Badminton Racket First Impressions: Yonex ArcSaber 2 Tour

This turned out to be quite a lucky find. I was rummaging through the box of on-offer rackets that the stringer has and chanced upon this "Made in Japan" ArcSaber.

So I got it and put a yellow grip around it to make it pretty. My buddy (who beat me three straight games in singles tonight, kudos!) made a remark that the racket seems a bit light.

And he was proven right when I brought it to the court for testing. The clears weren't coming across during stroking, and the backhands were terrible.

The whole thing just seemed to lack strength.

So the time came for me to take this to the court. Oh how the ArcSaber 2 Tour redeemed itself!

I wasn't able to use much backhand clears (I substituted them with the tight drop shot), but the control that this racket has is amazing.

Anywhere on the court, I could place the shuttle reasonably well. The smashes from this also came off very sharply.

Overall a nice tight racket. I may not recommend a long clearing game with this, but for those players hungry for control this will be a blast.

Of course I'll wait about  6-hours before commiting to a review. We all know how some rackets have a habit of losing their charm after the first impression.

Till soon.

New Strings: Pro-Kennex Pro Flex 63

Saw these while I was at the stringer's today, and got a pair to try because they come in really cool carbon colors.

Got one strung at 25lbs and one at 27lbs. As with the rest of the Pro-Kennex strings, this one offers very good repulsion, and at first try the one strung at 27lbs seemed to offer a bit more control (the shuttle doesn't freely fly off from the string bed when I juggle it).

Problem with this string is that the 0.63mm thickness might make it a little less durable than most.

Will the feel and power from this string overcome the downside of less durability? More to come.

Badminton Racket Review: Li-Ning TurboCharging N9 Fu Hai Feng

First impressions here.

What first struck me was the design of the racket (what else, right?), and also the amount of flex that Li-Ning gave to it. They're a fan of stiff rackets, but this one came across with a medium flex feel, which made me feel good.

About time they made head heavy rackets with a slightly flexible shaft.

The results were notably good, with the N9 performing well in many areas of the court. If you're looking for a slightly flexible N90 without the overly head-heavy distribution of the N90-II, this one might be a choice for you.

The N9 also comes with a rather innovative head shape. It's sword shaped on the top half, but cuts inwards to form a armored shaft ala the Nanoray 700RP. This gives it a very unique feel - it brings the head weight distribution slightly lower towards the t-joint, makes the swings a little faster, but delivers the punch because of the heavier and more stable t-joint area.

This would a lot more welcome if they were to win the BWF World Championships, but this is a good racket that's worth shouting about so here goes.

Note. This review is my opinion of the racket for my use. Take this with a pinch of salt since I don't play the game as well as most of you out there. I'm here to tell you, in as much accuracy as I can, how my games went with this racket. Comments welcome!

Ok here goes.

Li-Ning TurboCharging N9 Fu Hai Feng
Est. Dry Weight: 89g (3U)
Grip Size: S2
Balance: Head Heavy
Stiffness: Medium
Strings: Yonex Nanogy 98 @ 25lbs

I recommend this racket for heavy smashers (it's made for use by Fu Hai Feng, people).

Defense
Anyone who's ever used a head heavy racket and compared it to a head light one would tell you how it usually swings slower. This slower swing speed is compensated with a heavier block towards the back court.

Remember what I said about the unique head shape of the N9? This comes into play when I try to explain why this racket isn't as slow as I had initially thought it would be.

The Li-Ning TurboCharging N9 Fu Hai Feng feels like an even balanced racket on the defense. This is largely due to the weight distribution closer to the t-joint instead of being at the very top.

The racket suffers less from the slower swing than its head heavier counterparts, but has enough mass at the t-joint to deliver a good lift to the back if needed.

From lifts to blocks and drives, the N9 performs admirably in the games that I've given it. The medium flex might take a little more power from the hard blocks, but overall I was pretty impressed with how fast it responded.

Attack
"TurboCharging" and "Fu Hai Feng" sounds like this racket has steroids imbued into its graphite. The sadistic thing is that it actually feels like it does.

Attacking strokes with this racket feels true and powerful. The heavier t-joint gives you a very good accuracy on the smashes and the drives, and this is always a nice gift to someone who doesn't rely much on attacking like myself.

I've always been a fan of flexibility in the shaft when it comes to giving that long big swing to smash it home. It was made the Yonex Voltric 70 a winner, and it is what makes the Li-Ning N9 such a potent attacking racket.

Very powerful attacks.

Control
Here's when it sounds a little too good to be true. The Li-Ning TurboCharging N9 Fu Hai Feng actually gives you a pretty decent aim, given its propensity to put its users into overdrive berserk mode.

I give kudos to the solid t-joint (I have got to figure out what they call this head frame shape...).

Ok I just checked the racket and it's called the Dynamic-Optimum Frame.

So kudos to the solid Dynamic-Optimum Frame, which grants this racket the accuracy without losing out much on the power. Rackets that feature variations of this technology (i.e. Yonex Voltric series, Nanoray 700RP) tend to also be devastating in both attack and accuracy, and the N9 doesn't come across as any much different.

When I take a shot, I tell myself where I want the shuttle to go, move to the shuttle, swing, and see how it turns out.

The N9 gave me very few surprises. Nice.

Looks
Black and gold adorns the entire racket, making this a very majestic beast. Li-Ning rackets have progressively improve in design (seriously, has anyone seen the first generation N50?), and this is a tremendous effort in making badminton look sexy.

Li-Ning TurboCharging N9 Fu Hai Feng

Defense: 8

Attack: 10

Control: 9

Looks: 10

Badminton Racket First Impressions: Li-Ning TurboCharging N9 Fu Hai Feng

So this was the other racket that I brought to the singles session last night. And here is my first impressions on this.

The Li-Ning N9 is a slick racket, with black and gold adorning the entire racket from the head down the shaft, fading to an elegant white at the cone.

At first handling the racket felt very heavy, characteristic of the Fu Hai Feng playing style of hard shuttle smashing. The head wasn't very mobile when I tried to juggle the shuttle around, and initial thoughts of a slow defending come to me.

Flashback to when I first started with the Yonex Armortec 900 Power, and all the useless attempts at defense with its ridiculously heavy head.

But then again it's been a few years, and I think the racket makers have learnt a little lesson with head heavy rackets.

The Li-Ning TurboCharging N9 Fu Hai Feng comes with a unique head shape, the top half resembling the sword shape that allows you to cut through the air with ease, the bottom half reversing to an armored frame that resembles the Yonex Voltric series, adding to the weight and stability for the downswing and resultant destructive aftermath.

This gives rise to a potentially powerful racket, and it shows by the lack of effort needed from one to sent the shuttle to the back of the court. From high forehand clears to the backhand straights, the racket does the shots with ease.

The natural downward momentum of the N9 also makes quick drop shots an ease to execute. A small swing is all you need to start the strong, and the pressure applied at the gripping point gives you the length and sharpness you'll need for that deceptive shot.

What didn't come across was the powerful smash. Since it was singles and my playing style really isn't the heavy hitting sort, I can't say much about the racket's power.

However, the Li-Ning N9 does have a natural whip to it, owing to the slightly flexible shaft, and this brings back memories of the Yonex Voltric 70 and it's powerful smashes.

I'll have to take this to doubles tomorrow to find out :)

Review soon.