10
Background
As I work for a badminton retailer, I am occasionally asked to review other manufacturer’s racquets. Against this backcloth, I recently tested a Victor Braves word 10 badminton racquet and got a huge surprise.
A few years ago, the Victor brand was extremely small in the UK, mainly considered a European brand. We knew very little about their products and level of quality. That changed just over a year ago when it was announced that they were the new sponsors of the Korean National Badminton Team. This was a serious leap forward for Victor and ultimately gave them an international seal of approval in terms of quality. After all, if a racquet is good enough for Lee Yong Dee, current Olympic Mixed Doubles champion and World Menes Doubles Silver Medalist, and his team, then it must be good!
On to my review…
The Victor Braves word 10 is the “second” racquet in the Braves word series, the cream of the Victor badminton range, sitting either side of the 9 and 11.
It’s a good looking racquet in charcoal grey, with flashes of red, white and what looks like a hologram strip along the side of the head. It arrived in a full length bag in red with the name on the bag to differentiate it from the 9 and 11. This is a high quality full-cover bag too, nothing flimsy here.
Grip size is G3 which is the smaller of the two grip sizes on Victor racquets. It’s equivalent to a size 3.5 inches or Onex G4, which is a bit confusing. Weight is 86g. Interestingly, this racquet has a maximum recommended stringing tension of 30lbs so it’s got to be very strong and should be extremely popular in the Asian market where strings tensions are so much higher.
This is a fairly even balanced badminton racquet, slightly head heavy, but not too much. The shaft is designated stiff.
Usually when I test and review racquets, I like to play with the racquet factory strung. On this occasion, the Braves word 10 had been custom strung to around 26lbs. Rather than be disappointed, I was absolutely delighted and you will see why when you read on.
Braves word technology revolves around the shape of the frame – which is actually the shape of a sword. And this racquet certainly sounds like one as you can hear it cut through the air!
