day 500 bowl of running abdominal
channel and I'm still trying to answer
the onslaught of racket questions my
arthritis has reached peak levels I was
losing hope but when all seemed lost I
had a brilliant idea just make a video
answering the question once and for all
huh
that makes my life easier there are
hundreds of different rackets on the
market but filtering it down to the one
racket they'll suit you best really just
comes down to three main factors the
first is balance or other words the
weight distribution of the racket a
racket can be head heavy which means it
has more weight distributed at the head
it can be head light which means it has
more weight distributed by the handle or
it can be balanced which means the
weight lies somewhere in between weight
distribution affects two things the
power and renewability of the racket to
explain how this works let's demonstrate
with a simple everyday object a
sledgehammer if I hold the sledgehammer
this way it resembles a head heavy
racket because all the weight is on this
side so when I swing it's very easy to
generate power let's use this watermelon
as our test subject it's very easy to
generate power in my swing
now if I hold the sledgehammer this way
which resembles a headlight racket
because all the weight is on the handle
end suddenly it becomes a lot harder to
generate power there just isn't very
much
momentum in my swing it's not happening
this shows that the Moorhead heavy
racket is the better it will be at
generating power this will result in
faster smashes and more effortless
clears from the rear court but the
trade-off for this is maneuverability
the extra momentum that makes it so
powerful also makes it much harder to
control let's take a look at this rapid
tapping motion which is used when the
shuttle is being driven back and forth
in fast flight exchanges if I use the
head heavy sledgehammer it becomes very
difficult to do this because of the
momentum this is pretty much as nimble
as I can get but if I turn it around and
use the head light version suddenly
becomes very easy I have complete
control over this sledgehammer and it's
incredibly nimble so the Moorhead light
your racket is the more nimble it will
be this makes it sharper in situations
where quick reflexes are required like
fast flight changes or defensive shots
the next big factor is a stiffness
you must understand the scientific
derivation the stiffness of the material
is given by its young's modulus defined
as sigma over epsilon where Sigma is
given in megapascals and epsilon is a
unitless constant just kidding stiffness
is basically just how much the shaft of
a racket tends to bend a stiff racket
won't Bend very much while a flexible
racket will bend a lot to understand why
this matters take a look at this video
of Olympic champion Chan log hitting a
smash and notice how the shaft of his
racket bends as he hits the shot the
bend is created from the fast
acceleration of the racket it's
important because it creates a sort of
whip effect that adds power to your
shots and makes them more efficient
here's where it gets interesting
a stiff racket has more energy when you
whip it so it makes this effect more
powerful which is a good thing but it's
harder for AI player to create that with
effect because the stiffer a racket is
the less it bends so the player needs to
give to accelerate their racket a lot
faster to create that bend you're
a swing generating this right speed is
not easy to do even without a shuttle
think of an arch or with a bow and arrow
if the string is very tight which
represents a stiff racket it will shoot
their arrow a lot further but if it's so
tight that the archer isn't strong
enough to even put it back in the first
place it wouldn't go anywhere so a loose
of string which represents a flexible
racket might be better
that means the stiffness of your ideal
racket depends on how much racket head
speed you're able to generate in your
swing the faster you are the stiffer the
racket you'll be able to tame the final
factor is the weight racket weights are
defined by the you system from 1 through
5 where a lower number indicates a
heavier weight realistically though the
only racket weights viable for general
play are 3 you and for you the weight of
a racket also has a trade-off between
power and maneuverability with a heavier
racket you can put more weight behind
your thoughts which means more power but
the added weight makes it harder to
control in general you'll see singles
players use heavier rackets the pace of
rallies is slower in singles even though
singles is extremely grueling the
demands are mostly on speed of footwork
as opposed to speed of racket the number
of shots per second is lower so players
can take advantage of the extra power
that heavier rackets grant doubles takes
place at a much faster pace there's a
lot of flat exchanges that happen at
breakneck speeds and there's twice as
many players hitting on court so in
order to keep up doubles players tend to
use in light and racket as the extra
power isn't as important as their
ability to rapidly manipulate the racket
in between shots
the other consideration to make is your
own physical strength younger or weaker
players might want to look for a lighter
racket those are the three big factors
that will determine which racket will be
best for you but we still haven't gotten
to the most important part of the video
yet sure you've just learnt a lot of
theory but how do you actually choose a
racket in the age of information
overload we have too many choices and
simplifying it to just one option will
save you a lot of headaches
that's why I've created an interactive
racquet selector that will choose out a
racket personalized for you just answer
a few multiple choice questions about
yourself and our algorithm we'll use
that data to match you with the path
racket that suits your games and
complements your strengths as a
badminton player it's free to use and
gives you results instantly so click the
link in the description to find your
perfect racket today and maybe with
enough time my arthritis might finally
heal