Hi, I'm a 27 years old guy playing in Singapore. And training since about 4 months (1 or 2 training session + 1 or 2 meetup session a week). Before that I was playing in the garden with my parents so not trying to become a pro player, my Olympic career is over. But trying to improve. Playing almost only in doubles. I'm not specially a front or back court player. But maybe more comfortable at the front. At this point I think I start to drive kind of properly, and I can survive close to the net. Not a lot of smash, mostly because my technique is not great. Hopefully it will come with more training. So probably qualifying as a low intermediate. Since the beginning of the training I am playing with a duora 7 (3u, g5). The racket was picked pretty randomly. I chose a racket which was described as all rounded, very close to the middle of the yonex chart, not marked for professional, with a 50% discount. Bg65ti ~23 pounds (once again I picked kind of randomly a string in the middle of the list). It felt maybe stiff at first, but now I think I'm pretty comfortable with it. At least there is the sound and I can cross full court on the forehand side without trying too hard. As I'm getting more comfortable and playing pretty regularly, I'd like to have a second racket. Both to discover something different, and to have a backup. I didn't really have the opportunity to try other rackets. Shops don't seem to offer this option in singapore. But it's hard to know what to look for. It's written everywhere that one should try a racket to know if it fits one playstyle/body. But even with a chance to try, at my level I think it's complicated to evaluate over 10 minutes if a racket is matching or not. So after many hours of reading, I am this irritating guy who knows the characteristics of many rackets on the paper but can't play well ^^' I think I should aim for a racket which is not too stiff, and more on the light side. Avoiding a head heavy racket. The idea is that I'd have enough power thanks to the flex and low string tension to focus on the correct technique rather than trying hard to hit using my full strengh. But no "easy power" without hitting properly. Hopefully an incentive to improve rather than reinforce bad habits. Does it sound logical? Following this (flawed?) logic, I thought of 2 models: - lining tc75i - Victor js12(f ?) Do you think they match my goal? Is there a reason to lean on one side or the other? Are they really lighter than the duora 7? Thanks for your help
Tc75i is 5u if I rmb correctly so it's from 3u to 5u. Js12 u can try but I think there is some sinking grommet issue. Ex Duora 7 user here. Would recommend u mizuno altius feel thou. I'm currently looking at nanoflare 800, yonex say its headlight. But users feel it's even balance. So still looking around. Anyway bro where do u play?
My suggestion is first to go around and try what kind of headshape you prefer. Do you prefer your standard astrox head-frame? The sword-frame of JS12? or perhaps the big ol' chuncky frame like aeronaut.
If I manage to try the different head frames, what should I pay attention to know which one I prefer? The size and position of the sweet spot? How “solid” the head frame is? In that regard, I have the impression that the duora 7 is relatively tolerant to me not centering perfectly. It seems to be fixed on the f and m versions. But even if it is not, it should be fine at low tensions like me, no? The mizuno altius tour or another model? I'll try to put my hand on one. meetups in central area (stadium, pek kio) and training in the east (sengkang/tampines)
Basically it's like this - try different racquets until one just "feels" right. That would be the one.
Different weight would feel different even if the balance is the same. Different frame shape also feel different even if the weight & balance is the same. Borrowing friend racker & try it would be good. Then as you own Duora series which had 2 face. Try hitting forehand, backhand, drive, smash, etc with aero side & do the same with the box side.
U can try the latest mizuno altius 01 feel thou. Abit head heavier than altius tour Japan but should be about the same. Anyway care to share which training class u go to? Pmed rmb it's the yellow purple model. Heard m model is ok.
I went with a tc75. It's impressive how much power it generates on drives without any effort. I didn't realize that a different racket could make such a big difference. It's not sure that it will push me to improve my technique. But it's interesting to feel the difference. Stringed with lining no.3, I don't know how much the strings are contributing to the resulting feeling.
