New badminton racquet

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21 Jan 2008
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Cotswolds
After a bit of an incident Friday night, my trusty 25+ year old Carlton bit the dust and the frame snapped when it collided with a nother racquet :(

As I haven't bought one for many years, not sure where to start really!

Budget of up to £150 - I'd say I'm advanced intermediate and hard hitter. Play every week for around 2 hours.

TIA!
 
My 2 pence worth, I suspect if your Carlton was that old and you are a hard hitter A) you wont need to spend anything like 150 quid to match/ improve the feel of your old racquet B) you will have had it restrung many times.
I think our gamestyle may be similar, I used to play with a Yonex 3U (85-89g) head heavy and I used GD65 strings at 27lbs. My local stringing place went out of business a while back, so the last time the strings broke I used it as an excuse to swap to a newer raquet.
I decided as I'm getting on a bit now I would keep to the same weight but swap to a neutral balance raquet, I swapped to a Carlton which I bought online for about 80 quid ... I disliked this new raquet from the first game, I never got on with it, it also surprised me I was that sensitive to the changes I made. As luck would have it, this Carlton broke at the handle after about 6 months use and it was the perfect excuse to make a change for the better.
A friend of mine suggested a shop about 30 miles from home which you could actually try the raquets at, so off I went and I would say this is the only way to pick a new racquet. Get them in your hands and swing it around, you'll be suprirsed how much you can feel.
I ended up going back to Yonex, head heavy, 4U so same balance as my old favourite, just slightly lighter and this is much much better for me. Whilst I was there, this shop also restrung my old fav for me, but I now prefer the new Yonex and the older one is my backup.

Long story short, if you can, go to a shop and try before you buy, dont buy blind online, I doubt you will need to spend 150 notes as you can get very good racquets for less, also, at 150 you proably wont get strings, so knowing your favoured string type and tension will also come into the equation.
If you want a recommendation, Yonex Astrox 88 play / 88D
 
Thanks for this. Believe it or not, it's still on the original strings! I only picked badminton back up just over a year ago now, so it was sat for many years in my garage! I'm truly impressed with it, so was considering sticking with that brand. It's a Carlton Powerblade that they still make so I may take a look at that.

Not sure there is a place near me and I could do with it for Friday night (although the old one still is mostly in one piece!)
 
I had loads of racquets from sports direct that kept breaking. Then i went ot a local racquet shop and bought a Victor which i have had for a few years now. i paid about £60. the strings are still great but thats becuase i hit the frame often.

You need to decide if you want head heavy or head light, i prefer head light.
 
I’ve got a lot of rackets but my favourites are yonex. But it depends on the games you play and your style. Eg if playing singles I start with a balanced racket in most games, but if playing doubles I’ll go for a lighter head. And as games go on I bring out my head heavy rackets to smash more as both myself and opponent are getting tired so the heavier head helps generate more racket speed and power.
 
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