ryno substitute

I played today with a 2000+ player who happened to be there while I was the next best player after him (1800 or so). They are generally a bunch of 2000 to 2300+ players but today the club was pretty dry --> good for me -->  I felt lucky twice because having that very nice rs01 blade and being able to try it with a better player who uses sardius with short pips on bh and regular smooth on fh. he is the best blocker in my range and is the nightmare of any looper  up to 2300 because on a good day he will block anything. he is really good at analyzing where opponent's body's goes so he can play the other way. I have to say that many power loopers think he plays "ping pong" while they think they play "table tennis". I disagree with that silly difference in naming our sport as I think the more styles the more rich the game gets and the harder it is to master it.

THIS BLADE IS INSANELY FAST. The sardius is weak compared to it.

I played Mambo h unglued 2.1 and 1.8 and it was going crazy.

BLOCKING: it was surpisingly easy. I think I became a better blocker playing with the Borko and the Violin for 4 months. I know that. I see the ball, I put my paddle right there, I follow through just a little bit and with Borko and Violin I could block like in the book, so much better than before when I had faster paddles. With that Crazy rs01 I had no time to follow through anything as the ball was going away too fast BUT ONLY AFTER the paddle had done the job with a good enough dwell time.

Still, rs01 is beyond everything I tried before in terms of speed.

The wood is VERY SOFT. The blade is very fast but the ball stays there for a while and springs back so control is still possible especially on blocks.

THERE ARE NO VIBRATIONS AT ALL.

Let me repeat that: THERE ARE NO VIBRATIONS AT ALL.

The feeling is alsmost inexistent however you compensate by trusting the wood when you see that dwell time and blocking is very consistent.

I think this is why I instantly found the blade interesting even though it is not playable on the long term. I think that blade is interesting to learn about feeling (stiff/soft) and dwell time after knowing the value of all round blades.

LOOPING: oops...we have a problem here; i mean 2 problems. I am 1800 or so (maybe 1700 after a bad tourney this weekend) and my loop is erratic; and I have to say it is even more erratic with that blade. My loops were slow and I could tell the ball was shy even if the arc was pretty (about which i did not care). Looping is just not what you do with that kind of blade because the dwell time is not big enough AT THAT ANGLE. At least using thicker softer sponge would help but then you loose the wood experience...Then after loosing John 3-1  3 times I practiced with Alex and I asked gentle counter looping (if that's possible...) and  figured it is possible to loop powerfully with that blade but the timing is almost impossible and everything has to be close to perfect. Needless to say it is a hitter blade but there is a frontier between the hitter and the looper and at that limit the ball goes fast and drops on the table and that blade can do it but so many points are left behind.

SERVING: everything is faster but adaptation was almost immediate.

Short conclusion: PP Dui has talent. For a first blade getting something that fun to play is amazing. That blade is mine because I bought it from him in a deal mixed with other items however since I won't play it and since it can really teach you things in terms of wood/speed/feeling/ combinations I want to let it go to the next guy willing to try it and mail it to somebody else after that.

testing volunteers speak up!