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This LiNing AxForce 90 Max Tiger and Dragon badminton racket review and comparison discuss the looks, performance and feel of these 2 flagship head heavy Li Ning badminton rackets launched in May 2022. They are designed to be medium and stiff flex badminton rackets.
As the AxForce 90 are high budget, high end badminton rackets, it is essential to ensure they are suitable for your needs. Players such as Loh Kean Yew and Jonathan christie are playing with the AxForce 90 badminton rackets.
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0:00
You guys have asked for the review of the X-Force 90 a lot
0:04
However, this is not a straightforward one. Let me tell you why. The X-Force 90 Max is one of Li Ning's major flagship badminton racket release for 2022
0:12
Ever since it was announced in May, there was a lot of interest from you all for me to review them
0:18
Partly, I believe it's down to the X-Force 90 being one of the most expensive rackets on the market
0:23
and there's two of them, a Tiger and a Dragon. But before I jump into the review, I want to say thank you to Sunlight Sports for sending
0:29
me these samples to test. For those of you who use Leaning Studio, you can now also use my CKYW code for some additional discounts
0:36
Link in the description below. Obviously, the Axe Force series is Leaning's current flagship attacking series badminton
0:42
rackets, and the looks of the top-end models are so amazing. I don't know why, but certain Leaning racket series have very good-looking, cool, sometimes
0:51
futuristic and classy designs such as the Axe Force series alongside the Aeronauts and
0:56
even the Calibar series review incoming, so get subscribed. However, other series such as Blade X series looked very plain and if I'm honest somewhat
1:04
disappointing in comparison to them. So when I started seeing pictures online of the Axe Force 90 Tiger and Dragon rackets
1:11
mythical creatures in Asian cultures as part of these rackets' intricate designs, excitement
1:16
was an understatement. In the meantime, you can check out my review of the previous X-Force flagship, this super
1:22
classy looking X-Force 80 in its matte black and pink design scheme here as well
1:28
So when the rackets finally arrived, I certainly noticed the understated pearlescent but matte
1:32
finish on both rackets and just to clarify, the tiger is the one with the bright coral
1:37
coloured racket, whilst the dragon is the significantly more blue one. On the shaft, you can see both mythical animals on the front and the back as well as the writing
1:46
in Mandarin. If you can't read Mandarin you're going to be looking for the animals or the colors
1:51
Coral or red, tiger. Blue, dragon. In terms of decals, the shiny X-Force on the 7 and 8 o'clock section of the frame looks
1:58
pretty cool to have some of the red and blue streaks running through them
2:02
You can certainly feel the decals if you run your fingers through the racket frame and shaft
2:07
And speaking about the frame, both Tiger and Dragon rackets have fully recessed frame profiles
2:11
which differs from the X-Force 80 which only had its top half recessed
2:15
However, I've noticed an interesting change from Leaning and that would be the use of bigger
2:19
grommets on the Tiger and Dragon rackets compared to the other series If you guys watched my reviews and you realise I a fan of Leaning high quality grommet which even shows the logo on each and every one of them But in the Tiger and Dragons case Leaning now uses a different and wider grommet on
2:36
the frame starting from the 7 to 11 o'clock and vice versa on the other side
2:41
I first came across this bigger grommet design philosophy with Yonex implementing it on their
2:45
Astrox series rackets such as the 88S and D-Pros alongside the 99 series as well
2:51
but only on 4 rows on the 3 and 9 o'clock section. It's interesting playing with these
2:56
big grommets, more on the playing performance later on. For those of you that are wondering if both the Tiger and Dragon rackets are the same
3:03
racket, just different designs, you're wrong. They're actually different, predominantly separated by their stiffness. Similar to the Axe Wars 80, the stiffness information are
3:12
displayed on the shaft, with less than perfect translations of middle flexible on the Tiger
3:18
and hard flexible on the Dragon. Essentially medium and slightly stiffer. But leaning only
3:23
refers to them in terms of the shaft stiffness and not the overall stiffness of the racket
3:28
Additionally, this is the smallest diameter shaft that I've ever come across from leaning
3:32
with a stated 6.2mm. But I've measured both Tiger and Dragon rackets to have a 6.4mm shaft
3:39
diameter with a slight taper to 6.3mm closer to the T-joint at the top. The only other racket with
3:45
with a 6.3mm shaft diameter which I've reviewed on this channel before is your Nexus Astrox
3:50
100ZZ which I believe the Tiger and Dragon Rackets are directly competing against. However
3:56
in terms of shaft length, the Tiger has a shaft length of 21cm whilst the Dragon is half
4:01
a cm shorter at 20.5. Shorter cantilever, stiffer response, simple. Other measurements include a 17.5cm handle from the Tiger and an 18cm handle for the
4:11
Dragon to compensate for the shortest shaft earlier on. In terms of frames, they're pretty
4:16
thin at 9.7mm alongside being fully recessed throughout the whole frame. Frame heights
4:22
for both rackets stood at 24cm with a slightly thinner width at 18.3cm. Both my test rackets
4:28
are 4UG5 and I like their leaning with its new receivers rackets like these are displaying
4:33
the racket's specs on the cone of the handle for easy viewing. Additionally, they're
4:36
with my usual string and tension, aero bite at 27 by 29 with no issues at all
4:41
and for consistency too. Both rackets are rated for 30 pounds of string tension
4:46
And now let's get to the important bit. How do they feel and play And I gonna be honest here I had a really tough time with these two I tried very hard to like them and understand why it was such a challenge for me to play with them I even got
5:00
to the point where I thought it was me that absolutely sucked, which is normally the case
5:03
but as soon as I swapped over to other rackets, everything feel fine again. And I've had the same
5:08
response over multiple sessions over multiple weeks. So here's what went down. First of all
5:13
both the Tiger and Dragon rackets don't feel excessively head heavy at all, they're not
5:17
not sledgehammers. If you're like me and am used to something slightly head heavy like
5:21
a Astrox 88 D Pro, they're probably about the same and you won't feel too much difference
5:25
in terms of head weight. The big difference is the timing, response and feeling coming
5:30
from the rackets themselves. As a top tier head heavy, predominantly singles based flagship
5:35
badminton racket, you expect something which is pretty crisp and responsive. But the X-Force
5:39
90s felt relatively tame in this regard. They feel softer than expected. Whippy. Dragon's
5:46
hitting feeling is consistent in comparison with the Tiger and is just one step upwards
5:51
in terms of stiffness from its shaft. A pretty small step upwards but considered fairly soft
5:56
in the grand scheme of things. And because of this, playing with the X-Wars 90 is quite
6:00
challenging and inconsistent. In terms of the good bits, both the Tiger and Dragon feel fast, easy to manoeuvre, clears
6:08
lifts, nets, drives, everything, decent power and is very easy and effortless when you have
6:15
time. All the basics of a good racket present. However, the crucial situation being when
6:21
you are under pressure in your games and you're off balance and your timing is slightly off
6:25
and this is where things get exponentially harder with the Tiger and Dragon. The Tiger
6:30
being softer to two with its longer, whippier shaft, felt slightly hollow and although it's
6:34
nice to hit with, struggled to generate good, controlled power on shorter, sharper shots
6:40
I felt like I needed to lengthen my stroke and squeeze timing to be able to play with
6:44
it properly. Although from my usual training, I always practice to time my squeeze and to
6:49
be compact, short and sharp with it, and this just doesn't work with the Tiger. It felt
6:53
like the shuttle would sit on the strings on the racket frame and the head would be
6:57
wobbling from the flex of the shaft and the recoil would like to take the shuttle away
7:02
just not necessarily in the direction you'd like it to go. It was slightly better with
7:06
the Dragon as it's slightly stiffer, but still a good amount of head wobble and lifts
7:11
for example, would go everywhere from a finger squeeze. I also found overhead power shots including punch clears very hard to time with these two and I was spraying the shuttle everywhere mostly short because of the mistiming and often long when they connected but just very inconsistent And the
7:27
surprising thing I found with them is anything I do with a hammer grip is good but those
7:31
shots don't come very often. It just feels like the harder I try, the harder it gets
7:36
with these two rackets. I just felt like I had no confidence at all playing under pressure
7:41
with the tiger or the dragon. However, things do change and get under control after 6-8
7:46
hours with each racket, but unless you're prepared to invest and perform a significant
7:51
overhaul on your timing and technique with these two, they won't work right out the
7:55
bag. They're not plug and play, at least not for me. What do you think? What should Leaning do with the next generation of top-end flagship
8:02
rackets? Let me know down in the comment section below. I'm not sure if Leaning tried to aim too widely in terms of the target market for these
8:08
two rackets by making them really easy to play with, with a softer, technically more
8:13
forgiving shaft, resulting in the slightly muted playing feel. Perhaps they were aiming
8:18
to cater to a really wide range of beginner casual players, although I'm not too sure
8:23
how many casual beginner players go directly for the top end flagship rackets. Granted
8:27
I'm an amateur player, but I wouldn't be considered a beginner player and I know I'm
8:30
firmly in the case of I like stiffer, more responsive rackets. So I was slightly disappointed
8:35
with the playing response of these two because I was so excited for them and I had a fair
8:40
bit of expectation on them as well. There's general saying that Yonex rackets tend to
8:44
be stiffer than others but I found Victor rackets to be quite consistent with Yonex's
8:49
stiffness, so Leaning is the odd one out in terms of the big three. It feels like Leaning's
8:54
medium is soft for Yonex and Victor whilst their stiff is medium. With the price tag
8:58
of the Tiger and Dragon being higher than usual all around the world, my recommendation
9:02
here would be straightforward and honest. If you're someone who loves soft, whippy
9:06
rackets with headweight, go for it. If you've liked something like the Yonex Nanoflare 700
9:11
Astrox 77, Leaning's own X-Force 80 and want a more headweight from them, you'll love the
9:17
Tiger and Dragon. Remember, the Dragon is just one small step above in stiffness. If you're like me
9:22
who likes stiffer, more responsive rackets like the Yonex Astrox 80 and Deep Pro, or the 100ZZ
9:28
or Victor Thruster Ryuger, or even the Aura Speed 100X, I'm not sure you'll like the X-Force 90 Max
9:34
immediately. They look absolutely amazing but you need to invest time to change the way you play
9:40
and adapt to them. Until then, I'll see you in the next one
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