RITC-729 A1 Review

OK here is my review after playing for a couple of hours with the new blade.

RITC-729 A1
Composition: Limba, Spruce, Ayouse core.
Rating: Off
Thickness: 6.2
Weight: 90g

FH: SanWei Gears 2.0
BH: Gambler Shadow 2.0



Construction

The blade seems to be well made, specially for the price  ($25 at tabletennisonly.com). No rough edges, nice finish.
The handle could be a little thicker for my taste.

Playability
 
First, I was really happy to see how much more control I have with this new setup.
It really made a difference to see that most of my loops stay on the table. It is slower
than OFF, probably OFF- but that is exactly what I was looking for. A little less speed and more control.

I am fairly new to club level play, not sure what my rating is but I am guessing somewhere between 1100 and 1200. I like playing off the table, driving and looping taking initiative early in the points. Players that use a lot of spin in their blocks (or chops or service) give me some of trouble.

The blade has a nice feel to it. It feels soft without a lot of vibration. It feels like the ball stays on the blade longer.
When I hit hard it sounds like the wood is cracking, kinda nice sound.

Looping FH and BH has been the biggest improvement. I feel a lot more confident of my ability
to execute these shoots. Probably because of the added control. With my old setup I found myself holding back because I was afraid my shots were going to be long.
Blocks and pushes are also easier, even thou I still need some work on this area, I wont blame the
blade for my shortcomings here.
The one adjustment I felt I had to make was the counter drives from far off the table. I now had to put a little more power to make them effective. Not a big deal, just took some time to adjust.

I only have one other setup to which I can compare this one. My palio TNT-1 with G3-fx FH and Stiga Mendo Energy BH, which was really to fast for my level. I kinda which I had started with the new set up... but it is OK, someday I expect to graduate to faster setup like that, so I will hold on to it.

In conclusion, I believe this is a great blade for control loop players having problems with consistency and looking for a much more control oriented OFF blade. This will be my main setup from now on.

I hope this helps.
 

Very nice and thorough review.  Thnx for sharing.

spruce has such a nice tone

Well the A series are 729's Stiga type blades of the Stiga OC (A-1) and the A-2 is a 7 ply kind of hybrid OC/Clipper. The A-5 is another variation on the classic 7 ply with different woods.

Edited by bluebucket - 05/21/2011 at 12:10pm

TaFei, that's the exact reason exactly why I'm experimenting with the spruce based (2nd ply) blades. The way the ball hits them once the sponge bottoms kind of stabilises everything before releasing the ball and offers super control, I'm hoping with this kind of blade I can use thinner sponges, miss less shots and really take my game to another level. Because it's kind of a dead feel you get more control again but they are flexible so you can still get the speed from long range.

bluebucket wrote: TaFei, that's the exact reason exactly why I'm experimenting with the spruce based (2nd ply) blades. The way the ball hits them once the sponge bottoms kind of stabilises everything before releasing the ball and offers super control, I'm hoping with this kind of blade I can use thinner sponges, miss less shots and really take my game to another level. Because it's kind of a dead feel you get more control again but they are flexible so you can still get the speed from long range. What I'm not sure about is which blade is going to be the best so I'm going to get a few types with different outer plys. I have a hurricane king but it's a little bit thin and not quite what I'm looking for. The DHS Hurricane WL looks similar to what I think should work well, not sure why it's listed as "meranti" wood since it looks like spruce.   I don't have one to compare with the A-1 when I get it but I will let you know how the A-1 goes, of all the 729 blades that one should be the closest. I'm pretty excited about the YEO because I've wanted one of them for a very long time, I'm not sure how the walnut will make it play but I'll soon find out, probably half way between a normal spruce blade and the stiga rosewood I guess

This blade sounds like a HK clone.

Hi,

Yes, please let us know what you think about this blade. I am very happy with it. It is my main set up. I did change to Focus III snipe in FH and Galaxy moon in BH (from Sanwei Gears FH and Gambler Shadow BH)... it made a huge difference in my game.
Any way, I do recommend sealing the blade before putting rubbers on. I did not and I had some minor splinters when pulling out the first set of rubbers.