Apparently they offer new things according to you and the manufacturers. For example you said introducing "extra flex" to a stiff racket makes it easier to play with for everyone, yet on one of the first reviews of the new 88D the player found it harder to play with than the previous version. As I said, rackets are a personal thing and not an objectively measurable thing such as an engine that goes 10% faster than another engine. I'm not sure why you think 'pro's think it's better' either? How do we know they're not annoyed with all these new releases and having to promote them? Why is it some pros stay with older models for years instead of going to the latest racket all the time if they make so much difference? No I don't want to upgrade, for good, reason. 1) It's expensive. And 2) I'd prefer badminton to be a skill based sport and not carry on being pushed in the direction of being a sport where the latest equipment is the thing that counts. And yes, I don't like it when I'm forced to change racket because they've stopped producing that racket after a short period of time and I've broken a couple.
Suddenly my mind cought a movie. Thinking hard to remember the title & its Real Steel. Boxing sports turn into remote robot boxing. Now Artificial Inteligence is rushing out learning fast & getting better every day, yet i dont want to end up like in the movie. I want to hit the shuttle myself especially smashing my friend forehead with my own hand.
Did Antonsen actually played with the 90kii? I kinda remember in 2022 when it was about to debut he pulled out of the Denmark open because of injury and we never really saw it in his hand. Speaking of which, even tho we have so many releases from Victor, why are they taking so long with the Metallic! Knew about that one for much longer then the HS plus >.< Yonex seems to have the same similar issues. Most recent I saw is the 1000z & Rankireddy the face and record holder was probably being forced to use the racket but sometimes between matches he would switch back to DZS or just use it from the get go.
well, I’ll agree to disagree on a number of these points. I guess you should’ve bought extra rackets if you were going to break them. Or earned more money so it wasn’t so troublesome to spend it.
To add more confusion, Victor decide to split Ryuga series into 2 sub category. 1. TK Ryuga >> TK Ryuga Metallic. I believe that it was successor of 1st gen, as 2nd gen is kinda different racket & even LZJ himself switch back to the 1st gen. 2. TK Ryuga ii >> TK Ryuga Pro Also not to forget how the time skip is quite short between last release from the same category, the attacking series racket.
I do buy many rackets, which is why I don't buy high end yonex rackets anymore. Not going to waste money on some extra flex in a racket which will do nothing for my game It's not a question of how much I earn is it. It's just a waste of money and more importantly time spent adapting to whatever the latest version of a racket is. Where's your study that demonstrates that if someone played with a racket released in 2021 they would be any better if they played with a racket released in 2024? You're say you're a professor so you should know this is all unprovable conjecture Trying out new rackets may be other people's hobby and that's fine, but badminton is mine.
I have created a poll to collect some data to answer the origin question that we got for BC an unnesccesary release overkill or the market is right for most members and just a few of us hold on too long on a model and get out of the game. Please vote.
what a racket does for your game doesn’t really matter does it? Your ability to notice or utilize any feature of anything doesn’t matter. No one drives modern road Cars anywhere near their limits on a regular basis. Most people have a far bigger variation based on water consumption or their lunch than on their racket. The closest comparison might be cycling where the gains are miniscule. But elite athletes absolutely at the top of their abilities will benefit. Just because some doctor who makes enough to buy that $15,000 bike has it doesn’t make it less nice, even if he can’t utilize it fully. It also doesn’t mean that he isn’t faster or finds it easier to get the same times as a cheaper bike, even if the same speed. and as a professor, especially in music, the inability to adapt or adapt quickly just shows there is a lot of potential improvement available to you. But either way, it’s a waste to you. And no there aren’t too many rackets. Perhaps a better selection so people can ultimately find the best one for the them. But I don’t have trouble following it. Good day.
I think you've made your point very clear now multiple times and apart from that, the scope of this thread is to collect opinions on the matter and not trying to challenge or change them. Let's just leave it at that and move everything that goes beyond that into the DM section.
I sometimes wonder whether Yonex, Victor or Li Ning do demo days. When I lived in Melbourne, Australia there was one retailer that occasionally did demo days. I haven't found such activities in Hong Kong where I currently live. Perhaps, with demo days, racket changing churn on the part of the players would have been more rational. The numerous amount of new rackets in recent years in my view somehow has been facilitated by us. I wrote in another thread that there's a lot of nonsensical marketing to make us buy products that are most probably cannot be used optimally by the majority of us (https://www.badmintoncentral.com/fo...x-nanoflare-1000z.190688/page-10#post-2864532). In subsequent posts in the same thread, I was criticized as being overreactive and that badminton is not an expensive sport to play. The issue here for me is not about the money, it's more about me not willing to be sucked into senseless marketing. Surely, there have been improvements technology wise, but marginal, and the feel in my hand at the end of the day is what matters, hence the trusty BS12 remain in my bag. Throughout buying/selling (I sold because I don't like hoarding things) various premium rackets over the past couple of years, however, I learnt about what kind of rackets suit me best. Partly because of fatigue with all the plethora of new rackets and the messy portfolio architecture, I pretty much ignore Victor and to a large degree Li Ning (great quality manufacturing, but why not be more independent thinking rather than copy Yonex's product portfolio architecture e.g., Axforce vs Astrox, etc.), and only follow those rackets introduced by Yonex that match closely with my preferred racket characteristics. It's an elimination process for me. Finally, just one example how we (being frequently irrational homo sapiens) being taken advantage of is Nanoflare 800 Pro. In my view, it's a stiffer version of Nanoflare 700. With Yonex rackets, the higher the model number, the higher the price is (e.g., Astrox 100zz is more expensive than Astrox 77 Pro), so instead of calling it more logically Nanoflare 700 Pro, it's called 800 Pro.
He's been playing for a couple of years in his late 30s and blissfully unaware most county juniors would destroy him with a squash racket. I've found it insightful though as I realised social players don't have the same pressure as competitive players, so can go out and get the latest 'pro' version of a racket with no thought to it. Most of us here aren't going to do that or string our rackets at 32lbs just because people above our level do it.
As a retailer, I do feel quite stressed out with every launches of new models as we need to commit significant amount of capital to be competitive and relevant in the retail space. And lately with the multi tier model in a single series. Theres pros and cons with multi tier releases. Casual players or beginners who just got into the sports can try play/game model. A more committed players can try pro model. I do also provide demo racket to allow my customer to make more informed purchases. Is the launches overkill? Fine by me as it helps refresh the sport and bringing in more interest into badminton. Better than a stagnant market. I personally have not changed any racket since Yonex ZF2 and not pressured to change. But my age been picking up and now looking forward to change into head light racket.
In my city (India) retailers have to order racquets from the distributor in order to get shuttles(especially Mavis 350) owing to the high demand.
I wasn’t triggered, just found the idiocracy of the complaining old people tiresome. If you’re too old to keep up or care, then shut up and move on. The world has enough people.
