New Badminton Racket: Yonex Voltric Z-Force II

Sounds like they got tired of thinking up cool names for their rackets.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this could be the first time the badminton giant created a racket sequel... From warehouse sales to lousy names, it seems their marketing division is down the dumps.

Kudos on the SunriseClick site though - looks and functions awesome.

Now on to the serious stuff. Shock Force, or so they call it.

The immensely popular Voltric Z-Force brought a whole new level of attacking play to the game with its ultra stiff and ultra head heavy construction. What else has to be improved to make the racket even more powerful?

Perhaps making it a little more user-friendly with a broader head frame? Perhaps softening the shaft? Perhaps by making the grip a little longer? Maybe paint it a little more intimidatingly?

Well, Yonex seems to have gone all Tron on this one. The Z-Force II comes packed with new material, shaft design, grommet retrofitting, and a funky paint job.

I won't go much into the details since the website already has it all. I've collected the important portions for your reading, since the darn website takes so long to load.

All information and images courtesy of Yonex. Visit the official website for the real deal.

First off is the thin and stiff shaft... sounds like a nightmare to me but it all adds up to increased swing speed and power.

This here is some math about the plausible effects of the new material.

This, I'm more interested in. Head frame construction and grommet patterns are proven methods to increase swing speed and power for your shots. The inside grommets look promising, as you will see below.

Check out the grommets, sunk in at the tri-voltage areas to allow less resistance from the strings and the air.

Seriously, where do I sign?

Once again, all material from the Yonex site.

Badminton Racket First Impressions: Gosen Roots Aermet Zeus

Hey guys, found out some other site's been taking my article wholesale, so click here for the original site.

And if you're the guys passing off my articles as your own, shame on you.

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For starters, this is probably the best-looking Gosen racket I've seen. The use of colors and different textures throughout the racket makes for a very dynamic design.

Would also like to give a shoutout to my bro who gave this to me as a Christmas pressie. Much appreciated, and this is one awesome racket!

First thing that came to my attention was the very soft racket frame that was also apparent with the rest of my Roots rackets. At 25lbs tension, the head of the racket seemed to be a little deformed. It was only with 4-knot stringing that I managed to fix it.

Weight-wise it seemed to be a little heavier than the other Gosen rackets that I have - the Roots Aermet Explosion and the Aermet 9500 Power. Stiffness-wise, it's kind of inbetween the two. The Roots Aermet Zeus comes stiffer than the Explosion but less than the 9500 Explosion.

On the courts, the Zeus performed well in attack, though the defensive shots were a little less-than-exciting. I suppose with a little more practice I could get used to something like the Zeus - heavy, slightly head heavy orientation.

And I think the design and color of the racket alone is enough reason to want to bring it out again.

Till soon.

Taking a short break

Too much of a good thing makes life's luxuries a chore.

After what seems like forever (4 years actually) of active playing, I think the itch has finally wore down. There's less of a passion to play a good game and I don't find myself eager to head to the courts anymore.

As such, I'm going to take a break from the game for a bit, drastically lessen the number of sessions per month and see if that'll do anything to make me miss the game.

No worries, rackets will still be bought and traded, and reviews will still make it.

I'd like to give a shout out to all the people who visit my humble blog. Having more than 400 thousand views so far is something I did not expect...

I've also got the whole tactics and strategy section to beef up, so this break will give me some time to get them all down.

Keep at this wonderful game guys, and keep those questions coming.