Higher tension is not better tension. It is a trade between repulsion and control, and your swing sets the price.
String tension is the setting players change most and understand least. It is measured in pounds, and every step up or down trades one quality for another. There is no universally correct number — only a number correct for your swing.
Low tension, roughly 19 to 22 pounds, gives the string bed more give. It acts like a trampoline, returning energy to the shuttle so you get power without a full swing. The cost is control: the bed deforms more, so placement drifts on hard contact.
Low tension is a trampoline; high tension is a canvas. One gives you power for free, the other gives you power you have to earn.
High tension, 26 pounds and up, stiffens the bed into something closer to a taut canvas. Contact is crisp and placement is precise, but the string returns little energy on its own. You now supply the power, which is why high tension suits fast, well-timed swings and punishes slow ones.
The honest starting point for most club players is the middle — around 23 to 24 pounds — where feel and control meet without demanding a tournament swing. Move up only when you can feel the bed grabbing and want tighter placement.
Tension also fades. A fresh string job loses a pound or two in the first week and keeps drifting, so what felt crisp on Monday feels soft by the weekend. Restring on a schedule, not just when the string breaks, if you care about a consistent feel.