Choosing your first badminton racket
Weight, balance and grip size: three things to decide before you spend a rupee.
Feather or nylon shuttles
Which to buy for practice, for matches and for children, and how to make them last.
Players buying shuttles at our counter usually ask the same question: feather or nylon? The answer depends on who is playing and how often.
Feather shuttles are made from goose or duck feathers set in a cork base. They fly with the true flight of the game: fast off the racket, then slowing sharply and dropping steeply. All tournaments and serious practice use them. They also break. A tube of twelve lasts a pair of club players one to three sessions, depending on how hard they smash.
Nylon shuttles have a plastic skirt. They are slower to slow down, so they travel further on a clear and drop less steeply. They last many times longer and cost less per hour. We use them in the starter batches for children and for adult beginners in their first month, when mishits are common.
To make feather shuttles last, keep the tube in a cool, slightly humid place, not in a hot car. Some players in Lucknow’s dry summer keep the tube near a damp cloth for an hour before playing, which makes feathers less brittle. Hit the cork, not the feathers, and retire a shuttle once two feathers are broken, as it no longer flies true.
