Corporate Indoor Sports Fiesta - 2012

A friend of mine and myself participated in "Corporate Indoor Sports Fiesta - 2012 on 25th Feb 2012. It was Organized by Badminton Bangalore at Gopalan Sports Center, Whitefield. Anup Sridhar was the Chief Guest. Got to meet some fellow players from corporate area. I participated in doubles. We lost even though we won the first game. I think my partner (Venu Sai) and myself rushed a bit in the second and third game which resulted in us loosing the match.

Got a chance to take photograph with Anup Sridhar as well:

Pulav served during lunch break was extra spicy :). Overall it was fun. Roof is a bit low and the shuttle flies a bit fast in this arena. Was good to play on the green mat.

Tournament in progress after lunch break:

Coxel Aerolite shuttles

I use Coxel shuttle regularly at the moment since it is cost effective. The court where I play is not that high and this shuttle fits in for the court for the flight of the shuttle. Shuttle will hit the roof for a very high serve or a high clear at the court where I play. Picture of the shuttle barrel is shown below:

Shuttle quality varies from barrel to barrel and also within a barrel. Some of the shuttles are a bit fast. Found these shuttles to be slightly more lasting than some of the other brands in same price range. Will try using other brands post my thoughts on those brands as well. Pictures of Coxel shuttles are shown below:

Yonex Voltric 80

Yonex Voltric 80 is my favourite racket. It is a 4U. Currently I am having grey Nanogy 95 (shown in photograph) guts on it at 26 Lbs. This racket is very good for smashes. Durability of this guts is good.

Initially I had white BG 66 Ultimax gut at 28lbs on this racket, which did not last for more than 2 weeks. 28lbs was not comfortable for me since the retention was less.

Had couple of hard clashes while playing doubles and nothing happenned to the racket. Paint coating had gone off in couple of places because of the clash.

Once the currenty Nanogy 95 breaks, I will change the guts to BG 66 Ultimax at 25 lbs to get some more retention power.

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: