pros - reduce vibration, thus reduce risk of tennis elbow - lesser burden of hitting that exact the sweet spot with high tension stringing - lifts and drives are effortless - cool transparent cap cons - feels muted. some may prefer the recoil feeling so up to personal preferences. - shuttle tends to go out of bound due to the muted feeling, so long period of adjustment is required - plastic end cap seems to squeak a lot. fixed with quick setting glue. It does worked as intended. Give it a try!
I've noticed the newer Victor rackets with freecore handle show a lower stiffness on their indicator on the shaft. In your experience does the racket feel more flexible or is it simply a case that the point of flexion is lower towards the shaft than previous rackets with wooden handles? (Anybody else feel free to respond) Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk
depend personal feel, for me freecore is not so such solid when handle it, when back to back baseline sometime not feel so much shuttle hits sweetpot which side
I like how the original grip comes off cleanly on the freecore handles then on the wood. But then again Victor grips don't have that crazy glue as Yonex does. Besides the ARS-Hang / LJH that have a higher racket response rating, the vast majority of the top tier freecore rackets are a bit flexy imo and rackets like the TKFC / Ryuga 2 are just noodles. I don't think its a Freecore handle thing but hope Victor starts giving us something closer to the upper spectrum. Another thing is that many of the rackets that are suppose to be even balance are on the headheavy side. I think the era of 3U headlight / even balance is slowly dying as many people prefer 4U with slight headheavy.
The term "better" is debatable. It's more like "different". I am a long time JS12, 90K user. Recently switched to TKFE 6 months ago. I play 2x a week for 2hrs each day. I am just now starting to get the hang of the feel, even after 6 months. I found it very hard to gauge power. The feedback is sooooo much less. I used to be able to tell where the lift would go based on my feedback, now it all feels the same. The vibration from a power smash and a 1/2 smash are identical. Super weird. That said, my rotator cuff injury is much better with the switch. I'm not much for being sold on "technology" for rackets. Like 4% steeper! 9% more power! I'm not sure what the actual purpose of the free core handle was designed for but it does make the sport feel a little more effortless in the contact. Also makes it harder to judge shots too. I was blasting a lot out of the back court in the beginning, then too soft and getting crushed. Finally starting to get the sweet spot now after 6 months of play.
Anyone have experience with Victor's cheaper Freecore rackets? Seems like they are starting to incorporate Freecore into their lower end models too.
for me, freecore is not solid like old handle, before i use ryuga2 wif freecore, i use almost 2 week to suitable, when changing old racket just 1 time can get it and nice to play, freecore good is less vibration, but feel not solid too much
I suppose the only real way to compare freecore with wooden handle would be to have two of the same racket but one with freecore and one with wood. That said, I have the Drive 9X and I agree with your list of pros. Zero vibration and easy to hit the sweet spot (29lb tension on my racket) and easy lifts and drives. On the cons side of things, it could be said to be muted but that does not bother me. I haven't hit out of court much at all - maybe the shuttles are slow. Haven't had any squeaking - at least not yet - but that has happened on plenty of wood handle rackets I have owned. On the whole I can't see any real downsides.
I started the session it was fine. I played some games, including some 100% smashing. I realized at some point during the game it was broken. I take care of my racquets always in a bag in my multi-racquets badminton bag. I was a 90k2 from one year ago almost day for day. Occasional played as it is a backup I use, not my main. Here is my interpretation (see attached i tried to draw it quickly). the lever force applied between the fingers and palm of the hand, in opposing force, can do this kind of fracture. My buttcap was slightly enlarged so it could further enhance the lever force applied when smashing hard and holding the racquet low on the handle.
I know plastics can get brittle over time, but I was expecting them to atleast last 3-5years before any problems arose. Material looks a lot thinner than I thought too. On the other hand, it seems like you can get replacement handles for cheap, but not sure if they're even worse quality. Maybe contact Victor, see it they will warranty it.
I'm not a big fan of the Freecore handle, I have it in my Thruster F Enhanced and the feel isn't great. Although I can't be completely sure it's down to the handle alone, I have a sense that a conventional wooden handle would feel better. I also noticed that some pro's that are using the Thruster F Enhanced seem to be using conventional wooden handles. Maybe they have specifically requested this from Victor?
Pretty sure all Thrusters F enhanced are freecore handles, whats your speculation that its wooden handle? Tbh we would never know unless we get our hands on one and unwrap the handle to have a look.
True, it could be that they only changed the butt cap to the normal one for advertising purposes. But given the number feeling of the freecore handle, it wouldn't surprise me if they specifically requested a conventional handle from Victor.
