Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Badminton Racket First Impressions: Yonex ArcSaber Flash Boost

This racket grew on me. The longer I looked at it the more I wanted to buy it. And now that I did, I'm glad to say that the Yonex ArcSaber Flash Boost has performed admirably in its first test.

With more of my singles game played using this racket, I was able to get a good feel of what the players on the forum were talking about.

There were mixed reviews on this racket - I had a friend telling me how this racket will seriously screw up our swing and hitting, what with the light weight of the racket and the slightly hollow feel. There were people on the forum who were raving about how wonderful this racket is.

And so now, after a good two-hour session of singles, I'm able to give a little comment on the nicely designed racket.

Dubbed Yonex's lightest racket to date, the Flash Boost comes in at a modest 76g unstrung. The people at the marketing department calls this weight category the F weight.

When you first hold the racket, it indeed felt like you ere holding nothing at all. I am familiar with this sensation however, of Karakal BN60 fame.

First swings with this racket produced quite  satisfactory experience. The shuttle was able to come off nicely from the swing and the shots produced were solid and well-placed.

On to the games, and the feel actually got better. Smashes were nice and steep, requiring next to no energy to pull off. I found myself at ease quite bit throughout the matches.

Light weight rackets usually favour the backhand stroke, but the ArcSaber Flash Boost seemed to come of a little different. I had difficulty pulling off a good backhand clear, and I attribute it to the swing speed of the racket.

Defense was great, however, and I found myself taking a step back from being too anxious. It's a good thing, and the returns were of high calibre.

Another notable problem came through when I wanted to use the racket to block a smash. Often times the weight of the racket doesn't allow you to get decent energy into the hit, resulting in disappointing net hits.

But that won't spoil my mood. The Yonex ArcSaber Flash Boost gives me a good feel so far, and I'm going to try it out against a nice doubles to see how fast I can go with this.

Review eventually.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

when will the review be out ?

Arthur said...

Hi thanks for reading! The reviews are usually out when I get a few hours of play time and experience with the racket, enough to relate :)

Original Sports said...

This Racket is one of our most popular products and this explains exactly why! Great detail and easy read, its nice to hear an external opinion too, we will pass some of the thoughts on to customers

Arthur said...

Yes, this is an exceptional racket for the front net players and for those who like the faster game of doubles and intercepting the shuttle early.

Hope to be able to get the chance to put this to use more often and write a proper review for it soon.

chinkokwah said...

I strung mine with BG66Maxima @27lbs, its sweet both defence & smashes. Love it.

Anonymous said...

Hello Arthur

Love your blog so much. When this FB review be out ? i am curious about this racquet.

Thanks

Arthur said...

Sorry to have to disappoint you dude... I've let the racket go coz I didn't feel much affinity with it.

While the defense was really awesome, the racket lacked quite a bit of power.

Didn't contribute too much to my doubles game so decided to give it a miss.

Anonymous said...

Hi Arthur,

I am currently using a Nanoray Z Speed 2u for my doubles games. It gives me a god like speed for smashes. However, when my opponent pushes to my backhand, I cannot maneuver my racket fast enough to do a decent return. I also suffer from doing backhand defensive drives when my opponent does forehand drive attacks even during warm ups. My wrist gets tired after playing my 3rd game. I have also tried a 75gram racket before which I have no trouble doing backhand and forehand clear to rear court and my smashes were pretty fast but not as fast as using Z Speed. I get the boom sound regardless of what racket I use. It could possibly be my technique to do the drives, but I see a guy at my club do the drive effortlessly even using a 3u racket. I have tried using a 3u, but never could do the defensive backhand drives. Do you think I should give this racket a try?

Anonymous said...

I forgot to mention. When I used 75 grams, the racket vibrates a lot. I was wondering if this racket is as fragile as most reviews say it is since it is light weight frame.

Arthur said...

Hey there, you might want to get a coach or a friend to train your drives.

Sounds like your wrists need a little more work :)

As far as rackets are concerned, the lighter you go, the faster it gets.

I've never been able to sense the 'vibrations' that badminton players talk about - maybe I describe or feel it in a different way.