Yonex Voltric 7 racket

The nanospeed 9000S was my first high end badminton racket, well, it was actually my Dad's as I could not afford to buy a high end racket back at that time. This racket is head light and back then I thought this was the best racket out there as it felt really light  to swing and play with. However I had a hard time connecting with it, and more often than not I mishit the shuttle and send the shuttlecock flying to undesirable directions. During those times I just played and never cared about the types of racket out there. Not until I grew up and got a better understanding of the classifications of rackets. My playstyle is aggressive - more on power play. Hence why my choice of racket is in the voltric (head heavy) range. So my first racket review will begin with the Voltric 7 (VT7) which is my first head-heavy racket.

My VT7 Racket: 2014 edition (Yellow)
4U (80-84.9gm)/G4 Grip
Strung at 24 lbs with (Yonex Nanogy 98) Cosmic Gold
Medium Flex

The VT7 is light, I don't understand how Yonex consider this as a voltric (head-heavy) when I feel no dragging weight on my swings like I do with my other Voltric rackets (VTZF, VTZF2 and VT80), but then it makes sense to be under the voltric lineup once you feel the bumps in the head - the "TriVoltage" design (Yes! It has the bumps but barely noticeable until you run your fingers and feel it's head frame). The frame was designed to balance power and control and indeed it does perform and showcase these qualities on court.

My warm up begins with clears and backhand clears.
I put NBG 98 on this racket and it produce a good crisp sound when hitting the shuttle. With this amazing light weight power generating racket I could not help myself but to keep on clearing even when my doubles partner wants to continue onward with the drive warm up. Now with the backhand clear which demands a perfect form to execute correctly (meaning to send from your rear to your opponent's side rear) this racket is forgiving compared to its higher end brothers because of the lighter weight feel allowing it easy to maneuver. Seriously, only wrist and fingers can do the work to back hand clear with the vt7 not much forearm pronation required. In a gist, hitting clears is less strenuous to the arm.

What really amazed me was it's capability to let you control your drive rallies/exchange in a doubles match. It requires a lot of focus to exchange drives because you're under pressure. With a voltric on your hands, the pressure is controlled by you because of the force it uses to push the shuttlecock, it surprises your opponents and catches them off guard with their defenses because the speed from the rackets hit is faster than other rackets. I really like that about the Voltrics, it outpowers your opponents - works well with aggressive players.

You'll read and hear a lot of good things about the smash power of VOLTRIC rackets so I will just give a brief input about this racket on that regard. VT7 is light and powerful. I tried this 4u racket both in singles and doubles and it does not disappoint on the smash category. It feels good to smash with a vt7, the smash is clean and powerful. The follow through after a smash swing using vt7 is less strenuous than the voltric 80 and zforce.

As for the defence I will say it's better than the higher end z force and 80. It's a perfect balance head heavy racket because the feel is not head heavy but the power it deliver is good.

I would recommend this as a starting racket for those who want to start playing with voltrics. Very user-friendly indeed.