BadmintonGuy.com

I have seen many deception shot before. I have seen Peter Gade backhand fake to forehand low cross before, which is in this video as well. But what freak me out is that he can do it with forhand fake to backhand cross as well. When he was about to show that, I was like “no way!” That’s impossible in mine mind. The timing must be perfect, the wrist must be very flexible (possibly he need to loosen up the grip a lot). Well, he did it, and it’s reproducable.. Enjoy.

Last time, I mentioned about the new series from Yonex, called ArcSaber. This racket has been out for Pro tour player for quite sometime. Gao Ling of China has been using it. I don’t know when Yonex USA will import this, but I think they will eventually, because it’s a new series. On the other hand, Yonex USA has been disappointing to me that they don’t import some of the older series anymore. One of them was Muscle Power series, my favorite, which eventually discontinued in Asia a few years later. May be, it’s from the business stand point. Another not-imported racket is the new Ti-10 that’s used by the current work number one double ranking, Koo Kien Keat & Tan Boon Heong. Foo Haifeng is also using it as well. Foo is the record holder for the fastest smash in competition. I believe he was using the old Ti-10 back then. This new Ti-10 has been sought after a lot by many people, so I may bring them in to my eBay store later on, since Yonex USA don’t.

Anyway, I went out of the topic abit, so here is the link to the review by Ants on BadmintonCentral.com. As I expected, it’s still an early model, and always the prelude of things to come.

Yonex ArcSaber 7 Review

Continuing on the discussion (to myself) about picking a new racket, I took my own advice on how to choose a badminton racket and borrowed my friends rackets to test over the previous weekend. Since they were in the same game with me, I wasn’t able to play game with their rackets, only a lengthy warm up/sparring.

As I expected, Armortec 900, both Technique and Power, were a bit too heavy for my liking, although the smash power and accuracy was awesome from both rackets.

Nanospeed 9000 S, on the other hand, is a very fast racket just like Nanospeed 7000 that I’m playing with. What impress me was its solid feel. Each drive, clear, smash felt really good in my hand. Drop shots felt good too, either at the net, or from the back of the court. I was able to do offensive clear to my friend backhand side with enough depth and speed to cause them to use their backhand consistently, instead of around the head forehand, and that spoke a volumn (to me at least) because my friends footwork were really quick. The keyword here is consistency, because I incorperate that attack into my game already, but 50% of the shot are either go out or not deep enough or fast enough. I’m talking about dropping it in the rectangle box in the corners (actually against my friends, the target area is 1/4 the size of that box) Just like that, a new way of attacking was offered to me. As a result, my friends may not be able to hang out closer to the net too much (to catch my drop shot). The new aspect of my game open up. Love it!

So that’s my short review about Yonex Nanospeed 9000 Type S. To read more review, you can catch Ants reviews about both NS 9000 Type X and S on BadmintonCentral.com.

Yonex Nanospeed 9000 Type X Review

Yonex Nanospeed 9000 Type S Review

I heard about this new series from Yonex, called ArcSaber. The first one in the series, ArcSaber 7 was released a few months ago. I will try to find a review for it and put it up on this blog. However, I am usually not so thrill about the first one of the series because it usually the defensive/soft feel one. Yonex always saves the offensive/solid feel racket for later releases.

After a long hiatus, I came back to write this blog again.

I have written about how to choose a badminton racket earlier in this blog. Now, I’m at that juncture myself because my Muscle Power 100 is broken, and I need to find a replacement. I could pull the last MP 100 out of my inventory, and don’t have to face this question, but getting a chance to try the new racket is really hard to resist. So here I am, blogging about it.

I have 2 options to go to, head-light, or head-heavy. Currently, I’m using Nanospeed 7000 as a substitute for my Muscle Power 100. I was using Armortec 800 Offensive before that, and found it to be cumbersome at the net. On the other hand, it gives me smashing power and accuracy from the back of the court. When Nanospeed 7000 was released, I pulled one from my inventory to try it out and really hook on it. I can intercept bird with very little time to react. I can change direction at the last second. It’s a very fast racket, and I like it. I know that head-light racket with suite me well. However, over times, I find Nanospeed 7000 lack in smashing power (comparing to Armortec 800 Offensive). So here I am trying to figure out if I should give Armortec a try again, or go with what my instinct is telling me that head-light is the best bet for me.

I did some searches on Google to find review for Armortec 900 series. I came across “ants” at BadmintonCentral.com. I found that he is a friend of either Koo Kien Keat or Tan Boon Heong (or both). Members on BadmintonCentral seems to give him respect and his opinions are sought after, so I think I can assume that he is an advanced player, and his review are reliable.

Here are his review on

Yonex Armortec 900 Power Review

Yonex Armortec 900 Technique Review

Japan Open 2007 just recently came to an end. My favorite player, Tony Gunawan, won men double title. Some of the matches are already on YouTube. Here are the matches that I found. I made a playlist out of it, so you won’t have to click them seperatedly. Just click play all video on the right hand side and enjoy!

Badminton Japan Open 2007 - Koo Kien Kiet/Tan Boon Heong vs Luluk Hadiyanto/Alvent Yulianto

In this match, the video was shot by hand, so there is no commentator, and no score graphically shown. I must admit though that I like this angle much better than the high angle used in normal TV broadcast. It lets me see how high the bird is which make it more 3 dimension, than the high angle which makes it hard to judge the hight of the bird, hence feel more 2D. Recently, I’m impressed with how Kiet/Heong are playing. The win they got at All England over Cai Yun/Foo HaiFeng was very impressed that they dominated the chinese pair in every aspect of the game. Moreover, they played together so well in that match, that they can substitute each other seamlessly. They both commited to playing very fast, the new style in double that Tony Gunawan was talking about. Cai/Fu had no chance in that match. This match, however, was different. In Cai/Fu match, they can prey on Fu weak defense and get a lot of easy kills at the net. However, Alvent and Luluk defense was very strong. Even smashing point blank at the net couldn’t take them down, and they are force to smash a lot more from the back, rather than finishing the point at the net. This more like the old double style that Alvent and Luluk have been playing all their live, so they took the match. At the end of second set, Alvent and Luluk even won many points from driving contest which should be the strong point of Keit/Heong pair.

Badminton Japan Open 2007 - Lin Dan vs Lee Chong Wei

Lee Chong Wei did the unthinkable by defeating Lin Dan in this match and go on to win over Taufik Hidayat in the final. Very impressive indeed.

I went back to read Tony Gunawan website to check to see what’s new. I know that he was in World Championship this year, and was stopped in the quarter final, so I want to see what he has to say about it. Usually, he has some explanation on why/how he lost a game. A good player always reflect on his performance whether he win or lose a match to what he can improve upon. This time he provides some insight to the new trend in world class doubles game.

Here is a quote from his blog.

”

For me, the learning continues. Badminton games always evolve throughout the years. Certainly for men’s doubles now, one of the characteristics shared by many top pairs is the quickness in both hand and leg coordination to attack. It is not only about big smash anymore. It is the combination of fast smash, drive, defense, net, and counter-attack. From all four semifinalists this year, three are considered the new generation of men’s doubles. Only Lee Wan Wah and Choong Tan Fook have been around for more than ten years. Also, only Lee Wan Wah and Choong Tan Fook have different playing style. They depend mostly on their solid defense first and as soon as they place a great shot, then they launch their smashes.

The other three pairs (Kido/Setiawan, Lee/Jung, Ikeda/Sakamoto) - along with Koo/Tan and Cai/Fu start off each rally by attacking right away. All have quick reflexes to return the coming shots. They all play effectively and they waste no time; especially in the new rally system where all that matters is to collect as many points in the shortest amount of time possible. They rely on their fitness in jumping left and right to get to the shot right away. To defeat them, you either as fit (or fitter) than they are or you have an extremely solid defense to tired them out first.

“

There you have it. As he said, it’s not about setting up for big smash anymore. Today’s double is about fast pace all around. Whoever blink first, lose.

Today, I’m going to talk about the best way to improve your badminton game. It’s not how to hit backhand. It’s not how to smasher harder. The most important thing in badminton is “footwork”.

Regardless of how hard your smash, or how deceptive your shots are, you will not get to perform those if you are on the other side of the court On the other hand, if you can get there earlier, you have more time to pick and choose where to attack, plus you are going to be in more balance posture after that shot, versus running to a bird on the other side hitting the bird with outreach arm and let momentum carries you out of the court. Getting to the bird early benefit you two folds!

So how to practice to improve the footwork? Running the court is the way to go. If you watch badminton single match, you will see that they almost making steps in the exact same way to reach either side of the court all the time. They practically almost step in the same place that they step before. They don’t shuffle they feet too much, so the movement is efficient and elegant. It’s all muscle memory. That’s how. Practically speaking though, it’s pretty hard for weekend warrior like most of us to get time alone on the court, just to run the court.

Another way to improve your footwork, or to precisely saying it, to improve “getting there” is to loose weight. No kidding. I tried that and it works. I gained weight after having a child and didn’t have much time to exercise. I noticed that my game suffer in many dimensions. I reacted slower to the smash. My touch was not as sharp. My friends improved. Those I couldn’t do anything about it. It was about playing time. However, I decide to see if I can improve my “getting there” by loosing weight, and it works wonderfully. I can start off my toe much faster. I don’t loose balance after I hit a bird. I can stop on a dime, and change direction quicker. I can hang back for a hard smash, allowing more react time, knowing that I can still go to the net to retrieve a drop if I have to. Try that and let me know.

The problem a lot people face the most when trying to purchase a racket from eBay is determining who are selling fakes, and who aren’t. I would say that you should purchase from reputable seller with at least 100 positive feedback. You should also make sure that he achieve that feedback selling rackets. Some sellers sell many inexpensive items to achieve high ranking then pull scam on customers by selling high price item and ship fakes, or not shipping them at all, before bailing out of eBay (and come back with different user name) You can also check on badminton forums to see what other people say about a seller. One of the best forums is BadmintonForum.com.

Beside that, don’t be cheap on the racket. As a power seller on eBay, I can tell you right off the bat that if the racket price is lower than $100, it’s right out fake. I know that because my cost is way more than that. Besides, Dollar continues to devalue which make it impossible to import racket at lower than $100. If you go for a cheap one and found that it’s fake when it arrives, I consider that purchase to be a very expensive one, because you are paying for something that you do not want at all. Of course, you will say that, since I’m a seller, I’m writing this to get to you to buy from my Badminton store. Honestly, I just express my opinion, because I would not want to buy a fake product myself whether it’s badminton racket, or computer, or anything at all.

Enough said.

I have some pictures that I want to share with you. This one credit to ants of BadmintonCentral.com. These are pictures of fake Yonex Armortec 800.

Figure 1 - The fake shaft is slightly longer than the authentic one. Also the fake has just regular cone cap, but the authentic Armortec must have CSC cap.

Figure 2 - The fake has all round grommets. The authentic one has rectangular grommets.

Figure 3 - The authentic one has green and red strip in the last zero of the “800″. The word defense of the authentic one has the letter D connect to the dark green, while the fake one is a bit off.

If you happen to have fake racket, and want to share them so others can avoid it, please send me the pictures with some information about where you get it from, at my email address at tum98.ebay@gmail.com. There is nothing feeling better than helping others out and nailing the bad guy at the same time.

Today, I was browsing around on internet, looking for some things to write about. Why not searching for “Tony Gunawan” then? So I google it, and found many articles about him, but not thing interesting, until I go to WikiPedia. I found that he has his website which he still update it regularly. In the news section on TonyGunawan.net, it’s basically his blog that still get updated very recently. Check it out.

Also I would like to post this link to and article that I like. It’s written shortly after the World Championships 2005 in Anahiem.

Recently, he changed his racket, but I cannot make out of the picture or video what model it is. I can only guess that it’s Yonex Armortec 900 Power based on the color of it. If anybody know what it is, I would appreciate if you can leave me a comment about it. Previously, he used Muscle Power 100 (my favorite), and Nanospeed 9000 Type S.

I was listening to the podcast Net@net when they mentioned this website called FaceBall.org. Basically, it’s a game playing in your office, hitting people with the beach ball. The crux to it is that you have to take a picture of the ball hitting someone face and post it on Flickr.

That kind of get me thinking. What if we take picture of birdie hitting someone during the game. Sometime the birdie hit at one’s body at, um.., not-all-too-welcome spot. Or he try to defense but his arm all jam up? Or he makes faces that’s funny when he gets hit. I know this is going to be tough to do. But just a thought.