I'd be interested to whether they perform as feather shuttles or as plastic shuttles in terms of: (1) Injuries: Playing with plastic shuttles is known to cause increased physical injury (shoulder, elbow, wrist). I'm not sure exactly why. The wright perhaps? The different way you stroke them? (2) Damage to the Strings: Playing with plastic shuttles is known to cause increased wear of the string-bed. I like the concept of these hybrid shuttles, but I think it's important to know wether one won't be saving money on shuttles to instead spend it on more frequent restrings or increased rate of injury before switching.
I think it might be because plastics are heavier than when you compare it to feather shuttles. So there is increased strain on your wrist because of that.
That review says that the KKK compared to normal feathers feels slightly heavier and doesn't decelerate as much. However, the difference is subtle. It's much better than plastic shuttles and much more durable than Aerosensa 30. Do you guys agree with that?
Cannot compare with the Aerosensa 30 that I never used but yes I pretty much agree with this review. I’m using these for practice and drills since last April and it’s a great value shuttle. I played some serious players with it and they never guessed it was an hybrid. However even if they don’t seem to be damaged after 3 sets they are getting slower and I reserve those for drills or multi shuttles exercices.
Me neither but as we all know Aerosensa is a high end feather shuttle and should be better than most. It surprised me to learn that KKK is much more durable. Could this hybrid thing be the future of casual play shuttlecocks?
I bought those and now play with them. You actually can replace individual feathers (not meant to but it works, and if done properly it will fly well), but my personal conclusion is that it'a not worth the time spent to do it well. They perform almost like feathers. Though you can feel a small difference with a high-end feather. Also, though it lasts much longer, it's worth to consider that a large part of that extended life is of subpar flight characteristics. So you basically get used to play over a range of slightly different flight characteristics vs changing very often and playing with the "exact" same shuttle with normal feathers. For this reason I don't think top professional players should train with it, but for everyone else, including very serious leisure competition players, I think it's a great shuttle. It's like having 85% of the feather experience at 30% the annual cost.
Interesting youtube video, I can't help but to think the guy may be a little bias, but some of his opinions sound valid. I may have to try out some of these for training with beginners.
I tried KKK 500 this week ... and actually I agree to the comments above - last longer 2-3 sets... after that while it slows down its still usable as training shuttle - noticeably bit heavier - "75-80% feather experience for 15-20% cost of the real feather shuttle" 1x good feather cost around 2 euro and last 1 set... while this KKK cost 1 euro per shuttle and last 2-3 sets... I used to play plastic shuttles in the past and when I played with them... I used to change them when they slowed down (used them when I played with friends or in doubles where the difference wasnt that important) ... it was usually after 1-2 hours of play depending with whom I played with... so changing the shuttle to KKK wouldnt increase the cost much... Imo its a great alternative to the plastic shuttles, because although plastic shuttles wont wobble after 1-2 hours of playing ...they are losing speed which affects the game anyway. Honestly I would recommend this shuttles to everyone who can not afford the high quality feather shuttles. With these shuttles there is no reason to play with the plastic ones unless you are really a beginner who mishit a lot.
I played with these a bit and my impressions are they fly a bit faster right out the tube. Durability isn't as long as I had hoped, they still break because it's feather afterall. Definitely nicer than plastic. I'll have to see how these compare to the Victor CS ones.
K3, or 3K maybe? I found some on Ebay, shipped 2 tubes from China to the US for $26 including shipping. The listing was for 77 speed but I received 76 speed. At first I was disappointed because I thought they'd be too slow but when I started playing with them they felt like normal speed, I think if they were 77 speed these would be too fast compared to other shuttles. The flight path and feel were very much like a full feather shuttle, better than some in fact. Durability was good, played 2 games and some practice with one shuttle, even though it became ragged towards the end it never lost a feather and still flew fairly straight. I'm impressed.
Definitely. Unless you know about American culture that wouldn’t be something that would come to one’s mind first.
Don't worry, I don't think anyone here is a racist! I'm just saying that those 3 letters put together that way have a bit of baggage and I don't want the wrong sorts of people searching for the other KKK to end up on THIS board after a google search, haha.
Yea this is what happened to me as well. I was able to play 3 games with the king kong, but in the third game it was noticeably slower, but still played with it. I just brought them yesterday on badminton session and few of my friends who played feathers before, but couldnt afford it... gave me money on spot beforehand to buy them the shuttles. I hope they wont increase the price in the near future.
Yup. Everything what you wrote above is a 100% match like it was my own post. But for some people 76 might be slow especially in winter. My club is using 77 even in winter, so we are used to slower shuttles.
