It is important that you take care of your racket so that it can perform at its best, especially if you spent a lot of money on it.  In this post, we will be discussing the different ways you can care for your racket showing you both good and bad examples.

Storing Your Racket
How you store your racket will also determine its lifespan.  You want to make sure that your racket is well cushioned and placed in a cool dry space.  

Keeping your racket in a case and placing it inside of a bag would be the optimal setting to provide maximum cushioning and support for your racket.  This will help prevent damage that may occur to your racket should there be any compressible force acting on it.

Some racket bags come with a thermal-lined compartment which protects your rackets from any extreme temperature changes.  Not only does this preserve your racket, it also protects the strings as well.  

Racket Frame
The frame of your badminton racket is the area where most damage occurs.  The most common damage you will find are paint chips on the frame.  Although paints chips do not affect the racket in anyway, it is not pleasant to look at especially when you have more than one chip on the frame. 

Paint chips usually occur from racket clashes or from any type of impact on the frame.  All in all, paint chips are not that serious of a problem and more of an aesthetic factor.

One thing you should look out for are cracks on the racket frame.  These are quite serious and usually shortens your rackets lifespan.  Cracks are often found where there are paint chips because if the impact on the frame is strong enough to create a crack, the paint will definitely come off as well.

You can identify a crack on the racket as a thin black line which is quite noticeable since the racket frame will look grey once the paint has come off.  The severity of the crack depends on the size and the depth of the crack. 

From personal experience, the size and depth go hand in hand and if serious enough, the frame will collapse and deform due to the tension from the strings acting on the weakened spot on the frame.

Once there is a crack on the racket frame, you may only be able to string the racket a few more times and at a lower tension before it breaks.

Grommets
Grommets are the little black cylinders that sit around the racket frame where the string goes through.  Their purpose is to act as a cushion between the string and the frame. Grommets need to be replaced when they are broken or it can potentially damage the string and the frame.  

Grommets can break in two places.  The head of the grommet and the body.  The head is the part that sites on the outside of the frame.  They prevent the string from sitting directly on the frame.  If broken, the tension from the string will be sitting on the frame of the racket and cause immense amounts of stress.  If stringing at high tensions, the string can "eat" or "sink" into the racket frame as depicted in the image below.

The body of the grommet is the part that is on the inside of the frame.  They prevent the string from touching the edges of the hole in the frame.  If the grommet body is broken, the string will be touching the edge of the hole and this increases the chances of the string snapping at that point.  

It is the stringers responsibility to notify you of any broken grommets and replace them when you go for stringing service.  

Our staff at Yumo will happily replace your grommets free of charge if there are only a few that needs replacing.  There will be a fee of $10 if you request for all the grommets to be replaced on the frame. Some rackets will cost more if they require special grommet pieces.

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