Yonex SHB-SC5EX shoes

SHB-SC5EX is the Yonex shoes I bought after a lot of research on their 2011 catalogue. I wanted to buy White and Red SHB-92MX, but was not available.

Overall SHB-SC5EX is fine. It has 3 layer Power Cushion around heel as well as in front area. One problem I faced was that wearing a socks which has thick lower layer can lead to ankle twist since the shoe as such is high. I was able to get thin sports socks from Nike which is suitable when using this shoes.

With my earlier shoes (which was a Reebok), I used to feel pain in front portion of my feet while playing, with this Yonex shoes I don't feel that pain at all.

Carlton Optimax Viper 9.5

This is my first post in my badminton blog and thought I will start with a short review of Carlton Optimax Viper 9.5 that I bought in second half of 2011.

This is a light racket weighing 76 to 78 grams without guts. Grip size is G5. It came with Xcelerate x67 black color guts. Strung it at 30 and still not broken. I play only during weekends. Color of the racket is blue with a shining finish. Looks like a sword. Came with a white thick Carlton grip. I had to put an over grip on this. It has a carbon handle.

Need to hit hard to get a powerful smash. I had the guts strung at 30lbs, will try at lower tension once this gut breaks and provide further review on this.

Specification on the gut packing is as follows:

Power: 10

Control: 9

Durability: 8

Resiliency: 9

Hitting Sound: 9

Specification of the racket and some pictures of the frame are shown below: