Material | - POWER CUSHION+, POWER CUSHION, Double Raschel Mesh, Durable Skin Light, Feather Bounce Foam |
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Size UK |
2 |
3 |
4.5 |
5 |
5.5 |
6 |
6.5 |
7 |
7.5 |
8 |
8.5 |
9 |
9.5 |
10 |
10.5 |
11 |
11.5 |
12.5 |
Size Eur |
35 |
36 |
37 |
37.5 |
38 |
39 |
39.5 |
40 |
40.5 |
41 |
42 |
43 |
44 |
44.5 |
45 |
45.5 |
46 |
47 |
Asian Cm |
21 |
22 |
23 |
23.5 |
24 |
24.5 |
25 |
25.5 |
26 |
26.5 |
27 |
27.5 |
28 |
28.5 |
29 |
29.5 |
30 |
31 |
US Mens |
3 |
4 |
5 |
5.5 |
6 |
6.5 |
7 |
7.5 |
8 |
8.5 |
9 |
9.5 |
10 |
10.5 |
11 |
11.5 |
12 |
13 |
US Ladies |
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6 |
6.5 |
7 |
7.5 |
8 |
8.5 |
9 |
9.5 |
10 |
10.5 |
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Caution - There are many fake Yonex shoes SHIPPED DIRECTLY FROM CHINA OR HONG KONG. They are not cushioned adequately to protect your feet.
DO NOT RISK BUYING CHEAP ONES. They may break in few months and even lead to your sore feet and the injury of ankle and/or knee.
Warning - Do not wear running shoes to play badminton. Their outsole is usually made of synthetic rubber instead of 100% natural rubber. You need to run from side to side and running shoes do not provide any side grip, thus would harm your feet. (please read an article regarding the choice of badminton equipment in the end of this part).
We only sell genuine products.
* Reliable & Trustworthy Supplier (established in 1996) - Please Refer to Our Customers' Feedback in eBay.
Badminton Central
Guide to choosing Badminton Equipment
Written by Kwun Han
Monday, 28 February 2005 16:21
I have wanted to write a guide on what equipment badminton should focus on. By
nature, badminton requires the player to have a few pieces of equipment to
engage in the sports, items such as a racket and a shuttlecock are a must for a
badminton player. However, often I see many player places the wrong focus on
how they spend their money on equipment. A smart badminton player will spend
money effectively to maximize their badminton playing experience.
However, before I start, I would like to point out that no badminton equipment
can replace proper badminton skills. If you think you can spend US$200 on a
racket and you can instantly play better, you are 105% wrong. A good set of
equipment can only bring out the potential of a player with good skills. No
equipment can fix your bad skills. Instead, I recommend you spend your money on
some good coaching lessons. It will make much more difference in your badminton
game than a shiny new racket.
I chose to list the equipment in decreasing order of important, in other words,
I reckon that the badminton shoes is the most important equipment that a
badminton player has, while their clothing is the least important.
Shoes
Contrary to popular belief, a good set of badminton shoes are the most
important piece of equipment a badminton player can have. Badminton players
move around the badminton court at an amazing pace, dashes and changes
directions on every stroke of the rally, twisting and turning and lunging. All
these movements are supported and made possible by the biggest unsung hero, the
badminton shoes.
Badminton shoes are designed for badminton movements; a thin but well supported
sole with good lateral support keep the player’s feet close to the ground, this
allows for fast and ankle bending directional changes with lower chance of
injury; light weight for faster feet movement; surface hugging gummy soles to
grip the indoor surface without slipping.
The amount of torture we subject our lower body to can clearly be seen in
people’s badminton shoes. A good pair of badminton shoes used by a decent
player sometimes last only 3-6 months. At the end of its short life, you will
find soles that are worn to the inner support, insoles that are worn through,
strong upper leather that gave up and split due to the immense force exerted at
it.
Pick your badminton shoes with care, make sure you choose the pair that fits
the shape of your feet and thus the most comfortable.
And whatever you do, do not wear running shoes or any other thick soled shoes.
They keep your feet too high up in the ground and all it will take is one deep
lunge to have your ankle sprained. From then on, you will be in excruciating
pain for days and the injury will affect your badminton game for years to come.
Good badminton shoes brands include Asics, Hi-Tec, Mizuno, and Yonex. Other
smaller brands are starting to catching up as well.
String
The number two unsung hero of the badminton equipment is the badminton string.
Afterall, it is the string that is in contact with the shuttle on every stroke.
How the string interacts with the shuttle is crucial to the feel of each
stroke. Depending on your skill level and the style of your game, you should pick
a string and tension that is suitable for your game. String manufacturers
usually have ratings of different string characteristics at the back of the
string package. Pick the items that are most important for your game.
String tension affects the playability of the string as much as the string
itself. The general rule of thumb is that the harder you can hit, the tighter
your tension can be. A higher tension rewards a hard hitting while robs power
from a light hitter. On the opposite end, a lower tensioned string helps light
hitter with a better timed trampoline effect.
There is always the temptation to go higher in tension, but this is a case of
bigger is not always better. Higher tension does not give you more power as
mentioned above, beginners should always start with lower tension of around
20lbs, adjust it to 22-23lbs when you progress to intermediate and only go up
to 25+lbs if you are gain more power in your technique. Using the inappropriate
high tension will make the racket unresponsive, decreased power, and will
easily cause injury.
Good brands for badminton strings are: Ashaway, Gosen, Mizuno, Yonex.
Recommended tensions: beginners: 19-20lbs . intermediate players: 21-24lbs.
advance players: 25+ lbs.
Grip
The number three unsung hero of badminton equipment is the badminton grip.
Similar to the string being the interface to the shuttle, the grip is the
interface to the badminton player’s finger and hand. The game of badminton
comprises of many very delicate movements and fine control from the player’s
finger and wrist. A proper grip ensure that there is proper actuation and
feedback to and from the racket.
Three major factors affects the characteristics of the grip: type, size and
tackiness.
Badminton grips falls into two different type, towel and synthetic. The choice
of which are personal preference. Towel grip are softer, provides good sweat
absorption, but at the same time, is more prone to germ accumulation and needs
to be changed often. Synthetic grips are less messy and less prone to
accumulation of germs, however, they are not as good as towel grips when it
comes to sweat absorption.
The proper grip size to use depends greatly on the player. Obviously a player
with larger hands will prefer a larger grip and vice versa. It is often tempting
to use a large grip, a large grip gives the false feeling that the racket is
lighter and more maneuverable. However, one must again understand that
badminton is comprised of subtle, agile and delicate movements in the fingers
and wrist, a smaller (but not too small) grip will allow for higher agility and
maneuverability of the racket.
Racket
Often times badminton players give the racket the most emphasis. If you go into
badmintoncentral.com and you will find that most of the discussion centers on the
racket. While the racket is certainly an important equipment, the importance of
which is often overrated, and that is the reason why I put the Racket almost
next to last in our recommendation list.
The badminton racket is the middleman when transferring force from the player
to the shuttle, sitting right between the grip and the string. A badminton
racket can be categorized by a few characteristics: shape, stiffness, weight,
balance.
Virtually all badminton rackets are made of carbon fiber or graphite. Some
manufacturers choose to put in extra ingredients into the racket material like
titanium or recently nanocarbon. I want to emphasis that they are only
addictives, the 99% of the racket is still graphite and the extra benefits of
the additives are very marginal.
Badminton rackets comes in two major head shapes: Isometric/square and Oval.
Oval is the traditional racket shape, it is a slightly bottom heavy oval,
almost the shape of an egg. Oval rackets in general have a small but more
concentrated sweet spot. Oval fans like the concentration of power around the
sweetspot of the racket. The shape is the Isometric or square which became more
popular after the early 1990’s. The Isometric head has a wider and more squared
top half of the racket head. The advantage of the isometric is an enlarged
sweetspot which give off-centered hit a better response.
The effective stiffness of a badminton racket is similar to the effective of
string tension. So I will refer you back to that section. A stiffer racket has
the similar effect as a higher tensioned string, while a flexible racket is
similar to the lower tension string.
Rackets comes in different weights. Normally the racket alone weighs between
80-95g. Different manufacturers have different rating system, the most popular
of which is Yonex’s U system, U = 95-100g, 2U = 90-94g, 3U = 85-89g, 4U =
80-84g. a racket’s weight determines how fast one can swing a racket, the
lighter a racket, the faster one can swing it with the same force. In general,
a lighter racket is more maneuverable than a heavy one. However, before
everybody goes out and buy the lightest racket, I also want to point out that
lighter isn’t always better. A light racket is less stable than a heavier
racket, more force is necessary to keep its path, furthermore, a heavier racket
has a larger momentum and thus more effective in transferring its speed and
power to the shuttle.
The final racket characteristic is the balance of the racket. Head balanced
racket is becoming more popular recently. Head balanced rackets have more mass
near the head of the racket. A head balanced racket is more stable and have
higher angular momentum when swung. On the contrary, a even balanced racket is
more maneuverable.
As you can see, none of the different properties of the above characteristics are strictly better than other. Some players prefers slightly heavier rackets, some prefer slightly lighter, some like even balanced, some like head balanced. What I want to point out is that ultimately, it is a person’s skill level and style that determines what racket is suitable, go try them out if you can to see what fits.