Episode 84 | 11six24 Jelly Bean 2, Are Control Paddles Dead?, Core Density Bait n Switch

[00:00:04] What is up nerds? Welcome back to episode 84 of the The Pickleball Pursuit Podcast. I'm your host Lewis here with my co-host. We are in our very manly, very beautiful Bart's favorite colors shirts today. Pink and purple. But how you been Justin? You been good man? I miss you.

[00:00:27] Oh, you miss me. Yeah, dude. Great. This actually is my favorite color. So yeah, you're a little purple boy. Anyone who doesn't like purple, you're wrong. And I'm right. I feel like last episode started our you're wrong. I'm right. Because I think we both said that last episode. Yeah, with our awards. So I'm always thinking it. So might as well say it. I'm not.

[00:00:56] I'm not always thinking it. But there's very, very seldom times where I'm like, yeah, I'm right about this. I know I am. Yeah. Yeah, dude. I've been playing a lot more. Finally, finally, man. It was like so many months of travel and injury and injury and like trying to play a little bit. But I'm back, baby. You're back, baby. Awesome. Back and beautiful. Well, how have you been? You know, I never ask you. Do you feel like this unrequited? Yeah, love or interest in this relationship? Yeah, I feel like then.

[00:01:26] You're just using me and abusing me, which personally, I enjoy, preferably the latter. But I'm great, man. I'm really good. We just hit 10,000 subscribers. I know it's technically my channel. There's no way. But you played a huge part in that.

[00:01:46] I wanted to, you know, take a minute or two to say thank you to everybody. Genuinely cannot stress enough how thankful I am of that. 10K is not a big number. But to me, it's it's it's big, you know.

[00:02:04] Proud of you. Yeah, that's that's what we also that's the mantra of our relationship, right? It's not big to big to everybody, but it's big to us. But with that being said, I truly appreciate this. I'll actually be serious for once in my life. Pickleball has legitimately changed my life.

[00:02:26] Like full stop. I used to only do video work. I stopped doing freelance work because I wasn't super busy. And then I went to go work for an agency. And then I started doing pickleball reviews because literally one person, Jordan, if you're watching this, Jordan Wong, he's one of the guys I played pickleball with first.

[00:02:48] And he was like, yeah, you should make a review channel. Why not? And something that seemingly felt probably completely insignificant to him was kind of like the launch pad that I needed or the reassurance that I needed to do this.

[00:03:04] And I am extremely grateful that he said that. Like I said, something that probably felt totally meaningless to him in the moment meant so much for me and gave me the confidence to do this, even though I knew I wasn't, you know, as smart or as good or, you know, savvy in the pickleball world as the other reviewers. I went for it. And here I am now, baby. I quit my corporate job, went back to freelance.

[00:03:34] And then now I do this to help, you know, pay the bills and most importantly, spend my time in the ways that I want to spend it. So, yeah, can't thank everybody enough, like genuinely from the bottom of my heart. And I would be lying to myself if I said that this was a something that I did by myself. Justin, my wife couldn't have done it without you, man. That's why we got these rings, man.

[00:04:01] It's, uh, you know, mutual. We helped each other. That's right. We do. We usually do. Um, but yeah, what do you mean by that? It's okay. I'm kidding. But, but for real, pickleball has changed my life too, of course. And I also left my 10 years at a corporate job and now this is pickleball is what I do. Um, and a big part of that was you inviting me on the podcast, right?

[00:04:28] Like I still could have done consulting and I still was doing some private testing and even working with companies even before I came on the podcast. I mean, as I came on the podcast the first time, however, it's not lost on me that this podcast helps me network majorly in the industry and helps me get to know owners and, um, you know, other creators and all types of people that help me at my job.

[00:04:52] And, uh, so it's been super helpful for me and that's why, um, I've been okay with you having a tiny, tiny little channel that doesn't pay us a dime. I thought you were going to say something else. I just look at it as marketing, bro. No, no, no, no, no. Um, but yeah, you finally, uh, hit 10 K and I feel like, I feel like it's about time, you know, like 10 K on the YouTube space is not really a big number. Like I said, and, uh, your quality is really good. All like your videos are actually good.

[00:05:21] I was a fan of your stuff before we started doing the podcast. Damn, bro. I still am. So I'm a fan of you and you deserve it. And you're a good creator. All right. All right. That shit. We flirted enough. Uh, we're good for later. Let's go ahead and move on. Uh, we got some paddles. Uh, we're going to talk about quickly the thrive ignite E the jelly bean. We're going to talk about some interesting thoughts on all court paddles.

[00:05:49] We're going to go with a little sneak peek on some head shoes and new week, new main. And then Justin's going to give us a little nerd town this week. So we got some things going. Uh, yeah, probably won't be a very long pod, but it's all good. So, uh, again, thank you guys for 10K. We love y'all. Let's move on. All right. Uh, first thrive ignite E came in, um, plays very similar in recollection to the hybrid shape.

[00:06:18] They also have a rounded top, uh, elongated, which was interesting, interesting to see that that popped in, uh, the shipment. I was not expecting them to introduce that. Um, I prefer a flat top elongated, um, not a huge rounded top. I haven't tried it yet. It could be amazing. Could be the best, uh, shape in their lineup. But I definitely think that this thrive E just the regular traditional more squared off top is a really good shape.

[00:06:47] And it played well, played exactly how I remember. Uh, mine came in. I almost don't even need to measure thrives paddles anymore because they are pretty much within like 0.2 of a swing weight and 0.1 of a twist weight every single time I measure it. It's posted on there. Exactly. Yeah. So thrive for, yeah, for anyone who doesn't know, uh, thrive is one of the few companies who allows you to pick your swing weight.

[00:07:16] So they usually have a swing weight ranging from about three, maybe four swing weight points with each shape. And you can choose your swing weight, which is a huge asset. In my opinion, I think that's a great, uh, you know, offering, um, you know, some people are just a little bit more, I guess, critical on QC and making sure that it's within a specific parameters. And then there's some companies that really don't, and they have just a wide variety of that.

[00:07:42] So, you know, exactly what you're getting with this, which is something that I think is awesome about them. And, uh, if you've watched my review on the ignite hybrid, this pretty much plays the same, just a different shape, a little bit more plow through. Mine came in a swing weight of one 17 and the twist weight was 6.2. Um, so solid numbers, forgiving enough, stable enough.

[00:08:09] I opted to add three grams of tungsten tape body pods on three and nine. And that definitely made it a little bit more forgiving, a little more stable. Didn't really have a ton of time with this. I played three games with it. So can't give a ton of in-depth thoughts, but felt like it was sufficiently powerful. Had great pop at the kitchen line. Spin was very good. As you expect from most thrive paddles, they are grittay. And, um, we'll see how the grit holds up on this.

[00:08:39] Definitely one that, uh, is a welcome addition because they only dropped it in the hybrid shape. So if anybody wanted the thrive ignite, uh, but in elongated solid, uh, really solid paddle, put it up against the jelly bean two and the, uh, the ultra power two series. And it's right up there in terms of performance with the power two series, just a solid performer. So, um, a couple of nuances that may not be, you know, for everybody.

[00:09:08] So, uh, I'll give a little bit more time on this before I can give you the details on what those nuances are. But nonetheless was pretty impressed with the first impressions of this paddle. Um, any questions, thoughts on thrive? Justin, I know you haven't hit them, but no, no, I've never hit them. You know, everybody or not everybody, multiple people have said that's the most Gen three feeling foam, which we've heard about other foam paddles. But people said that a lot about that one. I wouldn't say that.

[00:09:37] Um, I would say it, you know, it's definitely got a unique feel, but I wouldn't say it's the most Gen three feeling. Uh, actually on purpose did this within that test with the Gen three. Cause I remember people saying that I was like, no, that doesn't feel anything like these Gen threes, but, um, definitely has more feedback. More prominent feedback than a lot of foam paddles, which is maybe what people are connecting to the Gen three feel.

[00:10:03] And you know, I would not say it's like a direct, you know, comparison. So, um, other people not saying they're wrong. That's just my, my opinion. So, um, all right, that's all I got on the thrive. Let's move on. Uh, we got a lot of stuff to talk about with the jelly bean too. We got all shapes. Main course. Yeah. We'll be talking quite a bit, uh, with this paddle. I think it's one that's very interesting. Very interesting. Um, what is the price on this?

[00:10:32] I wrote it down, but I forgot to put it in the notes. Uh, 169 before code. Yeah. So 69 before code. Solid paddle. I think the 11624 does $10 off. So, so yeah, 159, $160 after code. I'm just going to hold them up two at a time. So you guys can pause and look at it if you want. The various, cause there's three different colors and four different shapes. They're very cute. Bart, you would love these. They do look awesome. Yeah. I think they look great.

[00:11:02] Um, I just noticed that the teal Pegasus doesn't have the same kind of rainbow pink and green going on that the other ones do. Let me grab mine while you're talking real quick. I want to measure them. What? With the tape measure? I did this already too. Oh, you did it already? All right. It's, yeah, it's pretty straightforward. Vapor, uh, Pegasus 15.85 length. Um, uh, and then, and they all use maximum allowable.

[00:11:30] So just subtract it from 24 and that's how wide it is. Uh, vapor 16.2. Ultra 16.3. Hirachi 16.4. This one does leave a 1.1 on the table. Cause even at the widest, it's only 7.5. So, but the other ones leave nothing on the table. Only the Hirachi leaves just a little bit of width on the table, but it's like, I think it's probably less than 0.1 inch.

[00:11:56] But yeah, between the vapor ultra and Hirachi, it's literally 0.1 difference. I don't know if you'll be able to visually see it, but just a step up, step up, step up. And then of course, down, down, down in, uh, width. Um, yeah. And, uh, I've been playing a lot with these. I've, I've had like three or four sessions on them, uh, except the Pegasus. Um, I will at some point compare it directly to wide bodies, but you guys who have watched

[00:12:23] this know that like a wide body is not what I connect with. Uh, just as a strange feel for me. So, but I will probably compare this to other wide bodies at some point, but I just haven't done that yet since I was just getting to know these paddles. I stuck with the shapes that I was more familiar with because I, you know, played the power two quite a bit. You got to warm up the other shapes. Exactly. So I'll, uh, save the pegging for later. Yeah. And I, I always do that last. Well, all right.

[00:12:53] What'd you think of them? Great. Great paddles. Yeah. Um, and so, well, I'm also going to put the vapor to the side. Look, if you're someone who likes the vapor shape, you'll like this vapor shape, vapor shape. Not my favorite. Um, the handle isn't ideal for me. And for the long time listeners, watchers, I made the Hirachi power two for a good while. And this ended up being my favorite shape again.

[00:13:22] It's just the one that feels the most natural to me. The handle's nice. Um, I play a lot of hybrid shapes and the Hirachi to me actually feels a lot like a hybrid shape. Uh, just the maneuverability of it, how it feels the whippiness of it with the long handle and then the round top doesn't bother me. So this is the one that I personally like the most right now. Um, however, I did put a good amount of time on the ultra as well. Very different. Uh, these two shapes from each other, even within the same build and the same could be

[00:13:52] said for the power to the ultra dude is, I mean, for a hybrid and especially even a slightly thinner hybrid, this thing is so incredibly stable. And the sweet spot is like, it's just massive. It is just an easy shape to play with. Yeah. Um, man, it's, it's a really good shape. It's really easy to play with. Um, just flat out performance wise. It probably is the best out of the four. Yeah. And I think I probably could get used to it.

[00:14:18] However, the Hirachi for whatever reason, I think it's just the balance and kind of the, like I said, like the whippiness of it feels a little bit more natural to me than the ultra. The ultra is not as bad as like the old school Magnus shape, but it gives me those vibes where it feels like there's a lot of weight like down right in the throat area. It's real solid, which is great for resets and stuff. But when you're trying to like flick through stuff, I feel like it kind of drags for me. I prefer a little bit head heavier, but I don't want to put weight at the top of this because then you just make it slower.

[00:14:49] Um, but yeah, so I think what's going to be most valuable right now, uh, is probably comparisons because people are going to wonder where does this sit? The intention for these is to be all court paddles, which I think we need to talk more about in a little bit. Um, and they have hex grit, which we already know that just means the spin is going to be amazing. And yes, the spin is amazing. Yeah. It's very good.

[00:15:12] It's a new foam in the core EMA core, uh, EMA foam, which I can go more into if we want, but I think we'll wait. Actually, I don't want to go into too much detail just yet, but just understand that it's a new foam. So that, that means the feel isn't identical to any other paddle on the market. You know, you don't pick this up and be like, this feels exactly like this. Um, but yeah, sweet spot is huge. Uh, it is what I would call in the all court category.

[00:15:41] And like I said, I think what's going to be most valuable for people is comparisons. I think the comparison that you're going to see a lot of online is can people comparing it to the coral, right? So I did play these side by side multiple times and I was switching back and forth and back and forth. Um, and this is the coral pro. And I really don't think, um, that sure. Maybe these paddles are in the same neighborhood, but it doesn't mean that if you love the coral pro, you're going to love these. Or if you love those, you'll love this. I actually think the feel is quite different.

[00:16:08] And to me, the coral pro had, uh, a noticeably more firepower than the jelly bean twos. So, but I have a comparison and this is for you guys who, you know, remember the paddles from last year. I know it's hard to remember paddles that released over a year ago, but here's the perfect jelly bean comp. Okay. Oh, J2 FC plus from Honolulu and the enhanced duo.

[00:16:32] So imagine the exact middle ground between these two paddles in every way, firepower feel. Um, obviously it has some more spin than both of them, but if you can imagine that, then you know exactly what the jelly bean feels like in place. Like the FC plus is like a true soft, dense, damp, muted, like all court paddle, not that powerful. Right.

[00:17:00] Um, but it has an excellent sweet spot and balls tend to feel very similar regardless of where you hit them on the face, which a lot of people really love. And that translates to a big sweet spot. I personally don't like that. If you guys remember, that was always my complaint with this is a little bit numb feeling. And then you go to the duo. Now you're into maybe the low power category. It's a little bit more crisp. You get more feedback, but it's still quite dense and there's a little bit of a, I wouldn't

[00:17:29] call it muted, but there's a little bit of a dampened feel to it. It's like crisp on top and dampened in the core. If that makes sense. Yep. And to me, the jelly bean is just right between those. It's less crisp and less powerful than the duo. Um, but it is a little less numb and dampened and a little more power than the FC plus. But yeah, playing these three, it literally feels like you're a Goldilocks and you're like, you know, testing the porridge.

[00:17:58] You feel like, Oh, just right. It's in between those two, which is a great thing, by the way. I love both of these paddles. Like I played both of these paddles for a pretty significant amount of time. Um, both of these were mains at one point for me. So that means the jelly bean too is kind of right up my alley. Um, cause I'm not a huge, like high power paddle guy. Um, but yeah. So anyway, I'll let you talk for a minute and then, you know, we might have a new main for Justin over here. Uh, maybe.

[00:18:28] Well, so I played three, played two games with this and then two other games switching back and forth between the, uh, ultra power two and the ultra, uh, ultra jelly bean too. So my expectation, and I didn't read anything, um, whenever they announced it, uh, I thought these were going to be likely control oriented paddles.

[00:18:56] So closer to, you know, the control category category because the original jelly bean was a control pad, a budget control paddle and, uh, got these immediately bounced a ball on them and I was like, Oh, no, these are not going to be control battles. Like, uh, definitely not. I was like, okay, this feel wise feels pretty similar to most floating EPP cores, you know, not like ultra powerful or anything. Yeah. I mean, bouncing the ball off of it. Yeah.

[00:19:23] Um, it didn't feel on soft hits insanely different, um, from, you know, an EPP paddle. So haven't played directly switching back and forth with EPP paddle, EPP paddles with this EMA, uh, core on the jelly bean too. So can't give you exact how they compare, but in the neighborhood is what I would say. With that being said, I played with these played first with the power two and exactly what I

[00:19:52] expected kind of that mid low tier power. And then went to the ultra and I was a little shocked at how little, sorry, excuse me, the jelly bean too. I was a little shocked at how little difference there was on dry speed. I felt like the dry speed was less than the, the power two, but not insanely, you know, different. I was like, okay, this is like power level similar to power paddles.

[00:20:22] I would say low, low end power on drives and putaways. I could smack the ball with this, uh, which is the jelly bean too. For anybody who's listening, the biggest difference for sure was the pop levels, especially on resets, drops, punch volleys. There was a diff, a noticeable difference in terms of pop.

[00:20:44] I would say this is a flirting with all court close to power paddle territories in my first play session thoughts. However, it's a very unique one because it's not one that has most paddles genuinely have close power levels and pop levels.

[00:21:08] So they're relatively, you know, on the same level in terms of how powerful and poppy they are. This one is a, I'd say low tier power on powerful strokes, but the pop is definitely in the all court category. It's not overly, it's very predictable. Yes. Very predictable, very easy to control. Nothing that's going to get you in trouble unless you're somebody who literally only plays

[00:21:37] with ultra powerful paddles. And then you go to this, it's going to get you in a lot of trouble. But with that being said, go ahead. I was going to say that the pop, um, the like for drops and dinks and resets, the pop level, um, when you're just putting the paddle there, it feels very similar to the FC plus, which a lot of people think is super soft and not powerful. Yeah. So with that being said, it's in a tricky spot. And I don't mean that negatively about this paddle.

[00:22:06] I mean that, uh, in terms of like, where does this sit and what even is, you know, considered all court in today's, you know, market. I mean, people call the coral and coral pro all court. And I'm like, eh, I don't think, I think those are like right on the line of power paddles. I mean, look, listen, those were released a year ago, bruh. Those would have been power paddles through and through like, it's not even close.

[00:22:33] Um, but maybe a little longer than a year ago if I need to do the math and see what other paddles came out then. But I do, I do think that with that being said, this is all court, but it can give you quite a bit of offense on the larger stroke. So if you're someone who wants a lower end pop paddle, but you want still that put away

[00:22:58] power on, you know, overheads, and then you want some, some zing on your drives. I think this is a really good option. And honestly, probably a paddle. I should try playing with more, you know, it might suit my game. Uh, don't love how softer and denser it is. That's just not really, I don't, I'm not a huge dense guy, but, uh, pretty dampened too. Let me say this. This is a damn good paddle. Uh, yeah, yeah.

[00:23:27] Switching between the power two and the jelly bean two and having no real issue with performance says a lot about the paddle. I think that would just immediately say, oh, this is one of the best all court paddles that you can buy right now. Um, spin is nuts. Legitimately nuts. It's elite. Yeah. Elite. Elite. Uh, man, y'all have been cracking me up with that. I never realized how I say it like that. Elite. Elite. But yeah, that's, that's fucking hilarious. And a lot too.

[00:23:57] Very often. And insane. Somebody said, uh, oh, we got elite with a little sprinkle of insane. But, uh. Let me ask you this about the spin. Uh huh. Because I played this next to the power two also. Same surface. Right. They both have hex grit. Um, I felt like I was getting more spin with the jelly bean than the power two. And I don't think it's because the paddle has some, the technology of the core is giving

[00:24:25] more spin and there's more dwell or any of that. I literally think it's because since it's less powerful, I am able to swing faster, you know, faster swing speed without the ball going long. That swing speed translates to more spin and or dip. That or it's less powerful, right? So my drives, instead of kind of traveling further before they dip, they're like going over and dipping quicker. It was happening a lot. I wasn't even necessarily sure. I was just hitting what I thought was a regular drive and they ended up being almost like

[00:24:53] drips, like right over there in the super dip, uh, with the jelly bean too. And I think that is just because it has less power. So you're able to swing a little faster, more swing speed, more spin. Yeah. So that's probably an advantage of, uh, less powerful paddles. You know, I've been, I've been on the less power train here for a minute. Um, now let me ask you one other thing about the jelly bean. If you had this impression, we've talked about Boeing.

[00:25:20] Boeing paddles, Boeing that are hard to control. Notably RPM Q2, gearbox GX2 power, Holbrook fuse. These are kind of like bouncy paddles that feel like they can get away from you or hard to control, especially on like resets and things like that. Yeah. I felt like this was, I felt like the jelly bean twos were like anti-boying. They were like the most linear things I've ever played with. It's, it's the total opposite.

[00:25:46] It, uh, yeah, there's no, with a reset, you, you kind of have to maybe give it a little because there's no Boeing. There's no extra, no boingage, you know? Yeah. You're not getting any Boeing on this. So if you're a Boeing, yeah, you're not going to like this. You're going to want to Boeing with something else. If you were to play with a Q2 or something, there would be a massive adjustment. I'm trying to play with the jelly bean. Yeah. You would honestly, that's what I was talking about earlier. I was like, if you're someone who plays with like ultra powerful paddles and you try to

[00:26:13] switch to this, you're probably gonna have a lot of trouble. Like you're actually probably going to pop a lot of shit up. You're going to hit a ton of stuff into the net. You're going to have a, a very challenging time with this battle because it's, it's kind of similar to the gen two paddles in the sense that very, you know, you're getting a one to one ratio on power and, and, um, you know, exit velocity. It's very, very, uh, linear. So yeah, those are my thoughts. Early, early thoughts.

[00:26:44] I'm impressed with the paddle. I was just a little shocked. I was like, oh, this was, it's not super easy to play with. Like crazy different in terms of if you compare the performance of the paddles, the feel is so different with the power to the jelly bean. Yeah. But the performance overall is not too different. So it's like may, I mean, obviously you're getting more firepower with the power to series,

[00:27:11] but it's not, it's like, man, would I just tell people to go with the jelly bean ahead of the power to maybe, maybe I'd have to play with them more, but I think most people. Yes. Yeah. Um, I think maybe you and I disagree a little bit on the difference in power between the power to and the jelly bean too. Yeah. You don't think it's that powerful. I personally think the power to is significantly more powerful than the jelly bean too. I don't think the jelly bean too is that powerful at all. I thought the. I think it's squarely an all core paddle.

[00:27:39] And I, I think, uh, anyone who says it's a power paddle, they're wrong and I'm right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just very impressed with how much, how much power I could get on my drives. Like I had no issues. I think that might just be you, bro. I'm him. All right. I'm him. Let's transition. Here you go. Here's the segue. Let's try. Finally, I've been asking you to do that forever. What? Yeah. Oh my God.

[00:28:08] What is an all court paddle then? Like in today's market, let's just say this up front. Control paddles don't exist or if you make a control paddle, it's not relevant. Okay. There is no control paddles. You can do it. But like, yeah, I mean, if you can take a control paddle from a couple of years ago, what? The Dauntless. There's one control paddle that's been released in the last year. It's the Dauntless. Right. But if you go back to the old school control paddles, like let's just say you picked up a Mach 2 Forza, which I did recently.

[00:28:37] Which is a control paddle. And to be honest, in the whole history landscape of paddles, that is not even like the most control oriented paddle you can get. But it's definitely a control. No, I think there are legitimately like Gen 1 paddles that are softer, less powerful, less pop than that. But the plushness. There's something to be said for sweet spot and consistency. Massive. It's control also. Yeah. Okay.

[00:29:05] But all I have to say is like modern control paddles is pretty much irrelevant. So we have two categories now. All court, power. Yeah. And, you know, I started saying this about a couple paddles and then I don't know who was first. I'm not saying people took this from me, but I've also seen it elsewhere. The phrase sneaky power. And I've even seen people saying it about the jelly bean. Like, oh, it's an all court paddle, but it has sneaky power. And what they mean to say is exactly what you said.

[00:29:34] Like, oh, it's easy to drop with. It's easy to dink with. It's not poppy on counters or resets. However, an overhead or a serve or a drive, you can hit it hard. Yeah. You know? Mm-hmm. And then what I, what I started thinking about, and this was motivated by somebody asking me, why the hell is everyone saying sneaky power? And then I started thinking about that. And I was like, yeah, that actually, that's just the definition of an all court paddle, isn't it?

[00:29:58] An all court paddle is a paddle that is easy to control, easy to reset, not very poppy, but still has enough power on big strokes. Because realistically, on a drive or an overhead or a put away, I mean like, we're big boys. We can hit the ball hard with almost any paddle, right? So. We're big boys. It almost doesn't even mean that much to say sneaky power. Of course, if I swing as hard as I can, I can hit a wiffle ball really hard. Of course. You know?

[00:30:28] If you couldn't, then that paddle is like anemic. You know, that's like a total crazy control paddle with no power. Nobody wants that. So I think that is the definition of an all court paddle. By that logic, would you say that the power two is an all court paddle? No. Because of the pop levels are too high? Yeah. If we're being super reductionist here, I actually think what makes a bigger difference

[00:30:54] on whether we differentiate something as a power paddle or an all court paddle is how poppy it is. Yeah. Yeah. I do agree with that. Yeah. Uh, that's because pop is in, I used to literally despise the word pop when we first started because there wasn't like that big of a difference between pop engine two pedals, but now it's legitimately big difference. A huge difference.

[00:31:20] Um, and you can engineer paddles that aren't that poppy like the jelly beans, but still you can hit a ball hard enough on a put away. Foam has allowed us to engineer that honeycomb is pretty limited. It was more like you said, power and pop are like tied together. Yes. Now you can have these paddles, even the opposite. Uh, you can have foam paddles that feel super poppy. And then on the like full power, you're like, Oh, it's not actually as crazy as I expected for how poppy it is. You know? Yeah. So, yeah.

[00:31:47] And for anybody who's wondering what the hell is pop, the probably the easiest way to describe it. And Justin, you can give your definition of this, but it's going to be the exit velocity on smaller strokes. So punch volleys resets, drops, dinks. It's how quick the ball exits off of the paddle, you know, the miles per hour that's coming off the paddle in those smaller strokes, the strokes where you're actually trying to keep it low and down.

[00:32:14] Um, obviously a punch file, you're not trying to keep it low and down. You're trying to keep it low, but, uh, you're not trying to take anything off of it. But with that being said, that's kind of the layman's term in layman's term, what pop is. And with a lot of modern day foam paddles and even gen three paddles, pop can be very different between paddle to paddle, like drastically different, like RPM Q2 and jelly bean two couldn't

[00:32:44] be more drastically different paddles in terms of pop. Right. One is very linear, which is also a care, a, a part of pop and soft, you know, not poppy at all. And one is very nonlinear and extremely aggressive with this pop. Very, very bouncy. So, um, I kind of got derailed where we were going with this pop thing, but that's kind of what defining it. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:33:12] Um, so with the, I would say slower speeds, slower impact speeds, right? Yeah. Like when you're talking about power, you're talking about, like we said, drive serves overhead return. When you think about the impact speed, you have to factor in the speed of the ball coming plus the speed that you're swinging, which is actually quite fast when you measure the speed at the end of the paddle, if you take a full swing. So all of those power type shots are a much faster collision speed.

[00:33:38] And there's more things that happen there outside of the mass and the leverage that comes from you swinging at a ball that adds, of course. Um, but that's just the physics part, but there's more that happens with a paddles face sheets and core. And especially with foam, the compression values, the rebound, all that whenever you have a higher collision speed. And that is what maybe influences power.

[00:34:03] Uh, and the scenarios in which you may struggle with a paddle because it's too poppy aren't necessarily high impact speeds. It's whenever you're trying to reset a tricky little role that's maybe coming at you at 16 miles an hour or 12 miles an hour. It's not very fast. And you just have to like put the paddle out there and it's very little movement, but then you pop it up. Cause like, ah, damn, this thing's too poppy. Well, so that's the reaction of the paddles materials in these slow speed, um, type collisions,

[00:34:32] you know, and dinks and things like that. How much, how careful do you feel like you need to be with dinks to not pop them up? And so I think that's a lot of what people experience as poppy or not poppy. Like with the jelly bean too, for instance, dinks are a breeze. Like you feel like, oh, I can go after this dink. I can really like roll it. I can, I'm not like scared of swinging at it. I'm not scared if someone dinks at me a little bit aggressively, I'm not like, oh, I have to like take a little off this. So I don't pop it up because those little slow speed collisions feel easy. Feels low pop. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:35:02] That's a good, great explanation. But so I guess the question is obviously control paddles are pretty much not existent at this point. And where do you draw the line of power and all court? Is it just the problem? Specific paddles. Yeah. Yeah. What kind of, yeah. What I think in my opinion, that's where I draw the line. It's like, is this powerful? Yes. Like the Ronmas Tinnin.

[00:35:31] Ronmas Tinnin is a perfect example. That is, I would say is a low end power paddle because it has good power, but it has a softer, dampened, dweller feel. Dwellier feel that is sneaky powerful, but it still does have a good amount of pop. It's not uber easy to control like this jelly bean. You know, that's where I kind of differentiate the line of power and pop.

[00:36:02] Not power and pop, power and all court. Excuse me. Yeah. Yeah. And we say control paddles are irrelevant. And the reason why is because with foam paddles, with the current engineering, they're just redundant. Everything that you, a control paddle can do well, a good all court paddle can do well, plus more. And more. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think when paddles were a little bit worse, there was more of a place in the

[00:36:28] market for a paddle that really excelled at control because when you went up to all court and power, there were like way clear trade-offs. These paddles were way harder to control. The sweet spots were worse. But now we've gotten to a point where they're easier to control. The sweet spots are just as good. You know, everything is in the spin is just as good. So it's like, why do we even need a control paddle? And you can just have an all court paddle. It's just as easy to drop and dink with. But, but has sneaky power. That's all court to me. But yeah, I don't know.

[00:36:58] I tend to kind of align with most people. I think, you know, especially I'm just sitting here. So I'm going to pick it up. Like 6-0 Coral Pro is like the line for me. It's very easy for me to like go play with the paddle. And then if I played it side by side with this, I'm like, does it feel more poppy than the Coral Pro? It's a power paddle. Does it feel less poppy than the Coral Pro? It's an all court paddle. That's kind of where my personal line is, which doesn't matter. Maybe everybody's in a different spot.

[00:37:28] And some people like John Q have actual objective testing. So that's what you should look at and just compare that. But anyway. And there's people who think. That was just a conversation about the sneaky power. Then there's people who think the CR series is all court. I've had that comment on a few shorts. I'm like, are you out of your mind? Dude, I don't know. So the only thing I can think of there is that maybe some of the CRs don't all feel the same.

[00:37:55] You know, John and Eddie have said that maybe their J2 and J6 feel a little bit different. You've talked about your J6 being really hard to control, whereas my J2 is quite easy to control. Yeah. So maybe there's some variation within the CR series, and that's kind of confusing that specific conversation. But based on the J6 and the J2 long handle that I have, there's no world when I would put those in all court paddles. I would say they're very good power paddles. And that's what we were saying. They can still be really good at things that make them easier to control.

[00:38:25] They're predictable. They have massive sweet spots. That makes them easier to control. But they're still power paddles. Yeah. Like catch a counter clean with one of those, and there's no way you think, oh, that was an all court paddle. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right. Let us know what y'all think. You know, we are kind of in this bubble where we get to try all of these different paddles. What are y'all's thoughts? Where do you draw the line on all court and power?

[00:38:52] How do you decide whether a paddle feels like a power paddle or an all court paddle for you? I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts. Some of y'all give really good insight on things. So let us know. Anything else we want to touch on all court before we move on? No, that's it. I just wanted to mainly catch us and correct us because we've been in a situation where we're like, is this an all court paddle? Well, it's got sneaky power. It's got good power. And then I was like, wait a minute.

[00:39:21] Isn't that exactly what all court is? So just rethinking about it. Yeah. I mean, it's obviously a gray area as all of this and anything, you know, any subjective reviews are going to be going to have some gray area. So it's OK. We don't have to be perfect. But yeah, I do agree. Having some dialogue on how the paddle landscape has changed in that power all court category is definitely good. All right. Let's move on to a little sneaky peek.

[00:39:50] You got some shoes you want to show us? Yeah. Bring them out, dude. Sneak peek. Little shoes. These are going to be more like first impressions. It's actually two versions of the Head Motion Pro pickleball shoes. That head got motion, baby. And yeah, there's the two versions. One is a traditional lace up version and then one has a boa system, which you guys may be familiar with from either mountain biking shoes or ski boots or whatever.

[00:40:19] But you like, you know, can tighten it down and then you can pop it out and automatically comes loose. This is probably really good for accessibility. People who maybe have a hard time tying shoes, things like that. So that's actually really nice. I don't have a hard time tying shoes. I just hate tying shoes. But I don't know why I just cannot stand the look of the boa. Yeah, dude. I looked at these and I thought I think that the lace ones look a lot better. Yeah. Personally.

[00:40:48] But I do love that they're making it easier for, you know, I'm sure there's quite a few pickleball players who do not have as much, you know, manual dexterity as they like and do benefit from that, which is awesome. And I don't know if that's the I don't think that's the marketing pitch. No, no, no. Something that. Yeah. I was thinking about. It's a plus. But so these are this is just first impressions. But I want to share this with you guys because I thought it was these are interesting. Actually, I wore literally one session.

[00:41:16] I wore the lace ones for an hour and then I switched and then I wore these for an hour. So first impressions. I fully expected to hate the boa because I'm someone who likes to tie my shoes pretty tight. I don't like heel slip. And I thought this fine little cable here was going to just cut into my foot because this is a little booty construction. It's really not that padded. Yeah, it's pretty thin. So I was worried about that. And especially I played in the lace ones first.

[00:41:45] And there's a bit of lace irritation because it's pretty thin. So I was worried. However, dude, the boa ones, they're better. Damn. It's surprised to me. The they have like these three little straps and this one pulls down the lockdown and containment and you really don't have to crank it down super tight. It's really good. Like zero zero heel slip, really zero foot movement. The boa ones feel really comfortable. The like containment or the your midfoot feels super even.

[00:42:14] So I don't know. I know. Right. So so let me tell you the key things about these shoes, because maybe some people will be interested. First, I'll tell you the price. The lace versions are one twenty nine. So one thirty. The boa versions, two hundred bucks. So one ninety. Dang, that's a big jump. I assume. I mean, it's brand name Boa. I assume they have their cut involved. That's usually how it is.

[00:42:43] Like with mountain biking shoes, the same way they'll have like a lace version at Boa version. The Boa version is always way more expensive. Dang. So maybe that's why. But you can get these at Pickleball Central and Lewis has a code or a link. You have a link, right? For Pickleball Central. Yeah, I think it's. Yeah, ten. I'll check it. I'll try to remember to put that in there. Yeah. Yeah. So you can get ten percent off these. So one eighty or one seventeen.

[00:43:10] So really not a bad price because it's actually a good price because they have a guarantee a six month. And I was reading this. It comes in the box. It's not only the outsole. It is the outsole. The outsole goes through to the foam. You can get a new pair. But also this warranty says if you rub through this drag guard on the toe or on the side and make a hole in the upper. Which no other shoes really do. And I've never heard of that either. Someone. Yeah.

[00:43:39] Who if it doesn't have a lot of reinforcement right here. I will put a hole right here. Wow. So good on head. So that's a that's a nice warranty. All right. So now what type of shoes are they? Who are they for? What's the fit like? They're definitely definitely speed shoes. They are pretty damn light. The boa version is 16 grams more per shoe. So there's a little bit more weight. But you don't really feel it. They feel super light. Very flexible. So they feel very quick. Definitely speed shoes. They have OK cushion. But they're definitely more of a court feel shoe.

[00:44:09] Not a big maximalist cushion shoe at all. And then the other kind of standout feature is they're extremely breathable. Like this upper. You probably won't be able to tell here. But there are like a lot of breathing channels on all sides. And they have that head vent thing. This is a hole vent. And there's holes in the insole. And you can legitimately feel when you step down. It feels like it pushes air up onto your arch. Oh. So. And then they're just pretty light and thin. So. I mean. If that's what you're into.

[00:44:39] You want like a light. Minimalist. Flexible. Breathable shoe. This is pretty damn solid. And they're very flexible. I was not expecting that. What's that? I thought they were going to be a little bit more like. Yeah. I thought they'd be a little more maximal. Or like you know. In the middle. They don't look super speedy. Yeah. They actually are quite like little and thin and speedy. Head Revolt line is like their support more maximal's line.

[00:45:07] This is on sort of the other side of the spectrum. The fit. It's kind of funny. The toe box feels. Excuse me. Sheesh. Feels like you know those squares shoes. Where it's like kind of squared off. Oh yeah. It feels like a little bit of a smaller version of that. There's a lot of room at the front of the toe box. They're a touch long for your normal size. And it's kind of squared. You can't really see it from the outside. But you can feel it. However I would say the fit through the midfoot. And the heel.

[00:45:37] Is leaning snug. Maybe a little bit narrower than average. And it's just because it's a tight little shoe. But there is zero. Zero heel slip. I know dude. Don't. But with a booty construction like this. I'm always concerned about heel slip. But there is none. And it's probably because the shoe flexes pretty well. So it doesn't resist. But yeah. So the lockdown containment is pretty good. My main complaint was that. I wish there was a little bit more padding in the tongue. There's some lace pressure.

[00:46:07] And I would say super flexible speed shoes. Aren't my favorite type of shoe. But I know it's a lot of people's favorite type of shoe. And you get this great warranty. I mean this stuff is like hard rubber too. This drag guard. So I think there's a few different colors. The lateral support is good. Dude. Solid. Two different versions. And like I said the boa probably does work for a lot of people. Who may have you know hard time tying their shoes or things like that. So I'd probably try these out a little bit more.

[00:46:36] I don't know that I play hard sessions in them personally. Because I just prefer something that's a little bit more supportive and containing. But you never know when you just like. I just want to pop on something light. And like go. If I'm going to go play with some beginners or whatever. Just cruise around. You know. So yeah. That's that. Any questions? Did I miss anything? No. But I was going to say those square shoes. Guys. If you own those. I'm so sorry. Those are the ugliest pickleball shoes I've ever seen in my life. They're real ugly. And there's been some ugly pickleball shoes.

[00:47:05] Those look like 1990 Foot Joy golf shoes. Golf shoes. Yeah. Horrible. I don't know who thought those were a sleek design that needed to go to market. But boy. They did not do a good job. Good job for head making some solid speed shoes. I did have a pair of those head shoes 4.0 whatever's. That went on like $40 sale. Good God.

[00:47:35] Are they tight in the toe box? One of the tightest fitting. These are not tight in the toe box. Yeah. Man. These fit different than the Revolts for sure. Actually. These are a little bit tighter in the midfoot than the Revolts. But have more space in the toe box. Nice. So they improved on that. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. Immediately had to take them out. Super flexible. All right. Well anything else on the sneak peek? No. Nothing more on those. That was like I said more of a first impressions.

[00:48:04] But they sent me these. So I just tried them out. And yeah. You never know. Like I said not necessarily my type of shoe. But I think a lot of people do like that type of shoe. I see people on the Discord and otherwise asking what's a light speedy shoe. Similar to the Jet Mach 3s? I've never played in Jet Mach 3 so I don't know. But I know that's a super popular speed shoe. It's a super flat base. Especially in the forefoot. And then they have like this tiny little heel.

[00:48:34] So it almost feels like you have like this flat platform and then a little heel. And then this almost is more like you can almost tell it's like more of a rocker design. And it just feels really flexible underfoot. I mean the sensation almost is like your if you've ever played on those hard carpet tennis courts. Indoor tennis courts. It feels like really flexible. Really grippy. There's a little bit of give. That's almost how they feel because they just flex really well with your foot. And I think it probably has a lot to do with all these flex grooves in the outsole.

[00:49:04] Kind of pivoted around the ball of your foot here. Nice. But yeah. Alright. Tight. Alright dude. Well let's move on. Everybody's favorite segment. New week. New main. Sponsored by Bodhi Performance. If you need tungsten tape, apparel, sleeves, grips, all kinds of other pickleball related accessories. You can use code PURSUIT to save 15% at checkout when purchasing anything on BodhiPerformance.com.

[00:49:33] Thank you Bodhi for sending over the new merch and sponsoring new week. New main. Alright Justin. What you got big boy? New week. I've been sleeving it out dude. Jelly bean. I was wearing sleeves this morning. Real quick. While we're still talking about Bodhi. Yeah we got the just regular comfort colors t-shirts. We didn't plan this. We're just cute like that. But we also, Bodhi got some new sun hoodies for y'all who are into that. Oh yeah baby. They're cool colors.

[00:50:03] But they're pretty chill on the front. And then back just says stay grippy. Stay grippy baby. I love these things dude. I know you do too. I wore sun hoodies all the time. Every time I go cut the grass I wear them. And then if I don't want to put sunscreen on at the pool after the first, I always put one coat of sunscreen. But if we're going to be there for longer than two hours, I'm just like, I'm just throwing the sun hoodie on. I'll look like a fool. Who cares? Nah, it looks fine. I do the same thing.

[00:50:33] We do. My wife and I will go stand up paddle boarding. Not the sun hoodie. I don't feel like getting like lathered up. You know? Sunscreen is a pain in the butt sometimes. All right. What you got? New week, new main. Yeah. All right. It's going to be the jelly bean. I knew it. Asterisk. Just because I've been testing it all week against everything. So yeah, it has been the battle that I have been playing with the most. And we'll go ahead and just call it the main for this week. But I'm not confident this is going to be like, we'll see what happens next week.

[00:51:03] Probably going to change. But you're going to hit and quit. This basically has been the main. Possibly. May come back around. Yeah. You just find a brand new cute thing. Karachi is my chosen shape. And just. I do like this. Blue's Clues colorway right here. Blue's Clues? That sounds nice. Oh my God. I mean, yeah. Shout out to Tyler. Killed it on the design. I love the purple one too. Yeah. I think the design's great.

[00:51:30] I may try the ultra a bit more and see if I can adjust to that. That kind of balance and feel. I do think it probably has a little bit higher performance. If we're going all out performance across the board than the Karachi. But the Karachi just feels natural to me. Again, when I main the power two for a bit, I was playing the Karachi. So. Yeah. Yeah. So that'll be it for this week. It's a great paddle. It really suits my game. This is the power level, pop level I like. And spin level, of course.

[00:52:01] However, I'm not the biggest fan of the feel. This is just going to be broken record. This would be the same shit I said about the FC Plus forever. And I played that paddle for a long time. It's a bit too muted for me. It feels kind of numb. I have no idea where the ball hit on the face. I'm like, I hit the ball. Sure. Where? Don't know. I have to look at the ball mark. So this new foam is quite dampened and muted. Not quite to the level of the FC Plus. But it's not my favorite.

[00:52:30] I like the feel, what's going on. So. But that doesn't really take away from the performance. And it's something I can adjust to, of course. So yeah, that's the New Week New Main. Still in the ADV backpack. I have changed shoes, though. Oh my gosh. Well, well, well. This may also just be a one-week thing. But these 996B7s that I reviewed last week. Oh no, not the head shoes, no. If you remember, or if you guys watched that long-winded brambling session,

[00:53:00] I said I really liked everything about them except for the heel slip and the lace pressure. Well, I, just for fun, was like, can I fix that? So I punched some holes and put in a runner's knot on either side so that I could try to fix the heel slip. And then I put some mole foam, which is like some stick-on padding, on this top medial section of the tongue where I was getting lace pressure. And sure enough, that fixed the heel slip and then also the lace pressure.

[00:53:28] So now I have zero complaints about these shoes. And I think they look pretty sick. I really like the look of them. More so than the CG2. My friend Paul had some. They're really good, dude. He had some when I played Sunday. I was like, dang, those look good in person. Yeah, they're really comfortable and they're just really good. Damn. I still have some CG2s to make it through. Okay, so we'll see how long this lasts. I may just be one of those fashionistas who just wears whatever shoe matches that day. You know?

[00:53:57] You bought some more CG2s. I had two, man. That's 50 bucks. I have so many. I have too many. New week. Old Main. Sparta Spitfire, baby. Haven't played any with this since last week. But if I had to go play in a tournament, I'd pick it right back up and be totally fine. Love this paddle. Such a good one. Such an easy recommendation. $100. Good shape.

[00:54:25] Just does every single thing right. Finally, finally, after 65, maybe 70 games and a very long ball machine session, it's finally starting to see some wear to the grit. Could just be a little bit of ball dust in there combined with the grit wearing down.

[00:54:50] But there's definitely, you can feel a little bit smoother texture on the sweet spot than, you know, the throat of the paddle where there's, you don't see any action there. Unless you're lucky. All right. Well, new week. Same mane. Same shoes. Same bag. Cocos and Bodhi. I told Justin this. I'm probably not going to switch for the Cocos for a very long time. You just got some more too, didn't you? No, I didn't.

[00:55:21] They didn't have my size. You didn't do the deal? They didn't have my size. Oh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. I'm not cool like you. There was a deal for literally two for $100. Joe's New Balance. Joe's New Balance Outlet. Joe's New Balance Outlet. Joe's New Balance Outlet. We answered that question like 100 times. It's New Balance's official outlet site. Yes, you can warranty the shoes through there. The warranty email is the same support email as regular New Balance.

[00:55:47] I have seen a couple reports recently where they said they warrantied the shoes and instead of giving you a voucher for a brand new pair, they just give you a full refund for what you paid for them. Maybe because they're so discounted. However, in the past, in my experience, even at Joe's when I bought them on discount, whenever I warrantied, they just give you a voucher that then you can use on the New Balance site and get any pair of CG2s, the same ones, any pair in any color way with that voucher code. Dang. That's tight.

[00:56:14] In the past, I had worn out a $60 pair, got a voucher, got a $160 brand new pair. It goes in a new color way. Big boy. Wow. I just ordered two more. They were two for $100. I mean, damn. I have too many. You guys probably can't see the shelf, but I'm stacked. He's a shoe. He's a... What do they call it? Sneakerhead? I guess. Don't they call them sneakerheads? Yeah, they do call it that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they're pretty damn good.

[00:56:42] I was very anti-Coco's until I tried them. I just don't like the look of the mid-tops. I really don't. But performance is undeniable. I mean, it's legitimately, they're like the Honolulu's of shoes. They're not that ugly. At least not to me. I'm here for a new balance styling. But, and, let it be said, Coco CG2 and Blue Maka insole, elite combo.

[00:57:12] Elite. Insane. Elite combo. Insane. Yeah. Insane. Oh, my God. Might have to make a shirt. Justin had a good idea for next merch drop, elite. Well. Yeah. That's really all I got for New Week, New Main. All right. Let's move on, big dog. Move on to the promised land. Nerd town. All right. Here we go.

[00:57:40] You look like you put a little extra sass in that. Yeah. This is going to be a sassy one. This is a sassy nerd town. Good thing you're wearing your purple shirt. You guys who want me to. Yeah, true. Want me to reveal details and such. You'll be disappointed. Because this is me using the platform with 10K followers or subscribers, whatever you call it, to talk about something that I think needs to be talked about. Damn it. And that is Paddle Company.

[00:58:10] Is this a wine town? Are we going to wine town? Yeah, yeah. All right. Let's go. All right. Wine town. Not really. It's more like a. Yeah, sure. It could be wine town. Let's go. Yeah. So it's been known for a long time and nothing has really been done about it. The paddle companies have done like a bait and switch on the grit levels for USAP. And what I mean by that is send in Paddle A to USAP to be approved with smooth grit or USAP approved grit.

[00:58:40] Okay, cool. You got the approval. Now mass produce the same paddle, but with grit B. So grittier. So it goes to the mass market, really gritty. It's very obvious. Remember whenever John busts out a stare at and said, oh, 98% of these paddles are too ready to pass USAP. Hmm. They all have the stamp on them. He's not the only person who's done that. Other people have looked at that. It's very well known. And I get that it's really hard to police by USAP. They supposedly have protocols in place.

[00:59:09] There have been some more paddles put on the under investigation tab recently. But over the years, it hasn't been well controlled. So that bait and switch has been known and it always happens. And anyone who's paying attention knows about it. Well, what do we expect to happen? You know, now the same shit is happening, but with core densities. And why not? Why wouldn't companies do it?

[00:59:34] And so what's happening is companies are sending in paddle A with a, let's say, an EPP core and it's denser. So it's a bit of a heavier paddle, but that doesn't matter when you're sending USAP. The denser core will test lower on PB core and won't deflect as much. So what do you know? Stamp of approval. That is approved. That passed testing. Now time for mass production. They're producing a version that looks the same on the outside, but has a lower density core. What does that mean? More deflection that may have failed USAP.

[01:00:04] I'm not saying it did, but might have. Lower density. So more power. Might have failed PB core. We don't know, but it's different. It's a bait and switch. And I am not going to name specific companies. However, I have three different confirmed sources from people that I have relationships with and trust and the manufacturers in China. I've seen this stuff. Relationships?

[01:00:31] When I say firsthand, we're on video calls. You know? This is news to me. We're going to have a big talk after this. Sorry to derail you. But it's actually four sources, and this is in news. It's not like it's a, oh my God, I can't believe it. Of course we all knew, anyone who's thinking about it. And then beyond that, I have personally dissected paddles, tested the density of the core, and

[01:01:00] the density of the core is a low density that I know from experience of building paddles. Does that best? Let's just say 99% of the time, fails PB core. Maybe they figured out some other way, but I didn't see anything special in those paddles. So I've now done this with multiple paddles that I suspected and confirmed, as well as my, call them three and a half sources, because maybe the fourth one isn't super trustworthy. They might have had some other motives to tell me this.

[01:01:30] But three good sources have told me, yeah, yeah, this is made this way for approval, mass production. So anyway, there's no reason for me to say this, except I think that it should be talked about, and people shouldn't be doing it. I think it's completely unfair to the companies who are doing things right, and who aren't doing this.

[01:01:54] And also, I think it should be said that any company that is UPAA certified, I highly doubt they're doing this, because UPAA is what they have a smaller list of approved companies and paddles, of course. So it's much easier for them to do this, but they are much more on top of policing their approved paddles. And the penalties are severe. There's like real fines, delistings. It's pretty bad.

[01:02:21] So I think it would be unwise for UPAA approved paddles to do this bait and switch, and it probably would be caught pretty quickly, because if they get wind of it, then they'll private test it. Not to mention, almost every UPAA certified brand has sponsored pros, and they would never want to get their pros in trouble like this, because they do on-site testing in the pro paddles, and have to make sure it lines up all this. So just talking about the bait and switch with USAP here. Just a wine town. I don't know. All right.

[01:02:50] Well, you kind of- You know what we do about this. I was going to give you a counter argument, because the other day, not the other day, the other episode, maybe last episode, you were talking about how deflection should be thrown out, because you think deflection. But then you said they would fail PB core. So we talked about- Oh, yeah, yeah. Last week, how you should test the end result rather than the, you know, policing the engineering. Yeah. Yeah. So you kind of, you know- Don't get me wrong.

[01:03:20] I don't think we shouldn't test deflection. I think deflection should be a test of record. It shouldn't be a pass-fail metric. Yeah. Yeah. And that's how UPA does it. You should test deflection so that you can understand, oh, this is how this paddle was engineered. This is what it should be at new. And even if you do a break-in testing, which you should, this is what the deflection should change to, because it does change. And this is normal. This is nominal. This is what we expect for this paddle. When it's outside of that range, we need to look into it. What's going on?

[01:03:50] Yeah. Maybe the foam density is different, you know, things like that. But I don't think that deflection should be something that fails paddles. I think it did make sense a little bit more when we had honeycomb only because a crazy amount of deflection usually meant you had a crushed core. Because if you had intact honeycomb, it just wouldn't deflect that much. However, like we've talked about a bunch of times in this episode, now that we're in foam, we're able to use and engineer paddles that deflect more and have different characteristics.

[01:04:18] They have different compression sets and they have different rebound characteristics and things that can have more deflection without having more power. That is absolutely happening. So. Well, give a wine town. I don't know what was the point of that nerd town. I don't know. I don't know if there was a point to it. You just needed a wine. You just needed a wine. I just wanted to. Yeah. I just wanted to bitch about it because being on the development side, it annoys me every time I see it because, uh, yeah, you know, of course it goes without saying I try to do

[01:04:45] it the right way and I would never advise any client to do that. Um, yeah. So I'm like, Hey, what the hell? You know, whenever I see it, I'm like, there's no way this passed through. Come on. Yeah. What's going on big dog. And you're just selling it. You're out here selling it. Yeah. Well, I can imagine you as someone who does develop paddles and have openly talked about how you've had some questionable, uh, fails. How annoying that is to know that there are other people who are gaming the system.

[01:05:12] Um, so yeah, definitely can be frustrating. Uh, that goes for any, anything you do that other people do in the same industry. Gaming the system. Um, chilling could be anything, you know, that's in the big picture though, in the big picture, this type of stuff does matter because the pickleball as a, as a regulated sport needs

[01:05:39] to mature and be well-regulated and be respected and be reliable. If we ever expect it to grow beyond just a fun social thing, we want it to be global. We want it to be in the Olympics. We want it, you know, these things like that. Um, which of course I think everyone who plays pickleball and loves it probably does, especially us who work in pickleball. Um, then the industry needs to be on point, you know, we can't just be having like people doing change all the time.

[01:06:08] You know, I agree. Yeah, I agree. I think, um, needs to be, uh, we've said this for years, you know, USAP needs to be, better at policing, but it's hard to say because they have to do so many paddles. I understand it's difficult proposition, but there should be a way to do it. Yeah. Yep. All right. Well, anything else for wine town, nerd town? No, that's it. That's it.

[01:06:38] All right, dude, you can cry on my shoulder after this is over. Um, all right guys. Uh, that's really it. That's all we got. All right. If y'all have any questions, comments, topics, be sure to hit those in the comment section below until the next one. Thank y'all so much for 10 K subs. Love you guys. I'll see you on the next one. Peace. Peace. Peace.