168. Friday Aura Pro, Honolulu J2CR Crystal Blue Grit, & Reviewer Transparency

[00:00:03] All right, what's up guys? We are back with another podcast episode. This week we're going to be talking about some PPA news. They got a huge investment. I had a tournament weekend where I used the Prism and had some pretty solid results. We're going to talk about that some more. We've got some paddles, the J2CR, some Dunlop paddles, the Friday Aura Pro, which I'm finally getting caught up on. And we're also going to talk about some reviewer transparency stuff that I've wanted to talk about for a long time.

[00:00:28] And some of the ways I've done some stuff, I probably should have talked about it more. And we're going to talk about that this week. And then in the kitchen, we'll have some Q&A. But first, the question of the week I have this week is, what is the best pickleball advice you've ever received? Good one. I'm curious to see what people have in the comments and what people can learn from that. So anyways, let's start off first.

[00:00:50] Unfortunately, we have some sad news that came out this week. So I had seen on social media that there was some posts about a small plane crash that I believe was in Texas. Some pickleball players were on their way to a MLP style tournament, I believe it was. And the plane took off. It was a small private plane only had five people, the pilot and then I believe four passengers. But it crashed shortly after takeoff.

[00:01:20] And at first, I, you know, I didn't think that much of it other than that. Obviously, it's sad. But then I realized that actually one of the people on there was someone that I knew. And I have played multiple times in a tournament. It was the guy that you and I played at the US Open. He's a lefty. His name's Justin. And he plays with the saw paddle. He's been on my channel multiple times from the match you and I played. And then I played him again in Vegas last year.

[00:01:49] And unfortunately, everyone on the plane died from the plane crash. So that was it's just really sad to see that he was on there because before we you and I had ever even played him. We saw him at a tournament. Yeah, first we met him was three years ago, Kansas City watched him play, I believe was a bronze medal match mixed. And I was like, there's no way this guy's using this paddle. He's playing incredible.

[00:02:11] And then shortly after like, the guy's just personality and style is very much so Larry, the cable guy. He was just really funny. Yeah. And then immediately after winning the match, he'd shotgun to beer. Like the guy was just hilarious. He was a really cool guy. Like you said, we'd played him in a tournament at the US Open. He's been on the channel. So it's really unfortunate news. It's really sad. Yeah, he will be missed.

[00:02:37] Yeah, he was he was a good competitor. Like you said, he's very funny guy. I every time I played with him good sportsmanship. Yeah, he just he's a really great guy. So you know, really sad news thoughts and prayers go out to the families of all these people.

[00:02:50] The other people that were on the plane were Soren Wilson, Brooke Skipala or Sky Paula, Stacey Hendrick and Hayden Dillard. Hayden Dillard was his mixed partner. So just really sad all around. It was really unfortunate news. And just having it be someone that I knew was just kind of crazy. So yeah, sad news, but just wanted to bring it up because I thought he was he was a great guy.

[00:03:13] Anyway, so anyways, moving on to the next piece of news. PPA just recently got a 225 million dollar investment. That's pretty insane. That is crazy. That is a lot of money. And you know, as I was thinking about it this week, a couple things kind of went through my mind. One, awesome to see pickleball keep growing. We want to see that money coming in, you know, just as the sport develops better.

[00:03:41] Hopefully that if pro pickleball gets bigger, that means more facilities are growing, you know, paddle companies grow. Hopefully it just means the whole ecosystem is growing. And 225 million dollars is a lot. And you know, as I was thinking about a couple things this week, because UPAA is also a nonprofit now, which was, you know, one of the big gripes when they came out was everyone's like, Oh, well, that's so closely tied to PPA. It's for profit. There's going to be a lot of bad decisions made because of that. And so props to them for becoming a nonprofit that takes away, I think,

[00:04:11] kind of one of the last big sticking points that people have had with them for the most part. For sure. And they've kind of done everything else. Well, I mean, like the spin rules have been great. I think at this point, it like far exceeds what USAP is doing in terms of like policing. And also just, I feel like it's been better across the board for what people want.

[00:04:30] They've definitely been slowly implementing small improvements over time that have been pretty big and helpful. So rather than like one big leap, it's kind of been like, okay, here's this, here's this, here's this. Fixing one problem at a time, doing it right. They've definitely made some pretty big, big steps forward, especially compared to USAP.

[00:04:51] Yeah. So that's been really good to see. And so then it just got me thinking, I was like, look, whether you want to hate the PPA or not hate the PPA, whatever side of the camp you fall on for, you know, things they've done in the past or whatever, whether you disagree, I'm like, they've done a lot of things that have like improved the sport in certain ways. I mean, in terms of pro pickleball, like pro pickleball is in a much better spot with it than without it, in my opinion. Obviously there's been like tour wars and there was all that drama, but I mean, like with APP stuff and I don't want to like put them down.

[00:05:20] Like I respect what they're doing and I like their tournaments when I've been to them. It's been a minute, but I think I played one maybe two years ago and I had a great time there. There's nothing wrong with the tournaments, but like I find the stuff on socials way easier from the PPA. It's usually higher quality than what they're doing. And then also this other thing I wanted to bring up was they have a docu-series that'll be out by the time you see this.

[00:05:41] Actually, the day we're recording this, the first episode comes out, but it's called Partners and it's like a TV reality docu-series just about the pro pickleball players. It seems to honestly just be focusing on it. It's all just about drama. It's probably going to be very much like a reality TV series without maybe the scripted part of reality TV, maybe. But just seeing the trailer for that, I was like, well, this just looks interesting.

[00:06:05] Like this, I've already like, you know, pretty invested in pro pickleball, but this I was like, I will be watching this. Yeah, it's definitely going to be very interesting. I'm excited to watch it. So, I don't know. I just think, I think they have done a lot of things for the sport that have like made it pretty interesting. Whether they've got it all right or not, you know, well, they obviously haven't gotten everything right, but I think they have done a lot of things that have been good. Yeah, they've definitely had some speed bumps down the road that just have not been great,

[00:06:29] but they've definitely done more for the sport than other organizations and it is definitely appreciated. APP to me feels like a local tournament on steroids. Like there's just not much coverage. It's hard to find. Yeah. Like you said, lower quality, less competitors. It's still, you know, a bigger tournament, but it just feels like a big local tournament. Yeah, right.

[00:06:57] So, yeah, PPAs are definitely much bigger, bigger events, well covered, easier to find. Yeah. Yeah. So, we'll see where that $225 million investment goes. I'm very curious how that's going to get allocated. Yeah. It's going to be interesting. Yeah. And then in other PPA news, which we'll go through quick. So, Tama, if you don't know who, if after this week you don't know who Tama is, you live under a bigger rock than I live under and I live under a pretty big rock. That is true. That is true.

[00:07:24] But this kid is crazy. 14 years old, makes it to the men's singles final, and then makes it to the semifinals of men's. Crazy. Look, I've been saying that this kid is going to go, one, on a huge run, guaranteed at some point. Two, he's going to be one of the best men's players, whether singles or doubles. The struggle for singles is his height.

[00:07:52] I think players like Chris Hayworth, who he played in the finals, or Roscoe, or any of these tall tennis players who have really good ground strokes, it's just going to be really easy to pass him. But if you get him in that cat and mouse game, dude, his backhand is elite. I seriously think he has one of the best backhands, particularly for singles, out of anyone on tour. He's had some really crazy matches. At the Masters, he played JW, had match point, lost it in three.

[00:08:22] He's had that happen a few times. So he's had some pretty unfortunate matches, but he finally made it through. He took down Hunter. He took down... Who's the other big one that he beat? I'm trying to think. Before he beat Hunter. While you think, I can maybe pull this up. Yeah, pull it up. It's just insane. And then men's doubles, he played with Yuta, the guy who I believe, I want to say he's Japanese. He was the number one soft tennis player in the world.

[00:08:51] He's a really good pickleball player. He has a crazy Tomahawk counter. I've played against him a few times. It's disgusting. So yeah, they made it to the men's... Was it the semifinals? Yes, I believe it was the semifinals. The men's semifinals. They took down some pretty crazy teams. I've known Tama for a few years. I've played with him a bunch. He's a really cool kid. He deserves all the success and more. Yeah. And I'm sure he'll have plenty more to come.

[00:09:21] He took down Noe as well. Yep, Noe. Before that, it's kind of hard to scroll through. I should have just went to the PPA Tour website. The app I'm using is a little harder to find individual matches. But either way, I mean, taking down Hunter, that alone is already a huge accomplishment. And then a semifinal for men's is wild. And what's crazy is I need to go back and see if I talked about Tama a couple years ago. Because when I went to Hawaii, because I believe that's where he's from. Actually, I'm not 100% sure about that.

[00:09:51] He just happened to be at the same Hawaii tournament that I was. I'm pretty sure he's from Hawaii. Because I thought it was just insane to me that he would fly to the mainland all the time to play tournaments. Sure. Because that is such a long flight. Yeah, totally. And a couple years ago, kids playing with a pro-Kennix Black Ace, 5-0 division, eating all the adults up. Dude is literally half the size of all the adults. And I was like, this kid's crazy. Like, this is insane. And so I'm just curious if I had mentioned him all the way back then.

[00:10:21] But either way, yeah, kid is crazy. I'm really excited to see what other results he's going to have. He just seems like also very chill, right? Like, he's not like super arrogant or anything. Yeah, he is really chill. Very mellow. I'm excited to see that. And then the other piece of news, Roscoe made it to a men's final. Dude. Look, I've never thought Roscoe was bad at doubles or anything. But if I was a betting man, which I am not, I don't think I would have bet on Roscoe in a men's doubles final in a minute.

[00:10:50] Here's the thing. What's crazy is Roscoe played. He partnered with Conor Garnett. Yep. They're both singles specialists. Not that they're bad at doubles. Yeah. And Roscoe, you know I love you. You're great. But they're not known for their doubles game. Yeah. I mean, Conor's been fine. Conor's been fine. But obviously, I would still categorize him as a single specialist. Sure. And yeah, they took down J-Dub and CJ Klinger. That was a pretty crazy match.

[00:11:18] And they made it all the way to the finals, played Ben and Gabe. And unfortunately, they got smoked. They did end up getting smoked in the finals. And I know Conor Garnett, not super well. We've talked a few times. But I just want to say, if you want to beat him, you just need to hit an ATP because you will bag him. And no, but here's what's funny about it. I was saying this the other day.

[00:11:44] So for those of you who don't know what we're talking about, there was some Instagram clips, two times, different matches. Opponents went for an ATP and it just ended up hitting him in the chest. They hit it high. Like it's going five feet past the baseline. It's hitting the wall. And he literally runs into the ball, right? Like if he didn't move, he probably wouldn't have gotten hit. But he moved into it. But you and I have joked about this where all the time. The meta in pickleball is obviously you're always trying to hit at people's feet. If they're in the midcourt, you hit it at their feet.

[00:12:14] But I have joked that if you just aim at people's chest, they have to pop up so much because they're usually so low that it's almost a better shot because it's less expected. So I'm like, maybe the stride with the ATPs is not to hit it low and in the court. It's just to aim it at their chest and smoke the ball. I have done that a few times where I know it's going to be wide and I just hit it as hard as I can. And if I hate them, I hate them. Yeah. You know? And hey, look, it worked. I doubt that was what they were trying to do. Especially how slow it was. I mean, that first one, I think it was against J-Dub and CJ.

[00:12:44] That ball was moving. That was like the slowest bag of all time. Yeah. And then Roscoe just hit the floor. Yeah. It was just hilarious. It's so funny. If you guys don't know, it's on Instagram. Go find the clip. I think it's on memes of pickleball. Yeah. Hilarious clip. It's really funny. But anyways, congrats to Roscoe and Connor for making it to the finals. It's pretty awesome. Yeah. Two also very nice and chill people. Yeah. Fun to see it. I mean, again, it's just... I think pro pickleball has been more interesting. Obviously, we still have a lot of Ben and Gabe are winning Ben and Annalise.

[00:13:13] But I feel like there's so much more variety these days than a handful of years ago. Who's making it to the final? The semis and earlier matchups are still really exciting. I mean, even all the Tama news, down to the quarterfinals, it was getting exciting. So it's like... Before, quarterfinals a couple years ago, I was like, okay, yeah. Just don't tune in until Sunday. Yeah. And then maybe there's a chance someone can beat Ben and Annalise or whoever. Actually, you know, this is somewhat off topic, but it just popped into my head. I had this conversation the other night with some friends.

[00:13:45] Ben and Annalise, their singles records are absolutely untouchable. Just guess what Ben's singles record is. I think I remember from a long time ago. It was like 168. Let me see. I got to find... Where's his account here? Here it is. Okay. Well, okay. Actually, first, guess his doubles win-loss. Win-loss? Yeah, win-loss. I mean, how far back does it go? His whole career? His whole career.

[00:14:15] Career win-loss. See, I feel like I'm going to way overshoot this. It's going to be way overshoot. I would be shocked if you overshot it. I see. But now that you say that, I'm definitely going to overshoot it. Okay. I'm going to say, like, I mean, man, what are you... Matches, not games? Matches. Man, I'm going to say, like... Maybe it's games? Okay. I don't know on Duper if it's games. It's just their record. Win-loss record. Oh, man. Yeah, I think...

[00:14:44] I don't know if that's good. 412 to 20. You are so far undershooting it, it's not even funny. 1,055 to 136. That's crazy. That is unbelievable. And his career high doubles, Man's Duper, 7.4, and his current is 7.1.

[00:15:11] His singles record is 312 to 33. That's crazy. Unbelievable. Like, these are records that will never be touched. And I think Annalise is even more insane. Oh, it's probably even more insane. Let me see here. Yeah, go pull that up. Like, I have to imagine hers is just bananas. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Well, I know she's been around for, like, almost as long, I feel like. So maybe she'll still have, like, just as many matches. Annalise, where is... There it is.

[00:15:41] Her doubles duper is almost 7-0. Crazy. Yeah. Okay. Guess the doubles. Well, now that I've heard Ben's, I'm gonna say, like, 998 to 73. You were actually really close. Really? 992 to 118. Oh, I had a good guess on the second time. That was really close. But singles is even more insane. Okay. I'm gonna... Okay.

[00:16:08] If Ben was 300, I'm gonna say, like, 280 to, like, 11. Wow. You're so close. Really? That's crazy. 307 to 12. Oh, wow. See, I just needed a little calibration. Yeah, you had some... I needed the first one. The calibration. Her average points one is 72%. That's crazy. Unreal. Unreal. Duper, I think mine is, like, barely 50. In doubles, her average points one is 60... Oh, gosh, this number. 67.

[00:16:38] Wow. Crazy. Unreal, dude. I... Again, these are... I know this is completely off-topic or random, but just those will never, ever be touched by anybody. Because now, like, everyone's getting so good that, like, you just have unlikely names. Yeah, right. It was, like, easier back in the day. Yeah, totally. Crazy. Well, let's talk really quick just about my tournament weekend here. Yeah, you had a good weekend. There will be... This is going to be spoilers. I guess if you're following the Duper Reset videos, this is...

[00:17:07] This video will come out at some point, so if you don't want the spoilers, then I would suggest you go ahead and skip this part now. But I'm going to talk about it in 3, 2, 1. All right. This weekend, I got silver in men's and gold in mixed. Now, the brackets, like, Minnesota... I don't know if other states are doing this, but a lot of times, it's labeled very differently these days.

[00:17:32] It'll say, like, 4-5 to 5-0 instead of this is the 5-0 bracket or this is the 4-5 bracket. So, realistically, I think if I probably looked at all the dupers of both of these, I would say the average Duper was probably a lot closer to, like, 4-7 than it was 5-0 because I feel like most of the high-level people played the Open, and I didn't play that because there was no Duper. But it's like... It's such a wide gap.

[00:18:00] It's like, okay, if I want to play 5-0 here, well, I don't want to go play the 5-5s in Minnesota because I just know I'm going to lose. There's, like, 0% chance I am beating these people. Right. So, anyways, I'd probably call it more of, like, a 4-5 division, I guess, than a 5-0 division because... Probably be accurate. Like, I feel like if you're winning a 5-0 tournament, you're probably playing some, like, 5-1s or 5-2s in the final, and that is not what I played against. So, anyways, yeah, silver and gold, and I used the Prism.

[00:18:30] So, there were people when I made my, you know, video about, like, oh, hey, I think people should use the control power. They're like, well, why don't you do it for chasing 5-0? And I was like, fine, I will. I will do it. And, well, okay, the main reason is I actually just like the paddle, so that's why I used it. But the interesting part of this is this weekend, I did not intend to use the Prism. So, first on Men's Day, I actually started with the RPM Friction Pro V2 because I had played

[00:18:56] some rec games a couple days before to shoot the first impressions that went up right before the tournament, and I was like, wow, I played some awesome rec. Like, I really liked the paddle. I was playing great. I had, like, no issues. So, I was like, well, I'll just use it. Why not? And so, we played pool play, and we just didn't play that well. I feel like, what were we, like, one in three in pool play or something? And so, I was like, I just, maybe I shouldn't be using this. Maybe I'm too tight. So, I was like, I'll go grab the Prism.

[00:19:24] And just cruised. Okay, cruised is too strong of a word. We scraped by in the bracket. I think our first game was, like, 13-15. Then the next one was 15-7. And then I think we had another 15-13. So, definitely did not cruise through the bracket. But played way better. Like, immediate, immediate difference going to the Prism. I was like, oh, wow. Like, I can swing the way I want to swing. The ball is not going out. Like, I'm not swinging like a maniac.

[00:19:55] Like, it is, I think what I'm learning is it's not that I can't use a power paddle. Because, obviously, I have used, as my main paddle, a power paddle for, like, the last year, year and a half or something. And I've had decent success playing with it. But I think what I'm learning is that when I'm under pressure, it becomes much harder. And with something like a Prism, I'm like, oh, well, I can just keep swinging the way I want to swing. Like, even if I'm nervous, I still have a lot of margin to make a mistake and not have it become a really bad mistake.

[00:20:25] Yeah, right. Whereas, like, the power paddle just amplifies the mistake. Yep. So, again, I don't think it's impossible for me to use. But, yeah, used the Prism on men's. And then on mix day, I was like, well, you know what? It's mixed. Like, I probably could use a little extra power, I guess. I'll just use the P1 because that's what I have considered my main for the last couple months. And, again, we did horrible in pool play. I think we were both just off, right? It just wasn't a great pool play.

[00:20:52] And then I was like, well, we'll just go back to the Prism because we know that worked. And then, again, went through the bracket, made it to the final. And I was like, well, this is awesome. This is great. So, I don't know, man. I am even more convinced than when I made the first argument that control paddles are still relevant. That a lot of people would either play better or more consistent or win more points using that than they would a power paddle. That does not universally apply to everyone. There's a lot of preference in that.

[00:21:22] But just with my own experience this weekend, I'm like, look, there was no point this weekend where I went, oh, man. If I didn't have a control paddle, I'd win that point. There was not a single point. I completely agree. Anyone who is not at the 5'5 qualifier pro level and they're like, oh, man, I'd be winning these matches if I had a power paddle. It's just so wrong. Yeah. Right?

[00:21:48] If you can't win at 4'0 or 4'5 with a control paddle, there's other things that need to be fixed. Yeah. Yeah. I completely agree. And, of course, whether you might just have a play style like you with your drops, like you prefer to just do less, like you may still prefer the power paddle and it may actually be better for you. But I just think that and this is to some degree the fault of reviewers, right? Like power paddles have been the thing that get talked about the most. And there just haven't been all that many control paddles.

[00:22:18] But like ever since the gearbox and the mod era where it felt like everyone did need a power paddle, I felt like that's just kind of what kept getting talked about and talked about. So then naturally all the consumers like, oh, we need a power paddle. We need a power paddle. Well, and here's the thing. Like there's nothing wrong with power paddles. It's just that I think most amateurs would play better pickleball with a less powerful paddle. Yeah. But that's just not going to be as enjoyable, right? Yeah. And most people who play pickleball are here for enjoyment.

[00:22:47] And if you are a competitive player, then you probably know your own game and know yourself. And at that point, you probably already know what paddle you should be using. Yeah, totally. It's definitely not as exciting. I mean, ripping a drive with the prism. It's funny, I actually like my drive more with a control paddle because I feel like it's just more accurate. But you definitely don't get the dopamine rush of like, oh, wow, that was an awesome drive or something.

[00:23:10] But, you know, I actually did check my I uploaded my games to PB vision and I checked my serve stats because I felt like I was serving really well the whole weekend. It was like 70 percent of my serves were in the back third of the court. And then what was it like 29 percent were middle and then one percent were shallow. And I'm like, well, that far exceeds I'm pretty sure what I would normally do with a power paddle like that. I feel like what's nice is I could just swing as hard as I wanted.

[00:23:39] And I knew it wasn't basically knew it wasn't going out. So my serve was even better with the control paddle because here's the thing. Even if it's not quite as fast, the fact that it's deep, keep someone back, sets you up for a better third. I don't know. I like I could probably hit it harder with the power paddle, but it's probably middle of the court or shorter. And then it's easier to return. Yeah. So I don't know. Maybe maybe unfortunately I'm just a control paddle guy. I don't know. We'll see. You probably are. I'm going to have to go dabble with like the saga or something.

[00:24:07] You know, I don't know if it needs to be as soft as the prism is. But I'm also like, man, I like this enough that why does it even matter? Maybe I'll just keep playing with it. Yeah. I mean, you've always liked softer, more control paddles. I mean, one of your other favorites was the Mach 2 Forza. So I mean, it's still one of my favorites. Still really good paddle. Exactly. I think you do just prefer softer feeling paddles. J2K mained that for a while. Trying to think. I did use a 003 for a really long time as well. Yeah. I don't know. We'll see.

[00:24:37] We'll see where it goes from here. The thing though is, you know, now that summer's coming, we'll be playing outside. That's where I'll be curious to see. Because I do think something that doesn't really get talked about enough is that, you know, through the winter, obviously a power paddle is going to get hard to use. Especially if you're playing outdoor in like 40 or 50 degrees, the ball's harder. The paddle's more firm. Everything gets hard to control. And then when it gets softer in the summer, it's like, okay, well now maybe a control paddle would get genuinely hard to use, right?

[00:25:03] If I took that prism to Florida, I'm probably not having a super fun time. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about this a ton. Yeah. Seasons, location, environments, it all changes. And what paddle you play drastically is affected. Yeah. So, I don't know. I have another tournament in a couple weeks here and I'll probably just use the prism again. Yeah. Unless I have to do something for work. In which case then maybe I won't. But I think if I want to perform well, I'll use the prism. Yeah. So, anyways, just thought I'd talk about that. Keep harping on.

[00:25:33] I don't think everyone needs a power paddle. And look, that paddle, the prism is three years old. And in my opinion, still plays basically just as good as everything else on that wall. Yeah. Like, and oh, someone did actually ask what my weight setup was because I think I didn't explain it that clearly. So, I'm just going to hold it. Day two CR since we're about to talk about this anyways. So, I have, let me do math here. You have three grand pods. Three, six, what is that? Yeah.

[00:26:02] 18 grams of weight. So, six. I have six grams on each side at the bottom corners. So, if you're watching the podcast, it's right here. If you're listening, I'm sorry. But it's just on the bottom corners. Like, directly where the bend is. And then I put three grams on each top corner. Like, again, where the bend is for my total 18. And the main reason for that was it not being a foam paddle or a Gen 3. I knew the sweet spot was going to suffer a little bit.

[00:26:31] So, I was like, okay, let's spread the weight out throughout the corners. Give me some more plow through for the wide body. And then, again, just amp up the sweet spot a little bit more rather than putting a 3.9. This is like the heaviest setup you've used in a while too. Yeah. Actually, I think when I checked my prism last week, it was like 121 swing weight. The gym is finally paying off. I was going to say, the gym's been helping out. The gym is actually paying off. You're packing on some muscle, huh? Yeah, seriously. Go to the gym, people.

[00:26:58] Maybe, just maybe, at some point, you can get real strong and graduate to an elongated. And then you really start winning. No. No, no, no. Just out of principle, I can't do it. Out of principle. Okay, let's talk about some paddles here. So, we have the J2CR. We finally got ours. Finally got a production model. And then, John had to run his spin test on my paddle before sending it to me. Which is, if you're watching, why there's a yellow cross or plus sign on this. Definitely very blue. Yeah, this paddle is super blue.

[00:27:28] When they said Crystal Blue Endurance Grit, they meant it was blue. I'm curious if the material they use has to be blue or if they're able to change that color. Not that that affects anything, but... Yeah, you're just curious. Purely different colors or something. Purely curious. Yeah. So, the main thing everyone's going to want to know about this paddle is spin and spin longevity. Obviously, I can't tell you that because we haven't had it that long. So, I can't give you any information about that. I know John has talked about it. So, you can go to him if you want it.

[00:27:56] I am, again, currently working through paddles. So, right now, the boomstick, since I didn't get to do it when I initially got one, the boomstick is about 40% complete through the grit testing. I think I'm at like 40 games. So, I'm going to try and power through that as quick as I can. And then, I think the J2CR is probably going to be next because that's just one I keep getting asked about a ton. And, honestly, I'm very curious because I want to say when John talked about his results, like 100 shots from the cannon, it literally dropped zero spin.

[00:28:25] And I'm like, that's bananas. That is insane. I mean, it wouldn't even have to be zero for it to be good, but zero would be extra good. Yeah. Right. And that's where I'm curious to see, you know, the real world stuff versus the cannon. I mean, John's shooting the ball pretty fast. I think it's like 70 miles an hour, 100 shots. That's pretty extreme. That's a lot. But, obviously, you're not getting like the dirt aggregate and debris from the court. So, maybe that interacts differently, you know. But, yeah, I'm very curious to see. But, anyways, that's where we are with the grit.

[00:28:54] I guess you can go first and then we can kind of go back and forth on this. Yeah. So, I've hit this a decent amount the last two days. Just drilling, hitting back and forth, testing. Unfortunately, for me, it is the J2CR. So, it is the shorter handle hybrid. But, feel-wise, it's nice. It is definitely on that more firm, you know, stiff, kind of hollow-ish. It does feel...

[00:29:21] I wish we had brought a regular CR this morning. Yeah, I agree. Because I haven't hit a stock CR in a while. So, it would have been nice to refresh the feeling if it is different or if it is the same. Yeah. But, basing off just the blue grit one that I hit today, felt good. It's not... It almost reminds me a little bit of, like, the P1 where it has a slightly cushioned feel, right? Like, it doesn't feel super poppy. Yeah.

[00:29:49] Obviously, it's still up there with power paddles. It's not lacking. And then, when it comes to the grit, which is what everyone wants to know about, in my opinion, it performed fantastic. Dinking at the kitchen was really easy to shape the ball with twoies from the midcourt. Rolls and stuff were great. And drives were not crazy, but good.

[00:30:14] So, overall, out of all the other performance grits that I've tested, I would probably put this up there next to the P1. That's probably, like, my one and two favorites. Yeah. I think what's going to be really interesting, you know, if they get the other shapes worked out and if the durability is as good, it's going to be very interesting to see how the P1 starts to fare against it. Because, obviously, the P1 has had a lot of shipping issues. People have been waiting a really long time. And they are on the heavier side.

[00:30:43] And this is not super heavy. 112. Yeah. I mean, that's so reasonable for a hybrid. P1s are, like, 117, 118. Yeah. So, for a hybrid, that's pretty heavy. But this does not seem to be affected a lot by whatever texture they're applying. Like, it's not adding an excess amount of weight. Yeah. So, if it's... Twisterweight was almost 7. That's crazy for a hybrid. It was 6'8", I think. Yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah. It's kind of wild. So, I feel like if it can spin, you know, just about as good.

[00:31:10] And if longevity, I mean, clearly from John's testing, at least so far, seems to be very promising. That, I feel like, is going to make it really tough for the P1. Just because I know they're going to have the other shapes at some point. But Honolulu will, I'm sure, inevitably have all the shapes they usually have. Yeah. And then, at a slightly cheaper price, and you're getting similar characteristics in terms of spin. And the feel, not quite what the P1 is. I think the P1 is a tiny bit more plush.

[00:31:37] But I agree with you where it doesn't have quite that, like, same... It's not super stiff and hollow like some of the other Power Pals out there. Like, it shifts in the direction of a P1 more than something like a Loco. But it's not as drastic. Yeah. Yeah. So, I feel like that could be a huge selling point for them. But then, I guess, you have to factor in the fact that, for those of you that it matters, is the J2CR Crystal Endurance Blue Grit, which is a crazy... That's a wild name.

[00:32:06] It's just so long. Like, hang on. How long could we make this name? It would be Honolulu J2CR Crystal Blue Endurance Grit. So, if you... That's still not the craziest name in pickleball. I mean, it's a pretty crazy long name. There's worse, right? It's not great, but there's worse. Yeah. But anyways, you have to factor in that the P1 is USAP approved and this is not. Yeah.

[00:32:35] So, that could definitely sway things depending on where you fall, what tournaments you go to. I mean, for me, right now, it's UPA approved. I think that's great. You know, I like that. But, this is the only shape they have this grid on right now? Yes. But they're coming out with their other shapes. I think they are planning to come out with more. I mean, give me a J6 with this. Fantastic. Let me see, actually, what they have on their approved list right now. Yeah. They just have two J2CRs.

[00:33:03] It's interesting to me that they went with the J2CR first to put the grid on instead of the 6CR because the 6CR is what they launched first for the CR line. So, I don't know why they chose that. Yeah, but I feel like the J2 shape is kind of what made them popular. Yeah, I agree. And so, it makes sense that this is what they would want to put new tech on first because this is what clearly the market likes. Yeah.

[00:33:30] So, from the early impression so far, I would say if the grid holds up, yeah, this paddle is going to be really popular. Yeah. If it actually does hold up, it's going to be crazy. I mean, it doesn't feel like insanely gritty. Yeah. You know, but it's kind of like the P1 where you can tell it's got some more friction to it. Like tackier almost. Yeah, right. Feeling where John was shooting the ball at it, though. Like, you can tell a difference here in the center versus out on the edges.

[00:33:58] And I don't know, maybe just that application of how that grid is applied. I have heard. I think it was maybe John that said that. Like, on his, it was a little uneven. Yeah. So, I don't know if it's that. Like, this one doesn't, it feels like pretty reasonably even. There's no spot where I'm like, whoa, whoa, it got like way grittier there. Yeah. Like this, I don't know, it feels pretty reasonable. But again, playing with it was good. Sweet spot was solid. It was easy to reset with. Volley's really nice.

[00:34:25] Obviously, the J2 shape being, you know, 112 swing weight is pretty quick in the hands. So, hands battles felt good. Overall, I really, I really don't have anything bad to say about it. I think it's, I have a feeling if the grid's there. It's like, I'm only going to be, because that was my only complaint with the 6CR is I was like, yeah, this is like a solid paddle. But I just think with the long lasting grits that are basically the same price, it was like, why not just go buy those? Yeah. And that issue is basically solved now.

[00:34:54] Once, once the J6, once we get a J6 with that grid on it, I'm very curious to, you know, try that because it's my preferred shape. But at the moment, I mean, because the P1 only also comes in hybrid, at least that we have right now, I have to compare those. But an elongated P1 and elongated J6 with the blue grit, I seriously think those will become my two, top two favorite long lasting texture paddles. All right. Nice.

[00:35:23] Well, let's talk about, we have some paddles from not a new company, but new to Pickleball, Dunlop. Dunlop. This is crazy. Dunlop's getting in the game. Let's see if these will stand up. Let's see. These are the best handles. They will stand up because Dunlop knows what's up and Dunlop knows how to make handles. Yeah. They, they stand perfect. That's awesome. They never stand this nicely. Okay. So there's going to be a lot to talk about with these paddles because there's so many.

[00:35:51] So I'm going to try and like make this quick and easy and then we'll kind of get into some of the nitty gritty. So they have three lines of paddles and what we have is the three series. So there's the TT3, which stands for tactician, the CR3, which is creator. And then the AG3, which is aggressor. So aggressor three, but then they also have another line, same thing, but it would be five. So TT5, CR5, AG5. We don't have the fives.

[00:36:19] I think I was told those aren't coming out until much later, but I also saw them on the website. So I don't know. Anyways, we don't have those. Those are an edgeless version. They are more expensive. These are edge guard versions. So that's what we're going to be talking about. Yep. The other thing, if you're watching the podcast, you'll notice that generally speaking, these shapes all look very similar. So I think when they designed these, there might've just been a little bit of a mistake in the understanding of dimensions.

[00:36:47] So they are the length of a standard shape, but then they're the width of a wide body hybrid and elongated. Yeah. So basically you're not even close to using the full dimensions on most of these. The second you handed me the AG3, the power paddle, and you said this was supposed to be the elongated one. I was like, you're smoking crack. Yeah. You think this isn't elongated. Right. It's not.

[00:37:15] And then we found out later that the dimensions are not correct. Yeah. So, you know, looking at these, they're all, they'll look extremely similar. But it's supposed to be each shape was going to be, or each line was a different shape. So the control paddle, the TT, their tactician was the wide body, the CR, the all court was supposed to be the hybrid. And then the aggressor was supposed to be the elongated. It makes sense.

[00:37:41] And then they also all change in thickness down the line. I think it's 16, 15, 14. Yeah. So 16 for control, 15 for all court, 14 for the aggressor. Yep. And so we'll kind of go down these, the main one that I think most people are going to care about, at least on this channel is just going to be the aggressor. And I think the other two, most people really aren't going to care that much about. So we'll start there. So the AG3 is $259.99. Definitely an expensive price to come in.

[00:38:10] I think we will have a discount code for those by the time you listen to this. And I assume that'll probably take off 10%. But the build is really interesting. It's quite a bit different than what we've seen from other foam core builds. We'll try and pop up a picture on screen if you're listening. But it's an EPP core that is a sandwich. So there's three foams. It's EPP, PMI foam, EPP. No, PMI foam is not a foam we've seen a lot used because that was actually the foam that

[00:38:39] was originally used in the metal bone, the bad metal bone. Yep. So it's triple core there, which is kind of interesting. Then it has a PU outer ring and then another EPP outer ring. So it's dual outer rings and then the sandwich core, which is just extremely different. Now, you are going to be the only one to be able to talk about this because I actually have not really hit this at all. I was planning to hit it this morning. They sent us two.

[00:39:07] And yesterday, one of them disbonded, which is... I think it just came disbonded. It must have been that because I think you had the second one the whole time. And then when the first ball I bounced on this one was like, wait, that's... It was immediate. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like it was fine. We played with it and it broke. It was just that's how it showed up. Yeah. So one of them came disbonded. And then that, unfortunately, was the one I grabbed this morning without realizing it. And then I couldn't hit it because obviously it was disbonded.

[00:39:36] So you'll have to kind of fill in what you think of it. Yeah. I've played a few games with it. We drilled and hit a little bit with it when we were testing some paddles. Again, I think the handles are incredible. They're fully molded handles. They're up there with some of the best handles. Are they fully molded or are they just a hard pellet? I guess I haven't liked... I thought they were fully molded. Okay. I'm not 100% sure on that, but go ahead. Okay. I'm also not 100% sure, but I thought they were.

[00:40:04] Shape is definitely a little odd, especially because it was not quite the correct dimension. So I'm not going to harp on that too much. But it is definitely a pretty rigid paddle, pretty stiff. It's a 14, so it's thinner. It's not like a Waves or a Genesis, but it's not hollow. So it's definitely still... It's stiff and it's getting close to that dense category, which is not great.

[00:40:34] But it plays better than some stiff and dense pedals that I have used. So it wouldn't be quite my feel profile preference, but it was okay. Okay. Sure. For the price, I definitely think it's overpriced. Yeah. Especially without having a longer lasting grid. It's just regular peel ply. Yeah. Which I think makes it tough. To where the performance is for other paddles you can get at 260, I definitely think this would be pretty low on the list. Yeah. But it was solid, right? It wasn't like bad.

[00:41:04] It's not like it's a metal bone. But yeah, it just was kind of underwhelming. I didn't have a ton to say. Sweet Spot was okay. Power was solid. Were there any specific areas that stood out or didn't stand out? No, not really. Again, it was just a slightly different feel that I'm used to because I've gotten so used to all the flood of stiff and hollow paddles that we have in the power realm right now with all these foam core paddles.

[00:41:31] So it was a little bit unique in the construction and the feel. It definitely was different. I didn't hate it. But I would like to see that same construction in a 16 with proper dimensions. I think that'd be pretty interesting. I wonder if that would get pretty heavy. Don't have the specs written down here. We did get the specs on it. But I believe because the dimensions are off a little bit, it is pretty light. I can probably actually get it for you here. Yeah, you should be able to pull it up in the...

[00:42:02] So one of our units was a 116 swing weight and the other was a 114. And that's without being a proper elongated. So if you imagine an elongated and a 16 with more material, we're probably talking 120 plus minimum. Which is not like that crazy. Like that's a little bit heavier than what we've had in the elongated category recently. But again, the standard for elongated not that long ago was like 122. Yeah. So I don't think it'd be that crazy.

[00:42:32] Again, played fine. I think the sweet spot was solid. So yeah, it was just a bit underwhelming to me. Sure. Yeah. Oh, actually, here's how you rank it. If you're talking first... What? Go ahead. No, you go ahead and then I'll... I was just going to say of first entries from like, you know, bigger outer companies. Like, how would you place it? Yeah. For their first entry into pickleball paddles, I'm actually fairly impressed. I think they did a pretty good job.

[00:43:01] You know, they are a pretty well-known big brand, big name. So I get they have to price them pretty high. But I definitely don't think it's worth it. But it's better than some other brands' first attempts. Right? Like, I would take these over Adidas paddles. I'd take these over Babelot's paddles. I'd take... You're talking just probably the initial ones. Because I imagine like the newer Adidas is probably more in line with what you would take. Yeah. Only because the shape is correct. Sure. Right?

[00:43:32] But yeah, for their like initial paddles for all these brands, I definitely think Dunlop did a pretty solid job with these. What I was going to say is the Edgeguard is kind of unique and interesting. Yeah. It has an interesting like line or flair in the center of it. Yeah. It's kind of beveled on the sides here. But what's interesting is the material does feel different, a little different than some Edgeguards. But what I think is cool is they almost like... I don't know if it's like melted or how it's embossed.

[00:44:01] But the way they put their logo on the paddle and at the top it says love the game. It's kind of textured and embossed. It's really cool. And I like... And it's very subtle. Like you can't see it unless you're looking closely at it. I just think that's a kind of a unique cool touch that I haven't seen in other paddles. Yeah, totally. And then the other ones, we'll just go over those really quick. But again, I think most of you listening to this podcast probably aren't going to be too interested in the others. The CR is $229.99.

[00:44:30] It's a polypropylene core. I believe Gen 2 thermoformed. But then it's similar to the old Spartus Olympus. The foam or the cells are injected with foam. Not all the way through the whole core though. It's I think a decent amount of the core. But primarily in the center basically is where it's injected with foam. I don't think it goes all the way out to the end. I played with it a little bit. It was fine. But for $229, I wouldn't be able to recommend it to basically anyone.

[00:44:57] I think there'd just be too many other options at different other prices that are better. And then the tactician, which is the control, is $199. And again, as someone who just played with the prism and hitting this, I was like, yeah, feels fine. I had no real complaints with it or anything. Definitely very soft. I would want to put weight on it, especially at the head for the control one. Yeah, I just think at that point it's like there's the jelly beans from 11624. There's the prisms from Vatic.

[00:45:25] There's a Mach 2 Forza and that's only like $129 now. So I just think there's too many other really good options where I wouldn't be able to probably recommend either of those two over anything else. Again, I haven't gotten to hit the AG3, so I can't really speak to any of that. But hopefully I'll get to hit that at some point and then maybe I'll be able to give you guys some thoughts on that. Yeah. They're just expensive for what they are.

[00:45:52] Again, like you could either get the TT or you can get two prisms. So yeah. It makes it tough. Totally. Totally. But actually, I don't think you have it down here with you. They sent a bag that you really like. Never mind. Isaac's got the bag. Look, I like this thing so much. I made sure I brought this down with me. Now, this is going to get a little awkward putting this on the table because it is such a large bag. So I'm going to try and put it up here and see if we can make it look all right. So Dunlop had a tournament bag and this is what they sent all the paddles in.

[00:46:20] And I saw the bag and I was like, oh, this is probably way too big for anything I want. This is a huge bag. Yeah, it's very big. So Isaac was like, oh, can I take it? And I was like, go for it because I don't think I'm going to use it. And then randomly, Isaac comes back and is like, this is my favorite bag ever. Look, I have been flip-flopping back and forth. Recently, I've used a lot of smaller bags. Like I've used the Ford Ranger a lot and I like the, you know, quick, light, just throw a couple paddles in there, a few balls, you know, my stretch warm-up equipment. And I'm good to go.

[00:46:49] But I had a tournament recently and I've been testing a lot more variety of paddles. So it is nice to have a bigger bag. Guys, I did not expect this. But this seriously is the greatest tournament bag I have ever used. So random. I did not expect that. Dude, I love this thing for so many reasons. Okay. First of all, if you can see it, yeah, you can see it on my camera. This handle right here in the very center is such an underrated feature.

[00:47:17] It's, you know, like the Franklin bag has the two straps that can like Velcro together in the center. But then if you Velcro those together, you can't open the middle of the bag or you can, but then it's blocked. This one doesn't do that. And two, you can just pick it up like a duffel bag. It's just super convenient. The center opens up down the whole middle. And I have a ton of crap in here, so I'm not going to like go through everything. But it's just an insane amount of space on the inside.

[00:47:46] There's some dividers and pockets on the inside for organizing things. I just, I like it so much that you can open it up completely. You can see everything in the bag. There's tons of pockets on the outside. Two water bottle holders, organizing pockets on the outside, and then insulated paddle sleeves on both sides. It also does have, this is a paddle slot. This is a paddle sleeve in the front. And it's magnetic if you don't use it, which I think is really cool. And all the zippers, very high quality.

[00:48:14] They have very nice plastic molded zipper pull tabs, so they're not going to break. Two small organizing pockets for small accessories for phones and keys and stuff. So that's one of my favorite pockets on any bag. It also has a shoe pocket at the bottom. It stands up really well. I seriously don't have anything bad to say about this. If you don't like big bags, then yeah, you'd probably hate this.

[00:48:42] But, nah, seriously, this is the best bag I've ever used. Crazy. And I just looked it up. The bag is $149.99. So that's pretty in line with most normal bags. Yeah. You know? For less than $150. After a code, that's probably even cheaper. I seriously would not recommend any other tournament bag. Wow. Not even close. That's crazy. Well, high praise for the Dunlop Tour Bag. While the paddles may not have done a prize with the bag, somehow nailed it.

[00:49:12] It also has another laptop or paddle sleeve in the back that is ginormous. That's gigantic. That's this size. Crazy. Well, yeah. When you told me that, I was not ready for you to like that bag so much. You know, they might have missed a little bit on the paddles, but man, whoever designed

[00:49:40] this bag, you deserve a raise. All right, then. Well, let's move on to the next paddles. Yeah. Let's see if these can stand on their own. They better. They better. Oh, I think they do. Hey, look at that. Friday stands up to a plus plus for the handles. So Isaac has obviously been a big fan of the Aura Pro.

[00:50:06] I didn't they didn't have the hybrid and wide body when they initially sent it to us. And so I was kind of waiting on those. And now I've gotten to hit them. Now, unfortunately, one of our wide bodies, because they sent us to the disbonded. So this is the most like and again, I think it just came that way. Like it didn't. I don't think it did. I think it I think because I played singles with it and I didn't notice anything wrong with it. So I played singles with it. I played one game the night before. Then Isaac and I went to go drill and Isaac was hitting it.

[00:50:34] And all of a sudden he hit a ball and we were like, wait, what was that noise? That wasn't right. And then we started checking. I was like, oh, no, that's for sure. Disbonded. Yeah. And so near the throat, it disbonded, which is crazy because, again, like in the time that we have had foam paddles, like think I can. How many foam paddles have we personally had that have disbonded? Less than five. Like, I can't. I don't even know which other ones I can think of. Like, I'm looking at the wall and I don't like.

[00:51:05] Can you even think of one? I know we've had at least one. I feel like we have. I just can't think of it. Yeah, I can't think of it either. But either way, the point is, it's crazy that we've had like none and then two in one week. Yeah. So I don't know. Could just be a fluke. I even asked them. I think they said they've had like less than 10 total reported disbonded. So maybe we were just really unlucky. But just thought I would mention it that ours did disbond. But we had a second one. So I got to hit that one.

[00:51:34] So I'm going to talk about this. Obviously, Isaac has been a huge fan. First thing I'm going to say is I started with the wide body and the first night I hit it, I played singles and I was like, holy crap. I get why everyone likes this paddle. This is a really flipping good paddle. And then I was so confused because I had hit the elongated or pro for a podcast one time and I just didn't remember having that reaction at all. Like, I didn't think it was bad. I was just kind of like, yeah, it's fine. Like, no, nothing big about it. But, you know, it's good paddle.

[00:52:04] But the wide body is like, wow, I love this thing. And then the second one also felt the same. Then after hitting all of them side by side, we realized they actually do feel different. So this I say this in reviews a lot. You guys have probably heard me say it. But generally speaking, whatever shape you buy, paddles are going to play about the same. Whether you buy a hybrid, a wide body or an elongated, the only differences are the things you would usually expect. Wide body will be lighter, faster in the hand, bigger sweet spot, less plow through.

[00:52:32] The inverse applies for the elongated and then a hybrid sits somewhere between. That's usually why you're choosing a shape. And then very rarely does it happen that a shape actually truly changes the performance. Like the Carbon Genesis 2 was a great example of like... The Fury. The Fury. The hybrid was very different from the elongated. Crazy different. So sometimes that happens, but not often. Well, in this case, the wide body is pretty different from the other two. Yep. And the biggest thing that it comes down to is the feel.

[00:53:02] So the wide body is in a category that is not super heavily occupied by many paddles, which is closer to the soft and hollow spectrum. Like if we're looking at the whole little line graph or whatever, I'd either place it like dead center on the line between stiff and hollow or just barely creeping into soft. But then you hit the other two and it's like, okay, these are stiff and hollow. Like undoubtedly those are stiff and hollow and then this feels very different.

[00:53:32] I like... They're all good. But for me, I would lean pretty heavily towards the wide body and how it feels. So funny because we're so different. Yeah. Like I hit it this morning. Just not a huge fan of how it felt. Like there's soft and hollow paddles that I like, you know, most of the MPP paddles, like the Inferno, the Turbo. Like I like those, but this is just different enough that I don't know. I just could not get a handle on it. Wasn't a fan.

[00:54:02] I'd be curious if it was in your preferred shape, if that would change it at all. Could definitely make a difference for sure. Yeah. But I thought it felt awesome. Like, and again, there's not many paddles that occupy that. Like I kind of think some of the MPP paddles, like the Inferno, the MPP Turbo, and the Gearbox GX2 Power are kind of in that area. And this fills that as well. Yeah.

[00:54:28] So just know that if you are picky about how a paddle feels, the shape you buy of these is going to influence that. Personally, I'm in the camp of the elongated and hybrid. Not that I would play with the hybrid, but just it feels more like the elongated. They're very similar. Yeah. I like them a lot more. Also, something to point out, the handle shape of the wide body and the hybrid, way different. Yeah. It's really interesting. The circumference, it's more on the wide body.

[00:54:58] It's more blocky and a little bit bigger circumference. And then the hybrid is a little bit smaller. It's like a four and one eighth. More traditionally shaped. And the bevel feels like a little more defined, maybe. Yep. Yeah. It's weird. I don't know what's up with that. I don't know if that's just a weird manufacturing run. I did look at their website and the grips are all listed as four and a quarter. So they're definitely different. Maybe that hybrid is just a one-off in terms of the handle. Could be.

[00:55:25] But either way, I'm pretty big fan of these. Like in a way where I would say that, you know how the Loco kind of put bread and butter on the map where it was like, oh, this is finally up. Like people didn't take them that serious until the Loco. It was like, oh, you could buy it. Like it's okay. Or other paddles. But it's like you're kind of buying it for the marketing. Friday, I feel like before they had great value paddles. The Fever was a great Gen 3 for $100. The original was a great deal for as cheap as it was.

[00:55:53] But I feel like they never really had that paddle that just really competed with everything else. The Aura Pro, I mean, is like in the realm of like what the Loco did for bread and butter. I could see the Aura Pro doing that for Friday. Yeah, I could see that. Where they'd be a lot more well-respected for performance. I'd agree with that. But even today, I was shocked how hard you were hitting your drives with either the hybrid or elongated. And the hybrid didn't even have weight on it. Yeah, with no weight with the hybrid. Honestly, it was pretty shocking.

[00:56:20] Like, I mean, these paddles rip the ball. It's crazy. I can't express how much I like the feel of these paddles. Yeah, they're definitely very solid. Wide body. Honestly, I mean, I would probably, you know, if I review it, then obviously I would add weight just to dabble around, but even stock playing it with it. I was like, I have no complaint. Like if you told me I had to play at stock, there's nothing about me that's going, oh, like just really needs weight. Like it just played well out of the box.

[00:56:50] So we'll see. You know, obviously it'll dabble around. But yeah, I'm the Aura Pro. I'm digging quite a bit. Now it makes me want to go back and hit the Aura just as an all-cord option. Because who knows? Maybe with what I've been liking with the Prism, maybe the Aura is like a little bit more. Yeah. So I just got to hit these more. Like I think Friday's got a pretty big winner. I've hit all three shapes of the regular Aura. Those don't feel different. Like those all feel the same. Sure.

[00:57:17] So it's very interesting that the Pro in the wide body is so, so different. Yeah. So keep that in mind. You know, if you are someone who maybe was interested in something like a soft and hollow paddle, then the wide body is for you. But again, I also don't think if you prefer elongated, I wouldn't tell you go buy the wide body. You know, just buy your preferred shape, but just know that they do feel a little different. And maybe if you have some friends that have the paddle, try theirs before you buy and get an idea of it.

[00:57:46] But yeah, I thought it was just interesting that they felt different. And I actually called the owner and we had a little conversation and I just asked him, I was like, did you guys notice the same thing? Like the wide body feels a little different than the elongate? And he's like, yeah, we did notice the same thing. I mean, it's early, early in the year, but or a pro like top five paddles of the year for me so far. Dude, that's pretty good. Yeah, that's pretty good. I'm impressed.

[00:58:12] Okay, next up, now that we got through the paddles, I wanted to talk about an article that came out this week. I thought this was just an interesting article. And I actually agree with just about everything in the article. There's maybe a couple things that I think are overstated, which I'll get to at the end. But I actually talked. It's funny. The day I released my video about where did chasing five O go? I actually talked about this. And also, for those of you who watched that video, thanks for all the kind words. I actually I said this on Instagram, but I think I needed to vent a little more than

[00:58:42] I maybe realized. And it felt good just to talk about that. But one of the things I talked about, which was a side note to the chasing five O stuff was just about like paddle reviews where this year I have been slower and late last year, slower to make content than I would prefer because it was just spending so much time trying to like perfect a script or like, oh, I need to put 20 hours on this. And then I need to compare it to all these paddles. And it was just kind of like testing, grit testing.

[00:59:10] That's taking up way too much time. 80% of the time. I should just be smart like John and buy a ball cannon. I'd be done by now if I did that. But John is older and wiser than me. So he understands. But and so one of the things I talked about in there, too, is, you know, there's always these like criticisms of reviewers like, oh, they're all shills. They're all sellouts. Oh, it's this commission's higher than this one. And this is why they always talk about this.

[00:59:36] Like, oh, they Honolulu always jumps ahead in line because they have a higher commission. And something I haven't talked about a lot because I think it it always felt to me like, oh, I'm holier than everyone is like my commissions are capped. Yeah, I it's all capped at 15%. There's not a brand that gives me more than that. At previously, it was capped at 20%. And then I was like, I think it should probably just be capped at 15. So I capped it at 15.

[01:00:06] We'll come back to that because I feel like I need to give the whole premise of this article. I feel like I skipped ahead a little bit. For sure. But anyways, anyways, those of you who watch the Chasing 5-0 video, thanks for the kind words. And then the reason I brought that up is because I put that up and then later that evening found this article. So it's just funny timing that all of this came out. But anyways, so the premise of this article is basically just talking about, hey, look, there is and it was from Reload Pickleball. For those of you who remember the company that did the reloadable face sheets to swap your

[01:00:34] grit, they wrote the article. So and I'll leave a link down below if you want to read it. But basically, the premise was just, hey, look, reviewers don't get paid to do a review. They're not being told like, hey, here's X amount of dollars. Now go make me a good review. The how all reviews work, to my knowledge, maybe it's different and I'm unaware. But for the most part, the history of reviews in pickleball, it has been, hey, reviewer, you get a discount code.

[01:01:01] And if your audience uses the discount code, then you get a commission or a percentage of the sale for reviewing that panel if they use your code. Otherwise, no one uses your code. And that is not unique to pickleball. No, yeah. This is common in other industries like tech. We've got MKBHD, the biggest reviewer in tech who does phones and stuff. He's on the same, you know. Well, actually, I don't think there's commission for phones, but for other products there are. And then, you know, Rick Shields and golf.

[01:01:30] He is under the exact same format of how we do things. Totally. It's a product reviews it. He doesn't get paid. There is commission. Yep. So if you buy and get a commission, if you don't, then no money made. Yep. But basically, the other premise of the article was like, hey, look, reviewers, while there is this like, hey, we're unbiased, we're unbiased, there is a variance in the commission percentages. So one company may opt to pay 10%. Company B may opt for 15%.

[01:02:00] Company C could offer 30%, right? So it's like, okay, is it truly unbiased if one company offers 10% and another offers 30%? Because that difference on, let's say, a $200 paddle starts to add up and be a pretty significant difference. So basically, the article was exploring like, hey, look, yeah, you're not getting paid. And you might say like, hey, the commission doesn't sway anything. But that gap is pretty big.

[01:02:27] And no one talks about that gap being a thing. Yep. Right? So it's like, what if you disclose that? How would the audience feel? Which that is a completely valid statement. Like, that's completely valid. I completely understand that there's definitely, you know, some amount of incentive towards a brand that offers more. And we can't control what anyone else does, right? Whether they take more percentage from one brand or another. But like Christopher said, we cap it.

[01:02:57] And this was something I realized, I don't want to say early on, but a couple years ago. So Honolulu, when I learned about their commission percentage, I emailed them and I said, hey, look, I'm not comfortable with this commission percentage. Like, I would like you to lower it. And then they just ended up donating my commissions to a charity to bring it down. And so that's how mine worked with them. And then it was like, I could just see more.

[01:03:27] I saw companies like, as time has gone on, like some companies will go a little higher. And it's clear that it feels like it's not saying like, hey, look, please do this because we're giving you a higher percentage. But it feels that way a little bit like, hey, we can stand out a little bit more if we offer this. And so when I started seeing that, it just felt, I guess, uncomfortable to me in that like, OK, I personally believe knowing myself, I wouldn't let that sway things.

[01:03:53] But I also know that people listening to this, that it's money. The world is greedy. And anytime money is involved, people are never going to believe your intention is right when there's more money at stake. So to me, it was like, OK, look, let's cap this now so that this doesn't ever become a problem. Because when I review something and say it is good, I want people to believe that I'm actually saying it's good because I think it's good, not because I could make more money from it. Yep. And so that's why it's capped.

[01:04:22] I don't think everyone needs to do that. It's America. Do whatever you want. But for me to feel better and sleep better at night, that's why I personally capped it. And so the article just goes on to explain like, hey, look, there is a lot of trust in these reviewers because it's like you build this audience. They have a lot of trust for what you're saying. You've given them good information.

[01:04:43] So then as that trust is built, if these commissions keep going up, up and up and the trust is high, well, now that person can basically push a paddle with a higher commission and make more because there's inherent trust built in. So that's kind of what it explores. Again, if you want the whole picture, you can read it down below. It's a very short read. It'll probably take you like three minutes. I can understand that thought process. But like in actual real world, like how that would play out would just be so unbelievably risky.

[01:05:12] You spend all this time, effort and like just investment into building an audience and a brand and then doing something so risky that could absolutely topple that over very quickly. But I think it is. I think to me, like the way I read the article and I think about it is less about, hey, I'm going to let I'm just going to make up numbers here. These are not real numbers. I just want to be clear. Let's say the the metal bone was like, hey, here's 50 percent commissions.

[01:05:40] I don't think the article is suggesting that someone would go, hey, this really crappy paddle is now the bomb dot com. It would be more like, OK, paddle one gives me 15 percent. Paddle two gives me 25 percent. Let me put the 25 percent one in the number one slot and maybe I'll put like a 10 percent one in the number four slot. Yeah. So it's like not inherently lying or inherently I'm pushing a bad paddle.

[01:06:09] It's like, well, I could just put this one a little bit higher. I think that's kind of what the article is exploring, which I think is like a valid and reasonable take. Right. Like, I think that's a thing that could absolutely happen for sure. Let me go through my notes here. I think I had even more on this because, again, I agree with it. I don't think. Yeah, I will get to what I disagree with at the end.

[01:06:31] But I guess the next thing I just want to talk about was like, I think it's also important to realize, too, like people will say, oh, man, like you just can't trust any reviewer. Because if there's any commission at stake, you just can't trust them. And maybe to some extent that's true. Right. Like if there is money on the line, is it 100 percent unbiased? I like to think for ours that it is. But I understand why people would look at it and go, oh, like anytime there's money involved, like look at other industries. I'm this way with other industries.

[01:07:00] I'll like start looking at something like what is one of the best examples when I was researching mattresses. The mattress world is horribly riddled with like crazy affiliate links. Some pay crazy amounts. Like I went down this whole deep dive of just the mattress world and like how basically taking opinions from like any of the websites or that world is just like impossible. And like the people who are really deep, it's a whole I'm not even going to get it all. It is a crazy world.

[01:07:30] Landing on a mattress was not easy. But like I don't even know what the point I was trying to make with that was. Anyways, that whole world is crazy. But what I think is like interesting is that I don't think you can possibly have someone who earns zero money and pumps out content and quality at the rate that people want it to. Like this is more than a full time job for me.

[01:07:56] Like these days I try and really cap my hours just for my own sanity so I don't lose my mind. But in the early days of Pickleball Studio, like before you were really in it, easily 80 hour work weeks to pump out these reviews. And like I just don't think you're ever going to find someone that goes, you know what? Let me find a way to review like two paddles a week or more. Do a podcast. Do all this other content. And let me just do it for free.

[01:08:24] I just don't think that'll exist because you if you were doing it for free, it means one of two things. You are independently wealthy. OK, maybe that person exists, but are they going to choose to put all their time into a pickleball review channel? And then two, if you aren't independently wealthy, well, then you probably have to work a job, which means you can't put out as much content. Yeah. So my point in that is not to say like, oh, look at me. Trust me. Like I'm the best. Everything is like fine. It's just more for transparency. Yeah.

[01:08:52] It's more just to understand transparency. Yeah. Transparency. It's more to understand that. Like, look, I don't think you're ever going to find a world where someone can put out all the reviews you want to see and they make no money. It is a crazy amount of time and effort to produce the videos that we do at the level we want. Right. Like there's just so many moving parts of having to get, you know, the paddles filmed, the specs and data. Playtesting.

[01:09:23] The time playtesting. Grit testing. The grit testing. The writing the script, you know, coming up with your opinion, like the actual editing. Gameplay. Yeah. Everything. It's just so much time. And to do more than just one or even, you know, one a week with a podcast, like you said, everything else we do. It's a lot. Yeah. It's not easy. Yeah. And again, this is not meant to be a boo-hoo. Woe is me. Like, look, we love this job. We would not change it for anything. I'm not saying that, oh, it's so hard.

[01:09:52] Like, it's not that. It's more just to put it into context that it's like, look, it is a lot of work to do the thing. And on that same note of like, hey, look, you know, should you just listen to one reviewer? I've said for a long time, you should not do that. One, find a reviewer that aligns with your play style because that'll probably make it a lot easier to find a paddle. If it's something they really like, you'll probably really like it. I think a good reviewer does a good job at trying to say who the play styles are for regardless.

[01:10:18] But if you find someone that plays like you, then generally the paddles they like, you're probably going to like. And even then, so you should watch multiple reviewers, but then you should also talk to your friends if they have the paddle. You should look at Reddit and even like Facebook. Like, look at all these different places to gather the information. Like, if you're skeptical of reviewers, hey, look, there's incentive on the line. Well, then you should find normal people, which would be like Reddit and Facebook. Now, there are like ambassadors that exist there too.

[01:10:45] But generally speaking, I think you should never take one person just at face value and go, yep, they said it was good. Just going to buy it. Do your own research, right? That's just the nature of it. Like, I don't think you can just go on Reddit and be like, oh, this one guy said it was great. Let me go buy it. It's like, okay, he said it was great. Let me watch a review. He said it's good. Let me go talk to my friends, see what they thought. Let me try it. You know, you still have to do some homework is kind of my point. You shouldn't just take one person for what they have to say.

[01:11:15] And the other thing I'll say is that pickleball, as much as people will go like, oh, like it's, oh, you know, all these reviewers are so like corrupt. They're obviously so shills. I think what's funny is even when you say that, and I totally get why people are saying what they're saying. I'm not even saying it's invalid to say what they're saying, right? I don't think everything is perfect. But you and I, if you look at other industries, dude, some of these other industries are horrible. One of the worst is the fitness industry. Well, fitness is really bad.

[01:11:44] The camera industry is not great. And my wife is into just a lot of beauty related things. And she tells me about that industry. All of those industries are crazy. Like the camera review industry. First of all, if a camera comes out on launch day, you're pretty much guaranteed. You cannot find a single review of a like, quote unquote, unbiased person because every review that comes out on launch day is a paid for sponsored review. Yeah.

[01:12:12] Like when one of the DJI mic products came out, you know, a couple months ago, I was, I'm really interested in buying this. Every single review was, hey, this is sponsored. They paid me to make this review. And look, I still got good information from it. I could read through the lines and see what things were maybe being overstated and what information I needed. But it's like, oh my gosh, there is no like, it wasn't even commissions in that. It was just, hey, I got paid to make this review. Yep. Which is like, oh my, that's crazy. That's how a lot, like you mentioned mattresses.

[01:12:41] Like that's how a lot of that is. Like you'll have YouTubers in other industries and they'll be like, this video is sponsored by Casper mattresses. Right. And it's just completely unrelated to what they do. Yeah. And it's all full blown minute long Casper mattress ad. And it's like, okay, you clearly just got paid for this. Yeah. Right. You can't actually believe any word they say. Yeah. So it's, I do think that while there's probably things in the pickleball industry that could absolutely be better.

[01:13:07] I am at least happy that it hasn't gone the way of some other industries, which is like, I mean, I'm sure any of you who know things about just influencer culture and other areas of the world, it is wild. Yeah. Uh, and I feel like pickleball is largely still in a pretty healthy state. Like I can, okay, I'm not going to say guarantee, but with a high degree of certainty, say that commissions are not getting capped in other industries. And I'm sure some of the commissions and like the fitness world are bananas.

[01:13:37] Oh, it's so bad. And then you see like just the Instagram code bot pushers. Like it's so bad in those other industries, way worse than pickleball. I mean, it's not great in pickleball. Yeah. But it's, it's so much worse in other industries. Yeah. So again, that doesn't mean pickleball shouldn't do better or try to do better. I'm very much on the side that I think things should be better. And I hope we continue in a, in a healthy direction. Right. For sure. Um, and then I guess the, one of the last things I just wanted to say for the thing

[01:14:03] I disagreed with is like the, the article really uses this premise of, Hey, look, 10% versus like a 40% commission. And it's like, okay, I've heard rumors that there are some people in pickleball who get upwards of a 40% commission. I have not really seen it myself, at least not frequently. So I feel like that comparison was a bit like overstated in the article. And then I went through like all my affiliate accounts that I could find. And I actually had to find the emails where I was asking people to lower my commission

[01:14:33] to remember exactly what all the rates were. So I went and counted of 28 paddle brands that I have codes with. I think I might have more than that, but there are just some brands that like, like gamma where it's like, okay, well no one buys a gamma paddle. So I didn't really check that one, but, um, I counted seven codes or seven companies. I know of do at least 20%, one company at 25%, one company at 30% and then 11, 15%.

[01:15:03] Hang on. Did that, does this math here? Yeah. I think this all maths. Um, and then eight were at 10%. So like, you can very clearly see here that like the majority are 15% and below. And I found one at 30%. So I felt like the whole 40% thing just felt really overstated. Maybe it was more of like a, Hey, look, I'm just getting my point across of like how big this difference could be in which case, okay, fair argument. But that's not something I have seen as standard.

[01:15:32] Um, and again, uh, that's what I am. That's the knowledge I have. There could be ones like making more. I don't know. Right. This is all. I can only speak on my behalf, but yeah. Anyways, I, you guys can let us know in the comments if you even care. I feel like most of the time no one even cares. Um, but I just think is an interesting article that was worth talking about. And it's something that, again, I've done it this way for a long time. And when I mentioned it in that chasing five Oh video, I actually had quite a few people

[01:16:01] text me and they're like, dude, I did not know you did this. Like, why do you not talk about this? And it just, I don't know. I feel like it would always come across wrong. And I'm even still worried that all of this is going to come across wrong, but, uh, hopefully it doesn't. Uh, the last thing that the article said that I just thought was a good thought, uh, was pickleball is still a young sport. The norms we establish now around trust, disclosure, and transparency will shape how the entire ecosystem evolves.

[01:16:26] And those norms are necessary to protect the credibility that a significant part of the pickleball paddle market depends on. This isn't about calling out individuals or stopping people from making money. It's about aligning incentives with expectations. And I wholeheartedly agree with that, uh, that whatever norm you establish now is probably what is going to keep going in the future. And that's why I'm very happy with largely pickleball paddle reviews on YouTube have gone

[01:16:55] in a pretty healthy direction where there's not been like, I feel at least like a lot of like lying or just slop, like a lot of the other industries. So I'm hoping it keeps going that direction, but I do think there are things we probably need to protect and keep it going in a healthy direction. So I don't know, hopefully talking about this adds some healthy contribution to the topic, but that's what I wanted to say about it. So there you go. So let's talk Q and a for the kitchen. Yeah. I'm into the kitchen. Let's get on it. First question.

[01:17:25] I thought this was a good one. How do you know when you play too much pickleball and when do you need to stop? Ooh, well, I feel like you and I both are pretty qualified to talk on this topic and have a decent amount to say. I'll go ahead and say for me particularly, a lot of injuries just keep piling on, right? Like I have knee problems. You know, my shoulder has some pretty big issues going on right now. Just constantly in pain from pickleball.

[01:17:55] So like I'm at the point right now where I have played a lot and I'm definitely slowing down right now. Yeah, I think too much pickleball is like it's, you know, it's so dependent on a lot of things. Like let's just rule out the obvious ones, right? Like if you are a parent or have a significant other, let's just assume for a minute that you're not ignoring them to play pickleball because I think we all know that if you know you're doing that, that's probably a bad thing. Unhealthy.

[01:18:22] So I'm just going to rule that out as having to state the obvious here. But to me, I think as long as you're having a good time and you're not leaving pickleball angry or you don't have injuries that are preventing you from doing day to day life and you're doing your responsibilities, then you're probably playing a fine amount of pickleball. If you want to play five days a week and you can do that or you want to play seven days a week, your body can handle it. You're single and you don't have that many responsibilities. Go for it. Just play the amount that you find enjoyable. Yeah.

[01:18:52] And I think if you start getting to a point where you are leaving the court frustrated or you're mad with how you played and that is consistent over a long enough period of time, maybe let's say a couple of weeks or something, maybe it's time to pull it back a little bit. It's good to have other hobbies. Good to have other hobbies. You know, I think when we all get into pickleball, everyone is always super addicted. And at some point it's good to just kind of pull it back a little bit so you don't get burnt out because I have seen a pattern with a lot of friends where they get into it and they go really, really fast.

[01:19:20] They love it seven days a week, five days a week, whatever. And then a year and a half later, two years later, they like spin out and they're like, I can't do this anymore. And so I think if you want to do it for a long time, you know, pace yourself. You don't have to go super fast, but as long as you're enjoying it, keep playing. Yeah. So as long as it's not an injury or you're not upset and you're taking care of your responsibilities, have at it. That's what I would say. For sure. Are tournaments or leagues better for trying to increase duper?

[01:19:46] I can't give a ton of insight into this because I have not done any duper leagues. However, most of the people that I have talked to, I feel like people have had better experiences getting their duper up quickly through a league rather than through a tournament. It's just more consistent, more consistent, like weekly basis. You're probably seeing similar faces. So you know how to start playing against them, which yes, in tournaments that can happen too in your local area.

[01:20:14] But I do find, at least for myself, I play a big enough variety that sometimes I'm like, hmm, I got to come up with a new strategy. So I feel like it would be easier in a league than it would be in a tournament. Logically, the league makes more sense. Yeah. Logically. You also just get more chances. Yep. I personally prefer tournaments, but I think if you were just purely trying to do it as fast as possible and get it higher, league would make sense. But really, we want to be real honest here.

[01:20:42] The fastest way would be to drill. I mean, yeah. Get better and then go play. Realistically, you should just not care about the actual duper number and what your actual skill is. And in that case, yeah, you're right. Just drill. Totally. Okay. Next up. How can I make sure my play stays the same as I seem to tighten up during tournaments? And this is, I mean, I feel like I deal with this a little bit depending on the tournament. It's hard. I think, I mean, if there was an easy answer, I think every athlete in the world would

[01:21:12] be using it and be benefiting from it. But I think you need to find things that just kind of, one, trigger you to be stressed and two, things that help calm you down. Like, I tend to know for myself that if I get really in my own head or quiet during a tournament, I will just play worse. I don't need to be screaming my head off, but I need to like be in communication with my partner and not be so worried about like, oh, I missed a shot. Like, I'm going to cost us this match. It's just kind of like, whatever. It is a shot. It happened.

[01:21:41] Move on to the next one. Maybe don't do that again type of thing. And also things before the tournament that might help you, right? Like having a little routine. I think focusing on one specific thing or aspect of play to kind of take your mind off of the pressure or stress or the moment is pretty important. Like for me, a lot of times when things start getting tight, tournament is, or like a match is, you know, really close.

[01:22:08] I stopped bending my knees and I start standing up, you know, you're probably getting tired. So just, I set my entire focus in mind. I'm like, just get low, right? Like that will just improve every element of how I play in that match. And so that's pretty much the only thing I try to focus on. Yeah. It also takes, takes my mind off of like nerves. Yeah, exactly. You have to think about one thing and thinking about something else rather than trying to not think about something is usually the smarter way to do that. Exactly.

[01:22:37] So it's a little different for everyone, but I think you just need to find, figure out some things that small things that work for you and just keep trying to, to implement them again for me playing with the prism. I can think about my paddle less when I'm playing with something that's soft because I feel like I have more margin. So I'm not worried about my drops popping up as much. I'm like, I'm usually getting to the kitchen line more. So it's one less variable for me to think about. Yeah. Also having a good partner that keeps you calm is good because sometimes some partners can just stress you out. So keep that in mind too. Yep. Next one.

[01:23:07] This is about content. I thought this was just kind of an interesting question. Any advice for someone that wants to make pickleball content, but not sure how to be unique? So that's a tough one. It is tough. I think generally if you are brand new to content, you have no experience making content. My advice would probably be to focus less on being, trying to be unique and finding your one thing and more just make a bunch of content.

[01:23:33] So you're learning how to make the videos because the, uh, some advice, which is not, we did not come up with this, uh, is look, your first hundred videos, they're going to suck just no matter what. If you've never done this before, they, they're going to suck. You will get better at the skills of making videos and coming up with ideas of just making a hundred videos that are going to be bad than spending the time not making videos and trying to figure out how to make them well. Or, or just making like one perfect video, which isn't even going to be perfect anyway.

[01:24:04] It's not possible. So it's like every video you make, find one thing you could have done better. It's like, okay. That's also just kind of how social media is. If specifically we're talking about like Instagram is just flood Instagram with, with content, make a real every single day. One, you're going to start getting better. You're probably going to funnel yourself into some type of niche that you like. And you're also just going to get, be picking up eyes constantly because people are on Instagram every day and they're constantly scrolling and they're just going to see your face over

[01:24:34] and over again. You're going to become familiar and it's just going to grow. Yeah. That's how it works. And then I think, you know, as you start getting through that and kind of finding what is enjoyable to you, do I even like doing this? You'll probably find some topics that are more or less enjoyable to you. And then from there, you can kind of figure out within that niche, what is missing, right? Like when I got into pickleball, it felt like, well, one, how to reviews just weren't that much of a thing. But the handful I did see on YouTube, like it felt like, oh, it's either just from the

[01:25:01] company or this person is clearly a sponsored player. So like my niche felt like, okay, I'll be the guy that just tells you if this thing sucks. Like if it sucks, it sucks. If it's good, I'll tell you it's good. And so I felt like there was a pretty open market there. I think now that there's a lot more people, whether it's teaching content, powder reviews, lifestyle gaps are closing. But if you think about pickleball in the grand scheme of all content, it is, I would still say wide open. Yeah.

[01:25:30] Like I know it feels to people like, oh, there's already so many content creators and all these different things. But look at a more well-established thing, fitness, technology, whatever other like video games, many, if you think pickleball saturated, it's not even close compared to the other. Yeah. Yeah. Like there are other ideas I have that if I had more time, I would go start the channel for sure. So I think there is gaps. You just kind of have to think about what's fun for you and make that.

[01:25:57] The more you are interested in it yourself, the better it will be. You can't just pick something you have no desire or interest in and expect to do that for a long time because otherwise you're going to hate it. Yep. If I hated pickleball paddles, I could not do what I'm doing currently. It just wouldn't work. For sure. All right. This is related, I assume, to the new PPA rules, but it was what's the issue with the drop serve? Did it get banned? So the PPA recently released a new handbook.

[01:26:25] I actually kind of missed some of this or kind of glanced over it because I thought it only applied to pros. But I think some of it does apply to amateurs. We'll probably get all of it. Yeah. We'll probably get into more of that next week. Yeah. Particularly with this, my opinion is just terrible optics. Well, that's what I was going to say. I think at least if we're talking PPA, pro level, why did the drop serve get banned? But even just in general, not even just particular to pros. I think in general, the drop serve is just horrible optics.

[01:26:54] But the nice thing about the drop serve is at least you don't have any of the questionable calls, right? Like it's so obvious. Right. You don't, but it just looks ridiculous. Yes. Which I'm guessing at least at the pro level, they probably just don't want people looking goofy dropping the ball and serving like pickleball already has gets picked on a lot. So they probably were just like, let's not add one more thing to get picked on by, which is funny because I'm pretty sure the drop serve was banned anyways. So I don't know why that made so much news because it's like never been a thing for PPA pros.

[01:27:24] But yeah, I think it's purely just optics, to be honest, which is funny because like in Padel, they drop serve and no one's like, oh, Padel's a bunch of weenies. They dropped the ball. Like I've literally never watched a Padel clip and went, hey, he dropped the ball. What a loser. So I'm like, I just don't know why no one cares in Padel, but people in theory might care in pickleball. Like I don't know. It's kind of silly. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. So anyways, that's all I got to say on that. When are full foam control paddles coming out?

[01:27:54] You know, you're probably not going to see many. I think I saw something in my discord about 11624 working on a new jelly bean. I don't know that they said it was going to be full foam or what it was going to entail if it was even going to be a control paddle. Closest thing you're going to get to that is going to be either a coral or aura. And yeah, those are definitely still like all court paddles. I mean, we had the 008, but that just kind of sucked. They're more on the control side of things, I would say. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:28:21] So, which, you know, honestly, in most people's cases, I think an all court paddle is plenty easy to control. They're not going to have a lot of issues. So coral and aura would probably be the default to recommendations right now. Because actually, if you do think about the control paddles that did exist for full foam, like the first two would have been the blue core and the 008 and both of those just kind of sucked. Not even because they were soft. They just nothing was that special about them. Yeah. The face texture on the blue core, the first one was pretty bad too.

[01:28:51] Bro, if you gave me a prism, long lasting grit, UPA rough. What more can I ask for? Never review another paddle. Yeah. Why? He would just never even use anything else. Just review the prism over and over. You know? Good thing. Good thing that will never happen. You know what's crazy though? Is with like the jelly bean and the prism and probably even the saga. You wouldn't even like need the foam core for the durability because those paddles just didn't really have core issues to begin with.

[01:29:20] So you could just slap the long lasting grit on it and it'd be great. So Vatic, if you're listening, get on it. Or at least maybe you can just make me a special one. I was going to say. All right. Anyways, next one. This was, I thought this was a good question. Why are hybrids always rounded? I really think, I mean, it's not always, right? There are flat top hybrids. You've got the gearbox. You've got. The Yola. The Yola. Chorus. Chorus.

[01:29:48] So those are like the popular ones. But yes, most of the time hybrids do have the curve top. Right? And I think it's just become a like popular thing and brands just follow. Right? Like that's all it is. Is it's just recognizable and people don't want to make something different because it's not going to. It's, it's. What's the word? Harder to educate the market. Yeah. Right.

[01:30:17] People are just so programmed with that shape that that's what they know is a hybrid. I mean, even if you think about it, there are elongated paddles. For example, the Hyperion that people think is a hybrid. And I really think that the curve top started with the Hyperion. It did. Yeah. When they came out with the original Yola, which man, by the way, that paddle was goaded. Yeah. That was a lip and great. So good. Heavy. It was heavy. Heavy. But it was a really good paddle. Sweet spot on that thing.

[01:30:43] If you think about it, man, Yola is kind of just the trendsetter as so many things in this industry have been copied from Yola. Yeah. The curve top. Because then the next one is like that people mistake as a hybrid is Valer Mach 1. Yeah. That is an elongated paddle by dimensions. But because it's a curve top, everyone there. We have a guy here locally who used it forever. I don't know if he's still using it. I think he might be using something different now.

[01:31:10] But it took me forever to convince him that it was an elongated paddle because he was so dead set on thinking it was a hybrid. Yeah. Right. But yeah, everyone copies Yola. Yeah. I mean, if you the shape for that with a rounded head, they were also pretty early to the like thermo form train because it had the edge foam. Yep. On that. Gen 3. They were kind of late on the Gen 2. Late. And then Gen 3. Yeah. And then what I hate the most, gradients. Gradients. Like every...

[01:31:38] I'm telling you, the second the Gen 3 came out with their gradient design, every single company started copying. Yeah. Totally. So yeah, Yola kind of... They're definitely the trendsetter. They're definitely the trendsetter in the industry. But yeah, hybrids. So they're not always rounded, but largely they are. And I think kind of what you said, it's just what people are used to seeing. It's kind of been the default that people accept as a good hybrid. And now you see some companies breaking out of that mold. I do think, again, this might be the next trend here.

[01:32:06] Yola doing the flat top hybrid while other companies had already done it. Yola being the big one. I won't be surprised if that makes other companies do that. It's like clothes, you know? Yeah. It's just one thing becomes popular and it goes in and then, you know, it fades out. It just rotates. Yeah. So yeah, that's a common thing is shapes are by dimension, not by whether it has a curved top, curved bottom, curved whatever. So yeah.

[01:32:32] But yes, they are very frequently rounded and I anticipate that changing. Yeah. This next question is interesting. Yeah. Rec is more fun to me. I hate drilling. What should I do to improve? I think this, it depends on what you truly mean by you hate drilling. If you truly hate picking a thing and trying to get better at it, then this is going to be tough. But my suggestion is, look, I think you can still get very good or get better by playing

[01:32:58] games, but you need to pick a thing and actually focus on that during the game. So I can think of two examples for myself. One, back in the day when I was trying to make my two-handed backhand better and I was doing that whole 15,000 backhands in two weeks. Every time I went and played games, I would be obnoxious about trying to hit my backhand. I'm on the left side and a forehand's coming. You can sure bet I'm, let's say the right side, easier example. There's a coming to my forehand on the right side.

[01:33:27] You can sure bet I ran around and hit a backhand. I'm at the kitchen line. I'm doing everything to hit a backhand just so I could get more reps. You can get better in rec. You just have to accept the fact that for a while when you're trying things, you're probably not going to win games as much. Yes. Right? So like, yeah, like you said, pick a thing and just try it in rec and improve on it. You can still do that during games. You're just not going to get as many reps as quickly. Yeah. So it's going to take longer to get better at it.

[01:33:57] If you think, how many times am I actually going to get a counter, a backhand counter or a backhand roll or a backhand roll, right? It's so few during five games versus you can spend 20 minutes doing it over and over again and get like hundreds of reps. And I'll give you guys some context. When I look at some of my PB vision matches, I think roughly the average for my games is about 80 shots that I hit as one individual player. Okay.

[01:34:25] Let's just do some like really basic thinking here. Let's say of those 80 shots I hit. Okay. Let's say 10 of those are serves. Now we're down to 70. Then let's just say returns. Yeah. That let's say that's another like 10 or so. So now we're down to 60. Then we're talking thirds. Now we're maybe down to 60 or 55, 50. Yep. Fourth. So like we're already dwindling the amount of shots we're talking about.

[01:34:52] And we let alone a backhand roll or an overhead or whatever shot you're wanting to work on. Right. Versus like you said, 20 minutes of getting fed backhand rolls somehow. You'll get more reps in that than you probably would have a week's worth of games. And actually my best advice. Can't believe I didn't think of this immediately. Is at the amateur rec level. Most points don't make it past five shots. Yeah.

[01:35:19] So if you actually want to get better, don't think about improving the flashy like, oh, my two-handed backhand dink. Right. I'm going to run people off the court with that or my roll or my speed up. Right. Yeah. Those are obviously important. But when you think about it statistically and most points don't make it past four or five shots. If you focus on serve, return, third and fourth, those are the four most important shots in pickleball. So if you can really improve on those, then you will improve so, so much faster.

[01:35:48] I'm actually trying while you're talking about that. I'm trying to find something. PB vision has like a newer thing. It might just be on desktop. Oh, maybe. Like if you think about it, you know, either you have a really good third and you can get to the kitchen every time. That's going to one extend points, put pressure on your opponents and you're going to win more points. Or if you have a really good fourth and you can pressure people when they're coming into the kitchen and they don't have great thirds, then you're going to stop them from being

[01:36:16] able to win points, which then you're going to get more side outs. You have more opportunities and you're just going to win more games. So practice serve, return, third and fourth. That's like if you really don't want to drill, just focus on those in your games. And I promise you, you will get better. And also, if you're going to go into a rec session, I would highly recommend that you just pick one thing that you're only going to work on that day. Because I have definitely in the past tried to be like, OK, I'm going to work on my two on a backhand. I'm going to work on my return.

[01:36:45] I'm going to work on my serve. And then I don't do any of those things well because you can't think about all of them at once. You just end up playing. So what I did somewhat recently, this was maybe a month ago. I went into a handful of my sessions and literally my only objective that I measured as success. I did not care if I won, did not care if I lost. In fact, I think one of the sessions I might have lost almost every single game except one. Oh, no. But it didn't it didn't matter to me because my measurement of success that day was did

[01:37:13] I hit my serve in the back third of the court? That is the only thing I cared about. I took all my games. I uploaded them in PB vision and some ridiculous percentage of my serves like 80 or 90 percent were in the back third. And so even though I lost every game, I went, I got better at the thing I wanted to get better at. And that's what matters. Yeah. And then you do that enough times once you get each of those skills in place and eventually you'll be a better player. I agree. So that's my. Yeah. All right. Last question here.

[01:37:43] Do either of you use Hesicors? Well, can answer this perfectly because one of us does and one of us doesn't. I do not. The Isaac doesn't. I I do and I don't. So I'm not that picky about using it or not using it. However, I will say, though, for me to enjoy using a Hesicor, it has to be on a paddle with a grip that is four and one eighth, maybe even a little smaller because I have noticed

[01:38:09] that two grips that are both labeled as four and one eighth and both feel roughly four and one eighth. Sometimes I put the Hesicor on like I'll give a great example. The RPM friction V2. I love that handle stock. And when I went to the terminal, I was like, I'll put a Hesicor on this because it's small enough. And it was just a little chunkier than I wanted. Not bad. Just a little bit bigger. The Vatic Pro Prism must be a tiny bit smaller or something because it feels perfect in my hand. Like I love the size of it. And I'm using the same size Hesicor.

[01:38:37] So I don't really know what's going on there. But anyways, I prefer when it feels small. It just is nicer. So I can play with or without it and I'll be content. But if I have it, I think I lean that direction a little bit. Sure. It's just sometimes like with how many paddles I'm cycling between, it's like, am I going to take this on and off all my paddles? Like that gets a little. It gets really annoying swapping them. I don't like that personally. I mean, I really believe there's no performance benefit.

[01:39:07] It is just a feel preference on them. So one, I get annoyed swapping them, taking it on and off. And two, I have learned that I actually just don't really like how they feel. Right? Like I just am not a fan of how it feels. So it's just not for me. I know that a lot of people like them and I think they work for a lot of people. But for me personally, it's just not it. Yeah. One of those things that I'd say, look, if you're not, if you are not unhappy with your grip, then I wouldn't go and buy one.

[01:39:36] If you're someone who really wants to try something different, maybe get some like potential vibration dampening or you just want like you're you have a paddle that has a really bad handle, which is very few these days, to be honest. But back in the day, you could slide a Hessecore over it and be like, oh, well, now I don't feel the issues with that handle anymore. Yeah. Now that handles have improved. I don't think it's as big of a deal. But also, I just like standard octagon shape with the bevels. And when you put a Hessecore on, you kind of lose the bevels. Yeah.

[01:40:05] Obviously, that's kind of the point. It gives you a different texture. I just really like that standard shape. Totally. Totally. You want to get into the question of the week and then that should be should be the last thing this week. Oh, yeah. I suppose you and I do have to answer that ourselves, don't we? Best pickleball advice. I've got one or two or three or four. There's just a lot. Well, I'm glad you have a lot because I'm going to go ahead. Really? You've got nothing? Well, nothing that comes to my mind immediately. That's crazy. I just feel like there's so much.

[01:40:34] You know, like for me, again, sometimes it's really basic things. But this stuff has stuck with me forever. You know, and again, there's probably going to be people who are like, yeah, that's obvious and super basic. But one thing when I was early on getting into pickleball is like, dude, miss high, right? If you hit it in the net, the point is guaranteed to be over and you lose the point. But if you miss high, yeah, maybe they smack an overhead or get a high ball they can put away. But at least you have a chance, right?

[01:41:03] And the amount of points that I've like been on my back foot, kind of launch it high in the air and I scramble and somehow get back into the point and win is a lot, right? So just do not be afraid to miss high. Trust your hands. Trust your resets. That's that is something that like, again, I think is really obvious, but I can still picture the very first time somebody said that to me, the court I was on, the game I was playing. Like, I don't know why, but that one has really stuck with me. Interesting. Yeah, man.

[01:41:32] I don't I like I don't know if I can think of like one specific piece. And I feel like I have gotten a lot of like great advice over the years. Like the one that maybe comes to mind would be and I still need to get better about it. So that's maybe the funny part about it is related to footwork. One, just being lower than you think you need to be, because I can promise almost everyone listening to this podcast is probably not low enough, including myself. I've been watching my matches recently and going, dude, bend your knees.

[01:42:00] And then also, I think just an emphasis on footwork should be a higher priority than it is. Like that's actually one of the things I want to start working. It's so important because like if you get to the ball and you are on balance, that is a huge it makes everything else easier. If you're off balance, it makes all the other technique you learned harder to do. Yeah. So I feel like moving your feet and staying low is like a great piece of advice. And I'll say this.

[01:42:27] This wasn't necessarily a piece of advice that's been given to me, but I think this is an incredible piece of advice that I actually have given to somebody recently and has apparently transformed their pickleball game and they love it. But a lot of people do not get a wide enough stance and like aren't stable and they lean back way too far, right? When they're trying to hit a reset, they're just all their weight is moving backwards. Got to lean forward.

[01:42:56] Trust your hips, like get wider, wider base. Yeah. Don't keep your legs narrow. Yeah. I mean, if you just think about it, stand like normal standing stance and have someone try and push you over and then go like maybe a little wider than shoulder width and maybe get a little lower and now look how much harder it is to push you. Most lower level people like four or one under that I watch when they're hitting a reset, they are just completely falling backwards. Or when a ball is coming towards them, they let the ball get way too far behind them because

[01:43:24] their stance is too narrow and making contact with the ball behind you while also on your back on your heels is just a recipe for disaster. Totally. So, yeah, it's bad court position. You're going to hit a higher reset. You're just going to, it's bad, bad, bad. You know what I'm going to say? Actually, I just thought of another one because it's boom right there. It's on the wall. My advice for all of you, keep pickleball fun. Yeah. When pickleball is not fun, it's not very fun.

[01:43:51] I know that sounds stupid, but it's like seriously, just keep it fun. It is true. That's true. Keep it fun. Remember why you enjoy it. Like it doesn't. Yeah. Just keep it fun. That's why we all got into the sport. Yeah. Fun. So, yeah, that's all I got this week. Same. All right. Well, thanks for listening, guys. Word of the week this week, it can be fun. Yeah. We'll do fun. Fun. So, thanks for listening. We'll catch you next week. Peace.