Addressing Gen 4 Hype, Market Shifts & Why Head Might Be Ready to Start Winning | EP 129

[00:00:00] The Spartus Spitfire, it's here. There was a video on social media of Josh the owner. He was using the Spitfire, this new PermaGridt Nano like it was like a cheese grater. And so we'll do the same thing because here at Pickleball Effect, even though this is my personal paddle. Test claims, test claims, test claims. And so I'm just gonna rub this shit as hard as I can and we'll kind of discover together.

[00:00:28] Oh, he's really going for it. He's really going for it. It looks pretty cheese gratery. Welcome back to the Pickleball Effect podcast with your host Braydon and Aaron. I'm Braydon, that's Aaron. Aaron, tell us what we're doing. Episode 129 of the Pickleball Effect podcast. We're starting with weekly update. Braydon is going to jump us through some community setup library on Pickleball Effect. He's got some new tools to talk about pre-tuned setups on paddles.

[00:00:55] We're also talking about the rise of great choices from our writer Matt Rennie on him liking a fantastic paddle that we'll talk about. We got special delivery. We got some great paddles that came to me and not Braydon, so that's always exciting to talk about. Under review today on episode 129, we're talking about the spinniest paddles for you spinaholics out there and you alcohol spinaholics anonymous.

[00:01:18] Braydon's going to, he wrote an article a few weeks ago, so we'll break down the spinniest paddles, test results, and the results may surprise you. And it was 129. Then we're jumping into Aaron it out. We're going to do some MLP talk, talk about the Tyra Black trade. I know that happened a few weeks ago, but there's some insights on what happened. We're doing a mini. I read it on Reddit talking about Gen 4 paddles versus Gen 3. There was some Gen 3, Gen 4 truthers and deniers in Reddit, so we'll argue them to the truth.

[00:01:44] We're doing paddle recon where we scrape the internet for paddles that have just hit the UPA and USAP list and talk about paddles that are coming out soon that brands haven't talked about. And then episode 129, we're doing Paddle Babble in Gear where Tama is playing with a new paddle. We're going to talk about how that is. And then we have the state of the paddle market. Braydon writes, is this time for legacy brands to start breaking through?

[00:02:07] And on that topic, we have the Head Gravity Pro EX14, the Scoop Sidewinder, I believe. And at the end, we're doing main paddle check-in. Main watch, as we like to call it. We're talking what paddles are we playing? And yes, it is the most current release. Correct. On episode 129. That's a lot, man. Packed show.

[00:02:27] Yeah, we're packed. Yeah, yeah. Big thing I kind of updated this week on the tools website front was in addition to my tuning, tune, what do I call it? My paddle tuning tool. Paddle tuning lab, that's what I call it. Yep. Anyways, if you haven't seen this really cool tool, you go in there, you can set up your paddle virtually so you don't have to guess on what the numbers are. You can see the impact of the weight in real time.

[00:02:54] The new feature to the tool is there's a new like pre, there's a library of setups that I've developed. Every time I do a review, I'm spending time with these paddles. I come up with some sort of optimized weight setup for it and really enjoy doing that. It's something I have a lot of fun doing, but I haven't had a great way to share those like in a super easy way. They're kind of hidden within different reviews. They're buried here and there and they're not just upfront.

[00:03:19] But now all of these setups I've developed, I'm getting in out in front, really easy to search, find, filter and look for these setups that I've made. So I've only got like six of them on there right now, but that's going to build out over time. It just takes a minute to go and plug in all the information. But a really, really cool way to go see my setups that I've come up with for each of these paddles. I think a lot of people have discovered and understand the power of tuning their paddle and just need some help or like, you know, get, need to get pointed in the right direction.

[00:03:47] And so this is a good way, an easy way for someone who doesn't exactly know where to put the tape or they just want some suggestions. Go here, find my setup and, and use it, give it a try. And then in addition to my own setups, there's a new like community element where if you have a setup you like for your paddle that has worked really well for you, go submit that setup. And so it could be displayed publicly, publicly. It has your name on it, has like your Instagram, so you can get credit for it.

[00:04:14] And so people can, you know, see who you are, but yeah, two cool new ways to, to see setups from the community and for me in a way that's super easy to, to use. And I, I'm just pumped it because this just makes it so much easier for me to share my setups with people. People ask me all the time, what's your setup? I have like, Oh, go here. Scroll down to this. Now I can just send a link. Yeah. It's buried, it's buried in like one of your long form written reviews. It's buried in like a YouTube review. So it's like, you're sending timestamps to like YouTube videos. Now it's like living and breathing.

[00:04:41] Things you're maybe you're like how many congruent users are using paddle tuning lab a month? What one over a couple thousand. Yeah. There's a couple hundred people on their day. It's, it's quite a bit. And so now it's evolved. You can kind of go into setups. I like that one. You have your recommended setups. I think there's a group of people who I want to see. Hey, I want to, I know I need to tune my paddle. I don't feel like I even know the difference really between one gram or half gram. Like maybe I'll just follow yours. And then you get like the second group of people who are saying, uh, Brayden, I see your setup.

[00:05:09] It's mostly good, but I think we can do it a little bit better. So, so two different. And also we would say nerds rise up for the, rise up for, um, the, uh, yeah. Or the Cardinals, the football team in Arizona, they go rise up Red Sea. So rise up nerds, put in your community setups. And, um, we, I, does there like an upvote? Like how, how, how are we, how are you to keep it from getting flooded? And how do you filter what's good and bad? Yeah, that that's a good question. Not an issue at the moment, but if it does become one, I do see

[00:05:40] a scenario where like you click on the paddle card, it shows the five different setups. And then there is some sort of upvote system where it's like, okay, this one has five votes. People like this one, I'm going to go look at it. So yeah, as it builds up, you know, there, there are ways that we can kind of manage that growth. But yeah, at the moment it's a, it's pretty simple. Yeah, that'll be cool. I think another like segment or section to that library page might be like a pro setups page. Cause I can, um, I can just go like recreate pro setups and have like a pro setup library,

[00:06:06] which I think would be pretty neat. And then, uh, then you have the three, uh, three options there. Uh, maybe even like, uh, maybe along with the pro setups, like we get you, we get cute. I don't get like other influencers to go submit some setups, have like their own little area section could be cool. And so, uh, some fun options to go in and grow that. And so that's a, that's cool tool. It's keep, keeps getting better. Um, last bit here is, is Matt, Matt Rini, our, our pickleball effect writer. That's been helping me, um, bolster the blog content.

[00:06:36] He's been fantastic. He's knocking out stuff. He did an article this week about his paddle journey. And of course his, uh, his first paddle purchase was the Z five, which was hilarious. And, um, anyways, he goes through it and he's, he's been at it for a few years now. And he, he went through the evolution evolution. A lot of us went through, like you kind of start with some random paddles. You start to figure out your preferences. He lands on some power paddles cause that's where things are. And now he's finally decided to tone back and he's

[00:07:04] landed on the coral pro from, uh, from six zero. And I, I'm real, I'm real proud of the guy. He went from elongated to hybrid and from power to, to all court, which is like things that we've been preaching a lot and he's really been, he's been finding success with it. And, uh, anyway, like I feel, uh, I feel proud that we got him in and he's, he's in on it and he's playing well with it. Plus he's got game, dude. You see his little highlights that he posted about this. Yeah. I saw the highlights. He's six, five, he's got length and you know what? Unlike you, he's using it. He is using his reach. I'm not that bad. I'm not that bad.

[00:07:34] Yeah. But yeah, he's six, five monsters at the court. Yeah. Go give him a follow on Instagram. It's at diabetic pick a baller. And, uh, you can go see his articles on the blog at a pickball fact.com. But, uh, glad that glad that we want them over like another one on the, on the dark side. And it feels good. Feels good. Special delivery. I think we're on to you. Special delivery. We just have one delivery and it is the Spartus Spitfire. It's here.

[00:08:02] Tell us about it. So yeah, so we don't know price, but, uh, this is Spartus's latest, um, release and it has a new technology called permagrit nano. So permagrit already like top three best durable grit, but like why stop there? So permagrit nano, um, but it is USAP approved. So we're not talking about a UPA surface. Um, and I would say very gritty to the touch, not UPA levels of grit, but probably illegal USAP grit as far as what you would, what you would think.

[00:08:30] Now there was a video, uh, on social media of Josh, the owner, he was, he, he was like, this, uh, he was using the, the spitfire, this new permagrit nano, like it was like a cheese grater. And so we'll do the same thing because here at pickleball effect, even though this is my personal paddle test claims, test claims. So I got a ball here. And so I'm just going to rub this shit as hard as I can. We'll kind of discover together. Oh, he's really going for it. He's really going for

[00:08:59] it. All right. All right. It looks pretty cheese gratery. We'll brush it off there. And, uh, yeah, that's what, wow. This thing's pretty hot. So far to spitfire, um, more to come, more to come, more to come, but yeah, special liberty. Boom. Spartacus spitfire. There it is. Okay. Under review, we're going to, we're going to talk, uh, some paddle setups and, uh,

[00:09:23] highest spin rating paddles are in my database. So I was dug in my database, pulled the, the highest spinning paddle I've recorded. I didn't know what it was before I wrote this article. Cause I hadn't done this in a while. So I'm pulled what the highest spinning was spinning paddle. And then I went and pulled, uh, what the best all court and, uh, power spin paddles are. So highest spinning paddle in my

[00:09:44] database was, uh, was the RPM Q2 series. So four of the top five paddles were the, the RPMs and the, uh, the original RPMs grabbed the ball really well that this has always been a thing that they've, they've done well. Q2s. I knew had high scores. I didn't realize they were this high, but they are, they come at number one as the highest spinning paddle that I've tested. And then, uh, and then I went and broke this down into two different categories. I said, uh, okay, what was the best,

[00:10:10] uh, spin paddle for control? What's the best spin paddle for power for power? It was the ultra, the, uh, 11, six, 24 ultra. It was in the, it was, I think it came in at number six and then the, the vapor power two came in. I think it was the, was the fourth highest, but, um, I'm just going to put the ultra cause I think it's their best shape. I said, that's the best spinning power paddle, uh, paddle you can get plus the durable grit just gives that an extra notch, but the best spin and

[00:10:36] control, I gave it to the Coral pros. They weren't the highest spinning paddle of all the all courts, but it was very close to the top and it was the only one with the durable grit texture. And so I, I dubbed it the best spin, uh, like paddle with, with some control. There's really not many, uh, paddles in that all court category yet with, with a durable grit texture, you have like the Omnis and the coral pros and like, that's pretty much it. And so the,

[00:11:03] the coral pros just just kind of has, just kind of owns that right now, as far as durable grit textures in the, in the all court space. And then, um, I guess in addition to this, because, uh, you know, sticking with, with the RPM, I had put a poll on my Instagram asking people, or I was like sharing the, uh, the new setup library that I set up and I was just asking folks, you know, what, what paddles do you want to see my setups for? And a lot of answers came in for the RPM Q2. And so I, I went and set those up for the series. I'm going to share, uh, how I set

[00:11:32] those up, my thoughts behind it. And then we'll, we'll get some dialogue going there. So we're going to start with the, the elongated as I can have a new approach to how I set up elongated. So what I've been doing and favoring lately is instead of doing like the, the throat, all the weight in the throat, like you see a lot of the pros do, uh, I'm putting less weight on the head and I'm lining it up with the sweet spot here. And then I'm, and then I'm pairing that with the cap coin.

[00:12:00] The reason my thinking behind this was we know that adding weight to the head has an outsized impact on the area across the face of it. Right. So when you're putting it here in the throat, yes, it's going to improve the stability and sweet spot of, of the whole face, but you're going to get more stability down here in the throat area where the tape is. Right. Cause that's where, uh, you're getting the most support on that, on that twist weight. So my theory was, you know what, instead of putting like six grams here on the throat, let's just take less weight.

[00:12:29] Let's just do two grams. In this case at the 16 millimeter, I put two gram using, I just have pre-weighted two gram strips on here, right here in the sweet spot zone. So I'm putting less weight in the head. So you're getting less weight overall, but you're strengthening that strike zone, that sweet spot zone. And we know that the, the weight has an outsized impact here where we want it to have the greatest impact right here in that, that strike zone. And then B and then, um, we still want to lower the balance point a little bit. So I put a nine gram cap coin on the bottom, same thing with

[00:12:59] the 14. I just, uh, because it came in with a lighter weight, I used four gram, uh, pre-cut strips here with, uh, with the cap coin. So that was kind of my philosophy around it. Numbers wise, the 16 elongated 16 went from a one 17 swing weight, six Oh two twist to one 19.6 swing weight, 6.4 twist elongated 14 went from one 14 to one 19 on the swing weight and then five, seven, five to six, four, four on the twist weight. So we're good numbers there, but I am just going and hitting these

[00:13:27] and like filling the balance. I like, I like the strength and sweet spot zone versus the, the area in the throat, but you're still bringing the balance point down with the cap coin and having that kind of extra weight overall, just to plow through and carry through the ball. Um, what do you, what do you think of that? What do you think of that? I like it. I mean, I think for a long time we preached a light or lighter weight for longer strips. So now, now you're going back on your word and saying we're doing, doing more isolated weight, but I think it makes sense for

[00:13:56] these paddles. I mean, you're, you're still staying under one 20. It's isolated to a degree. Yeah. But it's still like, it's not as isolated as yeah. Cause like your strips, your strips are, I mean, your strips are like, it's like three inches long. Yeah. No, I mean the numbers are good. I think one 19 6.4 is like a tad low on, on, on the long gated, but I mean, you're already getting into one 20. So you're kind of running out of room too. Do you, do you know what numbers would

[00:14:21] be if you did like the four or five, six inches of half gram throat Ben Johns? Probably, probably over one 20, right? Yeah. If we did like five, six grams in the throat, it would probably be right around there. Yeah. Which one do you pull up the tuning lab and find out real quick? Which one do you prefer out of the 16 and the 14 with these two setups? Yes. 16s, uh, by a long shot, like the numbers are pretty similar here, but the 16 still feels

[00:14:49] more stable than the 14. Yeah. And, um, yeah, I mean, we, we've kind of beat that to death how we think 16s are, are the way to go. And I just don't really see a reason for 14s anymore. All right. So I have five inches of one gram on the RPM friction that moved it from 117 to 119. So you, you, you can, and then, uh, put the twist weight above the, uh, the twist weight we had

[00:15:12] before. So, or with the 16, I had, what do I have here? I had it at a 6.4 with five grams in the throat. We're looking at a one 19 swing weight and then a 6.9 twist weight. I would argue, I would argue that having the weight higher, uh, this, like this sweet weight swing, uh, this stability, the forgiveness is going to feel better with having less weight higher than it is of having a bunch of weight lower. Right. The balance might feel a little bit more natural, but you could also

[00:15:42] argue by putting it in the middle of your paddle on the throat. You're also kind of adding what the cap coin is doing because the weight is lower than it being in the medium. So it's like, you could do that and have no cap coin. Cause that's naturally already bringing your balance point down. Do you know what, did it say what balance point? It doesn't calculate what balance point would be. What does it, uh, the tuning lab does. I didn't run the numbers, but yeah, no, you're essentially redistributing it and redistributing. You're getting a similar effect, right? Except

[00:16:07] you're putting more higher and more lower to get this, a similar, uh, like weight movement, like, uh, no maneuverability on court, but you're feeling the weight, uh, more concentrated in the strike zone, which I think is, is what I like more versus having it in the throat. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that throat, you know, concept that this is just something you have been tinkering with and like, uh, and, uh, you know, people should give it a try. No, I liked it. It's the same idea as waiting up a wide body. Generally, if you

[00:16:33] have a wide body, that's you want to beef up, you might do all four corners of weight, the same strips, but instead you're just, instead of the top two corners, you're starting it on the sides and then your bottom weight is the cap coin. So it's like the same kind of effect where you're still doing corners, but shifting it down, but works better for elongated. Yeah. It works better for elongated. Same concept, same concept, but works, works for elongated shapes. Nice. Nice. Yeah. And then going to the wide bodies, uh, you know, you just called it when I want to, that's exactly what I did on the 14 millimeter. I have two

[00:17:02] gram strips on, uh, on the two corner, four corners here. Um, it's a little bit higher on the side down here at the bottom and then a little higher on the corner, uh, for the top corners. But, um, that put the 14, I mean, this thing came in super light. Like this thing was, it was a one Oh five, 6.65. And then that moved it to one 10 swing weight, 7.5 twists. And so that is a super lightweight. And, and when, you know, on the 14 versus 16 argument, I do think there's a place for 14s in wide bodies. Like that's it. I don't think there's

[00:17:29] a place for 14s in hybrids and elongated anymore, but in wide bodies, you can get away with it. You can find some benefits with 14s in that shape because the forgiveness, um, is just more naturally there and you can get away with it and then find, maybe find some of the benefits of 14s with that, you know, extra maneuverability and different things. But the, uh, the 16, I just liked as is, I didn't put any weight on it. It came in at a one 11 swing weight, seven twists, and it just plays great stock. Don't need to add anything. But, um, yeah, that's what I did for those with, uh, kind of excited to see what people think of the,

[00:17:59] that elongated setup. And then I hope people go give that a try, but like, if you don't know how to weight your paddle, I, you know, a pretty safe bet in general is just throwing somebody on the sides, pair it with a cap coin. And that's like, that's going to give, uh, give you more benefits and downsides for pretty much any paddle. Um, like you doesn't just have to be elongated. Like you, you could do some sort of setup like that, uh, with anything. Yeah. And I'm more of a fan. Okay. I've told some friends on the court, put on a little bit

[00:18:26] more than you'd think. And you could always start slowly taking off. Like you'll know when a paddle has, I think it's easier to know when a paddle has too much weight on it versus not enough. So if you, if you want to do something more custom, I w I would put a little bit more tape than you think. And you can always just start like peeling off an inch at the top and slowly moving it down. You don't have to fully take the strips off. You could just peel off the top corner, rip off an inch, rip off half an inch, uh, in the different spots. So I like doing that approach. And if not, then I would just say, go to a trusted resource and start experimenting with some,

[00:18:56] with some, some of the like pre setups. I think that's why they're super valuable out of these two. You still liked the 16 stock over the, over the tinkered 14. Yeah, I'm still going to go 16, uh, with that. But, um, there, there is a case for 14 there. Nice. Very cool. This is a audio listening experience from pickleball central. You're a trusted pickleball gear experts. We liked them a lot. They're nice to us with their 30 day paddle test drive. You can buy a paddle. And if you hate it, send it back. They're super cool about it. So like literally just try whatever you like. Use the link in the description,

[00:19:25] save some money, support the show. The ad is now over. All right, Aaron now. All right, Aaron it out today. We're going to talk about the Tyra black trade to the Columbus sliders. This happened in MLP news a couple of weeks ago. I know we're covering it late, but, um, I kind of just wanted to cover, you know, like headline is why does the Dallas flash move on from Tyra black? It like kind of doesn't make sense. Right. I think that's what you initially saw. And then the trade was for Danny Townsend from the Columbus sliders plus cash. And so you're going on paper and you're going

[00:19:52] Tyra black here with the, with the flash versus Townsend with the sliders. There's clearly most people are going to like flashes or, um, Tyra is the better player. So it's like, well, how much cash? It just kind of felt like a lopsided trade. You're like, why would such a great team like the Dallas flash move on from Tyra? And when you kind of dive into it, it's really because of MLP rules and contracts. So I wrote here, according to MLP rules, when a team drafts or acquires a player, they can only keep that player for

[00:20:18] three years on the roster. And Tyra was on year three of three. So after this season, Tyra was going to be reentered into the auction draft, which is where they were, they were looking for money before they're looking for money because so, especially for a team, if you know, you're probably not, um, cause they already lost Georgia. They played a few events. They didn't perform as well as they had hoped. And so if you know, you're not going to compete for a championship this year, it just makes a little bit more sense. You're going to lose

[00:20:44] the player back to the auction draft. Anyways, you might as well ship them off for either a player you believe in, whether the flash really believe in Danny Townsend or not. She is younger. She is on a fresher contract that goes into 2028. Um, and then plus you get some money towards potentially getting Tyra black and Tyra black back in the auction. Right. So she's going to, yeah, you know, she's going to go for a lot. I mean, AB went over for a mill. Georgia went to the fives for, I think seven or 800 K. I think Tyra is probably

[00:21:12] somewhere between that, you know, million to 700 market. And so now the cash, um, helps them either get Tyra back in the, in the future or just have money for the future draft. So basically it's a, it's a contract, right? Like on the end of a contract, a player doesn't have as much worth if they're going to become a free agent. Um, but the teams that do want these players are win now teams. So teams like the Columbus slider is a perfect situation for Tyra to go jump over there. When now, uh, they trade for Danny, uh, they can play a little

[00:21:42] bit better and now they can co compete against the fives. They can go compete against the shock for the 2026, 27 season. So, so that's on paper why it kind of like the financials and why it made a little bit more sense. But the other question that kind of comes up is, well, who else is on contract years? And can we potentially see some of these players being shifted as well? Because also teammate JW Johnson also on his third year of his contract with the flash. Um, I think other

[00:22:08] players like stack strewed a few more, but JW being the notable one of, you know, there's been rumors of him to the fives potentially for no way cliff. Um, things like that seal the dealer for them. Wouldn't it? It would be interesting if a bunch of teams, cause they know that the players are all going to be recycled at the end of this year. We get a few more super teams. The mad drops can go acquire another person because right now Ben Johns is playing with lefty Max Freeman. Uh, they got throttled today by the, uh, you know, by the, um, the shock that, you know,

[00:22:37] tardio Patrick win. So it'd be interesting to see some of these players, um, who are, you know, top 10 PPA pros who are on their third year of their contract. If a lot of these teams will either trade them for cash, trade them for the next level of tier players or tier down, and we get some super teams. So we'll get fives, uh, sliders, mad drops, uh, teams like that as they compete for the, for the title. So I think this is a little bit of a different year in MLP where you

[00:23:02] can see more super teams come together because of the three year contract window that Tyra entered. Um, so that's the little MLP drama. That's why Tyra was traded for a bag of chips and Danny Townsend and, uh, and then some future predictions. That's why we might see players like stacks, Drew, JW, um, potentially go to super teams and we might have some one new partnerships that you don't get to see on PPA and do some root, some really stacked MLP teams going into the playoffs

[00:23:27] here later this season. That's MLP news. Nice. Good. Okay. For two weeks in a row, we're doing, I read it on Reddit where we check the pickleball comment section and see what the internet experts are mad about today. First off, Brandon, are you mad about anything? I'm mad about everything they're mad about. I'm on the same page. Okay. So we're just doing one here because I got three sections for internet out today, but I thought it was a pretty good notable section. So this comes from scuffed boots.

[00:23:52] They say title are gen four paddles actually worth it or are we just caught up in the hype cycle? Let me read a little bit of this, uh, this too. It feels like every month there's a new game changing full foam gen four paddle, which there is that is supposed to be the next big thing. Every launch is accompanied by glowing reviews, hyped videos, discount codes, and claims that it's the best paddle ever made. Maybe I'm being cynical, but at some point I have to wonder how much of the hype is genuine and how much is driven by the fact that many reviewers, influencers,

[00:24:22] and YouTubers have affiliate links, sponsorships, discount codes, and some other financial incentives and incentives tied to these launch. The pickleball content space seems to have become an endless cycle of this changes everything followed by the next paddle doing the exact same thing two months later. Dude, why are reviewers and people like us always just getting stomped on? It's always our fault. This is like, you know what I mean? Like they were just like crapping on us right there. And it's

[00:24:51] like, what? They don't watch our channel. What channel are you watching? And also we would say Braden and I are constantly feeling the draw of talking about things we want to talk about on the podcast versus just making stupid hex grit versus blue endurance grit videos to get views. So if anything, talk to your fellow viewership audiences and have different choices so

[00:25:16] we can have conversations. Because if we just talk about things that we like, we'll be obsolete. We have to talk about the durable grit stack. The all trade is not that different of a shape. The hex grit, it's not new tech. So what we said about hex grit three months ago is the same shit that we're saying now. Just saying. Anyways, okay. Let me go back to this discussion. It is interesting that like that's how he views, you know, these reviews and stuff. And to be honest,

[00:25:42] I don't watch a lot of other people's stuff. I don't feel like I am out there just mega hyping up things. I don't think I've ever done it that way. But like, is that the general sense that a lot of channels reviews are getting at these days? Like, do you get that same sense? I don't know. I try not to watch a ton of content too, because you want to have original takes. You don't want to recycle content. I think there are channels out there that feast upon new tech,

[00:26:09] new trends, new paddles. I think they're the ones posting content really quickly. Um, but I, I mean, I would argue in favor of pickleball effect, you were super slow on the J2K. You were super slow on the Luz Inferno. I don't know if you're making fun of me right now. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm saying, I'm just saying like, these were hyped storm cloud paddles that, that the community got behind really quick and was like hungry for content on. So, and I don't think, I don't, I think slow is not a bad thing. I think slow just means like

[00:26:37] you were focused on other paddles at the time. It's really easy, I think, to be chronically online and like in discord, you know, chasing all these like new paddles that come out like, um, like, you know, uh, let's see, what's the nano, nanograph paddle. That one was too trendy for a little bit. The cyclone, the cyclone or, or what's this new MPP one that has a durable tackle, the packle, like there's all of these, you know, and for, for a while, Luz was in that category of just like, you know, you pickle buzzwords, but, uh, yeah. Any thoughts before I kind of

[00:27:06] close this guy's argument and we can respond a little bit. Just keep going. Okay. Okay. So right here, he says, maybe this is a dumb question, but if so many players, myself included prefer the feel of gen three paddles, why not just buy a gen three paddle from a company with a strong warranty program? If a brand is willing to replace a paddle that loses performance and breaks, doesn't that largely solve the durability concern that gen four is trying to address? And he goes, I'm genuinely curious where everyone stands on this. Have gen four paddles actually improved your game?

[00:27:34] Is the durability noticeably better? If so, is the trade off and feel worth it? Do you think gen four is a real step forward or has the paddle market become heavily driven by influencer marketing affiliate commissions or FOMO? I actually think it's a really good post regardless of some of the things on it. Like I think he's addressing a lot of really good. So let me get your reaction first before I dive into some of these comments. Yeah. If gen three is your thing, his point of, you know,

[00:28:02] you know, finding good warranty, good price and just keep recycling. Like there's nothing wrong with that. But I do think gen four brings some new stuff to the table that we couldn't have with gen three. Primarily we're, um, you know, outside of the durability factor, like if you put that aside, I do think we're getting a larger variety of paddle profiles in terms of, okay, I have this fill profile matched with this power profile that you couldn't get, or we didn't have before. For example, I think the Corolla pros are like this aggressive all court, but in that kind of soft dense category,

[00:28:31] I don't think there's a gen three paddle that feels like that. Like I can't think of a gen three that is going to have that same fill and power profile. And so I, I think there's just a wider variety. There's more options. I like the dampened feel, uh, that a lot of foams give you like a little, little reduced vibrations in a lot of cases, but though you can still get a stiff, crisp, hollow feel from, you know, a boomstick and everything. So I just think there's, there's more options. There's more variety with what you get out of foams. I do think sweet spot has been an impact.

[00:28:59] I think we're getting a little better, um, effective sweet spots out of foams. Um, and then I, I just, I love that there's just less break in like, yes, I think foams don't last for years and years. Like they do seem to kind of tail off in, in performance over time, maybe six months to a year. So like, you're not getting as much power and pop as you were at the beginning. Um, you know, some brands do that better than others with their foams, but the, uh, they're not changing like a ton.

[00:29:26] Like the, like before, if you had a paddle that was two months old, it played totally different than a brand new paddle. And like the, the, the, the change, the Delta between a broken in and a new paddle was just, was just so big. And like paddles were going from all court to power category, right? Like it was just too much change. So volatile. And I think you get more consistency out of, out of gen fours, which is both good on the reviewer side. Like we can give a review of it, you know, two months in one month in, and it's going to be the same paddle and on the

[00:29:54] consumer side where, uh, uh, you know, you're, you're playing, you're not going to face a super hot paddle, but that's crazy broken in. And I think that's healthy for, uh, for us, but yeah, that's, um, that's my thoughts. You anything to add? Oh yeah. Lots to add. So our gen four paddles actually worth it. Or are we caught up in a hype cycle? Uh, I think pickleball loves hype cycles. I appreciate calling them out. I think there are absolutely Kevlar was a hype cycle. Titanium was a hype

[00:30:18] cycle. Uh, is gen four a hype cycle? I would absolutely say no, it's not. Uh, core crushing has destroyed pickleball for, for years. And, and everyone has shifted to gen three paddles from gen two because performance got better. Sweet spots got better, but everything with durability got worse. And so the fact that we're in a world where we've taken a lot of technology from gen three, I'm talking like the incorporation of TPU and EVA and different full floating and diving boards.

[00:30:47] And we've taken all of that to more durable cores with foam, whether it's MPP, whether it's EPP, whether it's multiple densities. I absolutely think gen four is a better world of pickleball paddles than gen three. Now are, is there gen three paddles that have really good feel that some gen four paddles don't have? Absolutely. But everything would be reversed if we went from foam and foam was the thing that was core crushing. And then we jumped to polypropylene and polypropylene was more

[00:31:14] durable, but you're just conditioned to a certain feel. And so it's totally normal. But I would also argue that there's a spectrum of foam paddles. You probably haven't hit enough, go hit an Aereo Cyclone and then go ahead and an Apes charm and tell me that that's the same dampened muted feel. Like there's a whole spectrum. And then also on gen three, go hit a Yola pro four and then go hit a Franklin C 45 16 millimeter. Like they, like one is super stiff and hollow and one is like

[00:31:43] a lot more dampened and buttery and like smooth. And so there's a spectrum of gen three. There's a spectrum of full foam. If you've been playing with gen three for over a year, absolutely. It'll probably be tough to go to a gen four foam. And I always hate the argument sometimes where it's like, what's the most gen three feeling foam paddle? It's like, well, paddles like feel is so subjective regardless. I don't know how to F and tell you what best, what best gen four is. I would just say there's a spectrum of gen three. There's a spectrum of gen four. But if you're

[00:32:11] moving from this category to this category and you're gaining durability, that is massive. That is, that is like a big enough reason alone why gen four is not hype. And then I would say from there, you nailed it. Sweet spots have gotten better. Like they're the best sweet spots in pickleball are all with gen four paddles. Maybe the most broken in gen three D lambed core crush paddle

[00:32:35] you've ever met might beat a gen four, but I am a huge advocate that gen four paddles are an upgrade from gen three. No doubt. I could the C45. I'm a guy that was late to gen four. I'm a gen three lover. I love the Franklin C45 series, both in the 16 millimeter and the 14s, but I'm a full foam player now. And I think they're better pickleball paddles for 90% of people. Also durable grits.

[00:33:02] Like, like there's a reason you're not seeing a lot of durable grit gen threes just because it just doesn't make a ton of sense. Like the paddle will probably core crush before the spin goes out. So it makes sense that they're going to put them on a paddle anyways. So is it hype? I would say absolutely not. Now, is there a lot of points that are fair and is there a lot of hype? You know, I call it the storm cloud. It goes around pickleball. Yeah, absolutely. And do you, as like, as a, as a reviewer and as a pickleball connoisseur, do you need to be careful not to

[00:33:28] follow into Trent trends and traps and the Kevlar loopholes and the, this is the best thing? Absolutely. But, um, yeah, so I think Jen four versus gen three, not hype. This is it. This is, this is an upgrade, but within the gen four, yeah, you're going to see some of those hype. But I completely, I completely agree. If you're going to stick with gen three, if you've tried gen four, if you've hit a cyclone, you've hit a charm, you're like, both aren't for me. I just, I I'm in love

[00:33:54] with gen three. Absolutely. Buy gen three paddles from a, from a company that is going to warranty them. They like, there's, there's a lot of companies that don't have great customer service. So, so if you're going to stay in like the Selkirk era is my favorite gen three paddle, and you're sticking onto that Selkirk umbrella of amazing customer service, that makes the most sense. But probably you might be in love with an RPM. You might be in love with a Yolo pro four. You might be in love with a paddle that breaks. And so I would, I would just argue it is worth the

[00:34:23] experience of going through a new paddle, getting adjusted to the feel, like going to gen four feel is not going to break your game. There's such a spectrum between the coral pro, the charm, the boomstick that you're going to find something you like a larger sweet spot, like will make your game better. And then two, you're going to explore durable grits. And I would argue that any true pickleball player would rather have long lasting spin than a paddle feel that they're obsessed with. Yep. Spin trumps feel. I agree.

[00:34:51] Spin trumps feel, but feels important. That's like the, that's the second most important thing, maybe outside of firepower. It's, it's spin performance and durability, firepower. Like, is this thing power? Is it control? Is it in the category I know I need for my game? And three is paddle feel. And for mains that you have for mains that I have for any pickleball addict who's playing 10 hours plus a week, it is a formula of those three things on why there's their main, but I'm saying if you're on gen three, come to the land of full foam, come to the land of durable

[00:35:19] grits. And if it's not for paddle feel, if it's not for paddle feel, it is for long lasting spin, which you will become obsessed with. And it is much better as a guy who loved the C45 who had to rip it out of my hands and couldn't find a foam paddle. That was his main. Um, this is a better world. I don't think you care about this subject at all. Like you were, you were riled up, you were fired, you were feeling good and you preached and I was here. There you go. I was, I was listening. So that's what I got. That was great. Let me read a few. I know this segment's

[00:35:48] going a little bit long here, but we were short on content anyways. Uh, here this guy goes, uh, LGR 77 one goes, I think there are a lot of good gen four paddles. The new ones coming out aren't necessarily better than the older ones, just slightly different, but many of them are worthy of the praise they're getting. I think a lot of paddle swapping is people looking for quick improvements in their game. I used to swap paddles every couple of months, but I fell in love with the J six CR. I've been using it since January. Now I spend the money that I would have spent on paddles on coaching

[00:36:18] instead. L R G a round of applause for L R G and he did it in their game. Yeah. Well, you know what? We would argue here, uh, you should probably buy more paddles than coaching, but coaching is a close second. No, no, he did it. We're giving it to him. So that's on the badge of honor. He made it through the storm cloud. That's all we got on. Uh, he's in the eye of the storm. He's in like this Zen area that not too many people can find, but he's just watching people flying around around the

[00:36:49] cyclone of, of, of hell. And you know what? If you're put, if you're making a post that you're in love with gen three, but you're, you're a full foam denier. I call them. You're spinning around as well. You're spinning around as well. You're not in the eye of the storm. Last thing I got here on paddle recon. I'll jump through this quick. This is where I check out the UPA and USAP lists to talk paddles before companies, uh, promote them. So on the UPA list, we got the black opal elongated. I guess the hybrid was the only one that they had approved. So the elongated is freshly approved. We also RPM

[00:37:18] added the Q2 both in the 16 and 14. Uh, I believe they only had one model. I think it was the elongated 16. That was the only one that was UPA approved. They've added the full lineup of RPM Q2s. Now this one, uh, tell me if I'm wrong here. This was like on the 18th. So this was this last week. Luz pro blades two, not blade two blades. You know, anything about this? Uh, all I know is

[00:37:41] they are not selling the original pro blades blade, the blade blade. They dropped it. It didn't, it didn't get reviews. Apparently people were buying it. You can't even get it on their site anymore. It just gives you a 404 page and they're coming out with a new one, I guess. So, so they got rid of the ES, no, they got rid of the E, they added the Z. And if this one stinks, they'll drop the Z in the month for now, it'll be the Luz pro blad too. Uh,

[00:38:07] then we also have the pickle JPX 16, which I believe is, um, man, that's Tyra's brand. That'll be Tyra's signature. I don't know what JPX stand for, but Tyra, I mean, she's still using gen two, everyone we're talking about, we're talking about gen three versus gen four. She's kicking butt with it and she's kicking butt with it. So gen two has a place just not for any of us. Uh, and then on the USAP list, we have the Skechers SKX Titan. You seen this one? It's a, uh, it's got a titanium face. It's gen two. What's that? Titanium back.

[00:38:37] What's that? Electroplated. Is that, is that the term for something like that? Terms out there. All right. Uh, I tried. We have the, a Babelot baller Evo. You heard anything about that one? Uh, I haven't the pickleball apes Zen S plus we've heard some talks of the Zen. That'll be a good one. S plus is their actual hybrid shape. So that's coming here soon. How good is this Zen name? If it brings you to the eye of the storm, like there's real, there's some real meaning here. Wait, wait, wait. And is that one gen three

[00:39:04] or is that one gen four? Gen four. The eye of the storm. The Zen is four. We have the RPM Alt one. I saw on the USAP list. It looks like a J six type shape. I'll put a picture here. Um, I don't know. Alt one. I don't know if they're just, I don't know. You never know what James and RPM is doing, but I, but I caught it on paddle recon. Um, Wilson seismic

[00:39:27] power. You know anything about that? Nope. And then the diadem Hanabi Hanabi. You know anything about that? What is Hanabi? Is that a famous person? Uh, I don't know. There's Hanabi. That's Harambe dog. That's a close. That's hilarious. Uh, I don't know. I don't know if it's a new, one of their newer paddles for, they have a food tomorrow, right? What's his name? Uh, so I know he has a signature and

[00:39:56] they've kind of like leaned into like the saga, uh, what's the samurai kind of. So I wonder if it's that in Japanese lore cultures, but, uh, yeah. So that's what I got on paddle recon and I read it. I read it. Thanks for listening to my rant on gen four versus gen three. It was good. I think if you're, if you're like this deep in and you're watching these types of podcasts, I think that's the kind of arguments you really want to dive in on. So yeah, let us know why we're

[00:40:21] right. Paddle babbling gear. Okay. We got some pro player switches. We're in talk state of the paddle market and then, uh, talk about head paddles and an update on the scoop paddle. So Tama Tama plays for Utah black diamonds. Shmoo Bakuru was playing with the boomstick. I'm watching him this weekend. He's not playing with the boomstick. He's playing with the six zero coral pro. We got another

[00:40:47] pro going off a big power paddle, looking at the all court category. I don't think he signed with anyone. His contract must've ended with Selkirk if he's playing with this, uh, the six zero, but, uh, he's, he must be shopping around. He picks the coral pro to go play with. I thought it was, it was notable just cause it's fun to see more pros switch and, uh, kind of adopt that mindset around all court paddles being the move of the future, which we're all about. Let's get Tama on and ask him about it. Let's get him on. Yeah, that'd be fun. We totally

[00:41:16] should. Okay. Next question. State of the paddle market. I, this is something I've been thinking about a bunch, not just this week, but just kind of in general, the, the, the landscape of paddles is very different now versus the last few years. Like we've just been jumping from next tech, you know, new technology to the next one has been like leaps and bounds and performance. It's been really exciting. It's been really fun, but I think

[00:41:42] we've finally reached a place that's more mature, like maybe a little more plateauing of paddle technology. I don't think we're going to see the leaps and bounds that we've seen in the past, especially once durable grit finishes making its way through the market on getting on every paddle. So we're hitting this kind of new stage. We've, we've talked about different pieces of this. We've talked about like, uh, this kind of being the age of, of, uh, patents like that plays a role in this. This is kind of the age of, uh, you

[00:42:09] know, people, you know, buying out other brands and things like that. And that's all because we're, we're, we're reaching this kind of plateauing state a little bit here with, with paddle tech. I don't think paddle tech is ever going to just totally stop, but I don't think we're going to get those big leaps and bounds like we've had in the past. So now that we're in this kind of new paddle market, this new, this new stage, there's like a couple of different things at play here. One, it's going to make it more difficult to enter the market. I think we're going to see less, um, smaller, medium sized brands have success

[00:42:38] because all the advantage they had before being nimble, coming out with new tech quickly and, and, um, adapting to the market. Isn't going to be as much of an advantage as it once was because there's there, you need to deal with patents. Now you actually need an R and D team to come up with something that's unique. That's yours. And you can't just, you know, jump on these hype trains, adapt, come out with, you know, just move really quick. It's not like, and it's the same advantage as it once was. And then, um, but then this opens

[00:43:05] up the door, I think for, for larger brands that have a little bit more success, but also for legacy brands to come in and make an impact. There there's brands out there that are just so established throughout the world in tennis, different places. Like you have, you've had, you have Babylon who've been in the game for a minute, but they just haven't been able to keep up with technology changes just because they're so big and they're in so many places, but they have different advantages that, um, uh, medium and small brands don't have. Like they have distribution, they have resources, they have R and D teams, they have all these things, but what they don't have is, is moving fast. But now that you don't have

[00:43:35] to move as fast, those other resources that they have and advantages they have are going to propel them to the, you know, potentially propel them to the, the top of the stage here. And so I, as I was thinking about that and I was, um, kind of had, we had a little bit of lull in like paddle testing this week. And so I, I've been pulling out others and I, I pulled out, um, all the heads recent releases. And I think of, of all the legacy brands that exist,

[00:43:58] the, the brand that has the most potential of becoming a main stage brand in this new era of, of, uh, you know, mark paddle market that we're in is, is head. I think head are going to be the ones that can pull this off. So here's my reasoning for it. First off, before I get into it, um, head, I have a code with them. It works. And you can buy their shoes. If you don't know, you could buy their shoes or if they had discount codes, I don't think people realize they even had

[00:44:24] discount codes. I thought you were about to lay the landscape on why head is about to be the future and just went straight to an ad straight to that. I'm just saying like if, uh, if you ever do any shopping over there, the code works over there. But, uh, so I've hit these battles. We're going to start with this one. This is the head gravity. This is, um, their most recent release. This is like a control paddle. Then they, uh, they have this radical one that they, they sent us earlier this year and then they're coming out with a new boom, a new booms. Uh, they just call it the

[00:44:52] booms, not boomstick, just boom. But they have, they have the three categories. They have a control all court and power line. So that's in a good place. Um, they actually have some interesting, um, uh, core tech with these guys. So with, with the gravity line, this is a full foam core with like a layer or just like a ring of PP, just honeycomb and then a layer of EVA. So it's kind of like this unique, um, sandwich they have there on their radical. This has a PP core with two different

[00:45:19] layers of, of foam around it. And then their new boom sticks can be a full foam. So they have these like interesting cords that are different from everyone else. Plus they're 15 millimeters, which is another kind of unique element. I think when you, um, are looking at paddles, like if, when everything else is the same, like if everything's really good, you want something that's a little bit different and they have some, some, uh, elements here or their, their cores, like I think are different enough, but still work. The only, the only thing that's

[00:45:44] holding these paddles back are their shapes and a durable, durable screen texture, durable screen, durable, uh, texture. They, uh, I think if they just do some, some simple switching, uh, like put, do some more modern shapes, optimize the weight distribution, they throw, um, some good durable grit textures on there. All of a sudden they have three paddles in a, uh, control all court power that I think compete and are at least just as good or very close to what

[00:46:11] else is out there. Plus they had those two little unique elements are theirs with a 15 millimeter. And then their, their unique core tech that's theirs, but like they're not far off from being like just as good as everyone else. And you know, once they do that, then all of a sudden their distribution, their name and all these things, um, really come into play and they, they can become players. Um, but yeah, like I, they just need to fix, like there's, they're close that they have some things they, they go and do that. And then, you know, maybe they do like a media day, like kind

[00:46:40] of like Selkirk did last year where like they need to, they want to change their perception. You know, they invite, uh, you know, some, some internet media people in and kind of do this big, you know, campaign to, to shift everything. But like, I, I think of, of, uh, of all the kind of major legacy brands who could potentially play a role. That's who I think can do it. And that's why, uh, anything to add to that or, or thoughts on, on kind of the state of the market and what I just said. I mean, I think the biggest reason why I agree with you is because big brands who

[00:47:07] haven't made their, what are you smiling at me? Is that a smile? I'm just laughing at myself doing this, the, you're like calling me out like, Oh, before we start, here's the code. It goes straight into it. Why do you think these people write Reddit forums? It's because of us. It's me. I know. Um, big brands like the resilient, like they can make bad choices. They can miss and then they can miss again. Like if you're a small brand and you're

[00:47:36] like, you're, there's so many small brands that have tried to crack into, into pickleball. You try once it doesn't like you don't catch your try a second time. You don't catch and you're probably done. But like these big brands that like they're, they're resilient enough to keep trying. So as technology has potentially slowed as, um, you know, maybe the, maybe they license IP, like they have the financials to do that. Like we've talked about Mizuno potentially like, Hey, go acquire someone, right? If you, if you truly want to get into an industry, but until they, maybe they do decisions

[00:48:06] like that, which is option a option B is like, they keep trying and they can keep trying because they have the firepower and budgets and resiliency to do it. And so, so I liked the argument that like a legacy brand in a different industry can survive and make its way into pickleball one due to its resiliency to do due to a market that's shifting and three, um, hiring consultants that know everything about pickleball, like pickleball effect. No, but I think, I think you, I think you've like presented

[00:48:33] a really good case on like they're close and they had, they have a lineup. You know, we always argue like the most important things for, for brands is potentially it's, it's price, it's lineup. It's a, you know, do you have like current offerings? Are you offering current technology at affordable prices? Like what do you have a unique value proposition? Uh, and then the other thing that I've just noticed on that is this is a random Aaron call out, but I want to see durable

[00:48:58] grit textures on different face layups. I want to see a durable grit texture on titanium. I want to see it on Kevlar. I want to see it on a triaxial weave. That's the only thing diadem is relevant for is, is the 18k triaxial weave on that one head paddle. Can you show me that they had a checkerboard and I haven't seen this 12, it's a 12k cloth. I'm pretty sure. Uh, Selkirk had it on there. What was that one paddle they had? It was a control. It was like a softer. I can't think of the name. It was like their first thermo. Yeah. Vanguard something. Vanguard.

[00:49:28] Yeah. Um, so I am still an advocate that serve like face layup is a big, is a big thing. I think the C 45 proved that if you, if you're changing the angle of carbon fiber, it can very much change, uh, dwell and paddle feel. And so I want to see, but we've only ever seen so far really carbon fiber layups, maybe some fiberglass and CFC, some things like that with durable textures. I like that they're still experimenting with, you know, 12k cloths, things like that. That show me, I mean, on the other one, I don't know what's the, what's

[00:49:59] the texture on that other one? They have like, I don't even know this one actually didn't play bad. The only thing that really held it back was the spin that they did something to make it look cool. And it just dropped the spin numbers. But I think, I think they're willing to fail and try things. And also, and you, you can't say anything that head has made is a copycat. Oh, they made a blank clone. They made a clone of, they made a Yola, Yola dupe. They made a Selkirk dupe. Like everything has been extremely unique. Um, they're one of the first companies to incorporate polypropylene cores with EPP in different sections. No one

[00:50:29] has really flirted that line a little bit. Um, so I, I like the argument that head is, is, is close to making game changing decisions that keeps them relevant. And I think the resiliency will allow them to do that. But I think it's also up to their R and D team if they're, if they're, if they're willing to listen or willing to pivot. And I think the fact that they haven't stopped, like we've seen, I know Babelot's talking about another paddle here, but other legacy brands have slowed down a little bit. They've tried, um, they failed and sometimes they've like

[00:50:58] shifted to shoe wear or other, other, you know, accessory items. Um, but head has continued to try. And so I, I like that argument. I I'm behind it and we want them to win. We want them to win. It's not like, I don't want, I don't want head to fail. I want like, I want great paddles in the market. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be fun to see who, who rides to the top. Cause somebody is going to come out from the, these legacy, bigger brands. Someone's going to figure it out. And, uh, I, I think it's them, but yeah, we'll, we'll see. It'll be fun. It'll be fun to watch this stuff happen. Cause it's

[00:51:27] going to be over the next year. They only, there's like, I think there's a window right now or like the next year, year and a half where if it's going to, uh, it's most likely to happen during this time where, uh, things are just starting to kind of plateau get even it's easier to make a paddle that competes with the top of the line than it was maybe a year ago for a brand like this. And, uh, but, but if you're too late, if you come in two, three years from now, then like it'll be more difficult to establish yourself as maybe like an innovative leader or

[00:51:55] or something like that. So, but, uh, it'll, it'll be fun to see. We'll see what happens. I get my money on them. Closing on the head discussion. What's the TLDR too long. Didn't read. What's the bullet points for success for legacy brand to maintain relevancy in a, in a, a slower gen for paddle economics time timeframe. Yeah. I mean, you need a paddle that competes with everything else. Like you, you, your, your paddle tech has to be there. We picked head because we think the tech's there. They just need to fix shapes and, or improve shapes

[00:52:24] and get a durable grit. And, uh, they, then they have a paddle that competes and they have their own little unique flair. Cause these guys will be in Dick's. These guys will be in shills. These guys will be, I mean, they'll be everywhere. They had, they have the distribution. It's it's, they have the, the world world. They have the world distribution or, or go like maybe another strategy is, um, go make an elite budget paddle. Like you still go into Dick's sporting goods.

[00:52:49] You still go into shields. 90% of those paddles are garbage. Like they're models that we would never recommend. So go make the best affordable paddle and then get it in all the stores because you're not competing, you're not competing with the budget brands that are direct to consumer. True. Yeah. There's that side of it, but yeah. And then they have to get the internet on, on their side, right? Like they need, they need us and all the other channels to, to speak highly because I think that goes a long way when you, when you have, um, when you have the internet and the,

[00:53:17] the general public, you know, vouching for you and they can speak to how good your paddles are. Hello, it's Aaron, the editor from the podcast. You're listening. You are now watching a pickleball central ad pickleball central proud supporter of the pickleball effect podcast, proud supporter of Braden Unzicker, proud supporter of Aaron, the editor. And so pickleball in return supports pickleball central. The ad is now over next one.

[00:53:43] We're going to talk scoop. Okay. So we had brought this, this is called the scoop sidewinder. Or the brand scoop paddle sidewinder. The, um, we had brought this up in a special delivery, probably two or so weeks ago. The, the proposition for these guys was a budget friendly, durable grit option with a, with a gen four tech. And so we, uh, we're on the hunt, right? Right. We're on the hunt for this durable, this durable, uh, surface texture and in a budget friendly paddle.

[00:54:12] We thought maybe this would be the one, unfortunately it didn't check out for me. And in a couple of areas, though there are some good things about it. The, um, the good things about it is I, it comes in super light. It's very tunable. And then I liked their little design here on the side where they have these little tick marks. It makes it easy to set up your weight and get that lined up. Cause that's always a pain in the butt when you're trying to line up your paddle and get weight on there. Um, it's a diving board, uh, gen four style, uh, middle, the, uh, the stuff that,

[00:54:42] so like on paper, it looked really good and it made a lot of sense. However, in practice, I went and hit it. I got this weighted up to, um, it's between one 14, one 15 swing weight, twist weight is six, seven, five. And the sweet spot, like it should be good at that, you know, at least decent in that area, but it wasn't, it wasn't working. It was feeling still pretty twisty and you can feel some dead spots around and it just wasn't very lively outside of the very center. And so that was kind of unfortunate that you just, we weren't getting

[00:55:07] the sweet spot I was expecting and wanted from it. And then the, uh, doing the TK one accelerated grit wear test, put it in like that area nanograph, uh, kind of tier three zone below cell crooked fit a good rack. It's a little bit better than raw carbon fiber, but it's not, uh, you, we were hoping for something at least in the tier two. Awesome. If it's in tier one, but the durable grid, is it as good as I was kind of hoping it could be, um, though it's still,

[00:55:33] you know, better than raw carbon fiber. And so is it the, the paddle like we're searching for and want to be in that budget category? Not quite though. Uh, it still has a durable grid texture still is a good deal though. I do wish the sweet spot was better. Uh, that just didn't check out for me. Maybe, maybe I add a little bit more weight. Like there's obviously still some room here. I could get this up to like, uh, you know, maybe one 18 swing weight. If your, if your metrics are already there and it's a 16 millimeter, like you have more than enough rationale for it to perform

[00:56:01] well. Right. Right. And like you, you see these numbers on, I would say the sweet spot is better on like a, uh, a stock J six CR, like it also has a very lightweight, no design. And you, uh, you get it up to this way. Like I think it feels oversized. It feels huge. I didn't get that with, with this paddle, unfortunately. And so what, what wasn't the one we were hoping for that was close. We'll, um, we'll keep our eye out for when that happens. All right. Last thing I want to do a main

[00:56:29] paddle check-in. It's been a second since we've kind of said what our favorite paddles are right now. We'll start with you and then I'll go. You got to give me, give me, give me a main and a second. Oh, second, second. Oh, do I have my second? Uh, okay. Okay. Yeah. Coral pro is the main. It's elite. It's the main. It's dubbed. It's official. It's official.

[00:56:52] It's official. Stamped. Bam. Iron, ironclad, uh, branded cow. Um, you know what I'm going. Yeah, I just kept going there. It was one after another. Do a little soundboard and to have receipts on the last speak pickleball post, um, three, four weeks ago, right before nerdy tourney, I deemed it then. So this isn't, this isn't a podcast pressure. The lights are on the cameras recording point to the trendy paddle and it's like, ah, corporal. It's been documented for weeks.

[00:57:21] You know, I'll call myself out before then I said Friday or a pro. So that is my, that one is my, is my number two. And then maybe a number three, which is the number two spots usually shared by two paddles. Let's be honest. I got the, the J two CR blue grit. It's the two, the two. I thought it you have like a, like a assault rifle primary. And then you got like a little desert Eagle backup

[00:57:49] where it's like, that's what we got going on here. The J two is my desert Eagle where it's light. It's quick, but man, it's lethal. Um, but it's not like, it's not, it's not the, it's not the main, the Coral pro is the main. I was a Coral fan. Um, the Coral pro has like solved like the few things that I think I was missing. I w I just felt like I needed to play with a durable grip paddle. You talk paddles every week for an hour. It's like, man, how do you not main a durable grip

[00:58:13] paddle? I guess cause of feel right. Or cause you're, you're glued to gen three. Um, but so, so the durable grip for the coral was, was every reason. We also have the luxury of having so many paddles where dude, it makes making, it makes mains harder and way harder and like durable grit. Like isn't maybe as attractive for you as a main, because it's like, I'm switching pedals anyway. Everything's fresh, bro. Everything's fresh. Yeah. No, but I mean, yeah. So Coral pro for me

[00:58:42] or a pro in second, I guess if it has pro in it and then Ruby pro third, no. Um, and then I, and then I got the J two pro pro pro pro pro. If you know, you know, J two CR, uh, as my two to three. How about you? So I I'm sticking with thriving night. I'm sticking with thriving night as my, my, my main, that one's been it for maybe a couple of months now. And I, for me, dude, it's still just, it has that, it has the, uh, it has the good spin has a little bit durable,

[00:59:09] better durable grit. The, I love the activated power element of it. Whereas it feels like an all court to me when I'm hitting resets and I'm dinking whatever. And then, uh, from the back court finishing points, I just feel like I'm getting a little bit more out of it than I do your typical all court. So I like that combo. Number two, I did P one standard. This is the, I had the P one wide body. I just, I am just so in love with that paddle. It's my favorite wide body and I'm a big wide body fan. And then of course I got the third. We can't just do two.

[00:59:38] It's the, it's the coral pro hybrid. Every time I play it, I've been playing it a bunch lately just cause we're doing all these comparisons and it just came out and I just, I love it. All three. So good. There we are. That's it. Thanks everyone for tuning in.