Fight over flight: Why new synthetic badminton shuttles have sparked debate

The approved synths are VICTOR’s New Carbon Sonic Max (NCS-MAX-12) and Yonex’s Crosswind 70. The aim is to find the closest likeness and feel, ensuring that flight and other characteristics align with elite competition standards and replicate feather flights.

Product testing coaches are bound by confidentiality agreements, and spoke while requesting to not be named. “Players played a game-and-a-half at the academy and didn’t want to play more,” reported a coach from Chennai, adding, “Maybe they just need to get used to it.”

Why have shuttlecock prices gone up?

China is the major producer of shuttlecocks. Recent outbreaks of avian flu have made the Chinese turn away from the bird to red meat more, and thus fewer birds are being raised.

And as India national coach Pullela Gopichand said earlier, “The growth of the sport across three populous nations, India, China and Indonesia, has ensured that demand for goose feathers has gone up a lot.”

What are synthetic shuttles made of?

Some stems are nylon + composites or carbon graphite. The cork remains the same. The threads binding them together and the glue are different, according to reviewer CK Yew, who says a layer of epoxy resin is coated over them.

Chevron holes are punched into the nylon nano sheets. The NCS Max, Yew said, has foam inserted into stems that ensure aerodynamic stability. An Indian coach flagged that the stock that holds the feathers together, however, has a metal element, in his batch of shuttles at least, which can be extremely dangerous if it hits the eye. They are lemonish yellow, not the regal white of goose.

What are badminton players looking for in a synth?

Hyderabad coach Bhaskar Babu tried out the earliest iterations used at the last Asian sub-juniors, at his academy, and was disappointed. “They weren’t lasting. If you played correct strokes, it was fine. But one simple wrong stroke, and it crumpled like a newspaper,” he said.

Stressing there was no comparison with feathers, he said the speed was whimsical, and the flight unpredictable. “First, the feel is not there at all. Then the shuttle suddenly stops and goes. There should be no wobbling. No stopping. And finally, they need to control speed, because the synth can go very fast on its own,” he said.

The coach did add that shuttle scarcity is an existential issue for badminton. “We will be happy if they roll out synthetics soon, because feather prices are ending the sport,” he said.

What are the concerns?

Two areas need sorting out, a Mumbai coach said. His batch needed aerodynamic brakes — a smash from a feather shuttle leaving at 500 kph will slow down to 300, but in the synths it can turn uncontrollable and rush at 400. Rallies might not build. Additionally, when the shuttle is dribbled at the net, the feathers correct itself in flight, making it return-able. With synths, it can spin out of control.

However, as the BWF is trying out two synths on two ends of the spectrum, it’s not the whizzing shuttle that’s drawing the dismaying grunts, but the slow one. “Main difference is you can’t play good quality strokes. Everyone is equal now, your skill and deception don’t matter,” another coach from Chennai said.

Why do feather shuttles have a better feel?

Synthetic shuttles, especially slower ones, are more uniform and less responsive to fine inputs. But when you hit feather shuttles, they follow the path dictated by the manner and force of the strike. If yours is the mistake, the dazzle is yours too. There is magic at the net, when feathers correct their path and make returns hittable. They can keep a rally, a conversation going. The new ones just don’t have the natural intelligence of feathers. The synth isn’t quite in sync with the shuttler.

How different are the approved Yonex synths from the Victor shuttles?

Yew says on his Youtube review that the 5.2 gm Crosswind, 10 years in the making since it’s first iteration Unix, is stable in flight characteristics, but stems are stiffer at the stock and thinner at the tips, so it can bend. Slower, softer, aimed at stepping in for the premium AS50 brand. The 5 gm NCS, on the other hand, is the streets — uniformly stiff, with similar deceleration and good for high energy clears, drives, smashes and as Yew says, with “an ability to take a beating. Can still fly after losing nano sheets feathers without wobbling.” It’s a lot faster, at times unmanageable, and half the price of Crosswind. Play to the corners, at own risk.