I was a little confused when I saw my racket after stringing. Looks like there's one cross extra at the top and bottom. -Does this make any difference on playability? -Also, my other racket, probably stringed by another stringer, was more round than oval. Can this be because they didn't use higher tension on the crosses? It was almost 1 cm shorter than the other racket. I showed it to the shop and they said it shouldn't matter, but it felt weird to play with. I then cut the strings at home and without strings it's still a little bit shorter (0.5 cm) than the stringed racket (on the pic). IMG_6754 by Swat posted Dec 1, 2021 at 11:56 AM
no. It might even reduce the risk of string breakages when the shuttle is being hit close to the frame at the top. That tie-off knot at the second to last main string there must have resulted in a huuuge piece of slack string on the outside of the frame. I'd say you got two slightly deformed rackets there. One was more round and shorter, the other then seems to be a little "slim" and longer. Once the strings are cut, the frame should go back to it's original shape within a couple of hours at the latest. Have you measured the total length of both rackets? In an ideal world, the head shape of a strung racket should be identical to the unstrung one. And it's the goal of the stringer to achieve just that best possible. A maximum deviation of +-2 to 3 mm in total length is acceptable imo. The higher the tension, the more accurate the shape should remain. If your brain is already fixed on that more round'ish head, you will "feel" it playing differently for sure. Our minds are so easy to be tricked that in that situation it gets impossible to tell apart a real difference from the results of your own mind games.
Well it might be a case of slight OCD in both these cases. It just doesn't look right Good idea to measure them, so I did. The first racket with strings is 677 mm and the round-ish now unstringed one is 673. So, I guess this is within the acceptable range and you were totally right about both being a bit deformed. Thanks!
according to https://www.badmintonbay.com/yonex-astrox-77-metallic-blue-4ug5-badminton-racket.html, the AX77 is spec'ed with a total length of 673 mm. So it looks like the still strung one has been more deformed than the round'ish one in the first place. But yeah, I feel like round'ish heads have a significantly worse look than slightly stretched ones.
Oh 673 is the normal one? That's surprising if that's the case I have also seen 675 in the specs somewhere... And the Yonex catalogue just says "10 mm longer".
