I'm looking for an under 80 gram neutral to head light racquet for a 10 year old girl. US availability and preferably under $100 but can go higher if needed. So far most of the one's I've seen that are superlight are head heavy balance.
Not finding many of those still for sale, can't find any 6u/7u, only one so far on Amazon with no specifications as to what weight, (5u/6u/etc). Seems to be a lot of variation in actual weight and balance on that one https://www.badmintoncentral.com/fo...arcsaber-fd-sonic-blue-2015-too-heavy.155366/ I might need to look for even lighter racquets to be sure it stays under 80 grams actual.
you want lighter you gotta go with apacs or someone similar with a huge portfolio of offerings. there's a lot of 6U(F) ARCFB still on the market from USA authorized dealers, but you have to be prepared to pay for it.
Apacs Feather Weight X looks good but it says head heavy, though at 58 grams I wonder if it actually feels head heavy. I'd like something easy to flick around so she can develop good wrist technique.
If you believe that a flyswatter racket is helping her develop a good technique, then you're on the wrong track. Get her a flexible(!), even balanced 4U or even 3U racket. That is the right foundation to develop decent technique - and that means not to play from the wrist btw.
I recommend a flexible even to slightly head heavy 3U. At this age a pulling head mass is really supportive to built up a correct swing with follow through. From my experience with training girls at this age, girls tend often to use a slower and more gentle swing than boys at this age. A very light racket won't give any benefits because a slow swing with low mass will lack alot of punch were especially young girls can struggle. The games are not so fast and hard smashing that a slower racket like a slightly head heavy 3U could influence the performance in defensive situations. IMO a heavier racket is for learning at this age or younger more benificial than a light racket were you sometimes don't really feel where the head is.
I don't think I said you play from the wrist, but the wrist is an important part of technique. I remember years ago how my game improved when I got a lightweight racquet, and I see plenty of kids using too much arm struggling with too heavy cheap racquets.
Probably because they lack the strength to swing it faster, which is why I'm looking for a lighter racquet, more appropriate for their strength level.
3U is not exactly heavy, 4U is the lowest I would go for a child to develop good technique, but then leaning to a head heavy racket. That's why I would not go with 4U, but prefer a 3U racket. They won't swing a lighter racket faster. They'll change they're technique and develop movements that work for them at that point, but they will not develop better technique with a lighter racket. The same quality at best. With the movements they develop, they'll have no chance to develop much further from that point. Light rackets only have an advantage when very quick movements really are needed, but at the age of ten, badminton is pretty slow and the movements can be slower. No advantage for a lighter racket there. Badminton technique is pretty complex, especially for a ten year old. A faster movement (NEEDED with a lighter racket, but not necessary for the speed of the game at that age) makes it even more difficult.
I appreciate the different perspectives. However kids learning tennis use smaller lighter racquets, lighter balls for learning bowling, lighter bats for baseball, etc. I'm not understanding why badminton is special and a kid wouldn't use a more proportionally weighted racquet relative to their strength.
Nobody said anything against using a shorter racket, it makes hitting the shuttle with a rotational movement easier. A slower pace is the same idea while being able to better focus on details. A tennis stroke is much slower than a Badminton stroke, and tennis rackets are much heavier than badminton rackets. Power in badminton comes more from technique than pure muscle power. I don't think it's the same relation for tennis. I really hope you do see a difference between using a lighter ball for bowling compared to a lighter racket for badminton. If not, I can send you a 21U racket via email for the price you're willing to pay for a racket. No refunds. I've seen many children learning badminton and using the wrist too little never was a problem. The wrist flexing too much quite often is a problem. It's worse when people have played (not trained) for a longer time before. The most difficult parts for a clear (for example) is the kinetic chain and hitting the shuttle using pronation (racket and arm are not one straight line), for these aspects I think it's better to use a heavier racket (it's still not heavy!) to learn. The reasons are above. Also, I don't think it's necessary to spend 100$ for a racket for a ten year old. There's plenty even balanced mid-flex rackets for much less. That would leave you with some money for a better string, shoes, shuttles, .... When she has decent technique, she can try different rackets and choose one she likes, but that will take a few years. Maybe she doesn't even want to change. Most girls in our club chose head heavy and mid-stiff to extra stiff rackets, for some reason that seems to be different for women. I ask you who is less biased: The girl who gets a few rackets to try without knowing anything about the rackets? The woman who has been told many times that pink headlight rackets are for female players? If you still want to buy a <<80g racket and pay 100$, go for it. Someone has to pay for LCW's Ferrari. Don't take my sarcasm personally, everybody gets that for free.
No because I think it's important to use the normal length/size racquet to get the proper timing and spatial awareness. Also it seems most Jr racquets are for even younger kids.
And extremely light rackets are for people with good technique who can get good power despite the light weight while taking advantage of the extremely quick movements. That's not someone who is just learning the basics.
Here is my thinking. Let's say I'm about 5 times stronger than this kid, what would my technique be like if I grabbed a racquet 5 times heavier than normal, 400+ grams? I mean I have played badminton with a squash racquet a few times just to see what it was like, it wasn't great. Along those lines: https://racquetsportscenter.com/best-kids-badminton-rackets/
I hope this is not a case of "I'm not an expert, but I know better than all of them." Have you checked out their recommendations? They are suggesting aluminum headed, short sized rackets which don't really meet the term "light". This. I'm not sure how much OP is into badminton rackets specs himself, but a 3U or 4U full carbon racket is light. And just to shout out an actual racket suggestion: Yonex Nanoray 10F. 4U (so very light), flexible, even balanced and comes with a fair price tag. And a general advice (for free!) - if a racket in that price range comes factory strung, make sure to get it restrung with a decent high repulsion string immediately (let's say Yonex NBG99, Li-Ning No.1 or No. 5 or Ashaway ZM66 just to name a few). The ropes that they come with are killing even the last bit of feel or repulsion and completely destroy the overall performance of a racket.
Nah, I'm not talking about a different strength level between the gender ofof ki. I'm talking about that girls don't swing as fast as boys from experience. A heavier racket racket regardless if boy or girl help in a supportive way to get a natural way of swing for overheads. With a light racket the kids need much more attention in training because the lacking weight don't lead the way of the stroke and anything wrong is easier to learn. With light rackets the coach is forced to correct much more details in the swing which makes the learning for kids very difficult. You can do what you want. IMO the correct technique is the base for learning, ignore the speed. This will come over time if they turn 12-14. What matters a speedy hitting, if the transfer of energy is ineffective due wrong technique?
Not at all, I'm taking it all in and using your opinions to inform my decision. I'm just trying to square the recommendations with basic physics. A heavier racquet will require more effort and result in a slower head speed than a lighter racquet. As an adult male I use 82-84 gram neutral to slightly head heavy racquets and my game improved when using them. Proportionally those racquets would be harder for a weaker kid to swing. Maybe that's less of an issue than it seems to me. True though the shorter length means effective swing effort is reduced. Aren't most modern racquets 3U, which would make them average? Also it seems many racquets are actually heavier than advertised, and even advertised weights in a "U" range seem cover a large range.
