Badminton Racket First Impressions: Carlton Airblade 35

Yet another Carlton on the shelf, and it's performed quite well so far despite having been strung at 25lbs with Yonex NBG98.

The racket is slightly head-heavy, and reminds me a lot of the Fireblade FX8. It took awhile to get used to, but the weight and the strings' tautness gave really good results, especially on the backhand.

Smashes for the racket came off really well too, and the defense was commendable, which led me to want to explore the use of 25lbs strings on my future restrings. It's only an increase of 1lbs on paper, but the results are worth the effort of experimentation.

Away from the strings, the Airblade 35 felt really good on the hits, its control reigning superior in pure Carlton style. The experts at racket-making have come up with yet another winner.

Now what's left is to clock more hours on the racket and see how it really feels.