I am intrigued by this racquet. I'm currently using an Astrox cosmic reign instead of my usual Nanoray800's to try and help my elbow overuse injury and that racquet is made in Taiwan. I was looking at trying some Mid flex racquet and what do you know, mid flex with vibration dampening. It sounds too good to be true. Almost like they read my mind on what I was looking for. Looks like I will be getting this and replacement shoes in January 2023
If Yonex is going for comfort, using VDM is the right choice. Based on my experience with Yonex’s tennis racquets that use VDM, it gave a more plush response, but at the cost of a more disconnected feeling at contact with the ball.
Does more grommet = less string breakage? Because more of the string is in contact with the racket. Not sure if that's how it works.
yeah. I used ashaway palladium xt96 before. I had to cut the string because of losing tension before breaking during playing
Apparently, it is not too head heavy. The review said that it more even balanced. Im a little disappointed because I expected it to be head heavy like an Astrox 77 at least.
I have some of Yonex U.K’s NextAge demo rackets and these do feel head heavy to me, even with the plastic wrap still on the grip
If you look closely it looks like the top third of the frame is a sharper aeroframe whereas the bottom 2 thirds is more boxy. Kinda like the Victor TKFE.
Not showing up yet on uk websites. I do hope it shows up around that time. I am surprised they aren't allowing preorders and stuff yet.
Put an order in with badminton HQ thismorning. Should be with me on or before Thursday next week. Pretty excited
I'm doing my review in two parts because I got a cut on my finger at the 2nd knuckle yesterday morning and that might have been affecting my play lastnight. So need more time on court with it! My Nextage is 4U G5, strung with BG 66Ultimax at 23 LBs. I really like the look of the racquet. Green and black colour scheme is very nice to look at. The way the racquet frame changes shape on the head meant that I struggled to pick up the shuttle from the floor. Someone likened it to me using a shovel, made me laugh. Price - Retails at £120.00 uk. Upon seeing a preview I was expecting it to be about £150. £120 plus any discount is a very fair price Serving and net shots felt really easy to do. Managed to do 5 tumbles or spinning net shots and that's not something I usually do. Even though it Astrox are a head heavy range, the head didn't feel heavy at all. Serving and doing net shots with the Astrox 100zz, you can really feel the weight in the head, but not with the Nextage. Drives - will cover in pt2. Didn't do many in my games last night, but will do some tonight as playing in a venue with a very low ceiling. Backhand lifts and clears - Felt like they were not going deep enough. Probably due to the flex of the racquet. Think I need to change timing and use a bit more wrist to get the extra length. Forehand Clears - Very easy to do, Nice sound when you make contact. I hit a few out of the court which is unusual for me. Forehand Drop - Again, very easy to do, really accurate. Can't fault it. (smash) Defense - Very manoeuvrable, easy to react to awkward angles. I expect the head shape helps with this. Smashes - Will try and do more tonight despite the low ceilings. I'd rate the smashes 7.5 out of 10. They work, the sound is great (much like a gunshot) and stick smashes were very effective. - Day 1 thoughts, I like the serving and net play. I like the smashing and clearing sound and I like that it doesn't feel head heavy. It does feel a bit weak on the power department. But that's probably because I have my power expectations unrealistically high due to Astrox100ZZ being the comparison. I did play a singles game to 11 points and narrowly lost it. But that was likely due to me being too friendly on line calls my side of the court and not having good tactics. So I can't completely blame the racquet on that. - Day 2 thoughts to follow
He describes it as feeling like a head-heavier NF700. That sounds interesting to me. Too bad Canadian retailers still haven't received stock yet.
End of Week 1 I now have about 10 hours on court with this racquet. 2 of which were a plastic shuttle club and 2 of which were a mens 6 match. I really enjoy playing with it. It is quite easy to aim smashes, drops and drives / net shots with it. One part of my game that was lacking was increasing the pace of the ralley (I am good at slowing it down, but not great at speeding it up) and the racquet made it easy to get a good angle and bit of power when slightly late to the forehand side. Serving is very consistent. It took me at least 2 weeks to get used to the nanoflare 800lt for serving, but the proportions on the Nextage are closer to being a "normal" racquet so it was easier to tame. One thing I have noticed is it seems to give a bit more bounce off the top strings when serving (I serve using the strings near the top of the frame). Maybe this is due to the 80 grommit pattern. One thing that is concerning me is that I now have an ache / pain in my right bicep near my elbow when at full extension both straight and if I touch the right shoulder with my right hand. I expect it's from bad smash technique, but I can't blame the racquet on that. I can ask my physio in passing on Saturday if I remember . Overall, I am very impressed with it. The only thing I haven't tried doing with it is sliced drops. Bigminton had a video yesterday learning them and it was very interesting to watch and listen to the sound. I will definitely be buying another of these in the next few months as BG66U is known for poor durability. Hopefully the UK gets a 3UG4 version instead of the 4UG5 one that I have.
