Yonex Nanospeed 9900

Yonex Nanospeed 9900

If you already play with a “head light” racquet like the Yonex Nanospeed series, then I suspect the transition to the 9900 will be a doddle.

Currently I play with Armortec 900 Power, a very different racquet with slightly more weight in the head. Because of this, I found the Nanospeed 9900 hard to get used to.

I suspect my test was slightly unfair as the racquets were strung at completely different tensions. My Armortec  900 Power is strung at 22lbs, whereas the Nanospeed 9900 was factory strung. This certainly made a difference with net shots as the shuttle didn’t have the same response off the strings compared to my higher strung racquet. That said, the racquet was very responsive at the net area because of its light head and I soon found that I could move the racquet that little bit quicker. I just adapted my technique to compensate for the difference in string tension.

This racquet is certainly no lightweight when delivering power from the back of the court. It took a minute or two to adjust my timing because of the weight difference. Once I made the adjustment, the racquet delivered every time, although I would have liked the extra string tension.

All Yonex top of the range racquets have a stiff shaft. It’s a personal preference whether this suits your game. Over the years I’ve seen many league players opt for the top of the range racquet with the stiff shaft when they don’t have the power to get the best from the racquet. Egos aside, they would certainly have benefitted far more by choosing a shaft with a medium rating, therefore allowing the racquet to provide additional power for them.

As you would expect with Yonex racquets, you’re buying quality and a nice looking racquet too. Yonex have certainly improved the “look” of all their racquets over the years. The difficulty for most players, me included, is deciding which racquet to choose. My advice to you is to find a dealer with demo racquets which I appreciate is not easy as there are only a few in the country (BWS Sports in Bury, Lancashire is very good for providing this service to local players). Test as many racquets as you can within your budget. It’s a process of elimination. Hopefully you’ll not be in the same situation as me when I really struggled to decide from 3 racquets!

I was recently talking to a scientist who specialises in polymers. He confirmed that what Yonex is doing with carbon fibre and nano science etc is absolutely true – certainly no marketing hype. The frame construction is such that, depending on the “mix” your could actually have a frame that is considerably lighter but up to 600 times stronger!  I don’t we’ve heard the last of this particular frame construction and it will be interesting to see where Yonex takes this in the future.

In summary, the Yonex Nanospeed 9900 is a very good racquet. The technology behind this racquet has created a very strong but light head delivering tremendous speed and power. At RRP £170 it’s the most expensive racquet in the Yonex range alongside Arcsaber 10. Is it worth it? Only you can decide. If it helps you improve your game, then it’s a good investment. Try one today and let me know your findings.