Badminton - the fastest racquet sport?
I don't know why it is regarded as such. Maybe because of a speed record set with the bird. But on gameplays, I haven't seen an opponent unable to at least react and try to hit the shuttle. A sight very much common in table tennis and lawn tennis.

On November 5, 1996, Englishman Simon Archer hit a shuttlecock that measured a speed of 260 km/h (162 mph). - Guinness Book of Records

The first time I tried badminton, I borrowed a Gosen TI Ultralite 1200. I'm quite satisfied with the feel of that one but can't find a similar racquet on the sport shops that I visited.

We instead bought a couple of badminton racquets, a Prince Tour 1000i (Php996.00) and a Prince Powerline 800 (Php850.00).

The Powerline 800 is way different from the Gosen Ultralite. It probably doesn't match my style of hitting the bird. The Prince tour 1000i is a closer match to the Ultralite.

The odd thing is that there was no information about both of the prince racquets on www.princebadminton.com.

I'm not quite satisfied with the local badminton tutorial video hosted by Paolo Bediones. Smash - Badminton for Everyone

1. The director kept focusing on artistic or fancy shots instead of focusing on the items currently being discussed or taught. Example of this is during the shot about the grip. The players are talking about how to grip the racquet, and the camera meanwhile kept scanning the length of the racquet instead of focusing on the handle and the hand.

2. It's important to serve properly but unlike tennis, an ace or a point off the serve, is very unlikely in badminton.

3. The section about choosing a racquet is very important for beginners. But again, the coach is talking about the flexibility of the shaft. I haven't seen shafts at the local shops indicating if it's flexible or stiff. The more common sales person will tell you are weight, material type (graphite, alloy, etc.), balance and string tension. No shaft stiffness. Maybe he's talking about golf clubs.

It's still good enough for beginners though if you haven't seen other badminton tutorial videos yet. And it has some interesting badminton trivias inserted in between.

/rom