Parents and Players,
It's my great pleasure to have the opportunity coaching your child(ren) badminton . As a coach, I'm very excited to see a group of children love badminton so much. I'll do my best to bring our kids to enter the gate of the competitive badminton. My goal is for all the S&G Youth Badminton Club players to be able to compete in a regional tournament in a half year.
If you have made your decision to join the club, make sure to equip your kids with:
o Shoes – a pair of Badminton/Volleyball/Racketball shoes - to prevent foot related injuries
o Racket – a light racket that can hold 18lb of string tension (not the racket from a local supermarket)
I recommend light regular size competitive rackets for our young players who are 8-years-old or above. If you already have a racket that is lighter than 85g, just let your kid to bring that to the club practices. But if you do need to buy a racket, I would recommend you to buy a 7U (65-70g) or 8U (55-60g) light weight rackets for our growing youngsters:
The lightest, 8U, racket with the best value while maintaining the best quality would be: Apacs Feather Weight 55 Badminton Racket (8U). You can type in " Apacs Feather Weight 55" to search on eBay. There are numerous sellers selling the racket below $85. Some of them even provide a couple color options. Here is a $70 one sold by a seller with 100% positive feedback:
My recommendation for a 7U racket would be a Apacs Fly Weight 10. Just type in "Apacs Fly Weight 10" in the search box on eBay, you will only find two options: $53.91 + $15 shipping; or Two (2x) rackets for $103.50 + $20 shipping. You can also find a "Apacs Flyweight 10" racket on Amazon for $99.90 + 16.50 shipping.
I don't recommend any Yonex, Victor, Lining or other top brand feather-light competitive rackets simply because of the high cost, more than $180 per racket. Apacs rackets are considered as extremely similar to their Yonex counterparts.
Please be aware that all of the competitive badminton rackets are sold unstrung. I have 15 years of experience in stringing badminton rackets. I was a Yonex stringer for 2006 Dallas Open. I mainly just string the rackets for OU Badminton Club members. But I would be happy to extend the service to our kids. The stringing fee for our kids would just be $20/racket. This includes a set of Yonex BG 65 string. Westwood Tennis center also provides badminton racket stringing service. Please call them to find out how much they charge now. They used to carry Yonex BG 65 string in their store. If they don't, you can either order a set online or buy it from me for $7 per set.
Below are the junior badminton rackets I would recommend for the kids younger than 8 years old, or shorter than 4 feet:
1. Yonex Nanoray Junior
$54 (only 2 available) on Amazon:
$64 (only 3 available) on eBay now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Yonex-Nanoray-Jr-4UG7-STRUNG-Blue-Badminton-Tennis-Racket/352640930062?hash=item521b09910e:g:bzMAAOSw57ZcY1oS
2. Yonex NANOFLARE Junior
$60 on eBay:
$70 on Amazon:
I'm looking forward to seeing you all on our club practice.
Shawn Lam | S&G Badminton Club Coach
A USA Badminton SP1 Certified Coach