How to choose your badminton racket

We want to help you choose the right badminton racket.

That's why we've written this guide on how to choose the right racket.
We have over 75 years of combined badminton experience, and have played with a variety of different badminton rackets.

When choosing a badminton racket, there are five main factors. 

1. Your playing style
2. Racket stiffness
3. Balance point
4. Racket weight
5. Grip size

Your playing style

How you play is crucial to your choice of badminton racket.
Some questions you can ask yourself are:

• Are you a player looking for a lot of power in your shots? 
• Are you a player focussing more on control?
• What is your level? Beginner, intermediate or experienced.

Answering especially the first two questions will discover what you need from your racket. For example, if you prefer a lot of control, then heavyweight racquets are probably not what you should be buying.

Have a look at the racket you are currently using. What type of racket is it? Do you need something similar to it or did it not suit you and therefore you need a new racket?

Reflecting on your level will help you determining which racket stiffness you should choose. You can read more about this in the section below.

Racket stiffness

The stiffness of the racket shaft supports in how much power and help you get from your shots. 

There are typically four types of stiffness:

• Flexible
• Medium stiff
• Stiff
• Extra stiff

The flexible shaft is mainly for beginners.

The badminton racket with medium stiff shaft is probably the most common type. Its stiffness provides both power and good control in the strokes. It makes it easier for you to get quality in your strokes, even when the stroke is not completely clean.
In our experience, medium stiff is best for the vast majority of badminton players at both high and lower levels.  

Rackets with stiff or extra stiff shafts are mainly for skilled/top players.
Both stiffnesses requires solid technical skills in the shots. The shots must be hit with great precision, and the sweet spot is a key word. Sweet spot is the area on the racket where the shuttle must be hit for maximum power and precision.

A typical mistake we see when choosing a badminton racket

It is especially in rackets that are either stiff or extra stiff that we see most players choosing the "wrong" racket. Many people buy badminton rackets by looking at what their favourite badminton player is using. The issue in doing this is that these players skills often are at a much higher level than yours (Sorry to say...!).
It basically means the racket that matches their needs, most often does not match you as a player.

We often have people contacting us saying they feel that they are losing a lot of power in their shots with their new Yonex, Li-Ning, VICTOR etc. top badminton racket.
The reason for this may be that the racket does not match your needs.
The shaft is possibly too stiff, hence it can be recommended to try one with a bit more flexibility.

Balance point

The balance point is the indicator whether a racket is head heavy or not.

The typical balance points for a badminton racket are:

• 280 mm
• 285 mm
• 290 mm
• 295 mm
• 300 mm

The higher the balance point, the more head heavy the racket will feel. Imagine a old fashioned weight scale where you have to figure out how much to give to one side and how much to give to the other. That's the balance point of a badminton racket.

The right balance point is about going to your playing style. What do you prefer as a player?

Racket weight

Most badminton rackets come in either 2U, 3U, 4U or 5U. Generally, this is a measure of the weight of the racket.
Depending on the badminton brand it may vary slightly.

A general understanding of what the different U's stand for is roughly:

2U: 90 - 94 g

3U: 85 - 89 g

4U: 80 - 84 g

5U: 75 - 79 g

The most standard for a badminton racket is 3U, and that's also what our own Basic Feather rackets are, 85 - 89 g. 

The weight of the racket together with the balance point is typically divided into 3 categories:

• Light head rackets
• Even balanced rackets
• Heavy head rackets

There is no right or wrong in this, again it depends on you as the player.

Grip size

Ok... You're getting a bit tired, aren't you? One last technical thing that we see is nice-to-know rather than need-to-know is the racket's grip size.

As a starting point, there are:

• G1
• G2
• G3
• G4
• G5

These are an expression of the thickness of the grip. The higher the number, the thinner the grip. So with the G5 you get the thinnest grip.

At Basic Feather all our rackets come with G3 grip. G3, along with G4, are the most commonly used grip thicknesses for the vast majority of badminton brands out there.

Conclusion

We've now taken you through five factors to look out for when choosing your next badminton racket.
There is no right or wrong answer because it all depends on your playing style and preference.
Hopefully, with our racket guide, we've led you on the right path to which racket to look for the next time you need one.

We know that finding the right racket isn't easy, which is why we offer a 30 day money-back guarantee on all our rackets. This gives you just enough time to find out if the racket suits you and your game.

Are you also into reading more about badminton stringing tension? Find our guide for that here.