Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Badminton Racket First Impressions: Victor Bravesword Lee Hyun Il

Yet another signature racket from Victor. Don't they ever learn?

The series is mauled with sub-standard finishing and lower quality merchandise, banking on the popularity of their players to sell rackets instead of making something top-notch. That, and the players never really use the rackets... Jung Jae Sung is probably the only player to actively use the racket named after him, and he retired right afterwards!

The latest in the series is pegged to the badminton soldier Lee Hyun Il. If you've ever seen him play you'll know that he executes a style of play less commonly seen in today's power-wins-all rallies.

His footwork is impeccable, his retrieving practiced and faultless. He lacked the power attack, instead choosing to out last his opponent with a creative defense and dependable shot placement.

His weapon of choice, the Victor Bravesword 11. The Bravesword Lee Hyun Il is modelled after the BRS11, with the same stats as indicated on the cone.

But the BRS11 is Made in Taiwan (MIT), while the BRSLHI is Made in China. I felt the difference on handling. It feels slightly hollow, the graphite of a lower quality. When you hit a shuttle the feel wasn't as good as my other MIT racket, the Bravesword 10.

Somehow, it just feels cheap. Like what the Bravesword Lee Yong Dae did for me.

But this is Lee Hyun Il's tribute, and that is enough for me to fall willingly into the sucker category.

Much like the famed badminton player, the racket offers less in terms of attack but compensates it with admirable speed in defense. While the shot quality takes a hit since I couldn't feel the shuttle as well, the accuracy and consistency that I was able to achieve off this racket during the 2-hour session is worth mention.

While I am tempted to give the MIT Bravesword 11 a try to see how it compares, common sense teaches me to live with what I've got and go for more games with the Victor Bravesword Lee Hyun Il, especially when the first outing didn't bomb as much as I thought it would.

Review to come.







8 comments:

Uma said...

love your enthusiasm!

Arthur said...

You found me!! Hello!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Arthur looking forward to your review on lhi as I have always want to buy a Bravesword and Paul steward also gives it a good rating before it cross over to Victor sponsorship. I have try bs lyd and realise it is not suitable for me. I have also try bs12 and it seems okay hope lhi could be the one for me :)

Arthur said...

Thanks for reading!

The Bravesword series of rackets seem to be the best among what Victor has to offer. I find them a joy to use as well - a great combination of speed and power.

The Bravesword 10 works really fine for me. Right off I'm able to produce very high quality shots with great accuracy.

What seems to be lacking in the BRS12 that makes you think the BRSLHI would be the one?

Anonymous said...

Brs12 is mid balanced and I prefer racket that are slightly HH. Something like the panda power revelation but not too head heavy like the voltirc

Arthur said...

I find the Bravesword series pretty good to handle. Great for when you're in need of a quicker defense without too much of a loss in offense.

Anonymous said...

But it seems you does not rated Victor rackets highly based on your past blogs. Any eta when lhi review will be out?

Arthur said...

The past Victor rackets proved to be too hard for me to use?

I usually give rackets a few hours on court before I consider writing the review.

The Bravesword series seem to come up above the Meteor series when it comes to ease of use.

The review will have to wait awhile. Taking a short break from the game to refresh and get some cycling done :)