I'm back to my N80 (long time go-to racket), but might as well try this new Victor string with the Inferno. The Inferno is great in that it gives me that awesome feeling that I can defend everything, even when I do a mid-court lift. Power is there, but you really have to work for it - at least I do, coming from a 3U and slightly head-heavy racket. Didn't really get along with the Customedge Type N. It's been a long time since I've used the ArcSaber 11, but I think the Inferno is faster but not as powerful.
So, here we go with my first impressions of the Inferno. And I'm going to start with a picture: What a beautiful racket. And as @Rob3rt already mentioned, you just can help feeling along the wave structure around the head. Measured specs (stock overgrip removed, added a bit of cushion wrap and a RKEP G10 overgrip, strung with LN1 at my usual 12.5/12.5 kg): Total weight: 88.8 g Head weight: 39.8 g I missed to measure the balance point. So it's pretty much spot on identical with the heavier one of my two JS10 4U. From a stringer's perspective, it easily scores maximum points. Single pass grommets at the top are perfectly staggered and somehow the shared grommets didn't cause any issue whatsoever. Very, very nice. I have played with it for around 2 hours of mostly MD and so far, my feelings about it are mixed. Net play, drives, clears, drops and of course defence shots were brilliant, but I struggled a bit with my smashes. I just couldn't dial in the right timing and I have no idea why. Shaft is slightly more flexible than the JS10, head speed is about the same though and there is no noticeable head lag - so I was a bit surprised to end up with such timing issues. Another thing that was bugging me a bit was the feel on impact. Hard to describe, but is kind of has a metallic feel and sound on impact which is something I haven't felt with any other racket yet. It didn't cause any pain or soreness though. As said, defence of all sorts were incredible. Due to the slightly larger head and the higher flex, it is a tad more forgiving than a JS10 and makes deep high lifts more effortless. I will definitely have to spend some more time on court with it to get my smashes right. It should have all it needs to deliver decent results there, so I can't really blame the racket (yet...). Maybe I was simply missing some arm strength after carrying around what felt like 100 moving boxes and half an IKEA shop full of furniture.
Second session with the Inferno is over - this time singles and XD. And I'm still not in love. Control is still excellent, drives and defence of all sorts are a breeze but somehow I still had to fight noticeably harder to get length in clears (especially when I'm under pressure) compared to the JS10 or the Panda Titan. Smashes were better than last time and I actually hit some pretty good ones - it felt totally easy to achieve a steep angle and good placement. Power is still lacking a bit and I just can't achieve it consistently. My feeling is that, despite it's normal sized ISO-head, the true sweet spot for power shots is actually quite small. Surprisingly, I haven't noticed anything like that when it comes to net shots - even if I clearly missed the sweet spot, the shuttle can still be controlled well. What has remained for me is the unpleasant metallic feel on impact. You can feel the shaft flex during the swing, but somehow the head itself seems to be extremely stiff. Which is of course good to improve control (it has literally zero torsion at all), but doesn't help to generate power as some other rackets do with dedicated flex zones around the head. Please note that this is all just speculations based on what my fingers tell me - I didn't do any measurements in that regard. But it would explain a bit the different behaviours between power and touch shots on off-center hits. Anyway, I switched to my Titan for the last XD game and I was blown away by how easy to use it is. And what's even more surprising looking at its massive box frame and thick shaft: It's only a little bit slower than the Inferno. @DinkAlot has somehow managed to trick the known laws of aerodynamics.
I'm surprised that you can achieve more powerful shots easier with the JS10 than with the Inferno. For me it was exactly the other way round. But then again, I ditched the Inferno exactly because of that lacking power aspect.
The few good smashes I had with the Inferno were on par with the JS10 power wise. And maybe there is still a small margin left with the Inferno, but I just couldn't unlock it yet. The secret to achieve good power with the JS10 is to have the swing as compact as possible and to stay relaaaaxed. I remember @Mark A saying about the JS10 right in the beginning "the less you try, the harder it hits" and that still summarizes it perfectly IMO. With the JS10 you need to say good bye to the idea to end the rally with that one devastating smash from the backline but instead surprise your opponent with all sorts of no-preparation half smashes.
That's exactly why I'm not using the JS10. It's so frustrating not being able to kill that hard-earned short lift.
