How To Correctly Test & Change The Speed Of A Shuttlecock (With Pictures)
There are many factors that affect shuttlecock speed – including temperature, altitude, hall size, brand and shuttle storage. And it can be frustrating to play with a shuttle that is either too fast or too slow!
To know if the shuttle is foo fast or too slow, you need to test it. And if it is not the right speed, you can change the speed of the shuttle by tipping the feathers.
We’ll now go through how to test a shuttlecock’s speed and how to tip a shuttlecock to either slow it down or speed it up!
How To Test A Badminton Shuttlecock’s Speed
Striking The Shuttle
To test a shuttlecock’s speed, you first need to stand behind the back line in a sideways position, like this:
Then, you hit the shuttle firmly with an underarm stroke. The shuttle should travel in an upwards direction.
Where The Shuttle Should Land
To know that the shuttle is the correct speed, it should land in between the two small lines marked at the back of the court.
Not all badminton courts will have these lines, so if you don’t have them, then it should land in a similar zone of between 21cm (8.3 inches) in front of the doubles service line and 25cm (9.8 inches) after the doubles service line.
And incase you don’t bring a tape measure with you to the badminton hall, the width of your badminton racket head is around 20cm.
If the shuttle lands before this zone, it indicates that the shuttle speed is too slow, and if the shuttle lands after this zone, then it indicates that the shuttle speed is too fast.
In both cases, you might like to change the speed of the shuttlecock to make it more ideal to play with. You can do this by tipping the shuttle, which we’ll now go through!
How To Tip A Badminton Shuttlecock
Firstly, you can only tip feather shuttlecocks!
Shuttle tipping is done by gently folding or pinching the tips of the feathers roughly half a centimeter from the top. You shouldn’t fold it too far down otherwise you might break the feather!
How To Slow Down The Shuttlecock Speed
If the shuttle is flying too fast, you can fold the feathers outwards to slow it down. You can start by tipping every four feathers, then test the shuttle again to see if it’s better. If it’s still too fast, then you can tip every two feathers!
How To Make The Shuttlecock A Faster Speed
If the shuttle is flying too slow, you can fold the feathers inwards instead to speed it up. You can start with every four feathers, then if it’s still too slow, you can tip it every two feathers.
TOP TIP: You can also stick a small piece of blu-tack inside the shuttlecock to further speed it up!
Learn More
If you’d like to learn more about the different shuttlecock speeds and how to know which shuttlecocks you should buy, you can check out our ultimate shuttlecock buying guide here!
Or, if you’d like to see a video demonstration instead of how to test and tip a shuttlecock, you can check out our video below!