How to Choose Good Badminton String: Must-Read Tips for Stringing Your Racket!

Choosing the right badminton string for your racket is important.

It plays a big role during your badminton game and affects your performance.

How you want to string your racket depends on your style of playing badminton.

For example, stroke/ rally players use different strings compared to aggressive/ attacking players.

2 things to consider when stringing your racket:

1. Diameter of the string
2. String tension

1. Diameter

Usually the diameter of badminton strings available ranges from 0.66mm to 0.7mm.

Thicker Strings	Thinner Strings
More durable Less power Less solid sound	Less durable More power Nice solid sound

Generally, thinner badminton string offer better performance but they don’t last long. Thin strings will break more often and you’ll have to spend money changing them. Therefore, in that sense, they are more costly.

Performance is very important to me and I enjoy playing good badminton games. Therefore I wouldn’t mind spending a little more on good strings for my racket.

2. String Tension

Badminton string tension is measured in “pounds”.

More pounds = Higher tension (26-28 pounds)

Fewer pounds = Lower tension (20-25 pounds)

With today’s technology in producing badminton rackets, a racket frame can potentially support string tensions of up to 30 pounds!

Of course, some world class players have their rackets strung at 30+ pounds for extreme performance. The person stringing their rackets does not usually succeed the first time. It usually takes few attempts to successfully string a 30+ pounds string tension racket.

Should go for low or high tension?

This totally depends on the way you play.

String tensions work exactly the same as the stiffness of a racket’s shaft.

The following link will show you a table on how to choose a racket shaft according to your style of play.

Stiff racket shafts represent HIGH TENSION strings;
Flexible racket shafts represent LOW TENSION strings.

Click here to see a comparison between stiff racket shafts (high tension strings) and flexible racket shafts (low tension strings)

Also, take note that not all rackets can support high tension stringing. If you do not know whether your racket supports high tension strings, the best idea is to ask the stringer.

If your racket has ‘seasoned’ and you would like to change a new racket to support higher string tensions, read how to choose a good badminton racket

Useful Tip

If your racket string snaps while you’re playing badminton, I presume you won’t send your racket in for re-stringing straightaway.

Anyway if this happens, CUT THE REST OF THE STRING on your racket IMMEDIATELY to avoid damaging your racket. If one line of string breaks, there will be an uneven balance of pressure/tension on your racket frame.

The frame may lose its shape if there’s imbalanced pressure/tension.