Badminton Basic Skill- Clear

    Clear is one of the most important skill in badminton. We can easily categorize two kinds of clear.First is the clear and the second is the flat clear. The picture can demonstrate the differences between the clear and flat clear. As you can noticed, the height of the flying orbit are different. The purpose of the clear is to let the player have more time to get back to the right position. The secondary purpose is to force your opponent keep close to the baseline.

    A good high clear may drop almost vertically land in the area between the baseline and double service line. This may force your opponents' eyes looking at the shuttle and hard to see the position of their opponent. This skill require player's consistency of every  movement of the swing and the accuracy of every shot. At once the clear is not long enough, its so easy to get attacked by your opponent.

   The flat clear that is more aggressive than the high clear. The time of flying is decreased which let your opponent has less time to chase the shuttle.

What is the best string pattern?

There are many kinds of string pattern you may heard when you want to string at the store. Different racket factory release different pattern of string methods. They also have different consideration of their unique pattern. Here I brief use two example for the most common string pattern.

Yonex 2 string 4 knots pattern

There are two knots on the lower left side and one knot on the higher right side and right lower side. This is the Yonex official string pattern. The benefit for this pattern is save few feet of string when you use the 200m string or 100m string. Besides, this patter string from the middle two string which help the racket keep the shape and tension well. This string pattern separate two steps for string. First, finish the straight string and the go for the horizontal string. This purpose to keep the sweet point on the half top of the racket. This string pattern is also the fastest for professional stringer. It takes about 25~30 minutes to finish one racket. The disadvantage is easy to lose tension faster because there are 4 knots. In order to there are many string need to pass some string holes, which is the major reason lose the tension easier than other pattern.

Gosen Haribito string pattern
This string pattern is invented by Gosen brand. It only have two knots which are starting knots and ending knots. It help the string maintain the tension pretty well. The concept of this pattern is to reduce the cross holes, as the second picture shows the string are pretty clear and not so many overlap string.That is why this pattern can remain the tension well. However, the cost is higher by using this kind of pattern. The skill requirement is higher than other pattern and the string is need longer. This is the reason why the factory usually pre-string by using two strings four knots for some lower level racket.

How to choose a badminton racket?

     There are thousands of different kind of badminton rackets in the market. How could we choose the badminton racket that is the best fit for us? At the beginning I want to introduce the number on the racket to teach you what is these number mean.

Take a racket for example:

Racket weight:
Recommend strung tension:

The 3U（85~89g） is the weight scale of the badminton racket.

ps.2U(90-94g）3U(85-89g），4U(80-84g）5U(<80g)

Grip size:

The G4 is the grip size.G6 is the thinnest grip and G4 is thicker one. Someone prefer thick grip someone prefer thin grip. However, for me I prefer the thin grip. Because the think grip gives you more flexible space to change the angle when you play badminton. The other benefit is you and adjusted how thick the grip is but you can not adjust the grip to become think one. That is why I usually recommend people to but the thinnest grip they can.

ps. G3（perimeter 89mm）,G4（perimeter 86mm）,G5（perimeter 83mm), G6 (perimeter 80mm)

The number 7.5kg~9.5kg which is the recommend tension for this racket.Normally, it shows in ponds scale.

For beginner the tension may string around 20~22 bls. For the intermediate level players who can string around 22~28. Only for professional player who really want highly control ability and have enough power to use such high tension that higher than 28 bls. 

Strings：

When you select which racket you want to buy, the higher series racket usually are unstrung. Because people who want to buy these racket usually knows what kind of string and tension they want to use. Pre string for racket may also cause the racket frame changes the shape.

The string have many kinds of characteristics. We can easily separate for two major group which are hin string and thick strings. Thick string gives you more durability. Thin string gives you more control and sounds better when you hit the shuttle. If you like to do the hard smash pretty often, please use the thick string. If you concern more about control and any differences on accuracy, please choose the thin string. 

Normally, thick string can last much longer than thin string. Therefore, before you buy the string please think what is your goal to use different string. 

Examples
Thick string
BG-65 Titanium
0.7mm

Thin String
BG85
0.67mm