- Plastic shuttlecocks - designed for beginners and recreational play; they are more resistant but less stable during flight.
- Feather shuttlecocks - particularly suitable for advanced players; they have improved flight stability, and their flight speed can be adjusted by bending the feathers either inwards (faster) or outwards (slower).
Speed
Shuttlcocks are also divided into the following categories according to speed:
- 76 - medium-slow
- 77 - Medium
- 78 - Medium-fast
- 79 - fast
Some manufacturers differentiate the speed class using coloured stripes on the cork head (green: slow, blue: medium, red: fast).
Shuttlecock speed is also affected by temperature, humidity and altitude. For advanced players, speed 77 should be used at temperature of 20-30 ° C and speed 78 at temperatures of 15-25 ° C.