Yonex_Arcsaber_7_RacquetThe Yonex Arcsaber 7 Badminton Racquet lives in the shadow of the highly popular Arcsaber 10. It’s a shame really because this is a superb racquet and deserves a turn in the spotlight .

So, what’s the difference between these two racquets? Visually, a lot. The 7 is a silver/grey colour with yellow and black graphics, compared to the brash red of the Arcsaber 10 with its white and black graphics.

The biggest difference is in the flex of the shaft. The 10 is rated as “stiff” and the 7 as “medium” and you can tell the difference on court.

Again, the better racquets are strung that little bit tighter which helps to test, rather than have to restring the racquet first. Out of the bag and straight onto court. There was a different “feel” to this racquet which was hard to explain…until I hit the shuttle. Ah, that’s what it is, it’s that flexible shaft!

Yes, I had to make minor alterations to my timing to get used to this racquet and from there on in, it was plain sailing. Clears were nice and crisp, and my smashes had a little more kick to them. I’ll put that down to the shaft doing what it’s supposed to do. I can’t recall ever playing with a racquet with a medium flex shaft so it was certainly new to me and I liked it.

There was that extra whip in the power shot, whether I was driving, lifting from defence, clearing or smashing.  Fortunately, the extra flex did not feature at all when playing around the net. The racquet was really quick and there were certainly no restrictions on what I could do here and no need to make adjustments in timing.

Overall, I found this racquet fun to play with. It was a little different from what I’m used to and I missed the slightly heavier head of my Armortec 900 Power. It certainly got me wondering what would happen if you combined the two and had the heavier head with the flexible shaft?

RRP on this racquet is £150.00 There are so many good racquets on the market selling for over £70 that’s it’s becoming a much harder choice for us badminton players. If you’d like that little extra kick in your power game, which you can normally only get with a more flexible shaft, then I’d certainly add this racquet onto your testing list. In fact, this is probably the top of the range when evaluating racquets with a medium flex shaft.

I’d rate this racquet 4 stars in my system. It misses the fifth star purely on the “value for money” equation which is difficult to measure as it’s purely personal. The price of racquets is creeping up and my concern here is that the best racquets will and perhaps are that £30-40 over most people’s budgets. That said I’d happily pay it for a racquet that gave me confidence and I knew was going to deliver every time. At this price point, the big question is whether I’d buy two so I always had a spare, or rely on my old model whenever I broke a string. It’s unlikely I’d buy three to give me added comfort.

Check out Yonex website at www.yonex.co.uk and look out for a demo event in your area to test one of these. They’re certainly worth a go and I would happily include one in my bag if my top 2 choices were unavailable.

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