Choice of a doubles racquet

Every time when people who plays doubles chooses a new racquet, question commonly ask are, which racquet is the most powerful for smash or which is the lightest racquet available?

Fortunately this isn't hard to answer. The best racquet to use is arguably a headlight racquet which is stiff/very stiff, or a headheavy/med-flex to stiff racquet.

The former is exemplified by Yonex's Ti-10 Mesh, Nanospeed 9000x/s and 9900. While the latter examples are Yonex's Armortec 900T, 800Def or Arcsaber 7. Yonex is chosen as an example as it is well known.

Why this is so? in doubles, the game is so fast that one cannot survive based on smashes alone. Control and defense are very important as well. This theory was confirmed by Tan Boon Heong who rated defense is as important as attack; hence he is using a Nanospeed 9900.

From thestar.com.my
King of smashers Boon Heong holds record

RAJES PAUL

MALAYSIAN doubles shuttler Tan Boon Heong was on a high after being hailed as the world’s hardest smasher. It was made official yesterday that Boon Heong now holds the fastest speed record for a smash at 421kph, which was recorded in the Japan Open in Tokyo last month.

The two previous fastest speeds were 332kph (Fu Haifeng of China) and 414kph (Naoki Kawamae of Japan).

“I feel proud of this recognition. It will certainly motivate me to do even better in this sport,” said Boon Heong.

“People started to notice my smashing ability when I was 17-years-old. And aware that it is one of my strong points, I spent extra hours working on it.

“It’s all about the timing in hitting a good smash. One does not have to be physically big to be a strong exponent in the stroke.

“Having a strong smash alone is not enough. It is also important to have a good defence and to complement well with the partner. Kien Keat and I still have to work in these areas.”