This racket is the VICTOR Thruster Ryuga and we've been testing it out over the last few weeks
so here's our full review on whether or not it's going to be the right racket for you.
Hello and welcome back to Badminton Insight, if you're new here we're Greg and Jenny - two professional
badminton players releasing a new video every Sunday on all things badminton. Now over the last
two years i've been using the VICTOR Thruster BXR and Greg's been using the Auraspeed 90K,
and we both love using these rackets but we also love to continually make sure we're using the
racket that best suits us and our individual playing styles so we've been testing out this
Ryuga in every single training session over the last few weeks. Before we give you our thoughts
let's start off with the specifications and what type of player this racket will suit.
We're testing the 3u version of this racket so pretty heavy weighing in at around 91 grams
and the racket comes unstrung with a set of VBS-68 which is the string Jenny uses.
And I strung this racket at 30 pounds which is the tension we regularly use.
VICTOR's guidelines actually state that this racket can be strung up to 32 pounds
which is thanks to its Power Box Technology which increases the stability and anti-torque
of the racket. And this is great peace of mind if you do want to go up to these higher tensions
as a lot of manufacturers maximum tensions only go up to around 28 pounds. Without going into too much
detail on the technology involved, this racket also has a whipping enhancement system which creates
a faster and steeper attack by having a softer material up here and this creates a better whip
and increased racket head acceleration. This is no doubt helped by the balance
of the racket as the Ryuga is towards the head heavy end of the spectrum.
It really is designed for players who like to attack and have some weight behind their smash.
It sure is! Now before we show you some clips of us testing this racquet and give you our thoughts,
the last thing to mention is the stiffness and the Ryuga is definitely on the stiff side.
Generally top of the range rackets like this will have stiff shafts as they're
more aimed towards intermediate to advanced players who have the technique and timing to
create power with a stiff shaft whilst also still hitting the sweet spot of the racket.
Yeah that's quite important so if you're a beginner this might not be the racket for you,
maybe try something with a bit more flexibility in the shaft. Now how have we found the Ryuga
when testing it out? Greg do you want to give your thoughts first? Yes so I've really enjoyed
testing this racket out, it's very different to the usual racket I would go for but after seeing
Lee Zii Jia win the All England with it, I just had to try it out! Unfortunately though it
didn't make my attack as good as Lee Zii Jia's but it did definitely give me some extra power.
I also really liked the feel of it in my mid-court drives as well as my smashes and overhead shots.
Unfortunately though it did feel a bit slower in defense than when using my Auraspeed 90k but only
marginally. It's an all-round great racket and we can definitely see it being popular with the big
hitters and also many singles players who crave that dangerous attack but don't necessarily need
lightning-fast reactions. Greg have you decided if you're going to use it yet? I'm still unsure!
As I've said, I haven't really used anything as stiff and head-heavy as this in the past
as I'm not really a big hitter so it doesn't quite suit my style. What about you as you've used a lot
of similar rackets to this in the past haven't you? I'm still not sure either, there's a few
more rackets I want to compare it to and then I'll decide! Now when we asked you guys on our Instagram
what you wanted to know about this racket a lot of you wanted to know what other rackets it was
similar to. In terms of Victor it's similar-ish to the old JetSpeed 12 and then looking across
other brands like Yonex it's quite similar to the Astrox 99 or the Astrox 100zz. And if you want to
know more about how to choose the right badminton racket for you then we've done a blog post on our
website going into a lot of detail on this so we'll include a link in the description below.
We'll also be posting what racket we end up choosing and why on our Instagram page if you
want to go and follow us there, and if you'd like to buy this racket or maybe even another one that
better suits you and your playing style then head to TRME Sports where you can get 10% off
all badminton and fitness equipment using the discount code "BADMINTON INSIGHT" at checkout.
This is on top of a price match guarantee, free string upgrades on selected rackets,
free UK delivery and worldwide shipping is also available. It doesn't get any better than
that! Yeah they're a great company and also lifelong sponsors of the channel so if you
do purchase anything from them then you're also supporting us so thank you in advance.
And if you've enjoyed our first ever racket review, please don't forget to give the video a like,
smash the subscribe button if you haven't already and we'll see you on another video!