181. OWL Paddle Hits 2800 RPM, New Hybrid Pressure X, & Jade 16mm vs 14mm

[00:00:03] Alright, what's up guys? We are back with another podcast episode. This week we're going to be talking about Pickleball Worlds, which is coming up, the screaming and taunting that's been a hot topic in Pickleball recently. And then we're going to talk about a handful of paddles, going to talk about some actual spin tests I ran on the OWL, the new Pressure X Hybrid that's upcoming and some interesting stuff with spin on that. And then also some of my thoughts on the Jade 16mm vs 14mm because that's what I've been playing.

[00:00:30] And then in the Q&A we have some, or in the kitchen I should say, we have some fun questions. So, alright, let's talk about this. We'll just start with Worlds here, that's coming up, let's see, I guess next week. Yeah. That's insane, that's next week. So crazy dude, I cannot believe that's next week. I'm so excited. Yeah, I'm excited for Worlds. Worlds always ends up being one of my favorite tournaments to go to just because I feel like we get to see all of our friends and a lot of people that we just don't get to see that often, which is always great. Tons of people there, get to meet a bunch of new people.

[00:01:01] Yeah, it's just, it's a well done event, gets better every year. So I'm excited to go play there this year. And I guess we can talk about that, who we're playing with. So I will be playing with, originally when this was coming up, I was like, my back when I was deciding to sign up was still iffy. I was better, but I was like, I don't really know how this is going to go. Like, I don't know if I should even play. And thankfully my back has been better to the point where I think it'll be a non-issue for the most part.

[00:01:30] But, so I'll be playing with Paul and I'll be playing 4-5 because, or Paul Lee. So for those of you who don't know, ELOP on YouTube does a bunch of gameplay stuff. We've actually wanted to play a tournament for like probably a year, year and a half now, but it just never lines up. Like I was either busy or we wanted to play different divisions. I was trying to play 5-0. He didn't really want to go any higher than 4-5. And so I was finally like, okay, look, if there's ever a time to play 4-5, it would be now when I'm coming back from a back injury,

[00:01:58] had three months off and have barely had time to practice. And yeah, so I'm excited to play with Paul. I actually think it'll be a lot of fun. Him and I, we did a... If y'all don't do well in 4-5, somebody's going to get slapped. I'd like to think we would do well. We did that. I had him fill out that little partner thing, like, you know, half of it because basically there's this little Google sheet and it has some questions about how do you like to play? Do you want to stack? Do you not want to stack?

[00:02:24] Just because I was like, we should figure this out now instead of at the tournament. And he didn't read mine before filling it out. We answered everything almost the exact same. Like everything I wanted, he was like, I don't want to do that. And a lot of similar things in terms of personality, like what amps us up, what makes us like annoyed. So I don't know. I'm excited. I just, Paul's a fun guy. I've always, I've always enjoyed Paul. So I think... Yeah, Paul's cool. A good time.

[00:02:51] So, well, I'm playing with Jeff Lee, not related. How funny would that be, though, if they were related? And if Jeff was like the younger brother and better, you know? Hey, well, older brother, younger brother stuff. So, yeah, another content creator also from Austin, Texas. So it's going to be fun. We're doing 5-0, first time playing together. We've played games and stuff before every time we've met up, but just never done a tournament. So I'm excited for this one to line up. Yeah, I think it'll be fun.

[00:03:20] Also, I can't remember who all is in it. I should have just pulled it up. Maybe I can pull it up while I'm trying to talk here. But we were joking that the division, the 4-5 division, is almost just like a reincarnation of the nerd attorney. So many content creators in that. Me and Paul, and then John and JJ are playing together. And then I feel like there's a third one that I'm missing. Justin and Lewis are playing 4-5, but they're playing the older person division. I kept trying to convince him.

[00:03:49] I was like, dude, just come play the younger division so we can all be in the same division. Way better for content. Exactly. I'm going to see if I can. I don't know. What is it? Jeff and I even joked about dropping down to 4-5. That would have been just not even a little bit fair. Yeah. It would have been a slaughter fest. Probably not. I don't think I can easily pull this up. But I feel like there's one other team of content creators in there. And I was just like, man. Yeah, I think there's somebody we're missing. Yeah, let me do this. Can I do Chris Olson?

[00:04:18] Because this might just pull it up. Hey. Oh my gosh. The website. It's like not taking my key. Chris. Dude, that website always has some kind of issue going on. Okay. I'm not. I'm just not. Oh, this is like the old worlds. Whatever. Okay. Doesn't matter. Anyways, there are a number of content creators playing. And if history has taught us anything, it's that we're all going to play each other in the first round. That's always how this works. If there's people you know in your division at a tournament, you're guaranteed to just play them first round so that one of you immediately has to go to the loser's bracket. For sure.

[00:04:49] So we'll see. I'm hoping we get like a later round matchup, you know, like maybe semifinals because then at least everyone can go to a medal match still. I mean, I guess you can still go to a medal match if you. I think I know Jeff was telling me that there's some people in the 5-0 division he knows. I don't know if there's, I think the only person I know in the 5-0 division might be Nico, the lefty. Yep. So we'll see. Yeah. We'll see. I think it'll be fun. If you guys are at worlds, come say hi. We'll be there Thursday through Monday.

[00:05:17] So if you see us roaming around, feel free to come up and say hi. I would love to chat. Yeah. Looking forward to it. All right. Next one. So are you going to say what, what paddle are you playing with? Do you know yet? Oh yeah. Should talk about that. Man, I'm still kind of figuring. I'm figuring this out. I really, what I should do is tonight. I should probably figure this out because I'm playing some like tournament style games tonight to practice.

[00:05:42] And it's like, I feel like it could be one of three paddle four, maybe. So could either be the Spitfire. Obviously really like that paddle. So that just seems like an obvious one. Could be the Loco 2 hybrid. But I would prefer to play with a wide body in a tournament. Or I'm currently working on my review of the Jade. So I'm like, okay, I could play with the 14 millimeter.

[00:06:12] I feel pretty okay with that. Like the games I've been doing recently. There hasn't been anything big where I'm like, oh, I feel like I'm not that comfortable. Maybe like a couple small things. And then I feel like there's a third option that I'm like very obviously missing right now that I'm not thinking of. But I would say those are in the top spots right now. I think I'm leaning Spitfire, but it'll kind of depend. There's still a week worth of work I got to do before I get there.

[00:06:41] So who knows? Yeah. But that's what I'm leaning towards. It's a little bit simpler for me, but still just like a coin flip. It's either Loco 2 or a pro. Or a pro. Yeah. I'm probably honestly going to decide like the night before. While you're there. It's just like it's a coin flip for me right now. I could play with either one and be totally fine. I'm probably going to bring a handful of them. And just like while we're doing practice games there. See which one's better. Yeah. Just how I'm feeling on the day. Like do I have a big preference one way or another?

[00:07:11] Probably what I'm going to do. I think it's going to be Spitfire, but I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. Nice. So yeah, those would be the paddles. Okay. Let's talk Scream and Taunting. So this has been kind of a hot topic over the last week. And I think you and I are going to have different opinions, but we'll see. Yeah, for sure. I'll be very curious to see. My opinion has layers. I'll say that. There was an article written that was just talking about should there be rules for the PPA

[00:07:40] about screaming and taunting. I'll leave the article linked down below if you want to read the entire thing. I think I largely agree with the article, but then there are things that I think would probably be hard to police. Or do we want to police it so hard that you take away a little bit of the life from the players? Because I'm personally more on the side of I would like to see some of it go away.

[00:08:10] Not all of it. I think I have no issue with screaming into the crowd. I have no problem with amping yourself up after a really good point. I have no problem celebrating with your teammate. I think things that I start to have more of a problem with would be, let's go kind of like the old Matt Wright days. If you start personally attacking someone on the court. Do you have an issue with that? Yes. I think if you are insulting a player directly across from you, to me that crosses a line

[00:08:38] of like, what is the point of doing this? At what point does a taunting phrase become an insult? Because let's go back to the match of Tyler Loon and Matt Wright. That was one of the most iconic beef taunting. The whole thing was too much. Really? Yes. But here's the thing. I don't know. I think this conversation, I think Zayn has probably been one of the biggest leaders of this conversation. It's like, what do we want the sport to be? Which direction do we want it to go?

[00:09:07] I am personally not really in favor of, let's make this WWE and we're just going to be super over the top and everyone's faking beef or even if it's real beef. Let me call you bald. We're on the court. I'm going to insult your mother in the stand. We don't want it to be, it's fake. But at the same time. But not even fake. Like, I don't want it to be like tennis and golf. Like, oh, good job. But I don't think, I think everyone, people go too far to the extremes.

[00:09:33] Everyone goes, oh, well, let's not be golf or tennis where you have to, you know, clap quietly and you can't say anything. But do we also want it to be like, let's say you're playing on tour, right? Let's just imagine you're on center court and the player across from you starts talking about like, he's like, oh, this guy's ugly. He's so bad at pickleball. His mom in the stand. Like, okay. Stuff that has nothing involving pickleball. Sure. That's whatever. That's not fine.

[00:10:00] But if it's stuff like when Matt Wright was like, dude, this guy's forehand ink is broken. That's incredible. That's iconic. No, that is what we need. I love that. Now, I think taunting there's, there's skill to it. Not everyone's good at it. Like, or just yelling and hyping yourself up. Some people look really dumb. Let's take Alshon. Alshon just looks silly doing it. Then there's some people who look great. Look at Tyson. Tyson's yelling, screaming. People love Tyson. So I think there's, there's levels of skill to it.

[00:10:30] But I think when I look at someone like Tyson versus Alshon, Alshon, I feel like is often doing it where he is like screaming at you to intimidate you. Tyson is never screaming at the person. He used to. Not anymore. Tighter. Like, Alshon looks silly because now he like spins to the crowd and like lifts his arms up like a gladiator. See, like that I'm fine with. But if you're doing it to intimidate your opponent, that's where I have problem with it.

[00:10:59] Where to me, I'm like, you're just being obnoxious. Like, you know what you're doing. I don't really think this feels like it should be. I don't like, for example, let's take this example. Do you think the sport is somehow better or much more entertaining to watch versus Tyson going and yelling at the crowd versus someone screaming direct, like walking up to that and screaming in the face of their opponent? I think if one should be allowed, the other should be. I don't think so.

[00:11:24] What's funny about this is coming from you, in rec games, you're the biggest taunter rage baiter of all time. It's different. No, if you. I'm having fun with my friends. Ah, exactly. See? So if it's a lot. If you should be able to do it in rec, you should be able to do it in tournaments. I don't think so. Because I think a huge mental part of it comes into the game. If you can get into your opponent's head on the mental side, that's an advantage. Take every advantage you can in competition. I'm totally fine with that. And here's the thing.

[00:11:51] I don't start the, like, I do like to yell and get loud, but it's never like directed towards someone. Yeah. But if you start yelling at me, then all the gates are open. So free game. I'll start messing with you and getting in your head. And I did that last year at Worlds in the qualifier. If you go to Worlds, or let's just say it doesn't even, we'll say Worlds because it's upcoming. Yeah. If every unforced dink you hit in the net, like, guy doesn't even hit a good shot. Like, you literally just hit a backhand dink, bottom of the net.

[00:12:20] And everyone, the guy starts screaming, he's yelling in your face. And he's like, yeah, that's our guy. That's our guy. Yeah, that happened to me last year. I know, but you're saying you would like that? You'd be okay with it? It's not that I'd like that, but I have no issue with it. If you do it, then you have to accept the fact that it might come back towards you. Here's the thing. It's just like sending full bags at people and hitting rockets. You can do it in rec. You look like a douchebag. Yeah. But you can do it. And same thing, you can do it in tournament matches. That's fair game.

[00:12:49] But do we think, okay, then the ultimate question would be, okay, you know, if you want to say, okay, cool, it's fair game. So you think it makes the sport better? Like, if you had to flip a coin right now and say, you know what, I just want everyone screaming at the top of their lungs. Other than not have, like, Matt Wright, super entertaining. Tyson, super entertaining. Like, I'd rather have, like, or Jack Sock, you know, he's had some moments where he's chirping with people. I think it's more entertaining. I think it can be more entertaining. Like, I think there are matches where I'm like, that's entertaining.

[00:13:17] But I think there are also ones where I'm like, this is just annoying. Imagine back a couple years ago, the whole Riley Newman, Matt Wright beef when they were playing against each other after they broke up in their partnership. If they weren't allowed to taunt or mess with each other back and forth, that whole dynamic and whole thing would have been so boring. Oh, they have to play against each other and they hate each other, but they're handcuffed. They can't say anything. It's just, it'd be so boring. It's just so much more entertaining to have different beefs and stuff like that.

[00:13:47] I just feel like at that point, it's like, this feels like we're, we're not even, this isn't even about the pickleball anymore. This is just like, can I scream in your face louder than you screamed in mine? Sometimes it becomes that with certain people. And then it's like, well, again, you just look silly. But some people, it is very entertaining. Matt Wright's the goat of it. Matt Wright is the king of taunting and chirping. I don't care what you say. He's like the Larry Bird of pickleball. I don't think it's good. You probably don't even know who that is. I am, I'm aware of the name, but I could, if I had to pick him out from a crowd,

[00:14:16] I could not, I could not pick him out. So I like, I don't know. Look at other sports like taunting and take this for example. Would you, in a pro match, you could say this for amateurs too, but we're specifically talking about pro cause it's never going to be, I don't think it's ever going to be governed at the amateur level in a tournament. If someone from zero, zero, they're literally just, they're letting out seven second long screams every single point. Doesn't matter what happened.

[00:14:44] Well, that happened against, uh, Jeannie Bouchard. Yeah. That's like Maria Ford. Again, that's where I'm talking about. It's like there's skill to it. Some people are good at, and some people are bad. Yeah. You can scream from zero zero, but you just look dumb. It's not the right time to do it or mess with people. Matt, right. You don't see him chirping from zero zero. See, that's what I think though, is that my thought is some of it's okay for, if we go

[00:15:11] back to some of the MLP matches, there was that one, I can't remember which city this was in. Um, but whatever big matchup between Annalie and Hayden in mixed. And it was like really tight series. And there was some like little bit of taunting back and forth, but not bad. It was mostly like hand gestures or, you know, Hayden's dancing after a neck cord or something. To me, I'm like, okay, that's kind of funny. I'm like, okay with that.

[00:15:36] See, the fact that you're not even fully on board with that, you're just like, I'm okay with that. No, I think I'm mostly fine with that. I just think it's when it either starts becoming personal or certain language is being used. Like, here's a good way to phrase it. Do you think MLP is more entertaining overall than PPA? I think the dynamic of MLP, yes, but the format, no. If we could bring the same energy and dynamic to PPA, but with the, their own, the teams,

[00:16:05] like everyone can play with who they want. That's way better. I don't like seeing teams forced together where players don't like each other and don't want to play with each other. That I, that part I don't like about MLP, but I like the energy of MLP, but I like the format of PPAs. See, I think it's just way too much. No, I love it. I love it. Again, it can be entertaining. There are glimpses or clips where I go, yeah, that's like kind of funny. Because without beef, without personality, the sport just gets so stale.

[00:16:35] We see the same players play each other without them being able to taunt or say anything or do like, there's just no personality, no flavor, no seasoning. I just think you can be entertaining without being a jerk to your opponent or being obnoxious. There's still golf for you. Like, here's the thing. And I love golf, but golf gets real boring. I don't know. I just, I think some of it is too much. Like, again, I don't mind yelling into the crowd or getting pumped up after a big point, but it's like, dude, we don't got to be screaming at the top of our lungs from zero, zero.

[00:17:05] Yeah. Like I said, there's some people who are bad at it. Some people are good at it. And also like, so I think if this did become a rule, like where I think some of this to me kind of falls apart. Again, it's subjective. And also, for example, this is should tell you how subjective things can be. One, the headhunting rule. How long did that last? To me, it's pretty obvious if you headhunted someone. Serve rules have been an issue forever because it's too subjective. Remember James Ignatowich, the split step? Yeah. Football call that. He split stepped. Yeah.

[00:17:33] And it got called a hindrance or distraction or, you know, whatever the proper terminology is, so to me, I do think that there are instances of improper taunting that are probably way more obvious than others, but you already know it's going to turn into a ref. What do you mean you didn't see that hand gesture-y through me? Or what do you mean you didn't hear this under his breath? And it's just going to turn into... That's the issue. Anytime any other sport has implemented a taunting rule, that exact thing happens where,

[00:18:02] oh, how come you didn't see that? Or this team got away with it and they got penultied for it. And it's like, then the fans start getting annoyed with it because the smallest thing got a penalty. And so it's just... I mean, even watching the World Cup this summer, I'm not even a soccer guy, but obviously, you know, is here. So you're going to watch it on TV, whatever. And I was like, what do you mean that was a penalty and this is not a penalty? Exactly. So it's just like anytime any sport has added rules around taunting, it has never worked well. That's what I'm saying.

[00:18:32] And just let it... Like, I haven't seen... I've only seen one or two things, maybe, where it's been so egregious in Pickleball, it's like, you probably shouldn't do that. Like the Hayden or Fed, you know, with Anna Lee, you know, the swearing and stuff. It's like, yeah. But even that, I'm not that against. Because... Hear me out. I don't know where you're going to go with this, but I'm already not on board. Dude, we're all adults here.

[00:19:00] Now, yeah, if Elsie Henner shots on the other side of the court, you got to recognize that's a child. She's 13. So maybe there should be rules around that. But if it's... Now we're going to police it by age? If it's four adults on the court, dude, come on. We're not kids. No. Let loose, man. No, I don't think so. I don't think there should be that many rules around it. I think let people be themselves. If Alshon wants to look silly and scream at the crowd and whatever, sure. I let people do the thing. I don't know.

[00:19:28] I also think it is really interesting how some people really get kind of ragged on on social media for their taunting and yelling, and some people do the exact same thing and don't. You know, that's been a whole topic forever. Yeah. Like the Georgia versus Annalie. Yeah. Like Annalie's taunting and screaming is kind of obnoxious. Again, still don't have any issues with it, but objectively it's kind of obnoxious. And then, but people love it when Georgia does. So I don't know.

[00:19:57] Just depends on who you are. I'm trying to think on like the men's. I mean, some people get annoyed by Hayden's. I don't feel like anyone gets annoyed by Rafa, but Rafa's like pretty loud. Like he's very vocal on the court. Yeah, no one really gets annoyed by him. But then I feel like there are guys like Julian where people get more annoyed. So it's, it's, it's funny. It almost feels like. Julian's for sure obnoxious. Like he's like brings it to an extreme for sure. I just think it's funny.

[00:20:24] The ones that people will have a problem with and then other ones people will not have a problem with. Yeah. It's very interesting how some people like this guy's taunting is okay, but this guy is not. Ben was a screamer. No, I cannot imagine. That would be hilarious. I cannot imagine. Hilarious. I don't know. I, I also don't even know if I really think that the current, what is happening is that bad.

[00:20:51] Like, I don't feel like taunting is happening so regularly that it's like, okay, this just looks like a joke. Like, I feel like if everything looked like MLP, I'd be like, I'm just out. Like, this is, I just don't need to watch this all the time. Like, if I want to watch a reality TV show, I'll go watch a reality TV show. It's never been that bad. That's what MLP feels. It's like all the chanting from the bench, the, the GMs being obnoxious to other players. I'm like, dude, can we just like play pickleball? Like, I didn't, I didn't watch this to watch people on the bench argue.

[00:21:20] I watched so I could watch some pickleball. Yeah. The, the stuff from the bench, whatever. I don't really care about that. It's, it's more, I find it like, that's not entertaining to me. It's entertaining when the players do it. The GMs and the bench, I don't find that entertaining. It's only entertaining when the players are going at each other. That's when I find it entertaining. Well, you guys can let us know down below. You've, you've now heard both sides of the coin. You can let us know what side you're on. If I had to guess, I'm probably not the favorable opinion on this.

[00:21:50] I would, I would probably. And that's fine. I, I still think it's totally fine. I'm, I'm all, all on board with it. I'm not for the bullying. I'm for yelling sometimes. I don't know. I'm for the right kind of yelling. I think the beef between players can be very entertaining. I do think, yeah, beefs. I think, you know, rivalries can be entertaining for sure. Yeah. But you want to handcuff it. It doesn't have to handcuff. Just a couple of rules. Just a couple of rules. All right. Let's move on to some paddle stuff.

[00:22:18] So, uh, first paddle, we're going to talk about the owl. So I already made a video on this, uh, you know, over the summer before my back injury. But then John texted me this week and he was like, dude, you need to retest or like test the owl for spin. He was like, I just tested mine and I was in 2900. He's like, I got to know what you can hit. And I was like, okay, I'll, I'll, you know, I'll try and find it and knock it out this week. And, uh, so I already, some of you probably already saw the video that I posted cause it'll

[00:22:48] probably be about two days behind by the time you see this now. But yeah, the spin is so stupid on this thing. The average after 20 serves was 2819 RPM. This is a company that is in my top five of like, you make me angry. Why do you exist? See, we're going to talk about this. I have, I've seen a lot of, uh, whenever I post something about this paddle, people are like, Oh, you're anti innovation.

[00:23:16] Oh, you're, you, you just can't handle the game getting better. I actually don't think I have that big of a problem with the spin of this paddle. Now I do think if all of a sudden everyone in pickleball could do this, the game would change in drastic ways, but that's not really my problem. Yep. Same. My problem is that the rules are not implied or, uh, applied uniformly across everyone.

[00:23:43] Like my whole thought with a paddle like this is look, if you want something like this to be legal, then every single company should be allowed to do exactly this. You want to say that 2800 to 3000 RPMs are now a thing in pickleball. Okay. Let's let loose, but let every company do it and just stop restricting things at this point. I mean, think about this. Spin has been a topic of paddles since we got into it.

[00:24:11] You know, people, when the carbons got banned, we talked about this last week, there was a period in time where you had that on the court. People are like, you're using a cheater paddle. I don't want to play against you because you have a paddle that generates too much spin. Then one of the next like famous ones that didn't have a D listing necessarily was the pro XR pros were complaining. Like that's got too much spin. This is going to be bad for pickleball. Let's not do that. None of those paddles hold a candle to what the owl can do for spin.

[00:24:38] So in my mind, I just go like, you know, this I've never been in favor of let's just uncap spin. But if this is going to be on the market and we're going to say this is okay, then let's just uncap spin. Like, let's stop pretending that we think that high spin is going to absolutely ruin pickleball. If you can go and play with this. Yeah, because I don't think you can say from the same mouth. Yes, high spin will destroy pickleball, but then say this is a legal tournament paddle.

[00:25:07] That that to me is my whole problem is that I guess we'll just go into it for all of you who don't know. Again, I'll leave the article link down below. I think pickleball.com did a really good write up that covers this very well from both sides. I think there's credit given to USAP, but then the areas where they did poor, there's some criticisms. So the whole like crux of this owl paddle in that article is that this felt surface could

[00:25:34] not pass a stare at roughness test. So USAP said, okay, we'll waive the stare at test that everyone else had to pass. But owl gets an exception still had to pass PB core still had to pass coefficient of friction. But that is that is the problem to me. It's like, why are all these other brands held to the standard that this paddle didn't have to pass that? And then it turned out that it was an interim certification, but that was never made public.

[00:26:01] All the public knew is this is fully USA Pickleball approved. That why do we have like secret approvals? No one was a fan of that when that happened with the 3S. Everyone thought that was bad. And in the article, they even point at the 3S USAP being like, well, but they did it. And it's like, yeah, but no one thought that was okay. Like where no one is saying like, let's do that. Yeah. You know, so it's like, that is one of the problems is you have small brands like Speed

[00:26:30] Up or Carbon back in the day, or, you know, doesn't even have to be a small brand name any brand that has had issues with the Starrett. Those paddles weren't outputting spin that this can output. Nothing has come close to this. In five years of testing paddles, this is the highest I've ever tested. Like even recently where my technique has gotten better and durable grit has allowed paddles to do more. I have what, four, maybe five paddles that are over 2,500. And this is another 300 higher. Yep.

[00:26:58] And I think if I continued to modify my technique with this paddle, I could probably go even higher because I was saying this as I was doing the test, the amount that I can close my paddle face, like as if you would, if you were playing with a tennis racket far exceeds anything I can do with any other paddle. If I close as much as I was with this on another paddle, the ball will slip straight into the ground. Yeah. You know, it just like, I literally felt like I could hold semi-Western and just hold the paddle like borderline flat. And it was insane.

[00:27:27] So I guess that's just kind of my thought is it's like, look, you want this? Spinning the game? Cool. Do it for everyone. Let everyone do it. Let anyone create foam core paddles with this felt surface and let's just go wild. Let's see what happens. But don't give one company an exception. That's my problem. Yeah. That's where we have problems. Just like making exceptions for one brand, it just feels sketchy. And this just should not be on the market where we're at with everything else. Yeah.

[00:27:56] I completely agree. And one of the things that I think, again, you should just read the article. But one of the, I thought the article summarized this very well at the end because one of the things they were talking about is USAP was saying, you know, we're nearing completion of a spin rate definition. Because keep in mind, this article was released in July. So this was before the spin test was like finalized. Now the steroid isn't used as a pass or fail. So we're kind of in a different era than when this article was written.

[00:28:22] But basically, USAP was saying we're nearing completion of a spin rate definition and we'll reach a determination for outliers. While we recognize, sorry, while we don't recognize any current spin rate test as robust, as a robust lab grade solution relative to what we are launching, we'd be interested in reviewing that independent data as, and as well as the viability of the test itself. So that's clearly referencing someone like John or referencing someone like me. And that's fine. Look, you want to say this isn't a lab grade test?

[00:28:50] I never claimed it was a lab grade test. But you don't need a lab grade test to know that the spin is insane on this paddle. Whether through John's testing, which I think on the Canon, he's hitting over 3,000 with this, with his arm and my arm, we're almost hitting 3,000. And then even just playing people who play against it or play with it. It's extremely obvious. Like you don't need a lab grade test to tell you there's a problem here. And that's what I think at the end, they summarize really well. The author of the article said,

[00:29:48] The paddle excused from the existing test is winning points right now. Now, I think the only reason there is not more outcry about this paddle being approved is purely because the rest of the paddle performance wise is not on par. Pretty bad. This has elite spin beyond anything else on the market. But sweet spot, not that great. The one I'm specifically holding, the Talon is really heavy. 130 swing weight.

[00:30:14] I did actually check John's database because he has the other elongated model. 118 swing weight. So that's much more reasonable because this is like an extra elongated paddle. It's like 16.7 inches long. Balance point of 25.6 or 256, which is very high. That's like, that is very high for an elongated paddle. And had a static weight of 7.9 for John's paddle. So to me, if this had a foam core, you made it lighter, maybe use a little less felt because

[00:30:43] you're really not trying to go for quiet. You're just trying to go for performance. You probably don't need as thick of a layer to get that spin. Maybe you do. Maybe you don't. Hard to say. But I think that's the only reason it's not more popular is because there are drawbacks that make it less playable for doubles. Yeah. Right. But if you change the rest of the performance characteristics, these would be everywhere. The only, yeah, I was going to say the only reason why there isn't more outcry is because it's just not that popular. There's just not that many of them out there. Yeah.

[00:31:11] So I don't know. I feel like this whole topic about this thing is just tired at this point. And, you know, they said they in the article, I feel USAP alludes to the fact that like, hey, look, when we have an official spin test, which we do now, you know, we're going to look for some outliers. I feel like I'm holding a pretty clear outlier here. Are we going to do anything about this? And look, if you tell me somehow this passes at a 2100 RPM limit, which I'd have a hard time believing, but let's just say it does. Again, I don't care. That's fine. Cool.

[00:31:39] You found a way to innovate something so insane in the real world, but not in the canon. Go for it. That means everyone else can somehow figure out how to do the same thing. That's all I care about is everyone should be held to the same standard. There shouldn't be different standards. Yeah. That's kind of my entire point about this thing. So I don't know. 2800 RPM, bro. I haven't played doubles with this. Like, I'm almost tempted to play with this tonight just to see like how ridiculous it would be. I'm sure at the net, it's going to suck. 130 swing weight.

[00:32:08] I'll probably break my wrist trying to hit a flick. But I don't know. Just crazy. Also, if you haven't ever played against one, it is very, very strange not having that audible feedback. Oh, we didn't even get to that. Yeah. I mean, there's that too. Opponent. Like if you've never had it across on the court from you, it's very difficult the first time you play against one. Yeah. Like knowing when they hit a flick or reset, like it all sounds the same. So it's just very, I don't even know how to describe it. It's very weird.

[00:32:38] It's just different. And again, you know, maybe if every paddle was like that, maybe we'd all get used to and it would be fine. But it is weird when that is the only one that. It's just really dumb that they initially tried to create an entirely different approval list of quiet approved paddles. And then shocker, no one wanted to buy those. And they're like, actually, it's going to be on the regular approved list now and everyone can just use it. Yeah. Yeah. Stupid. It's wild. But read the article if you want. That's where the spin is.

[00:33:07] If you want a lead spin, there's literally nothing better than this. If you can get over a paddle being heavy, there is absolutely nothing better than 100%. It is at the top. Yeah. So, okay. Let's talk about some other paddles here. So Gearbox has the hybrid version of the Pressure X coming up. And the main reason I wanted to talk about this is because the original Pressure X we got, you know, played with it a little bit. I would say one of the main reason I wasn't that interested in hitting it more is the spin

[00:33:36] on it was pretty subpar compared to what paddles can do today. Uh, you know, the surface was smoother and Gearbox's whole thing has kind of always been like, hey, you know, we don't need the grit to generate spin. And this is why I always disagree with that. Look, we've clearly established that up to a certain point, there is a point where more roughness is not better. But the same is also true backwards. There is a point where too smooth will absolutely not grip the ball as well. And you want to be somewhere in the middle.

[00:34:06] So I'm this hybrid that I'm holding, both of them were noticeably rougher out of the box than the elongated that we got. In fact, I measured it. It is roughly 15% more rough than the old one. And if you just touch it, like I even the other day, I gave it to you and I was like, dude, feel how much more rough this is. It's not like stupid rough. It's not like, oh, oh gosh, this should be a legal rough. But you can just tell side by side. It's more. It's more.

[00:34:32] And so I brought him out the other day because obviously I had to get RPMs on the hybrid. So I was like, let's bring both of them out. So I did them out both at the same time. 1971 RPM on 20 serves with the original 2322 with the hybrid. So a 350 RPM increase. And this is I'm actually so glad this happened because now we have literally the same paddle, just elongated versus hybrid one with more surface roughness. And look, it got more spin.

[00:35:00] Now, if you went up another 50% in grit, I'm going to bet we don't get that much more spin from this point. My whole point is that too smooth doesn't work. And that was the reason I wasn't that excited about the pressure X before. I was like below 2000 RPM. Like when we got stuff that's like 2400, like I'm just not that interested in a $270 paddle. Even if the spin stayed there for that long, I don't really care. Yeah. It's just not to me that performant. It doesn't mean it doesn't meet the current standards of the market.

[00:35:30] So all that to say, I actually am excited to hit this hybrid because even looking at both the specs, I'm like, these are on paper. These sound awesome. So the 8E, well, I'll just read them for both. The 8E, the one I'm holding, 109 swing weight. The 8M, 110, basically identical. Static weights between them, 7.74 versus 7.77. Okay. They're light. Balance point on both of them, pretty light. Light.

[00:35:55] I'd say light to maybe lower end of average for a hybrid. And then the grips, 4 and 1 eighth, very well built handle. Like on paper, I'm like, this is nice. And Gearbox didn't do the weird thing they do where they make like a skinny hybrid. It's like a proper hybrid. Like I'm kind of excited to hit this one. I feel like it could be good. I think, no, I was going to say, didn't you use a Gearbox paddle last year? Well, no, that was John. Was it last year or two years ago?

[00:36:24] It was the wide body. Yes. The, what was it? Like hyper or something? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Not me. But yeah. So I just fit, oh, and on paper, a longer handle, 5.6 inches. And I'm curious about how the grid holds up. So another flat top hybrid. Yep. Another flat top. I mean, Gearboxes have always been flat top hybrid. Yeah. They were actually one of the ones that did it before it was popular. Just another model on the market. That's what I meant. Yeah. But yeah, I, this, I haven't hit with this one really much yet.

[00:36:52] So can't say much about it, but the original, the, uh, the elongated ones felt really good and yeah, they just needed more spin. So this is going to be interesting. Now, hopefully they will just do this grit to the elongated. Like there shouldn't be like, oh, the elongated smoother and the hybrids rougher. Can we just make both of them the same please? And I'm really hoping that this is not some one-off fluke that ours happened to be rougher. I'm hoping that because this paddle had to be submitted as a whole new thing, that this is just the grit they went for.

[00:37:21] Maybe they realized they had room to go up on the spin test. And so they went up on the hybrid as they submitted this. But to me, I'm like, yeah, 2300 perfectly acceptable. Let's go. That's great. Yeah. Less than 2000 in 2026. Yeah. That's not very under 2000. Now it's pretty bad. Honestly, under 22 to 2100 is kind of pushing it for me. That's like my floor. Sure. Sure. So yeah, that's some thoughts on the hybrid.

[00:37:47] Obviously, if I get some actual playtime on it, I'd love to share more about it. But I am impressed from that standpoint. Oh, also this comes out. It releases November 16th. So we still have a little bit before it comes out. Maybe two and a half weeks. All right. Next paddle. Want to talk about the jades. So this is, like I said, what I've been working on. I'm just really quickly going to go over the 16 millimeter versus 14 millimeter on this

[00:38:16] and give some thoughts of kind of my whole experience as I've been playing with these. So 14 millimeter has the most games. I think I'm either over 50 or over 60 games on this thing now. And oddly enough, it has been the one that I have leaned towards the most, which is very weird. But I think the main reason comes down to a feel thing for me.

[00:38:40] So I feel like the jade 16, when it breaks in, it becomes way too much feel wise, like in OG Inferno, like super thonky, very soft feeling. To me, it feels like it has so much dwell time to the point where this is going to sound very counterintuitive to how everyone views this. But I feel like I lose control.

[00:39:04] It's almost like the way I am used to the ball coming off of a paddle is no longer the same. So I feel like I just don't know where it's going to go when I swing how I normally swing. And I've, I think I've got almost 40 games on the 16 millimeter as well. It's like perfectly broken in. I've tried weight on it. It just doesn't work for me for whatever reason. I don't know why the 14, it's like more crisp. It feels more solid on contact. It doesn't feel as hollow.

[00:39:34] And I just know where the ball is going to go. And for whatever reason, for me, I also feel like I get better spin on the 14. Like in a spin test, they're the same. But then on court, I like everything feels like I can shape it way easier on the 14. So I don't know what that's about. The biggest thing I'll say about the 14, you'll probably notice I have a ton of weight on this thing right now. I have 16 grams on this thing, 10 in the bottom corners, and then three on the top corners. It needs a lot of weight if you're going to use a 14. And here's what's crazy about this.

[00:40:02] These are so light to begin with that even with all this weight on it, 114 swing weight, 8.2 ounces static weight. So it's not like it became absurdly heavy. And you probably don't even have to do this much weight. To be honest, you could probably do three grams in the bottom corners. I doubt you need five gram strips. But to me, this paddle has started playing a lot better when I had this weight set up. And if you don't put weight on the head, have fun. Because this is probably one of the most, in recent times, one of the most dead paddles

[00:40:32] I've hit near the head ever. 14, 16, both of them. Yeah. Really bad without weight at the top. Yeah. It just absolutely needs weight up there. To me, this is a paddle where I think what I'm learning is that I actually do hit higher on the paddle face than I think I do in general. Because taking dinks out of the air with the 14 before I put weight on the head, dead in the net every single time. Like I said, we even had a friend that I gave him the 14 elongated. He wanted to try a new paddle. So I was like, oh yeah, try this.

[00:41:01] You play with a 14 millimeter Yola. This is probably what you want. He put it down before warmup finished because all the dinks out of the air is like, dude, it just dies. Yeah. It's like using a Gen 1 paddle take again. With how bad? Without weight. Yeah, without weight. Once you put weight on it, the issue goes away for me. Since you already hit so high near the top, just start using elongated anyways, bro. But see, that'd be like the center of an elongated. Then you'd have more reach. You'd get better flicks. But yeah, the weight or the deadness at the top.

[00:41:28] Either you need to be someone who really strikes very close to the center of the paddle, maybe more than a lot of people would be used to, or you need to add weight up top to fix it. Once there's weight up there, not really an issue for me. I've stopped noticing at the kitchen line. That part's been fine. Yeah, it was such a noticeable feel for me with both 14 and 16 to the point where I would choose not to use it because of it. Yeah. It's very much an outlier compared to most paddles.

[00:41:58] I feel like a lot of paddles you can just kind of hit a little bit higher and it's fine. And I feel like you can't on the J. I haven't hit many other paddles that feel like that near the top. Foam paddles, that is. Outside of, I don't know, Black Opal? Yeah. That's obviously pretty dead. But that one doesn't even have a 16 version. Yeah, it's only a 14. So, yeah, I don't know. Maybe the Valera shift was kind of like that. But again, that was a 14. Yeah.

[00:42:23] So I really think if you're choosing between 14 or 16, I think the 14, if you want more crisp, more immediate feedback, kind of gets off the face a little bit quicker, then the 14 is going to be what you want. But if you're someone who likes ultra-dwelly, kind of like the OG Inferno, you want it to sound absurdly thonky, then it's going to be the 16. I, if I just had to guess, I would probably be in the minority that would prefer the 14 in this case.

[00:42:51] But the 16 was just absolutely not for me. Like, it's one of those paddles that I could not take that to a tournament and perform the way I want. I don't think it's a bad paddle. I just think for the way I play, I absolutely cannot do it. Yeah. It doesn't work. That's fair. And then I think I've mentioned this before, or at least I mentioned it on Instagram. I don't know if people saw it, but the launch angle, and I even said this on the story, I really don't talk about this ever because there's really no paddle where I feel like, oh, it's really high or it's really low.

[00:43:20] But for whatever reason, I have to aim way higher with this. And I don't even feel like it's necessarily a spin thing because the Spitfire, even though in a test, it didn't have more RPM is about the same, I guess, realistically, 2550. I still felt and have felt like I'm getting more spin on a new Spitfire than I am on the Jade. So if that has insane spin and ever felt like I had to aim way higher, I don't know why this feels like the ball comes off so low.

[00:43:47] So I've had to really just start in my head, it's like one of those tank games where you're like, or pool, where you're moving the little thing. I feel like I'm aiming way high to get the ball over. So what do you prefer? Not low. Not what this does. Gotcha. I can get used to it. I'm used to it on this 14 now. I've just adjusted and I know how I have to hit it. But if you were picking between the Spitfire and that, which would you prefer? The Spitfire. Yeah. How it comes off the face of the Spitfire. Yeah, for sure. I'm kind of hoping before Worlds I'll be done with this.

[00:44:16] I think I can knock out the rest pretty quickly. Because at this point, I know how the paddles play. I don't need more play time. It's just to get the grit and see how it holds up. Yep. So yeah, I don't know. It's not bad, but I just feel like it's underwhelming, I guess. I think my opinion on the paddle still hasn't changed. I just think for me, the performance is a little lacking in Sweet Spot.

[00:44:45] I just don't like how it feels at the top. And it's just way too much compared to the rest of the market. There's so many other paddles. Yeah, price-wise. There's so many other paddles that I think have better Sweet Spots that are similar feel that are $30, $40 less. Yeah. Or more. Or more. Or more. Or more. So that's where it becomes disappointing. Plus, not that there's a huge issue, but the rattling in the handle. Yeah, the QC. And some disbonding stuff. But again, that's just foam paddles.

[00:45:15] It's kind of upsetting. Yeah. I mean, trying to think of any other foam paddles that have launched. I haven't really seen any disbonding issues outside of like from the Boomstick was launched. What other paddle have we seen? Well, the Boomstick didn't really disbond much. Had cracking issues. Had cracking and Edgeguard. I did know some people locally who disbonded theirs. The main paddles that were disbonding for a minute but seemed to have solved it after some fixes were the Enhanced MPP Turbo and then the Power 2s.

[00:45:42] The Power 2, it happened when it was new and then it got fixed because I really haven't heard it since. Yep. So maybe it'll be the same thing with this. Maybe once the demand's not so high, it'll kind of smooth out the QC. But right now, yeah, there are people where that's just upsetting, right? Look, the maraca in the handle, it's not impacting play. It's more just like, should you spend $270 and have a paddle that does that?

[00:46:06] You know, if I buy a brand new car, if it has a dent in a spot, like that doesn't impact the car's ability to drive. But I just bought a brand new car. It shouldn't have a dent on it. Yeah. You know, that's kind of how I view that. Exactly. For sure. So anyways, yeah, that's my thoughts on where the Jades are right now. I think the 14 is probably more my speed once it's weighted up. But I think I'll probably be kind of in the minority on that. Okay. We've made it to the kitchen. Really didn't feel like it took that long to get to the kitchen.

[00:46:35] Now we got some questions and answers to do. Very quick. Very quick. All right. First one. I forgot to actually come up with an answer for this. I maybe have one. What are some old habits that you did as a beginner that you still do today? Not cover the line? No, no. You're not supposed to answer for me. You're supposed to answer for yourself. No, I know you better. You still don't cover the line. I feel like I'm better about that now. Maybe a little bit. Oh, man. I got to think.

[00:47:03] What are some habits that I still do today? I think I can only think of one for me. And I've really only picked up on it recently. But I'm sure that if I am doing it now that I also used to do it as a beginner. And I was just telling you this yesterday. I've been watching film of myself a lot recently. Some gameplay and other stuff. Dude, it's like my left arm doesn't exist when I play pickleball. Like I'll be hitting dinks. I'll be hitting whatever. And my left arm is just limp at my side.

[00:47:32] Am I using it to counterbalance? Not most of the time. Am I using it to point at the ball so I can my striking distance? Not that often. Like this thing just kind of dangles in my left side. I'm like, could you look less athletic because of this? Just cut it off. Basically. Get rid of it. I'm like, what do I need this thing for? I'm not using it. Like, so I just watched myself play recently. And I go, you just look like you don't know how to play. Like he, so that, that's actually been bothering me. I'm like, dude, use your left arm. I can't really think of anything.

[00:48:00] Maybe like this isn't even really a habit. This is just me being bad at pickleball. But just like getting lazy and not bending my knees, standing up. Like every, but everyone does it. Yeah, everyone does that. That's not a habit. That's just being lazy. So, I mean, is there anything you can, I don't think of anything I can do that, or that I do that I did as a beginner. It's a bad habit. Okay. I think I burned out a lot of the really bad habits. Yeah. Now it just comes down to like making poor decisions. Yeah, right. Which that's everyone.

[00:48:30] There's still everyone. So, yeah, I don't know. I, maybe I can think of something and come back to this later, but I can't think of anything. All right. Well, next one, I guess this could, this could go for both of us, but I think the way they phrased it was probably more to me. But they said, as a paddle tester, do you have more fun testing paddles or trying to be 50 plus? I actually think about this way more often than I feel like I should because I flip flop all the time. Why? Because I like both. Both are fantastic.

[00:48:57] And if I had to choose one over the other, I genuinely, I think I would choose paddles, but it would be a very hard pick because I am a very competitive person and I like feeling that I am improving at things. If I feel like I am stuck or stagnant, things usually become less fun for me or I am enjoying it less.

[00:49:18] And the problem is, to me, the both the things are at odds with each other, because if I want to do the pad of reviewing really well, well, then I don't get to drill for the sake of drilling as much. Yes, you can kind of combine things, but I find it's very hard for me to compartmentalize what I am thinking about notes for a paddle for a review and then just playing. Like you and I get to hit and drill, quote unquote, all the time, but I don't feel like I'm usually doing it for the sake of getting better.

[00:49:47] Yeah, we're not like practicing shots. We're more hitting shots to test how the paddle feels. Yeah. Rather than like getting better at a certain shot. And when I did Chasing 5.0 last year, where I really did slow down the paddle reviews, I loved it. I had a ton of fun. I felt like for the first time in a long time, I was actually like making improvement again. And that felt really satisfying. But then on the flip side, I was disappointed because I was like, oh, well, this other thing I really enjoy doing, I'm not doing it right now. So I don't know.

[00:50:15] I think I'd have to choose paddle testing at the end of the day. But both are very important to me and both are at odds with each other. Yeah. Paddle testing is a lot of fun. I very much so enjoy it. But when I am like grinding and getting better and pretty much only focusing on that definitely sucks the fun out of it quite a bit. But I do enjoy getting better. I just feel like I become a different person. My mindset changes. When you're trying to get better.

[00:50:43] Like I don't play games just for fun with people. So like I might not be as fun to play with when I do play rec games because I'm more serious. So, yeah, it just it changes. I do think that is the flip side when you you look at the improvement side is I do think that that often it comes with higher expectations for yourself. And then if you're not meeting those expectations, you get more angry.

[00:51:06] And that's one of the things that I think is nice about the paddle testing is I'd be like I can just kind of goof off with my friends a lot of times or, you know, banter, do whatever. And it's just not that serious. Whereas if you're in the mode or you're with a groups of people that they just want to get better. Yes, you can obviously still have fun. But generally speaking, a little bit of that starts to go away because it's like, dude, why are you hitting that dumb shot? Like, you know, you shouldn't hit that. It's just that all these expectations kind of change. Yeah, it'd be a lot pickier who you play with and stuff.

[00:51:34] You know, some people just want to play for fun and do silly stuff. And if you're trying to get better, makes it pretty difficult. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know. I could flip flop back and forth. Yeah, I really wish I could just have two of myself. That'd be great. Right. Yeah, that would be awesome. OK, this is a great question because I think this doesn't really get talked about enough. But do off days or tough matches affect your first impression of a paddle?

[00:51:59] This is actually funny because I have had, you know, lots of my friends where let's say there is just a day where I'm playing kind of poorly or maybe it's a paddle I vibe less with and they can see I'm struggling. Every time I miss a ball, they just start making jokes like, oh, yep, that paddle is going to get a bad review. And I think it's funny when people say that. But I have done this for long enough now to where I genuinely believe.

[00:52:24] Now, I would say I even know that that a bad day does not change my impression of a paddle because I know that there is break in. I know that weights can change it. And I also know when I am just actually off and I am the problem. Right. If I'm just having a bad day, I'm never going to blame the paddle for that.

[00:52:43] There are also certain we've been doing this for so long and hit so many paddles that you can just tell based on how a paddle feels kind of like, OK, we know for a fact that if a core is no mechs, it's going to be a bad paddle. Yeah. Right. So it's kind of like that where you can even if you're playing bad, you can just tell when a paddle feels good or feels bad. And when it's you hitting good shots, are you hitting bad shots? You know, you hit good shots with a bad paddle still doesn't mean that paddle is good. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Same thing goes in reverse.

[00:53:13] Yeah, I completely agree. So for me, no, that never that never impacts anything because I think, you know, if you want to be really good at reviewing, you have to know how to separate that because it's not fair to the people who might watch the review or even the company of the paddle. Like, oh, I had a bad day. So, like, you know, let's say you showed up to the courts and you were tired and you were having a bad day and you were angry. And then you're like, oh, this paddle is the worst thing ever. I couldn't even play. Well, that's not fair.

[00:53:40] It's kind of like when I first tested the Aura Pro. Do you remember that day at Lifetime? Like, I could not hit dinks to save my life. I thought Isaac was going to give this. I'm not kidding. Like one of the worst talks on the podcast that I'd ever heard because Isaac could not hit a dink over the net to save his life. Horrendous. Like my dinking was trash that day, but it is still it ended up being one of my favorite paddles. When you ended up saying that, like, you know, maybe later that week or something after you played some more games, you're like, man, I love this paddle.

[00:54:09] I think it was the end of that session. Yeah, but then I think you kept it kept growing on you even more. Like you'd play some games. Yeah, I really like sounds like I was not expecting that, you know. Yeah, it's crazy. So, yeah, I think. Part of reviewing is just getting better at recognizing when something is good, even if you're playing bad. Yeah. Or even if it's not for you. Right. Yeah, that's you. The 16 millimeter Jade is a great example of like, yeah, it's not my cup of tea, but I know there are people who would really like that.

[00:54:35] Like, I think if you were someone that really liked the OG Inferno. Now, to be fair, the OG Inferno had way higher pop and way higher power. So if you're OK with stripping some of that down a little bit, then I think some people would probably love the Jade 16 because the spin is going to be higher and you're getting a similar kind of feel profile. Minus also the sweet spot, I think, is definitely worse than the original Inferno. But like that is an example of I can recognize when it doesn't work for me, but there is a person this is for, you know.

[00:55:05] So I thought that was a good question. I like that. Yeah, that's a good one. All right. Top three paddles right now. I probably should have thought about this before when I was writing this down this morning. Well, mine is. Well, OK, I got to, you know, at least two. The Loco and Orpro is definitely top two. Now I got to think what is third? I'm actually going to make this easier for myself. I'm going to go to my website database a little bit. My two for sure, I think, are going to be the Spitfire and Loco two.

[00:55:35] That was probably obvious based on what we were talking about earlier with paddles. Oh, third should have been so obvious for me. And I wouldn't even necessarily say it is actually third. These are just like top three in general order ranking, whatever could be different. I would say P1 Widebody. Yeah. I think P1 Widebody is really good. P1 is really good. I probably need more games than the Elongated. I have an honorable mention in a minute here.

[00:56:01] I'd probably say the Inferno two. Really? Wow. I like that paddle a lot. It just needs better grit. If they put the cannon grit, the new XPP cannon grit on the Inferno two, that will be a killer paddle. Wow. Okay. I definitely would not have expected that. I mean, the Inferno, the original one was one of my favorites. Yep. And then the Inferno two felt slightly different, but in the same realm. So yeah, that would be like, that's probably third right now. Okay.

[00:56:31] I think if I had to go some honorable mentions just based on some of the playtesting I've had, I would say the Friction Pro V2 Widebody 16 and then the Coral Pro. So both of those paddles are paddles I really want more time on, specifically the Coral Pro because I haven't really gotten to test all the grit stuff on that yet. But I just remember from first impression, if we're taking grit aside here, I liked how the paddle played. I liked its feel profile, like the pop and power on it.

[00:56:59] So all of those, I think are paddles I really enjoy. Coral Pro is very good. I like the feel of that paddle. I just can't get over the look of the shape. So if they had a flat top hybrid, would that be? Flat top elongated? Yeah. Or yeah, flat top elongated. Yeah. If it was like the loco shape, I'd probably like that paddle a lot. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So those are some of our tops. I mean, honestly, I think we talked about this before. You know, the P1, I feel like it ended up getting kind of like glossed over more because

[00:57:28] it was so many delays and so many edge guard issues. But I still think that paddle is really good. Its main issue was that it was heavy, but the wide body really don't think it's that heavy. I mean, maybe for a wide body, it's on the higher side, but objectively, it's not that heavy. Even the hybrid for me was fine. I didn't even have to add weight on it. Like I think the paddle itself was very good. It just, it got kind of run over because power two wasn't having any issues really. Grit was holding up and then other stuff started coming out. So yeah. Okay. Not paddles.

[00:57:59] Okay. This is a question just for you. I want to know what are your weight setups for elongated paddles? It changes a lot. Really depends on the actual unit I get. What is the stock swing weight? What is the balance point? Things like that. But typically it stays fairly consistent. So if it is a, a heavier stock elongated, let's just pretend this is this hybrid isn't elongated. That isn't elongated. This is, oh, this is the elongated. Oh, I thought you handed me the hybrid.

[00:58:28] Um, let's just say this is a heavier stat or stock swing weight, like one 20, one 23, anywhere in that range. I'm probably going to take probably about a four or five inch strip of one gram per inch tape, and I'm going to move it lower on the throat. So probably middle of the, of the throat up to the side of the paddle, uh, wherever that ends up being. And just cause I feel like it doesn't need more plow through at the top cause the swing

[00:58:52] weight's already higher, but I do need more, uh, assistance and help on the lower half, uh, stability sweet spot and improve, you know, uh, plow through for resets and stuff like that. But if it is lower swing weight, say getting elongated, it's like one 17, one 18. I will move that strip typically around the same length, unless I need more weight. If it's a really light paddle and I will just move it up higher, the side of the paddle just to improve the plow through near the top.

[00:59:22] And then also I, I don't have an exact, uh, necessarily swing weight or, or static weight that I'm trying to get to. But if I have a really light stock paddle, it does mess with my timing. So I do typically add weight just to help with my timing. Um, so that's kind of my methodology of, of weight setup. So it really just depends on, on the stock weight. Yeah. Makes sense. Uh, all right. Next one is, this is a great one.

[00:59:50] I just think for paddle performance, cause people love to use this argument and we'll just talk about it. It's does paddle performance matter? Ben Johns could beat us with a wooden spoon. I always think it's when this type of argument gets used, it's just kind of funny to me because I think everyone ultimately knows at the end of the day that skill is what matters the most, right? No one, aside from when the gearbox pro power elongated and the gen three era happened where

[01:00:18] it genuinely seemed like you could have a less skilled player beating a slightly higher level player because of their equipment outside of that skill always matters the most. Yeah. Ben Johns is going to beat me with a Z five. Ben Johns is going to beat me with a trainer paddle. Well, and look at, look at that. Like what I don't like about this, particularly how this is phrased. Cause I flip flop back and forth on this, but this particular, like Ben Johns could be, yes, any of us with a wooden spoon, but he's not beating anyone on tour with a wooden scale.

[01:00:47] So like that, yes, when it comes to similar level, I think performance does matter, especially nowadays. Well, I guess maybe not, especially nowadays, but more nowadays it's, you need to get along with the feel of your paddle. You can contribute that to performance, but if you do not get along or feel comfortable with your paddle, you're just not going to play good with it. Yeah. So you could give Ben Johns something that is technically more performative, more spin, more pop and power, but if he doesn't like how it feels, then it's not going to work for him. So it's just kind of changed.

[01:01:17] I think the days of like, it's black and white of this is a good paddle and this is a bad paddle kind of fading away. Yeah. Doesn't really. Cause what, I mean, there's not many things that are bad. Yeah. You could pick up some cheapo Amazon paddle. Sure. But if we're talking actual performance paddles and performance companies, for the most part, everything is good with some small differences here or there. Yeah. You know, like, okay, for example, that might be a good thing.

[01:01:45] It might be blurry on the wide camera. You probably can't really see it, but this Spider-Man Valerre paddle on the back wall is not really a performative paddle. If you give that to Ben Johns, he's probably not beating any round of 32 pros. Yeah. Or maybe round of 16 pros. Right. You know? So like at a certain point, yeah, it does matter. Yeah. A performance will not compensate for skill level when skill is equal. Yes. If you are better than someone like, look, Isaac could probably go outside and beat me

[01:02:15] with like, I don't know. Most people would probably say a Gen 1 paddle tech today is lacking in a lot of ways, though obviously it was a performative paddle at one point. Isaac's going to beat me with a paddle tech. I mean, I joked around in that one video and grabbed the Z5. Like, am I going to beat you in a whole game? Probably not. But I'm still beating you in plenty of points. Points. You know? So like, what is the worst paddle I could use? I don't think I'm beating you with a wood paddle. I don't think so either. I also don't think if it was two of me and two of you, I don't think with a Z5 you win.

[01:02:44] I wonder if I could with that. Any spray on grill. Like, give me the old Franklin Ben John signature. I could see it. I could. It was a fresh one. Yeah, a fresh one. That would matter. Give him the smooth one. I think that that would be my floor. So yeah, to me, it's like performance can absolutely make a difference, but not like, oh, it's going to make you half a point better. Yes. You know? I think more what it is is exactly what you said, which is the right paddle for you

[01:03:13] will make you feel like a much more confident player and probably raise your level. Versus the completely wrong paddle. Like, if I give you a Nomex wide body paddle, you're probably not going to feel very good with that paddle or feel very confident playing. Could you still play well enough? Yeah, probably. But you probably are going to go down in level. Well, it's kind of like when we were at the Adidas event. Like, those paddles, I would not choose to play with that. Not my favorite paddle.

[01:03:41] But when we were playing games with everybody and we did that, like, king of the court thing, I still played fine and I was beating everyone. I didn't lose, like, seven games in a row. Yeah. So, it just, yeah. I don't think it matters. It changes across different skill levels. I also think that the higher performance a paddle gets, a lower level player is not going to be able to take advantage of all of the paddle's performance. Right?

[01:04:07] Someone higher skill is going to be able to maximize a paddle's performance versus a 3-0 might not be able to use its maximum amount of spin potential. Right. So, it just changes across skill levels. Totally. All right, last question. I thought this was a really funny question. I like this one. This one's good. Who would go further in a tournament? Chris with an elongated or Isaac with a wide body? We're going to have to test this at some point. And honestly, what I was thinking about, and it's unfortunate because, you know, Selkirk

[01:04:34] and Bread and Butter are killing off the wide body. I was going to say, next year's Nerdy Tourney, we should just swap. Oh, I'm a Nerdy Tourney. You use an elongated and I use a wide body. Maybe I'll just say, I'll use a hybrid and you use an elongated at the Nerdy Tourney next year. Yeah, that could, yeah. But see, also, that one, because the skill varies so much in the Nerdy Tourney, it would, I, personally, I think if we're going who it impacts play-wise the most, I think you

[01:05:03] having to use a wide body hurts you more than me using an elongated. I agree. Because you're getting to use the superior equipment, so obviously it's going to allow you to go further into the draw. I mean, it's just... I just think I experiment with shapes more than you do. One player is getting a stat boost while the other one's getting a decrease, so... No, I actually do think that. I think you probably would go further with an elongated, to be honest. Like, I think if I had to use an elongated world, like, I could do it. Yeah, you have more time on both shapes. Yeah.

[01:05:32] I only hit wide bodies during, like, testing sessions when I have to. Yeah, exactly. That's the only time I'm... When was the last time I played games with a wide body? It's probably been over a year, two years. Well, you've had to mess around a little bit, like, I think sometime this year at... Or actually, maybe it was last year. I was thinking some of the Chasing 5-0 stuff. You were playing some singles. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's right. Yep. So anyways, that's all we have for you guys this week. Hope you enjoyed the podcast.

[01:06:00] If you're going to be at Worlds, come up and say hi. And looking forward to it. So, catch you later. Peace.