Feather shuttlecocks, especially the ones we use for playing at high altitude, are expensive ($22-$26 per dozen), and need to be moisturized several hours prior to our club sessions.
This is for warming up on one of the 6 courts. We typically sort through all used shuttles after a session and bring last session's shuttles for warm up (we call them 'Number 2's') or shuttles in almost perfect condition ('Number 1's) to start a real game.
Those shuttles can still be in a good enough condition to start a new game and to play some points. Players that just finished a game, please hand your game shuttle over to the next team so they don't have to use a new shuttle. So before walking over to the court to start a new game, don't just take a new shuttle with you, check if an okay shuttle from the last game is still there / is handed over to you by the players that just finished a game.
The single biggest cause of pre-mature shuttle breakage is when the shuttle is picked up and hit back to the serving team. What happens is the shuttle is hit on the feathers while it is still upside down before it has a chance to fall down with the cork first. Several feathers break and the shuttle becomes unusable. Please pay attention when scooping and returning back the shuttle to the serving team and avoid breaking the feathers.
Moisturized shuttles can dry out within a few minutes in our dry Colorado weather! So please don't bring a new shuttle to the court if you can start playing with the previous game shuttle.
Please only take one new shuttle at a time and come back only in case you need another new shuttle.
Please only take one new shuttle at a time and come back only in case you need another new shuttle.
There are typically plenty of good used shuttles around the courts that can be used for a game.
