Yonex BG65 is the top selling badminton string in the world. You can find it in virtually ever badminton pro shop and sporting goods store in the world. It is — almost literally — everywhere.
And because players can find it everywhere, they assume that it is meant for everyone.
This assumption, however, is incorrect. While everyone can use it, not everyone should. In fact, as I shall explain below, while BG65 works well for adult men using stiff, heavy men’s racquets, it is does not work as well for anyone else.
First, before I go any further, I should mention that BG65 is Yonex-brand badminton string. Its equivalency in Victor badminton string is VBS-70. These strings are both situated in the all-purpose badminton string category and are virtually identical in usage, if not in price. So everything I say about Yonex BG65 applies equally to Victor VBS-70.
Now that that’s out of the way …
To understand how BG65 became the top selling badminton string in the world, you must understand something about the sport of recreational badminton. Specifically, you must understand the basic demographics.
Regardless of where you are in the world, the majority of recreational badminton players will be men between the ages of 15 and 55. Yes, women, children and seniors all play badminton, but the vast majority of players in the rec-level badminton clubs are men.
Men as a group typically weigh more than women, children and/or seniors. They also tend to be stronger that women, children and/or seniors.
Yonex BG65 has become the top selling badminton string in the world because it looks after the needs of men between 15 and 55. It is thick enough to withstand their powerful off-center hits without breaking easily and powerful enough to allow them to hit the shuttle to all areas of the court.
Unfortunately, it does not serve most women, children and/or seniors equally well.
This group of players typically weighs less than men. They are also not typically as strong as men. So why would anybody imagine that they can use the same string as men?
The truth is, they can’t. Or rather, they shouldn’t. Women, children and seniors need more power to compensate for their relative lack of strength and lower body weights. So they need more powerful strings than men do.
And since they are not as strong as men and therefore don’t hit as hard, they don’t need the same durability from their string as men do. In fact, Yonex BG65 and Victor VBS-70 are both far more durable than most women, children and/or seniors will ever need.
So think about this the next time you bring your child’s racquet in for stringing service.
If your child was playing goal in hockey you wouldn’t equip him with adult men’s goalie pads because that would be ridiculous. A child wearing adult pads would have trouble moving around because his body is too small and his legs are too weak for such bulky equipment. So why would you put adult string in his badminton racquet?
Women, children and seniors are not men and they should not be playing with men’s badminton string.
Just as racquets for this group are softer and have shafts with more repulsion power, the stings in their racquets should be softer and have more repulsion power.
The truth is Yonex BG65 (or Victor VBS-70) is suitable for racquets with medium to extra stiff shafts, it is not the best string for high-flex or medium-stiff shafts. Similarly, while it is suitable for 3U frames and can be used at lower tensions in 4U frames, it is not the best choice for lighter frames, such as 5U or F.
In fact, if you are not a man in his physical prime, you probably don’t need to be using Yonex BG65 at all. It was never really designed for you so — beyond durability — it really isn’t adding anything to your game. In fact, if anything, it may be making the game harder for you to play.