Types Of Shuttlecock: Feather Or Nylon, And Which To Buy
There are two types of shuttlecock in badminton, and almost everything written about them skips the part that actually decides which one you buy.
It is not flight quality. It is how many hours a tube has to last you, and what the air in your hall does to it.
There are two types of shuttlecock: feathered and non-feathered, usually called nylon. Both meet the same BWF dimensions and weight, with synthetics allowed a 10 per cent variation. Feather flies better and lasts a fraction as long. Social players in Singapore are almost always better off on nylon; anyone competing will be on feather, because that is what tournaments use.
Both are governed by the same law, which explains why a cheap shuttle and an expensive one are closer in specification than they look.
Under the BWF Laws of Badminton, a feathered shuttle has 16 feathers fixed in the base, each between 62 mm and 70 mm long, with the tips lying on a circle 58 mm to 68 mm across. The base is 25 mm to 28 mm in diameter and the whole thing weighs between 4.74 and 5.50 grams.
A non-feathered shuttle replaces the feathers with a skirt and must meet the same measurements and the same weight, except that a variation of up to 10 per cent is allowed because synthetic materials behave differently from feathers.
So the difference between the types of shuttlecock is not size or mass. It is what the skirt is made of, and that one difference drives everything below. The same is true of rackets, as our guide to choosing a badminton racket sets out.
Feather shuttles are made from goose or duck feathers set into a cork base, and they are what every tournament you will ever watch is played with.
What you get is deceleration. A feather shuttle slows sharply at the end of its flight, which is what makes a good drop shot die just over the net and what makes a clear land steeply rather than drifting long. Every shot in badminton is designed around that behaviour.
What it costs is durability. Feathers break. A hard smash can finish a shuttle, and a competitive session gets through several. For a player still learning to hit the shuttle in the middle of the racket, that rate is considerably higher.
Nylon shuttles have a moulded plastic skirt on the same cork or composite base, and they survive treatment that would destroy a feather shuttle.
What you get is time. One nylon shuttle will outlast a tube of feathers for a social player, and it does not mind being stood on, dropped in a bag or played with by a beginner still finding the middle of the strings.
What it costs is the deceleration. A nylon shuttle carries further at the end of its flight and sits up slightly rather than dropping away. Drop shots do not die the same way, and clears go longer than you expect. The shot you learn with nylon is very slightly the wrong shot for feather, so it pays to try both before you spend a year on one.
Shuttle tubes carry a speed number, and it is the one specification most players ignore and should not.
The number is about air, not about the shuttle’s quality. Warm air is thinner, so a shuttle travels further through it; cold, dense air holds it back. The BWF Laws recognise this directly, allowing modified specifications in places where altitude or climate make a standard shuttle unsuitable.
Singapore sits at the hot end of that range all year, which means a shuttle that flies correctly in a European sports hall will fly long here. The practical consequence is that you want a slower shuttle than the tube you would buy in a cold country, and that a shuttle bought online from an overseas seller may simply be wrong for your hall.
You do not have to guess, because the Laws give you a test that takes thirty seconds.
Stand behind the back boundary line, hit the shuttle with a full underhand stroke from over that line, upward and parallel to the side lines. A shuttle of the correct speed lands not less than 530 mm and not more than 990 mm short of the far back boundary line.
Short of that and the shuttle is too slow for the conditions. Past it and it is too fast. Do it once with a new tube in the hall you actually play in and you will never have to wonder again.
The honest rule is about frequency rather than ability.
Playing socially, once or twice a week. Nylon, without hesitation. The flight difference matters far less than the cost of replacing feathers every session.
Learning, with a coach. Nylon for most of the hour, feather for the parts that depend on the shuttle dying properly. That is how our own sessions run, and our group badminton lessons page explains how a session is structured around it.
Playing competitively or entering anything. Feather, and start early. If you have only ever played with nylon, your first feather session will feel like the court got longer, which is the kind of transition our badminton coaching page describes handling.
Playing outdoors. Nylon, and accept that wind beats both types.
Most shuttles in Singapore die of storage rather than play.
Feathers dry out in air conditioning and go brittle, and a brittle feather snaps on contact instead of flexing. The traditional fix is humidity: a tube kept in a sealed bag with a damp cloth or a purpose-made humidifier keeps the feathers pliable.
Heat is the other one. A tube left in a car turns soft, and the cork base can deform enough to change the flight. Our badminton gear and equipment guide covers the rest of the kit that quietly degrades the same way.
A shuttle behaving oddly usually tells you something before you replace it.
A wobble in flight means a bent or broken feather, and it will not settle. A shuttle that suddenly flies short in the same hall it was fine in last week has usually dried out. And a shuttle that feels dead off the strings is often the strings rather than the shuttle, which our guide to badminton racket tension explains.
Our article on reading shuttlecock patterns goes further into what the flight is telling you during a rally rather than after it.
Worth saying, because a lot of players go shopping when they should be practising.
Both types of shuttlecock matter at the margin. Contact point, racket preparation and where your feet are when you hit matter far more, and no shuttle compensates for taking the bird late. Our guide to hitting the shuttlecock accurately is the better place to spend the same half hour.
If you are unsure what to buy, bring a tube to a session and we will hit with it. Our badminton lessons run for adults, children and pairs across the island, and equipment questions get answered on court rather than in a shop.
A: Two under the Laws of Badminton: feathered and non-feathered. Non-feathered shuttles are usually called nylon or plastic. Both must meet the same dimensions and weight, with synthetics allowed a variation of up to 10 per cent.
A: Feather flies better and nylon lasts longer, so it depends on how often you play. Social players get more out of nylon because feathers break quickly. Anyone entering competition needs feather.
A: It describes how the shuttle should behave in given air, not how good it is. Warm air lets a shuttle travel further, so hot halls need a slower one. The BWF test settles it.
A: Because the feathers take the whole impact and they are organic. Air conditioning dries them out and makes them brittle, which is why players store tubes with a little humidity. Mis-hits break them faster than clean hitting does.
