How to find the right stringing tension in badminton

Getting your stringing tension right, is just as important as choosing the badminton racket.

In this guide you will find our personal experience and a guideline in regards to choosing the correct string and stringing tension.

Thickness of the string

Choosing the right string is your first step. Are you looking for high control or high durability? There are tons of different string types and brands. We will recommend starting off with a standard string, which isn’t too thin nor too thick. The most popular string thickness is 0,68 mm, which is a great combination between control and durability. We, at Basic Feather, are using 0,68 mm string in all our customized racket stringing. Should you decide to choose a thinner string, you will experience increased control, however, you will get a less durable string. Making the opposite choice, you will experience less control, but higher durability.

Nothing is right or wrong when choosing your string. We recommend you try out different types of strings and find your string based on your personal preference.

What should my stringing tension be?

Once you've chosen the thickness, we'll look at how many kilos you need to stretch.
If you choose a stringing with few kilos, you will get a soft stringing. It gives more durability and more help to settle your strokes but also less ball bounce.

On the other hand, if you choose a harder string with more kilos, you will have more control over your strokes. You may find that the ball "dies" in the racket with the harder strings, and therefore high demands are placed on both technique and strength.
With harder strings, the "sweet-spot" is reduced. This is the point on the strings where you hit the feather ball most optimally. If you have an impure stroke with a hard stringing, you will experience a significant decrease in your power in the strokes, then the stringing is also more likely to crack.

Basic Feather will recommend the following: Beginner:19 - 23 pounds (lbs), Medium: 24 - 26,5 pounds (lbs), Advance: 26,5 - 28 pounds (lbs). From our personal experience, we do not recommend tensions higher than 28,5 pounds unless you are a very skilled or professional player.

Recommendation from Morten Frost

It can quickly get rather complicated with many string variants and stringing tensions. I recommend for the majority of players to choose a 0,68 mm string and a tension between 24 - 26,5 pounds. Personally, I find this a perfect balance between durability, control and power. When purchasing a racket including stringing from Basic Feather, all stringing will be performed through a full electric stringing machine which is similar to the ones they use at World Tour events.

Remember to chose what's best for you, not what others have

One of the main reasons why some players choose a higher stringing tension is often caused by the great sound, when hitting the shuttle. The higher stringing tensions, the higher the tone. Remember, a high tone in itself, is not what’s going to provide you with a win in your next game, but having the optimal racket setting is a much smarter choice.

The sound of the shuttlecock

Your string type and kilo choices affect the sound that the string gives you hitting the shuttlecock. A thinner string with several kilos gives a high sound, while a thicker string with fewer kilos gives a deep sound. 

This is probably for the vast majority the biggest reason why many choose the quite hard strings.

We recommend

It can quickly become confusing with so many different variants of stringing. We recommend the vast majority of badminton players to choose a string type of about 0.68 mm, with 10-12 kg in the tightening of their racket. It provides a really good balance between durability, shuttle feel and power.

Last tip to get the right tension we recommend that the stringer uses an electronic stringing machine, of course we do with our rackets.