Thursday 22 May 2008

Choosing a Badminton Racket

Choosing the right badminton racket can be a very important decision no matter what standard you play at. There is such a huge choice available these days, it can seem a little daunting to know which is right for you. Hopefully i can help you choose the right badminton racket that suits your style of play.

During your quest to find the perfect badminton racket you will come across the established manufacturers such as Yonex, Carlton, Wilson, Head, Prince and countless other brands, who all want you to choose their racuets. Yonex are the most successful and popular brand, but which company you choose is up to you. This is where the fun begins. But with the right guidance and advice you will be able to make an informed decision, so that you find the right racket for you, and only you.

Every badminton player is different, with their own strengths and weaknesses. The trick is to find the right badminton racket which compliments your style of play. Now, you can spend a fortune on your weapon of choice, or, like most of us, you will probably have a limit on what you want to spend. Remember, you are investing in your game, to hopefully improve yourself, so you need to choose wisely.


It can be a real pain in the backside, when you have just gone out and spent a whole load of your hard earned cash on the latest "must have" badminton racket, only to find it doesn't live up to your expectations, and you can't understand why you aren't playing like the adverts say you should be. Guess what? you have just fallen for the marketing hype, and it's a subtle, sinister little trick that we experience every day of our lives. However, if you follow my advice i can hopefully point you in the right direction, so you can make the best decision.


You need to think of your badminton racket as the cherry on top of the cake. Without the base and the ingredients your little cherry ain't going to taste so sweet. In case your wondering what the hell im going on about, the base and ingredients are your game, it's your footwork, technique, grip, fitness and tactics. Without these, your shiny new racket is useless, and the shuttle will not go where you want it to. I would say that any badminton racket you buy will give you, at most, an extra 5% to your game. The strings you put in your racket are probably more important than the racket itself. The other 95% is all down to you. But don't worry about that, i will help you get the most out of yourself, so you can get the most out of your game.


I have played with dozens of different rackets over the years, from many different manufacturers, and they all offer something a little bit different, sometimes it's good, sometimes not so good, it's all part of the experience of finding the one that you know suits you down to the ground. It's a great feeling when it happens, but first of all you need to know about yourself, your own game, then you can tailor the right racket to your game, not the other way round.


What type of player are you? Are you a power player who likes to smash the shuttle hard? Or perhaps your a touch player who likes to move the shuttle around the court with angled shots and deception. Once you know what kind of game you play, you need to find out which badminton racket will bring out the best in your shots, and improve your badminton.

If you are just starting out the chances are that you will not know what type of player you are yet. It's just part of learning the game. There is not much point in buying the most expensive bats at this stage, you will not notice much difference in your play, trust me. As your skill level improves you will then start to know more about yourself and this is when you start to look for a better racket. The more you improve the more you will understand the basics, and you will be looking for that little bit extra to beat the competition, this is where your badminton racket comes in, but it will only give you a slight advantage, period.

In upcoming posts i will guide you through the badminton racket basics, what to look for, what to avoid, how much to spend, and where to buy.




3 comments:

barca96 said...

hi,

nice post!
i have a question though.
so is it ok for me to get a basic racket for under usd50 and get a string to suit my style of play? im a heavy hitter.

many thanks in advance

antony said...

Hi Barca

You just need to experiment with the string tension, rather than the actual type of string.

Roy said...

Hello there!
-im just wondering to your post, im a player of badminton but not varsity in our school, only representative of my section, i love playing badminton, but i don't know what is best, good, and better racket, my question is, what is the best racket for me? i always smash the shuttle. and this time, i want to try out the varsity in my school to maximize and improve my sport. just message me in my email.

miztahchataholic@yahoo.com

thanks a lot to your post ^^