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Here is the FULL BadmintonBites review of the Yonex Aerosensa 20 shuttlecocks, also known as the AS-20. If you want a guide to other Yonex shuttlecocks, check out our Complete Guide to Yonex Badminton Shuttlecocks (Feathered), the Complete Guide to Yonex Badminton Shuttlecocks (Synthetic), or our equipment page.
The AS-20 is in the lower tier of the Aerosensa shuttlecock series, with only the AS-10 being below it. Let’s so how it holds up.
In order to give you the best possible review of the shuttlecock, I did several tests with the shuttlecock. These include one consistency test, one speed test and two durability tests.
- Speed test from the backcourt
- Clear test
- Smash test
We will be judging the shuttlecock using flight, durability, and consistency as attributes.
For flight, I’ll use observations from all three tests. For durability, I’ll use the findings from tests two and three. And to determine consistency, I’ll use the results from test one as well as the information taken from the weights of the shuttles.
For a quick preview, here are the average results of the tests with 5 being the highest:
Flight: 3
Durability: 3
Consistency: 4
Next, here are some pictures of a brand new AS-20. It looks quite similar to the other Yonex Aerosensa shuttles, but let’s see how it holds up
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AS-20 Weight
I took the weight of all 12 shuttles in the AS-20 tube.
Here are the results, sorted (in grams):
| Shuttlecock | Weight in grams |
| 1 | 5.05 |
| 2 | 5.05 |
| 3 | 5.09 |
| 4 | 5.12 |
| 5 | 5.14 |
| 6 | 5.14 |
| 7 | 5.16 |
| 8 | 5.22 |
| 9 | 5.23 |
| 10 | 5.30 |
| 11 | 5.32 |
| 12 | 5.34 |
Mean: 5.18
Median: 5.15
Standard deviation: 0.097
The weight distribution actually varies quite a bit for this tube. Ideally, we would want shuttles to be around the same weight so that the feel is the same across different shuttles.
Speed Test
For the speed test, I stood behind the baseline of the court and hit 12 shuttlecocks from the back of the court using a slight underhand drive motion with my forehand and saw how far the shuttlecock landed.
From the pictures, we see that most of the shuttles did not land in the ideal spot between the two court indicators. However, the shuttles did land pretty uniformly on the y-axis which means that the shuttle is pretty consistent.
None of the shuttles wobbled and they all spun well, so no points were taken off there.
For the speed test, the AS-20 flight score is 3.5 and the consistency score is 4.5.
Clear Test
Next is the clear test. The AS-20 shuttle we chose to do the test with weighed 5.05 grams. I weighed it again after the end of the test to see how much lighter it is at the end.
In this test, I’ll show you how the shuttle looks after 25, 50, 100, and 200 clears
25 clears
After 25 clears, the AS-20 was mostly intact but one of the feathers was already noticeably damaged. I actually had pretty low expectations for the AS-20s but was pleasantly surprised with the flight of the shuttle. It flew pretty well while hitting clears as if it was a higher-grade shuttle.
50 clears
After 50 total clears, the AS-20 only changed a little bit. You can see in the picture that one more feather is partially broken but overall it’s pretty intact.
100 clears
After 100 clears, the AS-20 is actually still in pretty good condition, but with the feathers being about 15% shorter. What you can see, though, is that the feathers were all shortened together in a pretty even pattern. This helped to keep the flight of the shuttle pretty good.
200 clears
After 200 clears, the AS-20 is pretty beat up. The feathers are much shorter now, probably around 30-40% shorter. The left-hand side of the shuttle seems a tad bit shorter than the right-hand side at this point. Obviously, it’s not game playable anymore but it can still fly and only wobbles a little bit.
The AS-20 actually held up quite well for the clears. It was only until the 200-clear mark that the AS-20 really got beaten up. It deteriorated rather evenly on all sides which made it able to fly pretty well despite the tops of the feathers being shredded off. Therefore, for the clear test, the AS-20 gets a durability score of 4.
The flight was quite good with the AS-20 for clears. I didn’t really have any major complaints. It did start wobbling a bit at the 100 to 200 clear mark but that’s mostly expected at that point. It gets a flight score of 4.5 for the clear test.
Clear Test Conclusion
Before the clear test, the shuttle weighed 5.05 grams. After the clear test, it weighed 4.97 grams. The AS-20 shed 0.08 grams of feather weight.
Smash Test
In the smash test, we did a combination of smashes and lifts. We took pictures after 10 smashes (and 10 lifts, a total of 20 hits), 25 smashes, 50 smashes, and 100 smashes.
The shuttle we used in this case was 5.16 grams before the test was done.
10 Smashes
Ouch, looks like the AS-20 already deteriorated quite a bit after 10 smashes. One of the feathers is already bent and two more are half gone. Not a good start here.
25 Smashes
After an additional 15 smashes, the shuttle is really being torn apart on one side. We see that three and a haft feathers are destroyed and another half feather is not looking so good. The rest seem ok and surprisingly the shuttle can still fly.
50 Smashes
Interestingly, the AS-20 did not deteriorate much more at this point. It looks about the same as it did after 25 smashes.
100 Smashes
After 100 total smashes, the shuttle is actually not that different from how it was after 50 smashes. The feathers are significantly more ruffled but no more feathers were ripped off.
Smash Test Conclusion
In the smash test, the AS-20’s feathers broke pretty quickly but actually didn’t break more after a while. It could be that just a couple of the feathers were particularly brittle. Unfortunately, having even one feather break can be a deal breaker for gameplay (depending on the level), and definitely breaking three feathers would be reason enough to switch shuttles.
Therefore, I’ll give the AS-20 a durability score of 2 for the smash test.
The flight took a hit also because of the feathers that were broken so early on in the test. The shuttle surprisingly didn’t wobble that much considering the amount of damage it took though. The AS-20 also gets a flight score of 2 for the smash test.
Further, here are the weights of the AS-20 before and after the smash test. It started out at 5.16 grams and ended at 5.11 grams, losing 0.05 grams.
Conclusion
Flight: 3
Durability: 3
Consistency: 4
Overall, the AS-20 was actually surprisingly decent – especially in terms of flight and consistency. Despite it being on the lower end of the Aerosensa spectrum, I can see the AS-20 being used regularly by beginner to intermediate players. It flies well and feels like higher-tier shuttles.
The AS-20’s biggest weakness is its durability – especially for smashes. This shouldn’t be a big issue for beginners and intermediate players though if you don’t have a strong smasher in your badminton group. If you do, I wouldn’t recommend the AS-20 as the durability would be a bit too low at that point. The AS-30, which is the next tier in the Aerosensa series, would see a significant improvement in terms of smash durability and would be a better fit in this case.
So in conclusion, the AS-20 flies surprisingly well but lacks a bit in durability when it comes to smashes. I recommend it for beginners and intermediate players but it would probably fall short in competitive tournament play.
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