Recently when I visited Shuttle-House in Osaka to buy new badminton equipment, they were selling racquets from a brand called Air-Shuttle. It looks quite like a copy of an AT800 but I realised that it had so many extra grommets and when it's strung, it has 30 crosses.. Available in 4U2, 3U5 and 3U4. Price: 18000yen ( 150USD, approx 200SGD ). Interesting, but how do these extra crosses benifit the user/racquet ? Does it make the strings feel tighter/harder ? Increase string durability? And oh yeah.. their strings are 11.5m long to compensate for the extra crosses, whereas the others made by Yonex, Ashaway, etc are 10m long.
hmmm..interesting.Prob it was to create a larger sweet spot size?But the price is so expensive for a brand that's quite new.
I don't think so... Strings are 10m long, so it doesn't matter if you use yonex, ashaway... it would only cost you more a longer part of the string And indeed... I to think it is expensive for a new brand of rackets...
There is a minor problem. That racquet has 30 crosses. That means the standard 10m pack might not be long enough to string and tension the entire racquet. If entire length of a Cab30ms with 22 crosses is about 8.5~8.6m with extra 8 mains near the center, that will be about 1m extra needed. that means a standard stringing machine might not be able to tension the very last cross...
I usually have 215 cm to 270 cm of string leftover per 10 m packet, depending which method/tension and/or racket type i use to string a racket.
that is deffinetly different would like to find out more about if theres a benifit to having all those extra corsses. Well if you have a roll of string then you dont really have to worry now would you since you can cut the lenght you want its when you have individual packs then you might be a lil screwed. But yeah that price seems pretty high if the brand/racquet is pretty new i havnt heard of them before.
As far as I can say, these types of rackets are only fun to play, might run into problems in tournaments (check the badminton rules book; the string density should be uniform)
Bad for Slicing Strokes The overwhelming number of crosses in the sweetspot will reduce the 'contact area' between the main strings and the shuttle. As a result of the 'reduced contact area' slicing the shuttle strokes I believe will not be as good if compared with a racket with normal stringbed. Anyone willing to put this theory to the test and post their findings here??? TBBMBB(N)
isn't that illegal with the denser stringbed, as bluejeff bought up? you wont' have to stop using your favorite brand of string... you'll just have to stop using pre-cut 10m packages... reels are the only alternative.
The stringing pattern is legal because the rules say the stringing pattern shall be generally uniform (what do they mean by this?) and, in particular, not less dense in the centre than in any other area. I would think the dense area at the sweetspot is for better control and speed, not unlike the effects of very high tension or proportional stringing. The increased shuttle speed is due to a reduced trampoline effect. However, the extra strings will increase some air resistance as there is more air "filter" effect.
good luck clamping off those crosses when stringing... must be hell... In tennis its one of the latest fads, an " open stringing pattern". If I understand correctly it's denser in the center (sweetspot) and less dense outwards.. It is supposed to aid with slice shots, or increase the trampoline effect...
In theory, this should create more air resistance while maneuvering, which would mean that this racket is purely an offensive racket!!!!
i agree with jerby about it being a pain to string and weave all the crosses...could the high price be due to the # of additional non-shared cross grommets? and yes Pete it does somewhat remind me of the the babolat satelite rackets..but their crosses are still spaced a decent amount around the sweet spot.
In my opinion, AOTBE, the dense pattern of the strings around the sweetspot will increase its playability at the cost of a slight increase in air resistance. It will be similar to what a high tensioned racquet is capable of-less trampoline effect, more control, and the shuttle will leave the stringbed faster.
When you play badminton, irregardless of slicing the shuttle inadvertently or on purpose... it is most likely that the Main String will be the one that moves out of place. Not the crosses. (This is not 'how well a racket is strung' discussion) Therefore, Contact area between the mains are more important to produce 'higher spinning' shots. When you have a greater number of crosses at the sweetspot area, you can see that the mains have 'zig zaged' a-lot more times around the crosses. also, the greater number of crosses will have more area of contact with the shuttle and thus dominate. This is not good because the flow of the string from side to side will act like highway for 'torque slippage' and result is less shuttle spin. I have no way to quantify this theory. Please note there is also a possibility that the opposite could be true. The super grip from the increased number of crosses could make crazy spins!!! Either way... someone who has it needs to put it to the 'slicing test' against another racket. Cheers
