider flat and the narrower flat faces can still be distinguished to some extent. I like to have a relatively thick grip and the rounder grip seems to give me less blisters. Also, my grips (tacky) seems to last a bit longer.
I think this is an individual thing and both have advantages and disadvantages. But there is no clear right and wrong here. My feeling is better with a slightly thicker grip (G4, baseband, overgrip). But Europeans normally also have bigger hands than Asians. The difference between G4 and G5 is also very small. Ten years ago, there were also often G2 and G3. I also only need the bevels for the backhand from behind and for that I don't have to feel the bevels directly. I turn the racket automatically depending on the stroke.
There is a company selling a small device to add to the grip to ensure that fingers are in the correct position. Unfortunately i didn’t have a chance to test it (shipping cost to sg is prohibitive). But it is kind of supporting the idea that the bevels are useful guides. It is easier for a beginner to realise where the fingers should be when there is a very distinctive shape which can be easily detected by the fingers.
Nice advertising. Of course, it only helps absolute beginners. I usually touch the racket higher up on serve or at the front of the net. With the Grip Fixer you always have only one position/length.
A friend and I had a discussion about that a few weeks back. We came to the conclusion that due other tools used in the hand, people who start badminton are more familiar/prefer a thicker grip. They often didn't learned to hold the racket loose and relaxed and grip all the time firm and this results in the preference to like a thicker grip. I assume that you and the other player has an equal/compareable hand size? I personal prefer a slightly thicker grip on the lower part of my hand. If I make it with the whole handle, it sacrifice some feel and touch in the flat game or at the net and makes the control more difficult. So my grip is at the lower half thicker than at the upper half. I use a cushion wrop at the bottom half to enlarge the grip slightly. I play also a G5. I think it makes sense to feel the bevels with the thumb to know how the head is turned. I would also agree that at early learning stages the bevel is useful to turn the racket. With no edges you can push it with the thumb into the different grips for contact especially for backhand shots.
Huh. Interesting addon. I myself use those "wave grip" by Yonex and Li-ning and thicken the trigger part by an extra half inch or so for exactly the same reason. (Think of it like how some thicken the bottom part of handle, except this one is near the top half) That addon looks far too bulky however. Agree wholeheartedly. I can only speak for myself, but I prefer my grip thickness to be the same as the barbells/dumbbells in the gym due to years of familiarity with that grip girth. When i first got into badminton the standard G5 grip was often flying off my hands even when I was gripping it tightly.
