Hybrid Shuttlecocks – Reviews
Bought these a while ago and never really got to use them due to Covid and stuff, but tested these monday and decided to write a review to let you guys know what I think of these hybrid shuttles:
I used these shuttles on monday, together with a junior in my club, mainly to do some smash and doubles defense training.
I am one of the hardest hitters in our club and the junior is one of the harder hitting juniors in our club.
We also wanted to see how long these hybrid shuttles would last when compared to similarly priced or even more expensive feather ones.
#of shots played:
We alternated between 12 shuttles (which were slightly used already from some drive and drop excersises before).
Regarding the time we trained, I would guess we played ~500-600 shots in total, 50:50 smash and defense (250-300 each).
With approximately every 5th shot from the attacker being a full power smash this would lead to 50-60 full power smashes.
So every shuttle would have taken 4 to 5 full power smashes, and ~20+ regular smashes/offensive drives and ~25+ defensive lifts and drives.
Durability:
The durability of those shuttles is very good, every one of these survived this smash and drive torture.
The shuttles did not break at all, they only frayed.
As with feather shuttles, the hybrids did slow down with fraying, but it didn’t seem like these shuttles were losing their speed faster than regular ones.
One big thing to consider: Other cheaper shuttles tend to deform into an oval shape after a really hard smash (or bad misshit), sometimes even on the first hit. This didn’t happen with these shuttles, they did a great job of keeping their round shapes.
So I would rate these excellent in terms of durability.
After the session:
General Flight Characteristics:
They tend to fly slightly “wobbly”.
One thing I also noticed:
These Hybrid 500 shuttles seem to accelerate quicker right after the impact, but also deccelerate slightly quicker on their way when compared to regular feather shuttles.
Net Shots:
The “wobble” and therefore slightly higher amount of tumble is really noticable on net shots and they feel heavier overall.
Wouldn’t really recommend them for training around the net.
Smash:
As already stated, the shuttles have a fast acceleration but also deaccelerates slightly faster than normal shuttles.
This felt like a very slight advantage to defender, once adjusted to the timing, and makes it slightly harder to kill the shuttle as the attacke when relying on power only.
Would rate them very good in this category, but training defensive shots with these might mess with your timing when playing with real feather shuttles.
Drop:
We did not play many drops, but it felt like they needed a minimum of effort more when compared to regular feather shuttles.
Very good overall.
Prices of other “lower- to mid-end” shuttles:
13,35€ per 12
Li Ning A+60: 16-17€ per 15
Victor Queen: 17, 75€ per 12
Decathlon FSC 500: 11,99€ per 12
RSL Tourney Classic: 24,50€ per 12
Conclusion:
I really like these shuttles. The price is more than fair, the durability is excellent.
Especially for training purposes these shuttles would do a great job, except for training net shots, due to the heavier and tumblier feel.
The feel is closer to feather than plastic shuttles, with the durability being closer to plastic shuttles than feathers.
In my opinion this is a great shuttle for training, and also for juniors or beginners, who regularly hit with the frame and therefore would spend much more on regular feathers.
Especially for ~13€ these are a great budget choice, cheap shuttles like the Li Ning A+60, Decathlon FSC 500 or the pricier Victor Queen tend to break feathers or deform sooner (making them pretty much unusable), before the Forza Hybrid 5000 begins to significantly slow down.
