Yonex Badminton Racquet Review.

Yonex surprised us all by launching two further racquets in the Arcsaber range the named Arcsaber Flashboost and Arcsaber 11. Many Yonex Badminton followers were expecting to see a scaled down Arcsaber range in 2013 on the premise this is the next range as well as a new successor announced.

The biggest surprise was the launch of Flashboost. Why? Simply since this racquet weighed in at an incredible 73g, a first for Yonex! This has gone beyond previous weightings. The racquet was designated a 6U. This has now turned to an F which means Yonex is experimenting with weights that were racquet and new coding will be precipitated by this later on.

Grip size G4 the standard offering from Yonex in the UK, plus it'd seem that Yonex is favoring white grips these days, possibly to show off the colors and brighten up the racquet. I'm not a big fan of white handles as they discolor very quickly and then look grubby. Balance is

Graphics are a welcome difference in a matt finish, similar to Z Force in sonic blue, lime green white and black. This racquet looks good. Like the newly launched Arcsaber 11, Flashboost has a super-slim shaft staff, although I do doubt whether this is right as it felt more medium-stiff to me. As you'd expect, the racquet was accompanied by the standard Arcsaber full-length cover.

The Arcsaber Flashboost Yonex badminton racket is factory strung with Yonex BG65Ti, a personal favorite of mine although I 'd have preferred a higher tension about the 18-20lbs tension in this racquet. Just like many Yonex racquets, maximum pressure is deemed to be 24lbs, and with this racquet, this is probably very moving. Again, the stencil ink dropped and fell off the strings within minutes of hitting Yonex must do something about this, as it generates a wrong impression!

It's Hitting Time:

I thought a lot relating to this racquet and I expected it to perform before going to the court. Surely it's got to be good in defense providing great counter attacks, and lightning fast at the net, better when compared to a Nanospeed 9900. Nevertheless, the big question for me is its capabilities that are attacking. Will this racquet provide the power from this type of frame that is light? Can it provide that stable hitting platform or can it be flimsy and too thin? Let's find out.

I begin a test with clears. This provides me with an initial feel for the swing of the racquet, flex, feel of the head in the power and swing capability.

After many hits, I need to say that while the result was good, I felt the shot itself was fragile. There's no doubt you'll be able to get lots of swing speed due to the weight, but the impact itself didn't have that solid feel Iâ??m used to, even with an even balance or head light racquet.

The result was good, as I said, and I put this down to the great racquet speed. But I felt there was a particular feeling of frailty here. Having newly played with Arcsaber 11 which was pretty solid, I can't pass this off as me matching to my trusted Voltric 80. This was something different.

You needed to know where you intended to hit the shuttle as it was harder to feel the shot. Every element of overhead technique required to work because there was little weight in the head to feel it. A feeling that is most extraordinary.

In a few respects, I felt the shaft held this racquet as opposed to the head. It performed with an element of flex but not too much to cause timing issues while it's a thin shaft.

Arcsaber Flashboost performed with a high degree of touch and precision. It felt good to perform shots at a different pace, and it was fun to throw an extra fast drop in infrequently for no other reason aside from you can. The light frame here works well, and due to the weight, it's harder to notify any drag. But, it didn't have such crispness I got from Z Force.

Onto the smash. The Yonex Arcsaber Flashboost didn't perform as I expected. I was expecting good solid smash and a fast swing. To a degree, I got this but felt I really could hit than I could smash stuck by a better wrist. While the shuttle went down pretty well from the full smash, I didn't get a wonderful feeling of confidence out of this racquet, and you also know that feeling which makes you want to break all night. Thinking back I changed the style, using my wrist and shortening my swing a little. The result wasn't bad, but not as robust as I can hit.

Moving into mid-court region, this is where the racquet did by being fast what I expected. It's wonderful to handle as it moves quickly, sometimes a little too fast and there's an incident or two when the racquet almost beat the shuttle. Flat gatherings were easy to control, and there's enough power from the racquet. There's plenty of scrutiny as well as the short racquet movements allowed easy blocks and changes in pace and direction.

As you can imagine, the super-light structure made defending. The racquet was fast, although it preferred blocking over driving and lifting, which isn't altogether a bad thing. This is where I needed beefing up a touch and felt the head was a little thin.

The return of network and help were a joy. As it gave me that extra speed over my trustee VT80, I intercepted more shuttles with this specific racquet. You do need to play that shot that is net rather than expects a racquet to do all of it for you but I consider indicative of light headed racquets. But overall this is where the game may be won and lost, and this racquet wants to dominate the net area very nice indeed!

Yonex Arcsaber Flashboost Badminton RacketSummary

The Arcsaber Flashboost is a different beast to any racquet I've encountered before. From mid-court, where it shines is for me so this covers everything, flat exchanges, pushes, blocks and defense around the net. Is at the rear court, where it's weaker. While it's still pretty high, my interest is that it's a bit thin and low for a big hitter Moreover I can see this being a difficulty. Some may think to go that little bit further and assuming it's an uncertain structure for hitting any power shot, but I believe that it's moving one step too far.

For a player with a defending -hitting style, this could be the super or utopia -fast champion of the net. While I wouldn't say this is a ladies racquet, I can see plenty of women loving this racquet as it's so light and does the things they're expected to do in mixed doubles very well indeed.

Yonex Arcsaber Flashboost has an RRP of £160.00 although I wait to see prices around £135-40 mark from online retailers. In some ways, this is a difficult racquet to rate. On the one hand, considerable work has gone into the development of the racquet, and generally, it delivers what it says regarding speed. On the contrary, I'm not so sure how this will attract to players and in particular, which type of player chooses this up and falls in love with it. The real negative here is that I wonder whether, in the search for weight loss, there's been a decrease in the strength of the racquet there's certainly a reduction in feeling, especially in respect of feeling stable and reliable for the big power shots.

Against everyone of this is a price point that's high and could be off-putting for any. So, I'm prepared to go out on a part here and give the Arscaber Flashboost only three as well as a half stars. No doubt I'll have comments from players matching this review to others I've written. However, while I accept this is a super-fast racquet, I believe there's been a compromise to create a racquet to a specification, and I don't know either this may show to be too light too early or a stroke of genius.