Picked up one from a warehouse sale after
wondering what the fuss was all about.
This model was released around 2006
as one of the pioneer Yonex lightweight
and headlight series and a quick check of
the 2007 All England revealed that half the China
team ie.the women were using it eg.Wei Yi Li,
Zhao Ting Ting,Zhang Jie Wen,Yang Wei,
Zhang Ning ,Xie Xin Fang,Huang Sui and Gao Ling.
That explains why the people who snapped up the
racquet at the sales were mainly uncles and veterans.
Surprisingly Lee Chong Wei used it in early 2006
when coached by Li Mao,but switched to a harder
racquet to match Lin Dan and Taufik power later as Li
Mao had noticed LCW's deficiency in that area.
The racquet was probably withdrawn when Yonex
collaborated with Li Ning to produce a new line of
racquets for the China team.
I have recently settled with using the Nanoray
700 RP as my standard because it is light,fast
especially in defence and manoeuvred easily,but it
lacks slightly in power and control. The Nanospeed
9000x could have been designed to overcome this
problem in power and control of the Nanospeed 7000
which preceded the Nanoray 700.
It is essentially a headlight racquet with a very stiff shaft
but has a light,resilient,slim and flexible frame, reinforced
at certain points like the old Titanium racquets to afford
stability and control.The design of the frame allows the
racquet to be speedy, manoeuvrable but gives it a bit more
in terms of power and control.So it gives defensive and
speedy players an extra bite in smashing ,dropping and
clearing as well as accuracy at the expense of a little less
speed and manoeuvrability.The manufacturer attributes
the additional power from the "elastic" titanium laced frame.
Never tried the Nanoray 9900 but it must have been an
improvement of the 9000X.
I believe the current Nanoray z Slash is actually following
this process of upgrading it from the Nanoray 700 RP or
"rough" Ti 10, just as the 9900 was an upgrade of 9000x,
and this in turn an upgrade of the Nanospeed 7000 .
So when comparing Nanoray 700 with the 9000X,
the following are my conclusions (just my opinion
and how it suits my defensive, countering ,driving,
tapping and flicking playing style)
Nanoray 700 Nanospeed 7000 Nanospeed 9000
Speed 10/10 9/10 8/10
Control 8/10 8/10 9/10
Power 9/10 7/10 9/10
Manoeuvre 10/10 9/10 8.5/10
In short it is not wrong to say that Nanotechnology is not just
marketing hype,it has made racquets lighter,slimmer,more
aerodynamic, faster, and still maintaining power.The Nanospeed
series pales in comparison with the Nanoray series,even the low
end Nanorays outperform high end Nanospeeds.
Maximum power can be achieved with many head heavy racquets
and maximum control with stiff frame Arc Saber models ,at the
expense of other advantages of course.
Manoeuvrability is a matter of whether the racquet
is flexible enough to be twisted to execute quick,deceptive
strokes using the wrist and whether the racquet is light enough
to be wielded up and down rapidly between attack and defence
without tiring out the player and still stable enough to generate
accurate placements.
Control is a matter of accuracy ,the stiffer and more stable the
frame, the better quality the shots especially at the net and placements.
Speed and power are dependent on aerodynamics, built
on Newton's ancient First Law ie. Force =Mass x Acceleration.
Pressure =Force/Area, Bending Moment and Deflection = Force x Distance
Swinging a racquet downwards is aided by gravity, dragging it upwards
is resisted by gravity.
All three racquets are essentially built for doubles play
although many are using it in singles.
The biggest drawback of the Nanospeed 9000x to me is its
poor recovery and braking effect.This means that after a big swing
downwards it takes effort and time to pull the racquet back to
position to repeat the swing or even to perform a block, unlike
the speedy Ti 10,Nanospeed 7000 or Nanoray 700. In this sense
it is no better than the head heavy racquets and the stiff frames of the
Arc Saber series.That must be the reason why this model was consigned
to the graveyard of badminton racquets,although it may suit singles play.
Or, the Elastic Titanium technology was simply shifted from the Nano
series to the Amortec. By 2008 most players except Xie Xin Fang had
adopted the Amortec series.Another glaring weakness of the 9000x is
the difficulty of playing shots after they have crossed the hitting zone and
behind the back.That is why the 'S' version with a flexible shaft was more
popular than the' X'.
The Nanospeed 7000 is basically a failed product because of its very
weak frame.Hafiz Hashim, Julianne Schenk and Wong Mew Choo
were the few who adopted it and it definitely suited their softer,
defensive styles.The 9000x seems to fit many players' expectations
ie.light, fast,manueverable,but with a stiff shaft and strong light frame
that controls the shuttle well and still imparts a lot of explosive power
for smashing and clearing.A long backswing is not required,the stiff
shaft and resilient strong frame will do all the work although a strong
wrist and elbow work is required.In this unique design the frame is
the part that provides the punch instead of the stiff shaft,which hardly
bends.
On another note,Li Ning racquets used to be built around powerful
head heavy racquets but the 3rd generation series are designed to
be softer either to accomodate "weaker" amateurs or enabling
China players to focus more on softer play expounded by
players from other countries ie. better defence,accuracy ,
racquet speed and deception. In fact,personally I find the
Nanospeed 9000x plays like a lightweight and headlight Li
Ning N90II, but faster,more flexible and a little less powerful,
exactly where Li Ning Gen III racquets are heading nowadays.
Even girls like Porntip and Busanan can use the N90 II now.
The best advice to anyone buying a racquet is to buy one only
after having tried out the model.Never depend on manufacturer's
marketing tricks or advice from other players.Change models if
the current racquet used cannot cover the weaknesses of the
player.I must have at least 10 Li Ning and Yonex racquets in
my bag,and they all play very well. I only change them to suit
the speed of shuttles used or to counter glaring weaknesses of
my opponents.
To me,playing doubles is like Volleyball, the ultimate goal is to
force opponents to give a weak return so that it can be spiked
at the net,or like football,hockey or basketball, it is about
teamwork and collaboration to set up the striker to score the
goals,doubles is not about killing the shuttles with a power smash
from the baseline, its simply too easy to defend nowadays.
Xie Xin Fang was the biggest fan of the Nanospeed 9000 using it till the end of her career
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