String

Playing with a higher tension racket

If you applied more tension on your string, you will have a stiffer string bed. With a stiffer string bed, you will get a good control feeling as the shuttlecock bounces off the string bed instantly once in contact with the string, allowing players to control his game and adjusted its placing instantly. Racket strung at high tension using thin string tends to build up speed on your drive shot and counter attack. Don’t misunderstood control as merely defense. Control is the ability to hit hard and placed the shuttle to where you want it to be. Please take note that If you strung your racket with the same high tension using a thicker string and a thinner string, you will feel that the thinner string is tighter and therefore less power when compare with the thicker string. Thinner string tends to loss its tension faster as compare with thicker string, thus thinner string is not advisable to string with tension that is too low.

In Malaysia, thinner strings like the microfilament synthetic string are normally used to string high- tension racket. Players knew that tension would lose out certain percentage after playing for a week or two, so to get the best out of a thin string; the tension should be increased by certain percentage higher.
With higher tension on thick string, that is stretching the string closed to its elastic limits- the shuttle would not be able to reach your opponent with high speed when you smash with normal strength, as the string bed are so stiff and lack of flexibility and elasticity to help you delivered the power. Thus, you need to use more strength on your smashes and believe me with more strength and high tension, you will be able to score points on your smashes unless you don’t have the strength to play a high tension racket. With higher tension on thinner string, you would be able to get some elasticity but not the durability. In another word; if your racket was over tension and is beyond your physical ability to handle it, the best way is to slightly reduce the string tension. Do not reduce your string tension drastically, reduce it a pound or two at a time so that you can still maintain your control as well as increased your power.

Playing with a lower tension string

If you applied lower tension on your string, you will have a more bouncy string bed. With a bouncy string bed, you will get a good feeling as the shuttlecock stays in the string bed for a longer period before bounces off the string bed once in contact with the string, allowing players to adjust its powerful smash instantly. Upon impact, shuttlecock would landed deeper on a thinner gauge string, thus providing better power control and thinner gauge string also helps in minimizing air resistance enabling players to speed up for more power. Racket strung at reasonably lower tension using thin string tends to build up power on smashes and baseline chopping. The term feeling means even though you hit the shuttle very softly or performing a drop shot, you are still able to place the shuttle to where you want it to be. Power would mean even if you smash using your normal strength, the shuttle were able to reach your opponent in high speed.
With lower string tension on a thinner string, that is stretching the string to reasonable elastic limits- there are more elasticity on the string and more rooms for string stretching resulting in a more bouncy feeling on the string bed upon impact. With the help of a bouncier string bed, the shuttle would be able to reach your opponent with high speed when you smash with normal strength, as the string bed have excellent flexibility and elasticity to help you delivered the power. But unfortunately, unlike thicker string that was able to hold its tension longer, thinner string, especially microfilament strings tends to loss out its tension faster.
Unfortunately, It was also because of this bouncy characteristic; player would sometime find it difficult to adjust and control its stroke when delivering shooting loop and tends to send the shuttle away from court. Thus, you need to adjust your strength on your stroke and believe me you would be able to adapt to it quite well after practicing for some time.

Alternatively, to get a better control, the best way is to slightly increase the string tension. Do not increase your string tension drastically, increased it a pound or two at a time so that you can still maintain your control as well as increased your power. Take note that lower string tension on a thicker string might not provide you the elasticity needed as thick string tends to be less elastic though more durable