Coral vs Coral Pro, Spartus Spitfire, Head Boom, Paddle Feedback

[00:00:05] What is up nerds? Welcome back to episode 80 of the pee-pee pod. Mama pee-pee and Papa pee-pee have been reunited. He's back. We missed him. Gosh, in all your glory, you got no hat on today, so you looking real good. Watch your eyes, watch your eyes. Yep. Man, dude. I get a little glare. Missed you, not gonna lie. Not even gonna pretend. Absence makes the heart go fronder.

[00:00:33] I had fun with Martin. I think he did a great job filling in, but nobody fills in just like you, you know? Nobody fills you in like that? Yep. Nobody. Martin did great. He did. He did a good job. And I was thinking about this. I texted you about this, like, I think maybe it was early in the trip. I was looking back at the podcast, and do you know we've been doing this damn thing for over two years? That's crazy, actually.

[00:00:57] That is crazy. Two years? It's been over two years, yeah. Yeah, it's been over two years, like May 2024, so. Oh my god. Back to the Vampire Den days, you know? And in all that time, Martin is the one and only guest, so. Yeah, that's true. We've never had a guest. That is true. We've never had another co-host. Damn. You did one solo. I did one solo, yeah. Yeah. That was like episode three or four, right?

[00:01:25] It was pretty early on, and I was pissed because that one got way more views than all the rest of them for like a long time. And I was like, I should just quit. He's better without me. No, definitely not. Definitely not better without you. That was just lucky. Never would that ever happen again. But you had a good trip, man? Oh yeah. It was awesome. Yeah. I don't know if we're gonna like do any editing, but I could send you pictures and you could put them up, or we could just say, sorry guys, we don't edit.

[00:01:55] I mean. Yeah. Went to Glacier National Park. Went to Yellowstone National Park. Just epic. Epically beautiful. Yeah. For those who are considering either of those places, I would highly recommend Glacier in the summer. It's impressive, dude. It's just like, it took over my number one spot of like most beautiful natural place I've ever seen. Period. Dang. That's wild. It's just, yeah, just every, you're in there and just like every direction you look is just like shocking. Yellowstone. Glacier. Glacier, yeah, yeah. Yellowstone, different story.

[00:02:25] Yeah. Yellowstone is like extremely unique. The stuff you see there, you're not gonna see anywhere else, period. And it is very cool to see. However, it's like, okay, cool. I saw it. Yeah. I don't need to go back. It just smells like farts everywhere. Because, you know, it's like geothermal activity. It's like just sulfur in the air. It's just, I mean, and you see a lot of wildlife. We saw a grizzly bear. We saw a black bear. We saw a lot elk, plenty of bison. And you can just see it driving through the park.

[00:02:55] Yeah, every time I. Also, it's fucking huge, by the way. Oh, really? It's bigger than a lot of states. It's like 2.2 million acres. Yeah. Oh, my God. So, you have to drive. It's so much driving. It is cool to see once. Once, yeah. Glacier is like the type of place we might go back. You know, because there's a lot of hikes that we couldn't do. They were closed either for snow and ice still in June or for grizzly bear activity. There were two grizzly bear attacks and deaths in May. So, kind of scary.

[00:03:25] Jesus. Yeah, we were like group hikes, bear spray, you know. Yeah. No bears, but yeah. I'm big into photography. Everybody probably knew that or at least understood that because I do video for a living. But every time I would look, you know, at like inspiration photos of where I wanted to travel, I'd like see Yellowstone and I'd see pictures like. It looks kind of weird. Like it's not. It's very weird. It looks like another planet. Yeah. Like I don't see the huge draw.

[00:03:54] It's not like beautiful. It's just like very unique. Yeah, it's shocking. Yeah. The stuff you see there, you're like, this doesn't make sense. You know. Right. Yeah. Grand Prismatic is like the famous one. It's giant, very colorful. I mean, I don't want to call it like a pond, but you know what I mean? It's a pool coming up, but you just don't see water that color and it's huge and it's steaming the whole time. Yeah, it was cool.

[00:04:21] But yeah, you I sent you those pictures of Glacier and you were like, oh, you got to go to Banff and you sent me pictures of Banff, which is similar ish. Similar ish. Intense, crazy Rockies, but then also a ton of water features. You know, like in Glacier, there's obviously glaciers, but there's waterfalls, there's lakes, there's like roaring rivers, everything. It's pretty cool. Yeah. If anybody's listening, they're trying to find a good summer vacation.

[00:04:47] Could not recommend Banff National Park in Calgary, Canada higher. I mean, that was will go down as probably the best trip of my life. Uh, it was so sick. Um, looks incredible. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, dude, I'm glad you're back. Glad you had a great trip, uh, with your real life wife. Uh, and you just left me. Um, but yeah, it's all good. You know? Oh, damn. Take a paddle. Didn't take shoes. Nada.

[00:05:16] It was a pickleball break. I thought you were surely going to cave in and bring like, you know, a bag of things, but nothing, not a purpose. I wanted to take a little, uh, burnout break, you know, although I still had some work to do, um, on the laptop and a few meetings and you know, some messages here and there, but no play, which was, so I didn't play by the way, since nerdy tourney until I got back. So it was like three weeks. How are you? How are you on your first day back? Oh man.

[00:05:42] It was a, it was a mix of factors because, uh, first day I came back, there was like, oh, Hey, we're taking a group from our local town to go play with a group for another local ish town, like an hour away, which doesn't happen super often. And we go down to their spot this time because they came to Waco last time and, um, we go down there and they're like, Oh, by the way, these other courts, the covered courts are booked. So you're up here. And it was like 6 PM in the summer in Texas. So it was like 97 degrees and like 17 miles an hour of wind.

[00:06:13] Yeah. Insane wind. So it was, and I'm like, I don't even know. I can't even tell if I'm rusty is, was my drop 10 feet high from the wind or because I haven't hit a drop in three weeks. I don't know. So we played the first half of that and I was like, I don't know what's going on. Uh, plus I had paddles that had all come in. So I was like, you know, I was like, whatever. I'm just out here to have fun. And then the end of the night, we went into their little, uh, kind of dome covered area, which blocked some of the wind. And obviously it was much cooler at that point.

[00:06:41] Um, and then had some really good games played decent, honestly. I mean, a little bit of rust, but nothing crazy. And then a few times since then, I think I'm already pretty much close to back to as bad as I was before. Yeah. Yeah. We're never back to like good. It's just back to being the level of bad that we are. Um, well, that's awesome, dude. Uh, glad you're back. Everybody I'm sure in the comment section will be glad to see you back. Uh, but we got a pretty packed episode.

[00:07:09] We got some, uh, paddles we're going to talk about. Uh, we're going to compare the coral pro versus the regular coral. Got some, uh, interesting, like a big price drop on a pretty prominent paddle. Um, we're going to run through net gains, new week, new main. And then Justin's got a little nerd town for us. So, uh, we got it all, man. The full segments are back, dude. We're, we're doing the thing. We're not being lazy. We're going straight through it.

[00:07:35] Somebody commented, commented on one of the previous podcasts. I think it was the last one me and you did before you left. They were like, um, they said to something like I'm three minutes in and you guys sound extremely disorganized. I'm going to go play some pickleball and I'll come back later. See if you redeem yourself. I want to comment. Hey brother. No, it was very recently. It was like a couple of days ago. So man, that comment had me cracking up. He didn't know what he was in for. That's all we do is disorganized. Yeah.

[00:08:04] We just prep, you know, just roll out of bed and hit it blank paper. Anyway, I just hold this here to look cool. I got my seven bullet points. We're ready to roll baby. So if you're not here for that, you can go ahead and turn it off now. But if you want to hear some bullshitting, we'll bullshit for an hour about nothing. We certainly will. All right. First up, um, Neonic FLX. Wanted to give some more thoughts on this. Cause I've actually been able to play with it quite a bit more. I think the last time I talked about it, I only played like two or three games with it.

[00:08:32] Um, played two and a half sessions with this now. And, uh, I can say that this is a solid battle. Um, the, this is the Swift that I'm holding, which is the elongated. They're very maneuverable, very light. We'll definitely absolutely need to add weight to both shapes. The, um, what's the name of the, uh, hybrid? Frost. Yeah. The Frost. Frost. This is the Frost that I'm holding. Yeah. And I'm holding the, the Swift.

[00:09:01] Which is like a traditional elongated shape. Now these are very unique feeling. Um, they are MPP. Go ahead. Sorry. No, you're good, baby. They're MPP floating, fully floating core. Justin, is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. Fully floating core. And, um, man, I, it's really hard to put my finger on how to describe the feel of this core, but it's very dwelly.

[00:09:26] Um, and it's not as punchy or, uh, crispy in terms of its feedback prominence. The, the, the feedback is kind of dulled down, but not in like a bad way. Um, but, uh, that, you know, I was thinking about this on the way home from playing today. I was like, how am I going to describe the feel of this paddle? It's very unique, very dwelly.

[00:09:52] But, um, I, it just feels different than almost any other paddle that I felt on the market, which is a good or a bad thing. You know, it's, there's no, I'm not saying it's, you know, great or, you know, positive or negative. It's just definitely unique. Um, overall playability. It doesn't feel trash though. No, no, it does not feel bad at all. It's just not bad. It's just different. Yeah. In line with everything else in terms of feel, but the feedback that you get is definitely

[00:10:18] unique, uh, would probably be a better way to say it rather than it feels totally unique. Um, but with that being said, I definitely think this is for sure kind of the lower end of power. Definitely a power paddle gives you plenty of, uh, you know, spin generation, even though this is not a durable grit texture. I was shaping the ball very well with this paddle. I think a lot of people are going to buy, if they buy this paddle, they're going to like it. You know, it's not a paddle that you're going to be disappointed with.

[00:10:47] Um, it's just nothing that blew me away. You know, it wasn't anything that currently right now jumps out at me as a wow paddle. Um, apart from it being ultra maneuverable, that's like kind of my one, the one thing that really solidifies it in a, you know, a unique way apart from its feel. Um, Justin, you've played with it quite a bit. Uh, I think, right. What did you feel?

[00:11:13] The Swift, the elongated, um, a while back I played with like an early version, which is the same as production. And then now I played with the frost actually the past couple of days, which is the hybrid. Um, and for anyone looking to shop, the Swift actually just dropped today, which will be like yesterday for you, um, like just now, right before we started recording. So, and I don't think the frost, the hybrid is available yet. No, that one will be the middle of July. If I'm not mistaken, it is the 14th. So yeah, the playability, I agree.

[00:11:43] Low end power, super easy to play with actually. Very easy. Extremely maneuverable. That's like going to be the main thing here. Even when you add weight, like, uh, this frost has five grams, the five grams on both sides. Yeah. And it's still, I think it was like 110, 70. 7.3 in like 8.1 ounces with the over grip, which is crazy. Yeah. That is still so fast. 110 is quick. And about the feel, I noticed this on both the elongated and the hybrid, they have very

[00:12:12] similar feel. The only difference is what you'd expect from the shapes. It's kind of in what you're describing is similar to this. It reminds me of the power two in that it's MPP and you can kind of tell once, you know, it's more like dampened or like dull or dead than most other MPPs, which feel very crisp. Very. Sometimes pushing into harsh whenever you go to certain MPPs can be like harsh feeling. Speed up tide is definitely one of those harsher ones. Pacal fuse. Pacal fuse. And then the area cyclone.

[00:12:42] Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Very harsh. This is not like that. This is more like 11.624 power two where it's like a dampened duller MPP feel. And the other thing I would note is I noticed this on both shapes. When you add weight, it makes it feel a little bit stiffer. It just changes the vibration profile a little bit. It feels a little bit crisper, a little bit stiffer. It's not. It's still going to dwell the same amount, which is really good. There's a lot of dwell. Yeah. But yeah.

[00:13:09] And then I've heard that they break in and soften up. I don't know. I haven't put that much time on it yet. Well, you've talked about this before. I mean, almost any MPP core is going to continuously see signs of breaking in as the life cycle is, you know, continues basically. Yeah. Oh, this is what I was going to say. Possibly what I think is the reason for this kind of dampened feel compared to other paddles is the way this is built is slightly different.

[00:13:38] When you look at the x-ray, the EVA ring that goes around the outside, instead of just being a ring, it's like a strip, right? And the strip goes actually from the entire handle up around and back down and fills the handle. So there's no honeycomb in the handle. There's no EVP in the handle. There's no MPP in the handle. The handle is pure EVA, which isn't normal or isn't typical. And having a softer, more dampened foam like EVA basically and through the entire handle

[00:14:06] is probably one of the reasons that the vibrations are a little bit duller. So that's a unique thing about this build. Most paddles don't do that. They just do a ring like a donut and then they put honeycomb in the handle or EPP in the handle. So power two series is MPP in the handle, correct? Honeycomb. Honeycomb. Yeah. Why am I forgetting? Most paddles are. Most of them. Yeah. It's just, it's simple from a manufacturing standpoint and it really doesn't change the playability.

[00:14:36] It just might change the feel slightly. Yeah. These are 149 after code pursuit. They come out the 30th, which is if you're watching this probably yesterday. Yeah. Kind of a hard, yeah, kind of a hard paddle for me to recommend price wise. There's just so many other paddles on the market right now that are either similar pricing

[00:15:01] with a durable grit texture option or cheaper options out there. For instance, the MPP turbo, the soon to be Sparta spitfire. Hell, I mean, even like the aura, I think I would say is a paddle that I would recommend a little bit higher than this. Not to say that's a bad paddle. I think as said earlier, I think almost anybody who buys it probably will enjoy it. You know, with a person who I think wants it.

[00:15:31] Who's that? If there's anyone out there who's like, I love the Cyclone, but I want one that's turned down a little bit, both power and richness. This is like exactly that because it's still light, still maneuverable, basically the same shape. And if you were like, man, yeah, I love the Cyclone. I love everything about it, but I just want it turned down a few notches. That's it. Yeah, that's a really good shot. In my opinion, the dwell seems to add quite a bit of spin.

[00:15:59] Even more spin than their Nanograph. Maybe not compared to their Nanograph UPA version, but I would imagine they're very similar in terms of spin generation. But yeah, that's a great, great shout and it's significantly less expensive compared to the, I think the Cyclones are $171 or $179 for Nanograph. So yeah, that's a good comparison.

[00:16:27] Yeah, if you're somebody who's one that really enjoys the Cyclone, but it's just too stiff, too harsh, too much power, good option. All right. Well, you want to move on? Yeah. Yeah. Last, sorry. I said yeah, but I meant no. I was going to say the last other thing that maybe is unique about it is, and this may start happening more and more, but this might be the best sweet spot I've felt on a paddle that was 7.6 ounces. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's pretty, pretty good.

[00:16:56] Of course it lacks plow through, but the actual sweet spot for a paddle that light is pretty impressive. That's all. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. As soon as you add weight on it, I mean, it's as good as anything out there. Yeah. Super oversized with weight. So yeah. Solid performer. Just one that is hard to, you know, break through the ultra competitive market right now in my eyes. All right.

[00:17:21] On to a paddle that is a little bit more underwhelming, but nothing bad by any stretch of the imagination. Honestly, this is Head's best paddle. This is the Head Boom. I think they call it the Triflex Boom, if I'm not mistaken. But yeah. So this is their new paddle. This is designed to be like their power paddle for anybody who wants to see what it is. It's basically three layers of foam on the outside.

[00:17:47] We have the EVA foam, EPP in the middle, and then a PP90 foam. Justin, you may be able to give us a little more insight on that. Sounds a little bit like just marketing jargon, if I do say so myself. But no, I mean, it could be MPP that's 90 kilograms per cubic meter. I'm not sure what that means. It's some, I mean, PP polypropylene is a common polymer in foam. So it could be a custom formulation. It could be any number of things. I can't tell you for sure.

[00:18:16] Let me go through the good on this paddle. Feel, softer, denser. So if you like a softer, denser paddle, great. Handle, phenomenal. It's a great handle. I think this is one of the best stock grips as well. I played with this without putting a grip on just because I put my hand on it whenever I was measuring it and feeling how my weight setup felt on it and was like, damn, this feels awesome.

[00:18:45] Easily one of the best stock grips. Great swing weight. 112 stock in an elongated shape. The twist weight is pretty bad. 5.4. But, you know, with a light swing weight, there's plenty of room to add some perimeter weight to really shore up that stability and forgiveness. I opted for 5 grams on each side starting just below the bottom or really where the bottom corner starts and starts to go up.

[00:19:13] And then that's really all I added for this. But played a game with this. And it just is not my favorite feel. I find that softer and denser paddles are just kind of hard for me to gauge, especially in my control-oriented shots. Some people see the complete other side of the coin. The softer and denser it is, the better feel they have. I think, Justin, you're kind of on that spectrum.

[00:19:41] And overall, I thought this paddle played well. The spin was kind of okay. Power levels, they say this is a power paddle. I'd say this is kind of in that tiptoe and all-court power category line. Stock at least. Yeah, I agree. Totally, totally fine. That's like not a bad spot to be. I felt like I was not in any way, shape, or form struggling for power. I got as much as I needed when I wanted it.

[00:20:09] And if I needed more, obviously, I'm going to want a more powerful paddle. Like, I had the Spitfire today, and that was way more powerful than this. But overall, solid paddle. The shape is kind of eh. It does taper from top corner to bottom. Quite a bit. You say eh. It's bad. Yeah. Yeah. It's not ideal.

[00:20:33] The measuring tape here, it's 7.4 or 7.375 at the top corner, 7.1 at the bottom corners. Oof. 16.5. So the full length, but that's tough, man. And you see that in the, you know, you said yours is 5.4 minus 5.5 twist weight, and you feel that when you play with it. Unfortunately, the lower half of the face feels pretty bad, and the stability feels pretty bad. Yeah. Um, yeah, dude.

[00:21:03] My thought with this is, I actually do like the feel when you hit the sweet spot, because it fits my profile. Yeah. And even the power level, like we said, kind of top of all court, low end power. That's also what I like. So all those things, theoretically, this should fit me well. But there are some compromises, you know, I'm not willing to make to play with this paddle. But I guess what I see whenever I'm looking at this is like, potential? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely their best paddle.

[00:21:32] The court architecture is like a smart concept. We've now seen this triple density foam, obviously with the F3 and then now the Omni. Who wants to? Um, and I like that they're using creative materials like, you know, this woven face, which kind of softens up the feel. Like you said, the handle. I mean, head is a brand that's been doing tennis for, I don't know, decades. Let's just say. Yeah. Without me knowing the exact amount of years, but it shows. The handle is excellent. I mean, the handle and grip are excellent. So.

[00:22:02] No notes. Um, yeah, no notes there. And, and even the length is great. Like it's the correct amount without being too crazy long or too crazy short. Um, yeah, man, just this exact paddle and this exact build in a better shape would probably perform significantly better. Yeah, I would agree. Um, so I would agree that being said, it's not a bad paddle, uh, by any means. It just has some, like I said, for me, some compromises I wouldn't be willing to make, even though I like the power level and I like the feel.

[00:22:33] Also, I think it looks great. Yeah. You know, it's very minimal. The colors from their, their tennis line, like have a boom racket and it's this color. And they, you know, um, I think this is great. Yeah. The graphics look really good. It looks, it looks and feels high quality. They are doing things different than everyone else in the industry. I mean, this is 15 millimeters. That's rarely seen. The edge guard feels like a different material and possibly a different profile even. Um, so they're making intentional choices. So that's what I'm saying.

[00:23:02] I see potential, but the performance just isn't really there. Um, unless you're someone who can just hit the sweet spot exactly every single time and you don't need any help with stability, which isn't me. It isn't most people. Again, you know, Coral, Coral Pro, Aura, all paddles that I would recommend way higher than this. One of which is more expensive. One of which is $50 less. Um, I mean, totally fine paddle.

[00:23:31] It's just not one that is, uh, one that I would recommend, you know, in this current market. I think they are on the right track. Uh, I mean, I'm, I'm sure that they're going to get it right at one point, but, uh, going to need some help. What do you think? Buzz paddle from a tennis brand? Yeah. Um, so the Wilson paddles, the, uh, Tecnofiber paddles, the, I mean, Missouri doesn't count. I've never hit the Tecnofiber. Um. Um, those are basically like the 6-0 of Gen 2 paddles. Yeah.

[00:24:00] Um, and what else, who else is the tennis brand? Babelat. Babelat. Babelat paddles. Which are, were not very good. Yeah. I mean, this is definitely the best, you know, legacy brand, if you will. Incumbent tennis brand. Um, so that shows promise. Yeah. And potential, like I said. That's like all the, you look at it and you're like, oh, everything is here. Just formatted a little bit differently. It could really boost the performance. Yeah.

[00:24:26] It's, it's almost like they said, hey, we know how to do all the right things, but we're not going to do all the right. We're going to, we're going to do it our way, uh, rather than just do what they know is correct. Uh, is what it almost feels like. Um, that's really all I have to say about that. 170 after code. I don't think I have a code for it. Um, if you want to buy this, go look for somebody else's. It's nice to see that also from a tennis brand. A lot of these brands come in and way overpriced their stuff. That's a reasonable price.

[00:24:55] For sure. So for sure. Um, all right. On to a significantly better paddle. Um, I'm not, I don't want to hype this one up too hard, but goddamn. Um, the Spitfire from Spartus is really fucking good, dude. Um, played with this almost exclusively this morning and this is such a good paddle.

[00:25:24] Uh, I would just say, Hey, if you ever, uh, wish the MPP turbo had durable grit and just barely a slightly different feel, honestly, probably more people would more enjoy it. Um, this is it. And it gets crazy good spin. Power isn't that mid, maybe approaching the high tier. I wouldn't, you know, I'd be farfetched to say that it definitely isn't that hot, but

[00:25:53] I'd say for sure sitting in that mid tier of the power category. This paddle does nothing wrong. The sweet spot's great. As soon as you add weight on it, it becomes very good. I didn't even have to add very much. I added three grams on three and nine, and that did plenty enough to make it very stable. Still give you a little bit more plow through a little bit more, uh, you know, forgiveness and sweet spot size expanding. Just a really solid paddle.

[00:26:21] Um, comes out, uh, mid to late July and it will be a hundred dollars after code pursuit. So yeah, I'm not going to hype it up. Uh, I'll let you kind of give me your thoughts. You just got it here. Uh, I'm not going to hype it up. Yeah. Yeah. This was just delivered an hour before we recorded, so I have not played with it. All I did was like, look at it, touch it, feel it, bounce a ball on it. You touched it? Yeah. You felt it? Yeah. Did it pass the touch test?

[00:26:51] Um, I don't like the shape. Yeah. But this is a little bit of a short handle for me. And then like, you know, I prefer just, just make the handle longer and then the angle lower so you can get more bottom corner stability and have a little bit more comfortable too. For anybody who's wondering real quick, it is a Perseus shape that is actually 16.5 inches. Uh, so if you feel like the Perseus handle is long enough and I'm someone who feels that

[00:27:20] way, this is going to feel long enough. Um, somebody was asking that last, maybe it was in one of my shorts. I just measured it. It's a true five and a half. I just measured it. Yeah. I'm just getting spoiled. It's perfectly fine. Yeah. Um, all these, my preference is like a 5.6, 5.7 because how I like to hold it, but you talk and I'll get some other paddles to compare the handling. Well, I've gotten spoiled just by both like the new Neonic, uh, frost shape, the Valera

[00:27:45] shapes, um, the J2 long handle, um, all the paddles that I've enjoyed playing with are a little bit longer. So this is a me thing. I think everyone's going to be totally fine with it. Um, yeah, so real quick, all I did was bounce a ball on it. And I remember you said in your short, Oh, MPP paddle and then got corrected that it was EPP. Uh, but I can see exactly why you thought that because it feels like what people associate with MPP.

[00:28:15] And what I would say from, you know, playing multiple prototypes and building multiple different types of paddles is that feeling that kind of hollow, almost dwelly feeling that people associate with MPP isn't because of MPP. It's because of the density of the foam. Right. Um, so MPP, the MPP that's traditionally used in paddles is lower density than the EPP that's traditionally used in paddles. We'll put it that way for like the same amount of compression.

[00:28:45] MPP is a lower density, which is why MPP paddles are generally lighter. Now we know this is EPP now. We also know it weighed mine weighed 7.6 ounces. Yes. So the only answer there was mine. Yeah. And, and obviously we see all the parts are the same. So the only answer there is that this core has to be a low density. So it's a low density EPP, which tracks, that's what I was saying. That feel that you associate is actually just a density feel. Um, and let me ask you. Or go ahead.

[00:29:16] Would you, would you say that going with low density EPP is a better choice than MPP? Um, lateral move. Gotcha. Okay. Not better or worse. I know you're an MPP hater. That's what I was asking. Generally, I would prefer it, uh, because EPP tends to accept, um, adhesives better. So you have less risk of, uh, desponding or debonding, however you want to put it.

[00:29:46] Um, so generally, yes. But historically low density EPP has miserably failed testing both power and deflection. But obviously people are constantly innovating. They figured out a way like this doesn't feel like a bazooka, even just from bouncing the ball. And I can tell you that. Um, feels good. You know, there have been other brands. Insane. Who have low density EPP cores, i.e. boomstick. Um, but yeah, so like this whole, I mean, and this is very obvious for the people who

[00:30:16] have thought about it this way. They're going to be like, duh, dude. But I think a lot of people maybe haven't thought about it this way. Uh, we talk about paddles feeling, um, hollow or dense. We'll just use the word dense right there. It has everything to do with density. The denser the foam it is, the denser the paddle feels. The less dense it is, the more hollow it is. It's literally more hollow. There's more air. Mm-hmm. So this feels hollow because it's low density. I look forward to playing with it. Um, and of course I'll run it through my test. I got the deflection testing machine here.

[00:30:44] I have my, uh, redneck spin durability test, you know, with the ball and the drill. So I'll do all that. All right. Well, quick handle comparison. J6 CR and the Spitfire, as you guys can see. J6's got to be longer, right? Yeah, J6 is, I wouldn't say that it's necessarily longer. It just has a much better radius. Like, it is significantly, uh, it goes up significantly higher and then spreads out,

[00:31:12] which is something that Justin and I both talked about being the smarter play. Um, but, uh, let's go MPP Turbo now. Compare those. It's got to be the same, I would assume. It's just, again, slightly wider neck taper. That's really the only difference. Um, yeah, that's it. And then lastly, let's go Luz Inferno just for another benchmark.

[00:31:41] And then these are also the same. It's just the only difference is the radius. Um, so yeah. Uh, that's it. It's kind of like the hundred bucks durable grit. Very impressive. Um, do you remember us talking at Nerdy Tourney? A lot of the reviewers were saying, we know someone's going to do it. And people have already talked about it. Who's going to be the first? Everybody thought it was going to be Vatic. To have a hundred dollar truly durable grit.

[00:32:10] No one guessed Spartus. People were saying enhance, Vatic. Um, and maybe those will come as well, but. Yeah. Damn, Spartus. Yeah. It's crazy. They beat him to the punch. And then if this paddle is so good, which I haven't played with it, I know it has a different feel, but it also makes me wonder, how does this not just cannibalize the P1? You know, if the grit is truly that good.

[00:32:32] I think the P1 is going to have longer lasting grit just based off of what I expect from this. That's true. Yeah. For a hundred bucks. I mean, it's just like, dude, you could buy two of these or you could buy one P1. Um, so it doesn't last more than double as long. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

[00:32:54] I think, uh, I think, although this is one of the first paddles on the market that really doesn't have like a, like a, um, something that's like missing, like they left something out. It's like, it's got a good price. I got something. Got good grit. That's missing. Look, I know the margins are low at a hundred bucks, but can y'all pay a damn designer or what? Cause this looks like Microsoft paint. I mean, whatever.

[00:33:22] It's pretty, yeah, it's pretty minimal, pretty minimal, but, uh, it's definitely not cool. Well, uh, y'all get done better than that. Come on. I just do some comparisons. Big dog. What do you think looks better? The six CR by a long shot. Oh, you do? Damn. Oh yeah. By a long shot. You know, that's some interesting typography and the whole face is blue. I mean, there's more going on. Yeah, that's true. The blue grid is pretty, pretty tight looking. Uh, yeah. All right.

[00:33:51] And from a branding perspective, you see a blue paddle across the facility. You know exactly what that is. This could be any Alibaba paddle. Yeah. You know? Yeah. The design is minimal. Anyway, that's a small thing, but I'm just like, you know, come on. Yeah, but great price, great performance, durable grid. I would put this in the long lasting, not the permanent grid category like the P1 hex grid and, um, J6. All right.

[00:34:17] Uh, let's move on to coral versus coral pro. This would be pretty quick. Um, cool. Just wanted to give you guys some insight on how the feel of these paddles compares. Now shape design, everything is exactly the same. The coral pro just has a, uh, rougher grit texture still is the diamond tough, but I think they call it double diamond, right? Double diamond tough. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Or something. Um, let's see if they have a paddle. Yeah.

[00:34:48] Yeah. Yeah. Regardless, it's identical bills apart from the surface roughness. And I'm sure there could be some minor nuances that change in the manufacturing process, but the paddle feel is very similar, but the pro does have a, now this could be that my coral original is slightly more broken in, but it feels just a touch stiffer compared to the coral.

[00:35:15] So the pro feels a little bit more stiff than the coral. Um, with that being said, don't take this to, you know, to the bank. That doesn't mean for sure. This is always going to feel stiffer. This could break in, uh, like this may have, I wouldn't necessarily say it's for sure broken in, but I imagine most paddles do soften up a little bit, you know? So most people have said the same thing. Coral pro feels a little bit stiffer and slightly popular than, um, yeah. Nothing that is like massively different.

[00:35:45] It would literally be to the point where you would have to play them side by side and keep switching back and forth, play like a game or two to be like, okay, I'm starting to pick up on this very minor nuance difference. Um, nothing that makes the, you know, one play differently than the other in terms of power pop and feel. But, uh, the main difference that you're going to notice immediately is the coral pro has just elite spin.

[00:36:14] I mean, it's, it's up there with the, the, um, P one, the hex grid, uh, from power two series and the CR series blue grit. So such a good paddle. I've talked about this, you know, in a short, I mean, this has got to be the best paddle. If you're looking for something that is offensive, but still very easy to control tiptoes, a line of all court and power, very impressed with this one. Um, they are sold out right now. Don't know when they're going to drop.

[00:36:43] Drop, but, uh, could be soon. Keep an eye on that. I'm going to buy one. Yeah. If you like the coral, if you like the coral, I will say this is the one time that I would be like, yep, it's worth it to buy the, you know, to renew it. Uh, even though these don't play that different, the spin is legitimately enough, especially if you're four or plus, if you, if you're in that category, go with the pro, I would say it's

[00:37:10] a no brainer upgrade just to have that extra spin and seems to be with that increased texture. It will last a little bit longer than the original. That, you know, that's a, not necessarily certain, but just something I wouldn't put out there. Um, yeah, Justin, you will, you will love the, the coral pro. The only thing you're not going to like about it is the handling. It's just that, that 5.3 inch hybrid, but you play with the P one.

[00:37:39] So, I mean, you're used to it. It's virtually the, the same thing. I hated the P one handle, but yeah, yeah. Yeah. We'll see. Yeah. But I mean, you know, it was to the point where you're like, Oh, I'll deal with it. Um, right. Anything else on the coral, coral pro before we move on? Nope. All right, dude. Um, well we have a big price drop on the Volair shift. Uh, this is a paddle that Justin helped, um, design and create. I mained it for a little while. Thought it was a really solid paddle.

[00:38:10] Um, yeah, boy. Uh, Oh, I forgot to put that one up there. I, um, must've, must be stuck in a box for moving. But, um, yeah, the, the, the Volair shift, the regular models without the special edition Sponge Bobs are going to be $94 and 50 cents after code pursuit. Pretty crazy. Yeah. That's a really damn good deal. Um, and then the special edition ones will be one 17 after code pursuit.

[00:38:38] So like great Bob and they've mentioned some other upcoming. I don't know if I'm allowed to mention the other upcoming collabs. I don't know. They haven't said anything for us. Hmm. I'll be quiet. Yeah. Yeah. You, yeah. You shut your little mouth. All right. Cool ones that are in a different vein than SpongeBob and have pretty big fan bases. Put it that way. Okay. Um, and those should be coming soon. And yeah, dude, I mean 95 bucks. That's a good deal. Yeah.

[00:39:07] That's a really good deal. That's crazy. Um, but, uh, yeah, kind of a, a stiffer, denser paddle, um, unique feel. It's still unique. I don't think there's anything else that feels like it, right? No. That's come out. Not that I can think of. Um, yeah, it's, it's definitely unique. You know, if you don't like 14 millimeter paddles though, you may want to let this one slide. But if you're somebody who likes 14 millimeter paddles and you're looking for something cheap, really, really good paddle.

[00:39:36] I mean, this is, this is one of those ones that kind of flew under the radar, um, in terms of, you know, just overall, you know, hype around it. But, uh, timing was pretty rough. Yeah. I mean, there was a lot of paddles that came out. Um, it's just super competitive right now, dude. You know how it is. You know how it is. All right. Uh, that's it on paddles, man. I think we're going to move on to, uh, net gains. Now I'm going to take this one, uh, this week.

[00:40:06] And, uh, I know you are for sure going to have something to say about this because you are somebody who also is very, you know, cognizant about this particular thing. And if you're playing pickleball and you are not moving in on your return, you are doing something criminally wrong, criminally wrong. Like it is unacceptable. Um, it'd be a godly serve. Oh yeah.

[00:40:33] It's gotta be a monster serve, uh, for you to not move in on your return. Guys, I cannot stress how important this is. If you are playing a team who has good thirds, specifically drives, you are going to lose every game. If you do not get to the kitchen line on your return, every game doesn't matter. Um, because they're going to eat you alive on their thirds. Uh, saw it, saw it today.

[00:41:00] Um, a couple of times didn't get to the line and man, we got paid, you know, we got, we paid for it big time. So, um, it is critical. If you watch any of the pros, any of them, every single one of them, you will notice they are moving in when they contact the ball. If not the moment the paddle leaves, maybe the ball leaves their paddle, they're moving in. It is so important. Uh, cannot stress this enough.

[00:41:30] If you're in that three Oh to three five range and you see that this is a, a, you know, something you're not doing, do this. I guarantee you will see major success. Uh, you know, or you will see losing points become less often, uh, you know, less often of a thing when you are returning. So moving on the return, uh, Justin, I know you got some thoughts on this cause you're definitely somebody who really likes to think about you and I both, I feel like we're pretty good about that.

[00:42:00] Um, I would say, Oh yeah, for sure. For me, I love to do it because I think my fourths might be the strongest part of my game. To be fair, like the roles and keeping people back or punishing people for high thirds or whatever. Um, uh, and I really enjoy it. It's like what my favorite types of shots. So I want to come in cause I'm like, Ooh, now I get to hit a fourth. Yeah. Um, that being said, if I have a partner who doesn't come in, I'll never get to hit a fourth ever because they'll just hit the third right back to them in the backcourt.

[00:42:29] And it's like, if that happens multiple times and I can try to sell out and poach, but then I have to leave a whole other side of the core open. It's just a mess. Um, and this is should be super obvious. Like you said, maybe it's three Oh three, five players who aren't moving in, but here's where I think maybe it can apply to some higher level players. Um, maybe not us, but maybe if you're older or you have a mobility problem or whatever, you're like, Hey, this isn't easy for me to get up there that quickly. Um, or you're super tired.

[00:42:58] Um, here are some like suggestions. I would say, here's what I've seen. And I played with one of my guys this morning, love him, but he was just toast tired by the end. And he was on my team and he wasn't making it to the net and we paid for it, you know? And I would just, I feel like I'm just playing one on two. I'm at the net and then they're hitting back to him. If he hits a high reset, Oh, I'm just going to eat that ball now. Probably.

[00:43:25] Um, but what I would say is in his case, he has really good returns, this guy. So since he wasn't feeling spry, we'll put it that way, maybe change your return up, hit it a little, hit a little bit higher, hit it loftier, hit a loftier, keep it deep. Give yourself more time because what he was doing is crushing returns. Great return. But since he's crushing it, it's getting back to them so fast. They're hitting their third and he's still not up. Yeah. So for those people out there who are maybe a little slower for any number of reasons,

[00:43:55] whatever it may be, um, that's something that you can employ is just understand they can't, they can't come to the net and volley it anyway. They have to let it bounce. So just hit it high, hit it loopy. As long as you hit it deep, you're fine. Give yourself plenty of time, um, to get up there because that is the most advantageous position in pickleball period is after the return, you are two at the net and they are two at the baseline. Yeah. And that is your advantage always.

[00:44:21] And if you just forfeit that by not coming to the net, you've completely changed the dynamic of pickleball and made it extremely hard on yourself. Yeah. Um, so, so yeah, I've, uh, I've been in that position too. And I mean, I, I'm always coming in off my return good or bad or whatever. It's just like part of my emotion. Oh yeah. Like go through the shot, but I've been in the position a lot as the partner and oof, it feels tough up there when you're alone at the net. Um, just, you're just like, basically it feels like you're hung out to dry kind of. Oh yeah.

[00:44:52] Especially in mixed man. If you're unwinding the stack, holy moly. And your partner doesn't get up to the line. It's just like, Oh, okay. Well, we lost that point. Cause you know, the, the big dude on the left is going to hit a monster drive right at their feet and it's going to be point over. Um, or, you know, uh, so we kind of talked about, you know, why you need to do this. Let's real quickly give you a couple of tips.

[00:45:17] The most important thing with any shot in pickleball is to have your feet set before you hit the ball. That's number one rule of returns. You're going to need to have your feet set so you can be planted and shift your weight into the ball, into your return. So you can move forward into it. So those are the two things you want to think about having your feet set and shifting your weight forward to propel you into that return to move into, you know, the kitchen line.

[00:45:44] So I feel like that's something we never really touch on is like giving them tangible, you know, tips on what, how to do that. So, um, since we suck at pickleball, you know, this is a pretty easy tip to give. I mean, that's the shot that like body weight does most of the work. Exactly. Especially if they're serving kind of hard. It's not like you need to swing hard ever. You really don't even need a big backswing. You can just put the paddle there, look at the ball and then kind of move your body weight through it. And your body weight provides a lot of power. Yeah.

[00:46:13] And you will see, and you're moving forward anyway, you know, to the net. So it's perfect. You will see much more success if you are lower on this shot as well. Um, if you're moving in while you're standing up, you're going to see a high degree of, uh, you know, failure, you know, either hit returns long, try to run through it or hitting them. Yeah. Hitting them into the net. You're just going to have bad returns. So stay low, move into the ball, moving up on your returns is crucial for success,

[00:46:42] especially the higher level you get in pickleball. Um, all right. Anything else for net gains? All right, baby. Time to move on. Everybody's favorite segment. New week. New main sponsored by Bodhi performance. If you need sleeves, it's sleeves even baby. If you need over grips, what'd you say? I said, yeah, definitely is. Yeah. If you need sleeves, over grips, tungsten tape, and other pickleball related accessories,

[00:47:12] you can use code pursuit when buying anything on Bodhi performance.com. Which will save you 15% at checkout. Thank you, buddy, for sponsoring new week, new main. Uh, all right, Justin, you've been gone for a while. Uh, you've got a lot of paddles. Um, you might have stuck with your main. You might have a new one. What do you got? Yeah. Big dog. Yeah. So, on the sleeve season thing real quick, I've been sleeving it up. It's Texas summer. Did you wear sleeves every time you were, uh, hiking? No, it was cool up there.

[00:47:42] Okay, yeah, yeah. Oh, so I was wearing, like, literal long sleeves. Like, it was cold outside. Yeah. Uh, especially in the mountains. Um, which is crazy. I didn't pack enough. I packed, like, 14 pairs of shorts and t-shirts and then, like, two hoodies. You get there. And two pairs of pants. And I was like, okay, I gotta do laundry because it's cold. Yeah. So, but anyway, you know, now that I'm back, I've been sleeving it up every time out there. Mm-hmm. And I was telling you this, I saw this before the podcast. And I was like, dude, I've never noticed this. Just about Texas summer.

[00:48:11] We have, like, a very active ant pile. Like, well, I live in the country, right? And they have, like, this very clear path that they're always on. It's, like, a ton of ants all the time. It's kind of cool to watch them. Uh, they're not, like, threatening us or whatever. But, uh, it's so hot that they don't come out during the daytime. I noticed that the past two days. That's crazy. Yesterday, I noticed it and I was like, oh, the ants are gone? Like, what happened? Did they die while we were on vacation? And then I saw them in the evening. They were out. And I was like, oh. And I saw them in the morning. They were out. I went out there this afternoon before we recorded. They're not out again.

[00:48:42] Dang, bro. It's too hot for ants. You gotta wear sleeves. That's all I'm saying. That is crazy. So, I never knew that before. Wow. So, yeah, anyway. Coming back, rusty as hell. Had probably six paddles waiting on me. So, and not only that, six paddles for the podcast, but a ton of work. You know, work paddles. I had prototypes that I'm in the midst of testing. So, I don't really have the luxury of having a main right now. I've literally just been testing stuff for work.

[00:49:12] That said, I did go that first day back. I was like, all right. Let me play with, I'm playing with new people. Let me not be crazy. You know, let me play with something here. So, I had to go back to something familiar. And I picked up the shift. Because I made this for so long. So, technically, if I was to play a tournament today, right now, this is the approved paddle I would take. The Valer shift. You know, now extremely discounted. And, yeah. I played with it, like, right away. And I was like, oh, yeah. I like this paddle.

[00:49:41] I remembered right away. I was like, it's great. The spin is, like, shockingly good for just regular grit. Yeah. That's, like, the standout feature. That being said, I have a prototype that I've been testing, even since before I left. That if that was approved, that would be the one. This one. Uh-oh. Whoa! So. God, dude. That was quick. You know, tripping about approval. But, anyway. Yeah, that's that.

[00:50:11] Still wearing the CG2s. I mean, I have so many pairs. I got another pair for $60 recently. And I still have to warranty. Hey, let me know next time you see a $60 one. I know you did last time. But just keep reminding me. Okay. Because I'm locked in. So good. Yeah. And I have two pair now that I'm just waiting to wear through to warranty. So then I'll have two new pairs. So I probably won't buy any anytime soon. But, yeah. Yeah. And my bag, I've been testing a backpack that I was helping design. So. Ooh.

[00:50:41] It needs some changes. All right. This is already the second round of changes. And there's some stuff on it. It's cool overall. But there's some stuff that seems like this is garbage. It's not ready. We're going to have to make some significant changes. It's not going to be ready for months. But it's been really fun. I really enjoy helping to design things other than paddles also. My dream is to help design some shoes one day. That'd be epic. People underestimate how hard it is to design products. It's not. It ain't for the faint of heart. Yeah. It's fun, though. You got to be patient.

[00:51:11] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right. You got to be patient and very critical and, yeah. All that. Well. What about you? I mean. What you been doing for the past three weeks that we haven't talked? I think we're all, you know, expecting this. New week, new main. Sparta Spitfire. I play really damn good with this battle. Like, really good. I was very, very impressed with it. The first session I had was, I was like, yeah, this battle's great.

[00:51:41] And then, as I played more than I was like, yeah, this paddle is very good. Spin is nasty. Grit's holding up just fine. Don't really feel any noticeable differences. You know, as soon as I get all the ball dust out of the grit, it feels exactly the same as, you know, both sides are down by the throat where there's less, you know, touches on it and, and potential, you know, degradation. So, really, really impressed with this one.

[00:52:10] Shapes perfectly fine. And, I tell you what, I talked about this last time. I'm starting to get back on the maneuverability train, man. I've been liking more maneuverable paddles. You know how I was when I played with the Shift. I had it like set up at like 124 or 125. I was like, yeah, I feel fine. And then you were like adding a lot of weight to elongated for a while, even other paddles. Yeah. But now I'm kind of, kind of liking the, the more maneuverable paddles. Just definitely feel a difference at the line.

[00:52:39] My hands are getting good, dude. Not going to lie. About time. Not going to lie. They're, they're getting pretty solid. And this is definitely, you know, right there in terms of good maneuverability. So, paddle I'm loving so far. And, uh, enjoy it. All right. Um, CG2s, duh. And then still rocking the, uh, Bodhi backpack. Um, that, that backpack just perfect for me.

[00:53:09] I can throw so much shit in there. My camera stuff and just one bag and go. Um, all right. That's it for new week, new main. You want to, uh, nerd town it up, dude? I guess so. We didn't have a whistle last week. Oh, baby. He's back. We got one. We're back. We had to build a suspense. He's back. Good job. Good job. Hey, uh, props to Martin though. You know? Oh, yeah.

[00:53:38] He did a nerd town. And. I know. Yeah. I saw you guys talked about. It ain't gonna be me doing a nerd town. Hey, that's cool though. That's cool. Uh, he didn't have the whistle though. So it doesn't count. Yes, it doesn't count. Just kidding. That would mean that the hundred I did before the past five don't count. Um, so what I want to talk about today is actually something that you guys mentioned. This is like a theory that I have talked about for a while.

[00:54:03] And when MPP paddle started getting popular, um, uh, you and I have talked about like, oh, MPP feels like more consistent across the face than EPP. Uh, meaning like a ball hitting near the tip, near the sides, near the bottom, near the sweet spot. It feels all more similar. Yeah. EVP or even honeycomb. Um, you can discern more of like, oh, I hit the very tip. I hit left. I hit right. I hit the bottom. Yeah.

[00:54:28] For anybody who's watching or anybody who's listening, uh, what Justin is saying is like, you know, balls that you hit in the dead center feel amazing on EPP. But as you start to slowly creep to the outside, the, I guess the feel starts to decline quicker than it does with an MPP paddle. Uh, regardless of, you know, top to bottom, left to right, you, you feel a marginal difference with MPP.

[00:54:58] Whereas EPP, you start to see a much bigger difference in terms of the feedback and honeycomb. So MPP is, had been somewhat unique in this way. And what we talked about in my theory was like, Hey, this actually reminds me of when we were deep in gen two land and no one was using CFC or fiberglass. And then paddle started using fiberglass in the layout. And so you had like gen twos with fall all carbon gen twos with CFC. It was the same sort of deal.

[00:55:26] Like the feel on the CFC ones was more consistent across the face to me worse, but it was worse everywhere. Uh, you know, but this is a preference thing. I also feel the same way about EPP versus MPP in general. I think MPP feels worse, but it feels equally worse everywhere than EPP or honeycomb does. Yeah. Uh, but again, that's preference. So this whole theory we talked about, it was like, why is that happening? Or what is the mechanism at play?

[00:55:55] Um, and why do people like that or dislike that? That's the easy part to answer. You have said you like that because it makes the paddle feel more consistent. Uh, you're not thinking mid game. If every shot feels pretty similar off the base, that is something that doesn't take you out of your zone. Okay, cool. It feels more like a bigger sweet spot. And I think that's what people have called it. I mean, when CFC came out, people were like, Whoa, it's a bigger sweet spot. It's, you know, it's more pot. Well, is it really, or does it just feel more similar?

[00:56:24] Um, I dislike it because I prefer the proprioception or like feedback in my hand of knowing exactly what's going on. Like, Oh, I missed that one too high. Or I like hit a reset and it went into the net. Well, it's like, Oh, I felt that I was like off center on that. Now I know why it didn't give me the energy return. I expected if I had just hit that center, then the reset would have been good. And that in the moment is a reminder to me, look at the ball, dumbass. Like, cause that's what happens. I look up and then that's when I shank a ball.

[00:56:55] So I prefer that feedback. And, you know, we talked about the shift a little bit. That was one of the intents of the design. And we talked about this and working with Dylan and everything is like the shift is designed to be very communicative. I think this paddle is really good at telling you exactly where you hit the ball. Yeah. Like if you hit dead center, you're like, Oh yeah, sweet. You know, but as soon as you start fading, you can tell immediately. And the energy return doesn't fall off.

[00:57:23] So it doesn't have a small sweet spot in that way. It's not like the ball dies. Like it does like on a gen one. As soon as you go off center, it still has plenty of energy return, but the feel changes. So that's the concept. And I was like, all right, it's time to dig into what's the actual mechanism. My theory was it's just pretty much dominant vibration frequencies and vibration modes, which I won't go too deep into because I'll probably end up saying something wrong.

[00:57:53] But I had this theory that fiberglass has more of a specific dominant vibration frequency and it dampens other vibrations better or differently than carbon fiber. So when you add fiberglass versus no fiberglass, you get high levels of the dominant frequency and dampen levels of the other one, regardless of where you hit on the paddle. So it tends to make everything feel more similar. And then I had this similar thought with MPP, which has like a more compression resistance

[00:58:22] than EPP in these paddles. So it's essentially like a stiffer material. It's more crisp, which you feel when you hit the ball. Well, that made me think, oh, if there's less local deflection, less local softness, like right where the ball is hitting the face and the thing moves as more of a whole unit, right? Rather than just like this part moving, then it would feel similar regardless of where you hit it because it feels like the whole thing is moving like a piston. And that is kind of true, but kind of not.

[00:58:51] So I had to dig into this a little bit. And what I'll say up top is vibration is something we feel, but it's also something we hear. So sound is like the strongest evidence here. And that becomes obvious if you've played with enough paddles. If you played with all carbon paddles versus the fiberglass paddles, the fiberglass ones sound different and they all sound pretty similar. It has a very distinct fiberglass-y sound. Talking about like old school Gen 2 CFC paddles. Now, the same thing happened when we had all foam. We had these EPP paddles and then MPP comes along.

[00:59:20] All of a sudden it has this distinct and different sound. But a lot of the MPP paddles sound a certain way. And you're like, ooh, that sounds like MPP, right? So that's our strongest evidence that there is a similar vein of vibration going on with those materials in a way. So the fiberglass theory actually was correct. Fiberglass in comparison to carbon fiber just has a different dampening profile.

[00:59:46] And it actually, rather than having a dominant frequency like I said, what it does is it's damping out a lot of specific frequencies that carbon fiber doesn't because carbon fiber is stiffer. So with carbon fiber, you feel everything. Fiberglass might dampen certain frequencies while it leaves others higher. And the ones that leaves higher, it leaves higher everywhere. So you feel that frequency more. So that makes sense.

[01:00:10] With MPP, it's actually about how the vibrations travel throughout the foam. MPP as microcellular, so it's got smaller cells. So smaller air bubbles, if you want to call them that, than EPP. So it's more, quote unquote, solid, even though it can be less dense. So that allows the vibrations to travel through the foam more evenly. And vibrations, they travel in all directions. There are modes.

[01:00:37] If you hit different parts of the paddle, it's going to vibrate differently. And that, you know, depends on what you feel in your hand. Because it travels, it bounces, it comes back, it makes its way down the handle. Well, with MPP, these vibration frequencies travel more evenly through the foam. So you end up feeling kind of, quote unquote, more of them at the same time than you would with EPP, which tracks because a lot of people say MPP feels crisp. It feels harsh. You feel like a lot of it, like right away when you hit the ball.

[01:01:04] Versus EPP, people can say feel dampened or softer or whatever, because that's exactly what happens. It's less uniform. So the vibrations travel less evenly. And there's more local deflection, meaning the ball hits this spot. It's going, the EPP is going to deflect more at this spot right around the ball than MPP would. And then the vibrations travel differently. And you really only feel the, what you feel most of are the ones that go directly to your hand rather than the bounces. Because the bounces aren't going to go around more evenly.

[01:01:34] Now, this is like a super dumbed down way of saying it, but that's the concept. And that actually does make sense. So when you have an EPP paddle, if you hit the top, you feel the top type of vibrations from this vibration mode. If you hit the sides, if you hit the center here versus if there's MPP, it's going to feel a lot more similar. So that's the concept. I mean, another analogy is it's like picture or video resolution in a way.

[01:02:05] With EPP, you might have more resolution of vibrations. So you know you can pinpoint exactly what you're feeling. Whereas fiberglass and MPP might blur the image a little bit more because it makes everything feel more similar. Like if you're talking about dynamic range, it's like flattening it. Yeah. To continue that analogy. And so things feel more similar regardless of where you hit. And that could be a good or a bad thing. Totally depends on your preference.

[01:02:35] But it's something that we've talked about multiple times. Something that Martin mentioned. And so I wanted to kind of dive into it. And that's that. What do you think? Did you learn something today in class? Yeah. I mean, it makes sense that a trash player like me would like MPP because it makes me feel like I'm hitting a lot of really good centered shots. When in reality, probably am not. I mean, if we look at the panel, there's not a lot of ball dust on this right now.

[01:03:01] But yeah, in reality, probably not hitting the center very often, big dog. But I see your point. Like what you're saying about it just doesn't bring your mind to the paddle and what's happening. So it helps you stay focused better. So I can understand both sides. It's just not my preference. Whenever it to me, I would call that like numb. A paddle feels numb when everything feels the same. Like I want to find the point in which this feels worse or the I get, you know, horrible

[01:03:27] returns off this area and I can feel that and be like, OK, I'm avoiding that. I'm going for this anyway. But yeah, it's hard on that. Hard to, you know, characterize. Exactly. That's another. I'm glad you said that in terms of numb. Like most people wouldn't say that MPP is a numb feeling paddle. But you don't mean it as in feedback presence. You mean it in how, you know, how you perceive each shot, basically. Yeah.

[01:03:57] So it's it's that's another thing where I always tell people is like, yeah, just because we say something, you know, Justin says something, I say something, you know, Chris says something, whoever. However, don't take that to the bank as whole truth. That's just our position on, you know, how these things feel, play and perceive. But yeah, definitely learn something. That was good, man. Very intriguing. You're just so smart. Welcome back. Handsome. I don't know about that. Maybe all the comments telling me I'm wrong. Yeah.

[01:04:26] Then we'll talk about it again. Oh, boy. Well, man, that's it. That's all I got this week. We're out. All right. Well, hope you guys enjoyed this episode of the PP pod. We're back. Thank God. Missed you. Felt lost. I was moving. Man, everything in my life turned upside down. And then you come back and feel right at home. All right, guys.

[01:04:56] Hope you're not blushing too hard. But until the next one, I'm Lewis. Here with my co-host, my pickleball wife, Justin from Pickleball, etc. If you have any comments, topics you'd like for us to cover, be sure to hit those in the comment section below. Until the next one, we'll see you guys later. Peace.