Category: Badminton Racquets

Posted on by

Best Badminton Racquets for Youth

Yonex Youth badminton racquet
Too many parents set their kids up for failure by putting adult racquets in their hands before they are ready for them.
We define youth players as those aged 9 to 12. Depending on their height and musculature, some youth may move into the teen category as early as 11 while some may not get there until the age of 13 or 14. Some youth who are training regularly as part of a coached program may even move into adult racquets in their very early teens.

There are minor but important differences between youth racquets and teen racquets. Most youth racquets, for example, are a bit shorter and slightly more flexible than teen racquets. At the same, youth racquets are a bit longer and a little stiffer than children’s racquets. They are designed to hit the shuttle deeper into the opposing court than teen or adult racquets.

The best way to determine which racquet is right for your youth is to bring them into the store for consultation with one of our experts. We can help you pick out a badminton racquet that will bring out the best in the youth badminton player in your family.

Below is a sample of racquets that our experts have determined to be generally suitable for badminton players aged 9 to 12. For more information, please come into the store and consult with one of our experts. We are open 7 days a week and we carry Calgary’s largest selection of badminton racquets for men, women, teens and children.

Racquet Selector For a full list of racquets in this category, please check out our ONLINE RACQUET SELECTOR. You can sort by sport, gender, brand, size, weight, balance and more.

Youth Badminton Racquets

Nine badminton racquets suitable for youth badminton players.

Racquet Selector For a full list of racquets in this category, please check out our ONLINE RACQUET SELECTOR. You can sort by sport, gender, brand, size, weight, balance and more.
Posted on by

Wrong Product – Right Price

It doesn’t matter what you are buying — racquets, shoes, string, accessories — price should not be your most important consideration. If it is, you will almost certainly make a poor decision.

In the past 24 hours, for example, we have had two customers make poor decisions because they had price-focused tunnel vision. One spent twice as much as she should have because she refused to consider a less expensive pickleball paddle that was perfectly suited to her needs. Another saved $40.00 but walked away with shoes that will actually detract from his on court performance and may actually lead to injury.

We understand that price has to be a consideration at some point in the purchasing process. That is completely reasonable. But it should never be a starting point.

Sports are about performance. The products that you purchase for sporting activities must not hinder or detract from your performance.

All too often, customers come into our store with the preconceived notion that expensive is good and cheap is bad. While this may be generally true (most products are priced according to their input costs), it is not always the case. Sometimes, the better option is the cheaper one.

How can you know? Come into our store and ask our experts.

Staff at Racquet Network are trained to ask questions. They want to know what level you will be playing at and the context you will be playing in. They will also want to know what problem you are trying to solve. Once they have this information, they will be able to help you select some products that fit your needs.

Often, our staff will come up with a category of products that will support your performance goals. And within that category, there will be items at different price points. At that point, price considerations become appropriate. But not before. Otherwise, you run the risk of buying the wrong product just because it is offered at the right price.

Posted on by

Yonex Arcsaber 11 Racquet Review

YONEX ARCSABER 11
This racquet is right for me right now. Six months from now, who knows?
As my readers already know, I have returned to badminton recently after a break of several years. Over the first month, I experimented with an number of Yonex ™ badminton racquets before finally settling on the Nanoray GlanZ as the best frame for my game at that moment.

That decision was made a month ago. At the time, the GlanZ offered me exactly what I needed. After a long break, my timing was off and I was not hitting the shuttle directly in the center of the string bed. Since the GlanZ is a forgiving racquet with a large sweet spot, it was perfectly suited to my game at the time.

Now, a month later, my game has progressed and it is time for a new frame. So last week, I tried a variety of Yonex frames including the Arcsaber Flash Boost, the Voltric Z-Force II and the Nanoray Z-Speed.

Racquet Selector For a full list of racquets in this category, please check out our ONLINE RACQUET SELECTOR. You can sort by sport, gender, brand, size, weight, balance and more.

The Flash Boost I tried was a 5U weight, which was far too light for me. The Nanoray Z-Speed was heavier (4U), but still wasn’t heavy enough. As with the GlanZ, my clears with both of these racquets were not deep enough to push my opponents back. Instead, they were dropping five to six feet inside the court, which was setting up too many successful smashes for my opponents.

My experience with the Voltric Z-Force II was the opposite. Instead of dropping inside of the court, I was actually hitting the shuttle out the back and sides of the court. (To be fair, the Z-Force II I played with was a 3U, which is quite heavy and which may be the reason I was hitting out. I did not try the 4U or the 5U.) The head heaviness of the frame coupled with the 3U weight was just too much for my stroke. This racquet is too powerful for me right now.

Much to my surprise, the Arcsaber 11 turned out to be perfectly suited to my game at this moment. While it is a 3U like the Z-Force II I was using, it is not head heavy. In fact, it is evenly balanced. Strung at the bottom of the tension range (for maximum power), my clears with this racquet were dropping about four inches inside the baseline whenever I hit them cleanly. My drops and net shots were exactly how I like them and the racquet was much better for smashing than the lighter GlanZ.

One of the major features of the Arcsaber series is versatility. I am playing in a drop-in group where some of the players are better than me and some are not as good. So every game is a little different. Sometimes I am on the attack; sometimes I am on the defensive. The Arcsaber series is designed for exactly this scenario. While the Voltric series is designed primarily for offence and the Nanoray series is designed primarily for defence, the Arcsaber series is balanced. It is a compromise that allows for a little bit of both.

Right now, given the state of my game, the Arcsaber 11 is the perfect frame for me.

Racquet Selector For a full list of racquets in this category, please check out our ONLINE RACQUET SELECTOR. You can sort by sport, gender, brand, size, weight, balance and more.
Posted on by

Yonex Glan Z – 3 Things We Like About It

YONEX NANORAY GLANZ 1
The Nanoray Glaz was designed for older players who need additional power from their racquet.
The “3 Things We Like About It” product review series was created to give customers a brief summary of the three most important features of new products in our southwest Calgary store. All products in this series are available in-store and online at the time of publication.

The Yonex ™ Nanorary Glan Z was released in Canada in April of 2015. It was created for doubles players who need a little help from the racquet in the power department. Specifically, it was created for older players who may not have the swing speed they once had. As a result, we expected this racquet to be a “little old ladies” doubles racquet.

Much to our surprise, however, it’s not. Instead the Glan Z turns out to be an excellent racquet for players of any age who want to improve the depth of their backhand clear shots.

Technically speaking, this racquet was created to offer power and consistency at lower swing speeds. Both the isometric shape of the head and the Vertical-A Concept grommets work to enlarge and maximize the power of the sweet spot. At the same time, the aerodynamic head shape combined with a thinner profile lower frame and a wider profile tip give the Glanz optimum repulsion, especially at lower string tensions.

VERTICAL-A CONCEPTSo when you think about it, it becomes obvious. It really doesn’t matter what level the player is at; their backhand swing speed is always slower than their forehand swing speed. That just a biomechanical reality. So when Yonex designs a racquet that offers more power at slower swing speeds, of course they end up with a racquet that improves power on the backhand.

This improvement is just one of the things that we like about the Glan Z. What we also like are the weight and the balance. Unlike many high performance racquets which are so light that they contribute to the development of tennis elbow in recreational badminton players, the Glan Z averages a sensible 83 grams. In the balance department, meanwhile, the Glan Z is head light, which makes it perfect for clearing and dropshots.

Overall, this racquet is best-suited to defensive players who need a little help on their backhand clears. Infused with the new REXIL FIBER material and built based on the Torque Power Theory, the GlanZ sends the shuttlecock even further than other racquets in the Nanoray series. It is available in Brilliant Black. Demos are available in-store right now.

Racquet Selector For a full list of racquets in this category, please check out our ONLINE RACQUET SELECTOR. You can sort by sport, gender, brand, size, weight, balance and more.
Posted on by

How to String the Yonex Astrox 99

How to String the Yonex Astrox 99

The instructions on this page are provided as a courtesy to independent racquet stringers in our network. For more information, please consult our YouTube Channel which features hundreds of full movies and time lapse videos illustrating how to string a large variety of racquets of all kinds.

Use the YouTube speed settings to slow this down if necessary. If you have questions, please post them in the video comment’s section.

How to String this Racquet

Length Mains 18.5′
Length Crosses 14.5′
Tension Printed on frame
Pattern 20×21
Start Mains Head
Mains Skip 7H, 9H, 11H, 11T
Tie Off Mains 8T
Start Crosses 9T
Tie Off Crosses 6T
Last Cross 7H
Tie Off Crosses 5H

The outside two mains on either side of this racquet should be finished using a standard Yonex double-back method. For this racquet, the double path is 9T to 12T to 16H to 14H to 10T before tying off at 8T.

Yonex Badminton Racquet Stringing Instructions