Episode 85 | How Weight Affects Paddle, UnMarked 2026, Quanta Pro, Luzz Inferno 2

[00:00:04] What is up nerds? Welcome back to episode 85 of the The Pickleball Pursuit Podcast, Ocho Cinco. We're back. We took a week off. We wanted to make you guys want us, need us, desire us. Probably not true, but if you did, thank you. I'm here with my co-host Justin from Pickleball Pursuit Justin, how you been man?

[00:00:28] Good. Yeah, it always feels like so long when we take a week off. I know, dude. I know. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. That's right. I heard you go for the what is up nerds and then I like cracked a little smile, you know? Well, we got a lot of stuff to talk about. We are back. Finally, we got some paddles and we got a lot. I'm going to touch on a couple of them today and then we're going to go over a little buy, borrow, burn.

[00:00:57] Another one of those. That was fun last time. And then I love when you play with me. And then we're going to go net gains. I'm going to talk about just a realization that I've been kind of just pushing away and pushing away as much as I possibly could. Put it on the blinders.

[00:01:15] Yeah. Just, you know, pretending like it's not true. Trying not to find excuses. But then we'll go over New Week, New Main. And then Justin, I think you do have a juicy little nerd town for us, right? And it is nerdy. It's going to be, it's a rabbit hole. Yeah, it's a rabbit hole. So this is the, this is, look, it's everybody's favorite kind of nerd town. We're going to talk about a lot of stuff, a lot of numbers and none of it matters. So it's going to be the best.

[00:01:44] Oh my God. I love that. All right. Well, um, leave it to the pickleball guys to, you know, hyper focus on things that don't translate to the court. All right, here we go. Ready to roll. We got some paddles. Um, all right, Mark pickleball. They sent over their unmarked, I think it's called the unmarked 2026. Um, a little confusing. Not that good as color.

[00:02:09] Uh, Mark, I would say, I like that you're trying to go simplistically with naming, but calling it the 2026 is a little, a little challenging to, you know, for me, in my personal opinion, I would love a different name. But with that being said, this is a very intriguing paddle. So it's got an EPP core with voids and then it's, is it EVA floating all around? Or is it a different material? I can't remember.

[00:02:36] I'm pretty sure the central core, the pattern of the holes or voids is very similar to what they had on the O2R3. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like just holes all over and then there's like a little horizontal void down here in the throat. So they are calling it the Velocicore. Um, why didn't y'all call this the VelociRaptor? Uh, what a great name. Yeah.

[00:02:59] Uh, the Raptor, the Raptor, the VelociGrit, uh, which is a, uh, infused peel ply texture. Um, similar to, you know, what Harmony Grit, uh, Diamond Tough Grit, and then a bunch of other people have been adding. That seems to be kind of everybody's, wouldn't call it low hanging fruit, but the, seems to be one of the easier, you know, durable grit textures to get and implement.

[00:03:24] So, um, nothing that I think is going to be like permanent grit, but definitely will be an upgrade on traditional peel ply textures. So, played a few games with this paddle. Uh, not by choice. I had to put this down. This paddle is challenging to control. This is RPM Q2 vibes. Boing. Lots of power. Lots of pop. Uh, great spin.

[00:03:52] The feel is actually phenomenal. Um, I don't really have anything like negative to say about the playability. It's just going to be extremely challenging for anyone who is under four or five to really see the, I guess, ceiling of this battle. This has a low floor, meaning you could play very bad with this, but a very high ceiling, meaning you play exceptional pickleball.

[00:04:21] Um, I mean, I think this in a pro's hands would be a problem. Um, gets lots of power. I mean, I gave it to my friend Chance. I'm sure, uh, you obviously remember Chance, but some other people on this channel probably have heard that name before. Young kid smacks the hell out of the ball. And, uh, he's playing with a Q2. I think he was playing with either the 14 or 16, but he tried this and immediately was like, oh my God.

[00:04:49] He had, uh, I was like, yeah, it's, it's going to be really, really poppy. Uh, nonlinear power. He had to put it down and grab his Q2 after cause he just couldn't stop spraying balls out. And that's saying something. Yeah. And that goes back to the Q2. His game, like his game is hitting hard and putting immense pressure on people. And, um, he was struggling with it.

[00:05:12] Not to say that he couldn't dial it in after, you know, a week or two, but to, to give you all some insight on how high this paddle is in terms of its overall power. Um, it's up there. I would say this has got to be one of the top five most powerful paddles you can get. Interesting. Um, but it's a little deceiving as feel. Uh, it is dwelly. It is softer, kind of like the Spitfire.

[00:05:40] Um, a little less thonky compared to the Spitfire, but it has that same. Still hollow though. Yes. Solo, uh, soft, solo, softer and hollow. But I would say it's kind of in the middle of the stiff hollow. Um, spectrum. And, uh, a lot of people think that softer paddles don't give them as much firepower as they, uh, or they perceive that it doesn't give them as much firepower, which is a common misperception.

[00:06:07] You know, a lot of people thought the GX2 when it originally came out, it was a control paddle and definitely was not. I mean, that paddle in its day was a firm power paddle. Now it's probably, you know, closer to the tip of all court, but. Well, like Holbrook Fuse has kind of a softer feel, but that thing hits really hard. Hits very hard. Yeah. So don't let the softness fool you. Um, this paddle hits extremely hard. Resets will be very challenging, tricky. It's not a linear paddle.

[00:06:36] Um, some people may like that. Others may not like that. Um, Q2 is a, a very similar, you know, uh, paddle in terms of its predictability. Uh, and in its linearity in terms of power. But I think this is a great paddle. The spin was good. The grid is nothing insane. Um, they, it's definitely not as gritty as their last battle. Uh, but I don't think it is. Mine is like really gritty. This one.

[00:07:05] Mine's like, it's like, uh, one of the grittiest paddles I've felt in person. Mine's no grittier than the Spitfire. It is maybe close to the Spitfire, which is also kind of insane to me. For USAP. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, if we're comparing it to like hex grit or, uh, what else we got? That's insanely grit. I mean, I think the thrives are more gritty than this.

[00:07:28] But, um, with that being said, this is a paddle that I think has a tremendously high ceiling. Uh, you can definitely get some elite performance out of this. I love the shape apart from the top. That's it. I was going to ask, what do you think about the fudge pop? The, yeah. So I can't, I'm pretty sure chance literally called it a fudge pop, uh, which is hilarious. He called it like a lollipop or a, or a creamsicle or something like that.

[00:07:57] It's definitely a popsicle. Yeah. It's elongated by the way. It's like a, yeah. Props to them. Cause it is dead on 16.5 by 7.5. I think, uh, I couldn't remember what my, yeah. 16, five by seven, five, five. Exactly. Like dead, dead on. Yeah. So, um, and you said that this throat and these lower cheeks, you said specifically before I had the paddle, cause you got it for me. You were like, you're going to like that. You said it straight out of the PP Bible, straight out of the PP Bible, baby. It's true. And it's true.

[00:08:26] This is like extremely comfortable while maximizing, um, you know, stability down here. You can go one finger on the face, two finger on the face, even with big hands. Look at us. We got the same set up too. Yeah. A little bit, a little bit above three and nine. Barely. I haven't played with this. Um, I haven't played with mine. I set it up cause I want to play with it, but I have not hit with it yet. Uh, so I'll just tell you some first impression stuff. Yeah. I think the shape's kind of cool.

[00:08:55] Uh, I haven't played with it, so I can't say how it plays, but good on them making a unique shape, taking up maximum dimensions. Clearly they care about metrics. The metrics are really good. Mine are insane. Like this is an elongated paddle. Mine was one 11.1 swing weight, 6.55 twist weight. And it was like 7.9 ounces. Mine was 113. Yeah. 113, 6.87 twist weight stock. That's crazy for an elongated. Yeah. Very impressive stats.

[00:09:24] There's gotta be something in there. Um, yeah. I know Martin from whiskey dink x-rayed it and said there's no added weight, but the physics don't make sense for a 7.5 inch paddle to be over 6.5 twist weight. There's gotta be some kind of weight in there. It just might not be something super dense and metal that shows up on x-ray. There has to be something in there. Maybe it's a silicone or a heavy adhesive or something. Yeah. Additional carbon fiber or fiberglass. There's definitely something in this area or has to be. Um, so, but anyway, that's smart design. Also props to them for that.

[00:09:53] Let's also not ignore the fact that adding this extra, let's just call it half an inch of width is going to give you an additional 0.1 on the twist weight. Um, like this whole section right here, you know, basically is not there. That's going to give you a significant boost in stability. Here's a, a Luz Inferno for the viewers to see. I mean, you can see the cheeks poking out pretty substantially.

[00:10:23] But it's still comfortable. Yeah. But still like perfectly comfortable. It's great. Um, and props to Mark as always. I think their design is always really good. Their stuff looks really good. I agree. Uh, I think this is interesting and I like it where the face is like really subtle, basically blank, black, but then the edge guard is like, like popping and loud. And look, I don't know, uh, you know, if Wesley knows me well or what, but this is like one of my favorite color combos.

[00:10:52] So yeah, it's stupid. Um, my stupid camera keeps trying to focus on the stuffed animals eyes back there. You need to go move it. Cause I got a couple other things to talk about. Um, so yeah, this shape, like I said, Oh, nice. Uh, I love this shape. The only thing I wish, and, uh, I would love to get your thoughts on this. I'd be willing to sacrifice a swing weight point or two to have a slightly more squared off top.

[00:11:22] Um, I don't know yet. Cause I haven't played with it. That's my only me personally, since I'm not an elongated boy, since I'm a hybrid boy, I'm probably hitting a little lower on the face than you naturally. So it probably won't bother me. I'll say that I'm, I'm locked in on elongated and I don't like it. Uh, but man, cause I'll, I'll go play with a hybrid or even worse, a wide body and just be like, what am I supposed to do with this? Wide bodies are tough, dude.

[00:11:48] Yeah, they're, they are tough, but, um, nothing really that I can say negatively about this paddle. Uh, even though it sounds like I'm being negative on the power, uh, and you know, I guess, uh, predictability, that's just personal preference. You know, some people love boingy nonlinear paddles. For me, it's hard for me to get into because I switch paddles so much. So having a paddle that's not predictable is going to be very challenging to play with.

[00:12:17] Um, but you should try it again because you know how it is depending on what other paddles you're using that day, depending on how you're feeling that day. So this one we might have to revisit cause I haven't played with that at all. We should check in on the grit durability cause it's claimed durable grit and then yeah, maybe you'll have an easier time with it on a different day. And, and then I'll let you guys know because y'all know me, I'm the guy on the podcast who is too trash for a power paddle. So if it's too powerful, I'll know. Yeah.

[00:12:46] Uh, yeah, I can't wait for you to, um, get to, uh, play with it, but yeah, it's definitely a good paddle. One that I think is intriguing, solid price, one 71 after code pursuit and it drops the 26th of August. So, um, I think a week from when this, uh, podcast goes live. So definitely want to check out if you want elite tier power, one that I think, uh, is

[00:13:14] worth it and worth checking out because it is a unique shape, a really good shape and it has very unique playing characteristics and metrics. So, um, plus a good feel, you know? All right. Yeah. Uh, anything else on Mark before we move on? No, like I said, we'll just have to revisit once I played with it. Edge guard. Love it. All right. Um, now similar kind of edge guard, but not my preferred look.

[00:13:43] It's just a little too gradient. Um, but, uh, this is the Luz Inferno two. This is their new Inferno that has a durable, and I'll put that in quotations as always, grit texture. Um, I don't really know anything about the grit texture just yet, so I can't comment on that. But, uh, after playing, I played a bunch with this paddle because this was the only paddle that I could control out of the paddles that I brought. And I was playing some of the worst pickleball I've played in a long time.

[00:14:13] And, uh, this was just my, this was my safe paddle. But, uh, very reminiscent of the original Inferno. Um, I just, there's really nothing too different about it. They changed the edge for them though. Did you feel like very different to you? I mean, I'm sure if I picked up the original Inferno, it would feel like noticeably different, but it didn't feel outside of the realm of the, uh, original. So still, uh, thonky, huh? Definitely thonky.

[00:14:42] And it looks like it is available now. Because they changed, I'm pretty sure they changed it from EVA to TPE. Oh, dang. So it should change the vibration profile a little bit. Luz, uh, upgraded their website. All right, so, um, yeah, TPE dynamic return ring is what they're calling the floating ring, I imagine. And then, um, yeah, so it's a silicone carbide molded into the face for its, uh, grip. For the durable grip. Yeah, for the durable grip.

[00:15:07] Little on the, I wouldn't say it's on the heavier side, but 119 swing weight, 6.2 twist weight. So a paddle that you don't need to do too much to it in terms of adding weight. Um, and then if you're someone who prefers lighter swing weight elongated paddles, this is probably not one that I would say go after. I would say in the grand scheme of elongated shape paddles, this is mid, like right in the middle in terms of, uh, maneuverability.

[00:15:35] But, um, sweet spot felt very much consistent with the original same amount of thonk, same feel, um, you know, similar feel. Obviously I need to directly compare them, but, uh, definitely a paddle that I think is going to be catered towards the four or plus players who like MPP. Um, I think, oh yeah. Yeah. If it's essentially the same paddle, but if the, you know, if the grit truly lasts, let's say. Exactly.

[00:16:03] Then that paddle was really popular for a reason. Uh, let me ask you this. One side of the face has a ton of like heavy lines and graphic and the other side is pretty blank. Yeah. Do you notice where the graphic is that it feels slick to your hand? Because I'll tell you this from experience. It is slightly thick. There was slightly two pros. Yeah. I think this is something that only like higher level people are going to notice, but, and it may not be this paddle, but in general there was one time I was, uh, we were testing a paddle

[00:16:31] with two pros and we had a graphic on it that we had to literally change just because the line was slightly thicker and the pros are so dialed in, they could literally feel on their forehand rolled inks. It'd be like, oh, I hit the ink there. It's spun a little bit less. Me, I'm, I could, I literally can't tell. I was like trying to tell. And I was like, man, I think they might be just projecting or they're crazy. The first person said it. And then a second pro said the same thing unsolicited without them talking to each other.

[00:17:00] And then I was like, oh, okay, I'm just not good enough. Yeah. We're just not, we're not on that level, but, uh, design that maybe someone really good could pick up on. Hey, one side, you know, has this graphic where maybe it doesn't grab as well. Yeah. Definitely feels a slight amount, uh, slip more slippery. Yeah. When you put the ball, when you put the ball over it and rub it, my God, it is like very glass, glass and grit. Oh yeah.

[00:17:30] I mean, it grabs it. I mean, but you probably didn't notice it playing because you're a bad player. Cause I saw maybe a pro would notice. Yes, definitely. If you're a five Oh plus player, you might, you might notice it. Um, but if you're just a little peasant like me and Justin, you ain't going to notice that. Um, two 39 before code. I think my code takes 10% off, which is code pursuit. It might be 15%. Um, but, uh, on the more expensive side, but yeah, it's, you know, I would say this is a premium paddle.

[00:17:59] It's a good paddle. Approval. Uh, it is, I believe it's just UPA on this one. Okay. Yeah. Curious. And then, uh, let me see if they have multiple options real quick. They do have a one year warranty, which is great. Um, I think that is important for MPP. Um, and then, uh, yeah, I'm only seeing a, it probably is UPA only. Yeah. I mean, Luz has got a lot of pros at this point. They're definitely in that ecosystem. Um, 15% off.

[00:18:29] So it's 203, 203 after code. So it's 200 bucks. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty, it's still pricey, but I mean, that's a premium paddle. Exactly. Yeah. Premium paddle. So a brand that has made multiple good paddles that people have had, you know, I really haven't heard anybody say anything negative about Luz apart from their first batches of paddles having slightly less durable, uh, resin in their, you know, normal raw peel pie.

[00:18:58] This may be fixed, but there, there, there was a time whenever the customer service was complained about a lot. I don't know if that's fixed. This is one of those things that when we report on this stuff, you have to take it with a grain of salt because we're not the ones filing for warranties. We're not the ones, you know, um, talking to customer service, not something we need to do. However, whenever I hear it a lot on the discord or people are DMing us, we try to mention it, but also when we mention it, just take it with a grain of salt because it's not a firsthand experience. Yeah. But yeah, that is something I've heard a lot about Luz.

[00:19:27] That may be fixed. I'm not trying to call Luz out on it, but something to be aware of, or maybe research if you're really into that and you're looking into it. Yeah. Customer service warranty claims and durability are three things that we as reviewers have a much more challenging time to, you know, comment on because we are basically going through battles so quickly and we don't even need to talk to customer service ever for any reason.

[00:19:55] And if you did, if you did need to talk to customer service, you likely have a direct connection to someone at that company. You're going to reach out and they're going to be like, Oh, this is Louis. We want to give them the best care possible. Yeah. So it's shown on the channel. So you're going to get the best of the best customer service. Yeah. So it's not something that you have the same experience as a regular buyer. We are privileged. Okay. We're admitting that basically. Um, that's all I got on the Inferno too.

[00:20:21] I think it's a, a nice upgrade on the last one, but of course there's going to be other MPP paddles that come out with durable grit for cheaper. For instance, the, um, my, one of my legitimate favorite paddles of all time, the MPP turbo is getting a durable grit texture option added to it. Um, so if you love laws, you love the Inferno, it does have a different feel than a lot of the MPP, uh, paddles out there. Um, might be one, you know, for you to check out.

[00:20:50] So Quanta pro, this is a another exciting one because this is our second, uh, I guess technically third, you know, we'll give, we'll give Pacl the benefit of the doubt. They're going to fix their grit. This is the, uh, third $100 durable grit texture paddle. So this is Quanta pro. They changed a few things about the construction.

[00:21:12] They do not have TPE in the bottom, uh, corners and they added a little foam in the throat to give the paddle a slightly more enjoyable feel. You know, people complained about it having a slightly tingy odd vibrations, which everyone knows Justin you specifically are you, you know, more than most people that TPE does give you a different vibration frequency compared to EVA, which can be, you know, come off as

[00:21:41] harsh or not as enjoyable and pleasant. So they heard the feedback, they changed it. And, uh, I think this is, if I'm not mistaken, I think it's foam all the way down the handle. I sent you the x-ray. Do you remember? I don't remember. Yeah, I can't. Don't quote me on that. But with that being said, no, it goes across the bottom of the throat now. So it's essentially like a full ring of floating and it's a separate elastomer right above the handle across the throat. Yeah. Like in this area right here.

[00:22:11] Yes. Yeah. Right. Right around the, um, right around the throat taper. But, um, really it's not a massive difference between the first Quanta and this one. So don't think that this is going to completely change like the feel to where it's like an unrecognizable paddle. Um, it's just going to change the vibration frequencies slightly to where you may like it, but there are going to be a certain, you know, few people who don't like that.

[00:22:40] Um, I think it's a good paddle. I think it's a good upgrade. I think it's a smart upgrade. It's a hundred dollars after good pursuit. There's nothing about this paddle that really, you know, is a standout in terms of construction or, you know, durability. It's, it's solid. And I think for a hundred dollars, that's really all you need. You need rock solid performance that is as good as virtually anything out there. And this is that, um, obviously it comes in all the shapes.

[00:23:08] I don't think they're doing the R5 anymore. I could be wrong about that, but I haven't seen anyone with an R5. I think it's just, uh, two, four and two, three and four now. So, okay. So no one square standard there for, which is their newer hybrid and their three, which is the elongated, right? I think you're right. Isn't the, isn't the one round top elongated. I don't think they're doing that anymore. Good. And that's like the rhombus line.

[00:23:35] I think it's just, now it's just three shapes and they went with their, you know, their more popular, uh, standard, which was a squared off one to two. They're newer hybrid, which is the four and then the square top elongated, which is the three. Yeah. I think that's smart. It kind of condenses it down. And like you said, the three better shapes of the five. So, um, yeah, this is nano bond. So it's going to perform identically in terms of durability as the 10 and will, which is

[00:24:01] a slight upgrade on peel ply textures, but not a massive upgrade. So don't expect it to be hex grid or blue grid or, you know, perma grid. It's longer lasting, not longer lasting. Yes, exactly. So I imagine it's going to land in tier three. If y'all are a tier person, um, like John Q does. Uh, so that, if that gives you any idea, it's just slightly better than peel ply texture, which is great. Um, real quick.

[00:24:29] I want to say this because, you know, this has been a conversation and on our podcast, like I do actually have a way to test these, uh, grits, but it's not extremely scientific, but honestly it's held up really well when comparing to what John Q was doing. And you're more of just like, play it, feel it. You can tell, you know, what's obvious, what actually matters to a person who's going to put 50, 70 games on a paddle.

[00:24:57] So, and we talked about this before, but I think we should like lean into it harder on our podcast. I really think that instead of going tier one, two, three, four, and getting like into the percentage loss, we should just be like, look, here's standard raw carbon fiber peel ply. Here is permanent grit. Yeah. I think we just call it permanent grit, which is really 11, six, 24, Honolulu and Spartus permagrit at this point. Those legitimately like don't wear, like you're going to be a good one. Yeah. We're going to break other parts of the paddle before the grit.

[00:25:27] And then anything in between, I think we just call it like longer lasting. It lasts longer. It's longer lasting. It's not permanent. And we'll do our best to say, this reminds me of X of harmony grit or of infinite grit or of these things that people know. Yeah. And let me just say that double diamond tough from six zero is also permanent. So I don't want to leave them out. Yeah. Yeah. Good. I was going to say that, but I was just going to let you roll. But, um, yeah, I, I agree.

[00:25:54] I like having just the, here's the benchmark, which is the permanence. Here's the, you know, the bottom of the benchmark, which is just raw peel ply and everything in between. Some are going to be a little bit more durable than the others, which we'll try to designate. Longer lasting. But yeah, it's not a, it's not a permanent, uh, grit texture by any means. Man, there was one other thing I was about to say whenever you're talking about that, but I can't remember what it was.

[00:26:16] Um, yeah, I mean, it'll, yeah, it's, it's, uh, Oh, I was just gonna say, yeah, I, this is no shade at anybody who does RPM tests or, you know, John Q or mass pickleball or Braden. But for my mantra is always, you don't play pickleball in a lap. You play on the court. So the on court experience, in my opinion, is the most important thing, which is why I've

[00:26:43] never been one to jump into these tests that every time I do, I'm like, eh, they don't really feel like they add that much for me. Yeah, exactly. That's pickleball pursuit. You come to pickleball pursuit for subjective reviews. You go to John Q for, he does some subjective stuff, of course, he's very good at it, but he's really good at objective data. And that's like, right. That's his lane. Your lane is subjective reviews, which I think is valuable. Really freaking good at it. It's some of the stuff he says. I'm like, John, you, you are crazy, bro.

[00:27:12] Um, but yeah, don't get, don't, uh, please don't think that I'm saying that to, uh, put anybody else's review style down. I'm just explaining mine. This is your lane. Um, but yeah, solid paddle. I think this is definitely an upgrade and it will be a popular paddle. I think this one also comes out on the 26th. It might be the 28th now that I remember. Um, so if you're interested, you like the first quanta doesn't really change much.

[00:27:39] Uh, I did get a one 18 swing weight, 6.3 twist weight for my R three shape. So if that's any indication, I think they're slightly heavier than the previous models. Uh, yeah, they are across the board. Let me, you said you confirmed they are. Yes, they, they are. Uh, the pros are heavier across the board than the original quantas, but the original quantas were very light. Yes. So these aren't heavy paddles.

[00:28:05] They're just heavier, but they're actually from the stats I've seen, which I've seen from multiple people. They're pretty like middle of the road slash average. Yeah. Yeah. Middle of the road, slightly trending towards more maneuverable for their average shape. Right. Um, all right. Cool, cool paddle. Uh, another cool paddle we got is the M one mission first fire fight pro.

[00:28:28] So this is a 16 millimeter, uh, hybrid shape has a MPP core and I believe it's a fully floating TPE ring. Um, but, uh, yeah, this is a thonky paddle, very MPP like it pretty much trends with any other MPP paddle. But I think the, I guess the standout feature of this paddle is, is it's a hybrid shape and it's a good hybrid shape. It's exactly 16.2 by 7.8.

[00:28:57] So you have a little bit more forgiveness. Sorry, I'm fixing this stupid. Uh, I did not do a very good job taping my finishing tape on this, but, um, really, really forgiving shape. This is kind of like the CR series, the J2 CR long handle. Yeah. Um, just slightly chops the top corners off barely, but it's not really noticeable. Um, and it has a pretty intriguing stock twist weight.

[00:29:25] Swing weight is a one 11 and the twist weight is 7.2 stock. So there's a paddle you pick up and you play. You don't really need to add anything to it to optimize it. It is min maxed to the max. And, um, I think it's a great paddle. I think it played well. I only got to play two games with it, but, uh, it struck me to be very similar to a Luz Inferno, but in a hybrid shape.

[00:29:54] And I want to, I don't want to say the price incorrectly, but I believe it's 189 before code, but, um, standard peel ply, standard peel ply. It's a little bit grittier. Um, and I'll tell you right now, one 60 before code. What do you know about the company? I never heard of it before. I don't know anything about this company, but I do know that they donate a lot of, uh, not a lot, but they do donate a portion of their proceeds to nonprofits.

[00:30:22] So this one's the firefighter name first. Yeah. Firefight pro. They donate this to, um, a, what is I have it right here? Yes. The fire department coffee foundation, which is 501 C three supporting firefighters sick or injured on the job, which is pretty cool. You just reminded me of something. Um, and then they're also, they told me that they're going to have another, uh, version of this, but it's for a different, um, a different, uh, portion of their proceeds will

[00:30:51] be supporting another nonprofit, which is pretty cool. So, uh, one 60 before code, I'm pretty sure code pursuit brings 10% off. So what's that one 46 or one 44 44. Yeah. Um, it's on pre-order right now and I think they shipped them out. Let's see if they put where they ship them out. How soon they ship them though. Uh, yeah. Mid to late August. So if you pre-order it now, should be shipped out in the next week or so.

[00:31:17] Um, cool paddle, definitely a stable hybrid, very maneuverable, good feel, crisp. It's a crisper feeling MPP paddle, uh, definitely in the stiff hollow realm and, uh, it's got some thonk to it. So one that I'll continue playing with because I think it's a smart, smart shape, smart paddle. It's one of the first paddles I've played within a long time that I'm like, yep, I don't need to add any weight to this. It'll be just fine. Right. As it is.

[00:31:44] Um, that's definitely something that a lot of players I think will enjoy because there are a lot of people who play stock battles. All right. Um, I don't really have any thoughts on this paddle, but I want to talk quickly about the Boulder Opal. Uh, I played five points on this. Uh, don't want to really go too far into it, but it is a very unique feeling paddle. And this is one I'll, I'll continue to play with.

[00:32:14] I have a tournament this week, so I won't play with it this week, but next week I'll, I'll get some more testing in it, but 14 millimeter Opal, uh, shape with an updated core. And I think they added a couple of other tweaks to the edge foam, if I'm not mistaken, but, um, and the grit is new. They call it shark skin. It's aluminum oxide. It's not diamond tough. It's something different. It's not super gritty.

[00:32:38] Um, I'd say it's very legal USAP grit and, uh, it doesn't feel crazy to me. It doesn't feel, but this paddle. It's supposed to be durable and have more like coefficient of friction, like grab. This paddle feels very unique and, uh, it sounds pretty crazy too. So very dwelling. It looks awesome. Looks super badass. Yeah. Um, very impressed with the, uh, design on the Opals and the, uh, Corals.

[00:33:07] So 6-Era always has pretty good looking paddles. Shout out to Tyler. Yeah. That's Tyler. All right. I think that's all we got for paddles. Um, okay. Quick bonus segment then. Mm-hmm. Because you reminded me of something. This would be really quick, but, um, this was announced last week. We just didn't pod last week. The UPAA, it's official. They are actually doing, um, 501c6 non-profit. Oh, baby.

[00:33:34] Like you have to go through this whole process where you have to get approval to then file. Well, they got their approval. It's official. They filed. They're becoming a non-profit. It's like, uh, there's a blog about it and everything. So this is something that they said they were going to do a long time ago. Um, and yeah, they're following through. Nice. So UPAA, um, and part of this, and you see this in the thing, for, in order for them to become that, they have to, uh, reveal all financials basically for them to become a non-profit.

[00:34:03] So they're cutting all financial ties with the UPAA as an umbrella, like, I mean the UPA, sorry. So PPA, MLP, which is what everybody's complained about them. They're like, if they're taking money from the PPA and MLP and this larger umbrella, like, how could they be honest? Yeah. Well, so there's not going to be any funds for that, from that anymore. All their finances will be transparent because it's a non-profit. Um, and they announced with this, now they're going to be a non-profit that they are looking

[00:34:31] to, uh, do a better job and get into regulating amateur play and worldwide play. Nice. The reason why that matters is because... That last one's pretty important. Yeah. If we ever want pickleball to be in the Olympics, you have to have a unified non-profit governing body in the world, basically. So we don't have that right now. Um, but I, sounds like, you know, UPAA is in a way throwing their name into the hat and it could become that. Mm-hmm.

[00:35:00] Um, pretty ambitious. And, you know, I was a big UPAA doubter for a long time. Yeah. I mean, a lot of us were, and we called them out many times on the podcast, but then almost everybody was. I think on the flip side of the coin, we've also called out every time they've done something well. Yeah. And they followed through with what they've said. And they had a lot of big promises in the beginning, this being one of them, the non-profit and we were all like, yeah, sure. Yeah. You're in it for the money. Sure, guys. They keep following through. Yeah. So credit where credit's due. Um, that's cool to see. Okay.

[00:35:28] I have, uh, I'm not somebody who's as deep into it as you are, but I've been pretty impressed with how Jason Aspys has handled, you know, the testing and regulations. I think he's done a pretty good job. He's also been very forthcoming with communication, which is a breath of fresh air, you know, when you compare it to other, you know, other people. Um, so yeah, I think that's awesome for them. Definitely a very lofty and ambitious goal to try to be a worldwide, uh, governing body,

[00:35:58] but one that needs to happen. And they may not see it, what I said, like, oh, they're going to be the, the one big dog to get us to the Olympics. But I'm just saying, that's what I'm reading into it between the lines. Uh, that it could happen that way. So important play for sure. Um, yeah, good for them. Glad they finally got that done. Cause that is, you know, something that was always looming over them, uh, as a, you know, a place to criticize. So, all right. All right. You want to move on your segment?

[00:36:25] You're ready to, uh, buy, borrow, burn some stuff. I'm ready, baby. All right. So here's the premise. I'm going to give you three options. You're going to choose one to buy, one to borrow, one to burn. Basically, you're just rating these things one to three, but yeah, you know, we're going to make it more fun. Yeah, it's more fun. All right. So the last time we did a specific paddle model. So this time I got some different stuff for you. Uh, can't wait. And these, a lot of these I can't answer. I'm going to put you on the spot. So, oh boy, you can't answer these.

[00:36:55] Uh, they must be juicy. Maybe I shouldn't. No, no, no, not that bad. But all right. This first one's kind of easy. Now, think of this in the context of what would you like to have in your life with easy access to? Here are your three options. Okay. Uh, a good indoor facility, but it costs you a decent membership, but you get all the things that come along with that. Indoor courts, uh, programming, you know, tournaments, whatever, open plays. Okay.

[00:37:22] Uh, a free outdoor park, but it's really nice, has lights and has a good community. Okay. Okay. Or a private court. You don't own this private court. Um, but it's super nice. It's indoor. It's AC. It's the best court you can imagine, but you only get to play there when you're playing with the person who owns it. So you can't just have unlimited access or as much access as you would have to these other. All right. Those are your three choices. Oh, that's a tough one. All right. Damn.

[00:37:52] So you can only play with the owner of the court. Yeah. It's like a super nice private court, but you know, he's got to invite you out or, you know, maybe you could ask him, Hey, you want to play, but he's going to have to be there. It's his house. You know, I'm gonna burn that just because that, that holds me back in a, in a way. Um, as much as I would love to buy that, that would be my number one. Um, if, uh, you know, certain things were different. Yes. Yeah. But that's too easy. So I didn't way too easy. Yeah.

[00:38:18] So I'm going to, I'm going to burn that one just because that takes away the ease of use. Um, okay. All right. So this is where it gets really tricky because you never described the indoor facility as having a great community or, uh, you know, being. No, just think of a standard, nice indoor facility, like a pickler that has programming, has good, deep, good courts, good lighting, but it costs you. 200 bucks a month or something. Yeah.

[00:38:46] I'll go ahead and borrow the outdoor courts, even though I think outdoor pickleball is and they're free, the most social and they're free and they're kind of like the, I guess they're the way that people get into it and start, you know, socializing and taking it more seriously and having fun. I think that's awesome. But I would prefer to play indoor just because I never have to worry about the elements. Um, hate playing in the wind.

[00:39:16] God, I hate playing in the wind, dude. Sucks. Uh, cold, hot doesn't bother me. Um, you know, if it's insanely hot, obviously I'm gonna be cooked after, you know, an hour and a half or two, but, um, hate playing in the wind. So I'm going to go buy the indoor facility, borrow the perfect public courts and then burn the private court. That's a good one. I like that. What do you, what do you choose? You can definitely answer that one. Yeah, I can answer this one.

[00:39:47] Um, I would, and my situation is different for you guys who don't know. I have no indoor facility around here. So I play pretty much strictly at really nice outdoor courts that are either free or very cheap, put it that way. And that's where our community, we basically set up private games there and we have like a group that we play with pretty regularly. Um, so I'm playing at like free outdoor courts all the time. Uh, I only get to play at facilities whenever I travel.

[00:40:16] Hmm. For me. Oof. Well, and I also play at private courts too. So I have experience with all these. Yeah. Um, I think I'm burning the free outdoor park at this point. Damn. That's crazy. Yeah. That's wild. And then, uh, yeah, I mean like I want more specific games with specific people. I'm not really into like this random social open play anymore as, as, uh, snobby as that sounds. Yeah.

[00:40:44] Um, I would borrow a friend having a super nice private court cause it is nice to do that every now and then. It is. And then, yeah, I would buy a nice indoor facility. I wish we had one here. I'd pay the membership. Yeah. You know, I think it's a worth, uh, worthy investment in my opinion. Yeah. Um, so kind of different, but the same. Okay. So now onto the, the spicy ones. Okay. Like I said, this is basically just ranking one to three, but it's spicier because you have to say burn on one of them.

[00:41:13] So it's basically ranking one, two and 100. Um, all right. So I'm gonna give you some brands. Oh gosh. Gosh, this is brands as a whole. All right. Think of it as investing in these brands. What brand do you like the most? Whatever. Okay. Here's your first three. 11, 624. Honolulu, the pickleball company. Luz. All right. Um, so I, if, if I'm an investor, is that what you said?

[00:41:40] Or, I mean, you can think about a lot of ways, which one would you invest in? Which one of you like had to say, oh, I'm buying this one. I only can ever play with this paddle or brands paddles and use their stuff. And then except for borrow, you know, I could play with this other brand stuff every now and then burn. You can never touch any of their stuff. This is hard. It's probably a better way to think about it. Yeah. Okay. So I'd have to just completely throw out, uh, one of these companies. Wow. Yeah. They're all good. Um, this is a tough question. I'm going to burn.

[00:42:12] I'm going to burn Luz. I got to burn Luz. Just because I think the other two have a better overall, um, you know, lineup. And you got to think about the future too. Like what do you, who, which company do you try to have good paddles going forward? I mean, Luz could very easily make some insanely good paddles. Um, they have a lot of resources and, uh, whoo. Yeah.

[00:42:38] I'm a still just, this hurts, but I'm a burn Luz. I'm going to burn it. All right. I'm going to borrow. I'm a borrow Honolulu. Okay. And I'm a buy 11, 624 because I think 11, 624 has nailed everything. Almost. Yeah. Since day one, basically. Almost since day one. They have not really set a foot wrong.

[00:43:06] Um, and that's not to say that Honolulu has, but I think that, uh, David is a little more calculated with his releases. And jam, uh, at Honolulu does a little more, you know, kind of goes with the flow. Experimenting. He's, he's Hawaiian dude. He's, of course he's going to roll with it. But, um, yeah, I think the gear is also better at 11, 624. I think hex grit. Bags, clothes, all that. Yes. Yeah.

[00:43:36] They have more, they have more offerings as well. I think I prefer hex grit over blue grit, um, just because it seems to be almost perfectly consistent. I don't think I've ever seen one single hex grit paddle look 1% different than the, you know, another one, which is, that's gotta be a very challenging thing to do to have consistent grit textures on every single paddle.

[00:44:04] Um, there's people who just do raw peel pie textures who can't even get it. Get it consistent. Like manufacturing consistency is it? Yeah. Yeah. That's a challenge. Very impressive. That's a tough one. Yeah. So I'm going to go buy 11, 624, borrow Honolulu. And unfortunately, Luz, I'm sorry, I'm going to burn you, but that could change. That could change. Yeah. Great question. Hot topic. What are y'all, what do y'all choose? Let us know what y'all choose. I was going to say, you guys can play along with us. I'm curious to the answers.

[00:44:32] So basically comment the way you, cause I got, I got a few more. I got four more. Okay. Yes. And I tried to group these brands. Uh, you know, decently together. Friday. Okay. Friday pickleball enhance. RPM. Oof. Oh, all right. Uh, another hard answer. I'm going to, I'm going to shock you on this. I'm going to shock you on this. Oh, you are? Yeah. Let's hear it.

[00:45:01] I'm going to burn Friday pickleball. I'm going to burn them. Um, love the look of their paddles. Um, they're just not my favorite compared to those two other two. I think the other two are slightly better overall performers in my opinion. Um, okay. But we're talking like if we're rating these on a scale, we're talking like a 1%, 2% drop

[00:45:31] in overall performance in my opinion. Okay. So, this is pretty, probably going to be pretty obvious now. I'm going to borrow RPM and then I'm going to buy enhance because. Fair enough. Enhance be cooking. They're cooking a lot of things up. And they seem to be extremely, uh, motivated to be a brand that is big. Impress me. Yeah. So does Friday. For sure.

[00:45:59] Friday has been a brand that's impressive as well. I mean, literally we were talking about most improved brands and Friday enhance were like at the top of us. And those two, the reason why I grouped them together, it's like they both kind of started out as content first brands. Yeah. But have then successfully transitioned that to performance equipment. Which is pretty impressive. Yeah. Um, okay. All right. Next one. Selkirk, Yola, Franklin, the big dogs. Basically. Oh gosh.

[00:46:29] See, here's my thing. It would be such an easy thing to say burn Yola because they've released the same paddle four times in a row. However. Look at Franklin. What has Franklin released? Exactly. They've just released the Yola. Exactly. However, Franklin, although they make the C45 is a great paddle. I definitely think the Yola Pro 4 and Pro 5 perform better than it. I think so too. Overall, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't mean it's better for everybody.

[00:46:58] I think the C45 is better for some people. Franklin has shoes. Oh, Yola has shoes now too? I love, love the Franklin logo too. I don't know why. I don't know why. I love that logo. Franklin's got really good bags. God. I'm just playing devil's advocate here. Yeah, yeah. I mean, but Yola has good quality gear as well. Yola's got some good stuff too. And obviously Selkirk has elite quality gear. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's why I grouped these together. Burn.

[00:47:27] I'm just going to go for it. Burn Franklin. Okay. Maybe they'll change that. I think, although Yola has been very adamantly against making major innovations, I think they have the capability of it though. I think we're going to see something sooner than later. Yes. I won't reveal anything. Yeah, I know too. Okay.

[00:47:51] They have the capabilities to create industry changing technology. They've shown that, you know. So I'm going to borrow them and I'm going to buy Selkirk. I think Selkirk has... Because they actually have changed the industry. Selkirk is... I mean, so has Yola. Yeah. They're just the mainstay of pickleball. And I think if they continue this trajectory with their Boomstick, even though it wasn't

[00:48:20] very high on the Omni, I still think it's a high performing paddle. If they continue making paddles that perform as good as the best paddles out there on the market, they're almost unstoppable at that point. And all their stuff is good. And they innovate. Their shoes are good. And they've gotten better and better and better. Their bags are good. Yeah. Their clothes are really good. Yep. Yeah. I think easy to sell Kirk on that one. Yeah. But I was curious what you say between Yola and Franklin. Yeah. Are you ready for the next one? Uh-huh.

[00:48:52] Spartus, Pickleball Apes, Neonic. Ooh. All right. Haven't played with the Zen yet. So that could change my answer dramatically. All of these lovely brands. Yeah, I know. Pickleball Apes has had some banger of paddles. Neonic's had a couple of really good paddles. Spartus has obviously had quite a few really good paddles.

[00:49:18] Um, Neonic best budget bag on the market by a long shot. Yeah. This is probably the hardest one. Shit. Um, it's gotta be Burn Pickleball Apes just because they don't have as, uh, deep of a, you know, apparel and, you know, uh, other product offerings. So I'm gonna unfortunately burn Apes.

[00:49:42] I'm gonna borrow Neonic and I'm gonna buy Spartus because I think that Neonic has a really great bag and a really solid paddle. I think Spartus has two elite paddles. I wonder if we revisit this. Yeah. Oh yeah. These will change. Drastically. You know, so the Neonic FLX is coming up with their like Neo Grit. Let's say it's amazing and the Grits. Yeah. Great.

[00:50:11] It's a straight buy. Apes, Zen. The Zen comes out with better grit and then you try it. It's like shit. You know? Yeah. Spartus might be falling off quick. Might have been the fastest number one of the month. Ready? This is, uh, we're going back to kind of bigger brands. These are pro sponsoring brands. Uh, paddle tech, carbon as in CRBN, proton. Ooh. All right.

[00:50:41] Um, this one's easy for me. I'm gonna burn paddle tech, not because they're a bad company or they make bad paddles. They actually make perfectly solid paddles, but there's just nothing spectacular or nothing that separates themselves from anything other than the industry. Um, they're more safe, I would call them. Uh, then I would go borrow proton because I do think proton actually puts a lot of effort in their design.

[00:51:10] Nanotech going on. The nanotech. Yeah. That's extremely, uh, an extremely promising, you know, piece of technology. I think they do have unique paddles. Um, and then third one was remind me. I'm sorry. I just lost it. Carbon. Yeah. I'm going to buy carbon.

[00:51:27] I think carbon is, even though I gave the barrage F tier, even though I said the waves was pretty poor, they are one of the very few companies, them, Honolulu, 11624, and a handful of others that every time they make a paddle, they're legitimately trying to change, you know, change things to maximize performance and innovation, which is a thing that you have to tip their hat to.

[00:52:21] So, yes. believe y'all gave us f tier i'm like bro f tier 2025 yeah f tier 2025 2026 is like a b tier 2025 maybe even a tier yeah so don't get your panties in a bunch um it's just been a tough year had to be hypercritical all right yeah uh i think it's time that's that's the last one right here for makers great year for consumers that was the last one honestly for the most part we kind of agreed

[00:52:50] i would have some disagreements but oh boy but you'll never know just never said anything all right well uh we're gonna move on through the segments yeah let's blast through it dude i love when you blast through all right here we go net gains i'm finally admitting that uh reviewing paddles hurts my game you know i'm not one who likes to make excuses actually i hate making excuses um

[00:53:15] um they're fun to make but uh they're not they're not a good look and i'll i'll go play i'll test four paddles i'll play with my you know four five plus group and some days i'll play great some days i'll play awful and you know people always say the same thing to me every time i'm playing bad they're like you just i mean how do you expect to play well if you're switching paddles

[00:53:39] every time i'm like guys i'm a reviewer i'm past that you know switching paddles that ain't nothing to me no i can i can play with a soft dense paddle and then go to a stiff hollow power paddle no problem wrong i've been lying to myself this whole time and it hurts to admit because like i said i don't want to be the person who's over there making excuses and you know playing bad in the advanced group and being like i'm sorry guys i just i have to test these paddles and um that's why i'm playing bad you

[00:54:08] know um i like to kind of take the blame uh and say it's because i just suck today but it it does for sure changing paddles for sure is affecting my game so i'm at this point where i'm like do i review paddles more paddles uh and not worry about progressing and getting better quicker

[00:54:33] or do i review less paddles and focus more on my development as a player and i have an idea it's a hard hard thing to do go ahead i think you should pick your sessions yeah like for instance i have a session with just four guys you know and it's a private game and we play you know best out of three everybody every pretty much every week sometimes people rotate in but those are the games that i think

[00:55:03] all of us there are agreeing to be competitive and want to like get better and want to win i don't test battles during that session ever any week i just pick whatever is my quote unquote main or i'm playing best with that's what i play with um however then sometimes i'll go out to like open play which is kind of grouped open play so it's like 40 plus but i mean whatever those days i'm just gonna test paddles and have fun yeah um and then i have personally i do at least

[00:55:32] two ball machine sessions per week now for me it's a little different because a lot of times i'm testing prototypes like this is for work so i gotta make it happen quick right um but i use that time on the ball machine let's say a new paddle's come let's just use the jellybean 2 as an example so i have all these new paddles in my hand let's just say it's the jellybean 2 and it's the unmarked two very different paddles on the ball machine i'm gonna hit them right and i'm gonna

[00:55:59] get a general sense of them whether or not i'm hitting well or not i understand now oh the jellybean 2 actually feels like it would be in a similar class with like the fc plus and the duo and this thing and then this seems like it might be in a similar class similar class with like let's say the sparta spitfire in the q2 or whatever which are valuable comparisons for the people for the viewers so then when i go play at these open play or group play sessions where i am testing paddles i only take

[00:56:28] one group with me yeah i'm playing my soft dense all court paddles or whatever today i'm testing power paddles i never mix yeah you can't you just can't do it if you try to go straight from jellybean 2 to unmarked or whatever it's just crazy it's hard to it's hard to get a feel for either of them because you can't get dialed in so i think that's what you should do i think you should just be a little bit more intentional with your testing yeah first off pick a group that you're like this isn't my testing group this is my improvement group and then beyond that try to find a way to

[00:56:56] group paddles and test them within comparison groups yeah you know yeah that's a good thought i definitely need to make a change because uh yeah it's not i think the most important thing is what you said last is grouping them in a specific playing category you know a power paddle that's you know stiffer and hollower only play with those types of paddles for a session then the next session is the all

[00:57:23] court paddles that are softer and dense or you know whatever it is try not to right blend feels because oh my god it is hard it is really hard like thirds and resets are near impossible when you jump from a totally different feel like all court paddle to a power paddle it's yeah it's crazy to dial that in but as long as you stay within a certain neighborhood for a whole session you might not be perfectly dialed in but it's enough you get better comparisons yeah and then of course if you have to go on to do

[00:57:50] a full video review of a specific paddle that's when it's more valuable to then take it a step beyond that and then do whatever other testing and other comparisons but for your like actual play comparisons that's what i think you should do i mean you start grouping grouping wifey knows best gosh thanks for therapy session yep all right well that's all i really got for net gains um it's just been i've

[00:58:15] been avoiding this topic for a very long time even i've so funny i know justin has definitely told me multiple times that and i'd be like no dude i'm fine i'm fine well yeah we've talked about this it's like we've talked about do you think we would be solidly at four or five if we had like just picked the paddle stuck with it and focused on improvement yeah which i can't really do because it's my like livelihood neither can you really yeah uh yeah uh and yeah it would probably make

[00:58:43] us better but there's more to it than just that yes yeah it's funny because you call me after playing pretty often and i never know if i'm gonna pick up the phone and then you're gonna be like i just played like dog shit or if i pick up the phone and you're like i just got done playing i was playing so good i didn't miss a single day just never know it's gonna be one or the other though it's never you're never calling me like oh it was all right day that's okay that's what okay yeah

[00:59:13] yep i usually am uh i don't really usually have like a middle of the road day it's usually like one or the other i'm hot or cold baby hot or cold all right well you're gonna move on to everybody's favorite segment yeah let's do it new week new main sponsored by bode performance if you need sleeves it's sleeve season it's getting getting close to not being sleeve i wore some this morning

[00:59:38] yeah oh boy yeah right bro it's leaving 105 today in in other other parts of the world okay uh if you need tungsten tape you need bags you need over grips you can use code pursuit to save 15 at checkout when purchasing anything at Bodhi Performance.com um man just a big bode guy i i tried a paddle the other day without the bode grip on i was like i've been so dialed into that uh them bode grips i can't even

[01:00:06] can't even look at another grip without being like oh this feels so different um yeah true but yeah all right that's my bode story for the week you got anything no all right dude what's your new new week leave this new man no man look new week i'm fucking goldilocks and the three bears but really goldilocks and the two bears i'm i'm stuck i don't know if it's new week no main or new week

[01:00:35] two mains but look i've been playing a lot with the ultra jellybean 2 from 11 6 24 and still the j2 cr and i'd like i said i just feel like goldilocks and the two bears yeah i i want give me right between these two that's what i was about to say those are so almost polar opposites i know if

[01:00:59] there was a perfect blend in the middle that's what would be my ideal um and it's funny because like circumstances change too um say i'm playing indoors uh with a fresh lifetime i'm gonna play better with a jellybean 2 yeah but it's also hot it's told you it's 105 today so if i'm playing with a slightly more used lifetime and we're playing outside i'm gonna play better with the jgcr because this is just too soft at that point um so i've been going back and forth it's not the

[01:01:27] best for my game i really both of these are exceptional performers i'll go that way they're both great paddles yep um but my actual main in this i can't even like i feel like i can't use this for this segment but for what i've been playing with for months is a prototype i told you guys this before and fingers crossed hopefully it'll pass testing this week and then maybe we can start talking about it soon but um that's been like my legitimate my legitimate main yeah um but i can't

[01:01:56] talk about it yet but yeah so i guess it's like new week two mains but here i am you know poor just too hot poor just too cold you know whatever so um real quick i'll say playing with the uh ultra has had um an unintended side effect this actually helped my game uh this handle as you guys know is not my favorite so i i have been hitting more twoies uh dinks and drops and counters

[01:02:27] and because it isn't particularly comfortable i started without even realizing it putting two fingers on the back of the face and then but then my wedding ring is like really uncomfortable i don't know it just like wax against this and pinches my finger so nowadays i take my wedding ring off to play and i'm like a full two finger on the face guy but i'm just saying like even with a longer handle i've moved to a two finger on the face guy it's actually made my uh two we dink a lot better

[01:02:56] so you're telling me you go to the courts and people think you're single oh i get hit on all the time by all the old dudes at the courts uh but yeah so anyway a little update on my game i'm a two finger guy now ah dude gotta go to um at least but seriously that's hey it's made me less picky about handles now yes oh yeah it'll be a little bit shorter and it's not it's not uncomfortable anymore as long as i remember to take my ring off which sometimes i don't and then i hit a

[01:03:23] few balls i'm like ah and i'll have to go throw it in my bag i'm uh one hand up for dinking anytime i have like enough time i'm one hand anytime i don't have enough time it's it's whatever i can get which is usually two on the back yeah um i feel like counters in a weird way sometimes i'll accidentally just grab the paddle like yes yeah a whole hand i just like slap it yep which is weird but kind of feels good sometimes yeah gives you a little more stability behind the ball or the behind

[01:03:49] the paddle so i don't know new week i wish i had a main yeah i don't know i'm not i'm not content but we have all these paddles at our disposal and we can't pick a freaking main dude the problem the problem's right here you know i mean i could honestly lock in with either of them and probably play better than switching back and forth but they're both exceptional they're both very good performance yeah so hey bro the pot calling the kettle black right now yeah all right

[01:04:18] uh same shoes same bag uh back to the cg2s got a new colorway so you're done with the 997s 6s v7 i still have them i started playing tennis a little bit again i think i'm gonna wear those for tennis they're like more cushiony tennis just kidding i literally don't care uh i have no uh qualms with tennis man you gotta play you gotta play your tennis i haven't played i've played tennis

[01:04:48] one time and the i think i've talked about this on the podcast but the fact that the ball bounces over my head from just like a normal stroke is so dumb the adjustment period when i played for the first time was crazy because first off i'm way too close to it like my arm i kept getting jammed up because i need to like be way you need it so far away from the ball oh yeah also you need to let it bounce

[01:05:13] 30 feet in front of you yeah it's gonna bounce way up i kept like running up to it and then next thing you know it's bouncing at my face i'm like oh god you know oh how am i hitting i'm hitting four hands from way up here all the time which is really difficult to do for me oh yeah um so then i was trying to change my grip it's it's all weird i don't know but what is your rating uh surf came back oh i don't know like a three five okay that's pretty good yeah like over the course of the

[01:05:40] first session by the end of it i was like okay i only was like double faulting once or zero times a game dang and i have like a little topspin serve and a kind of a flatter serve so the serve came back you do it you do a drop serve right yeah underhand yeah um and uh whenever i used to play tennis i hit a one-handed backhand always but now all of a sudden from playing pickleball i don't know what happened but now i hit a two-handed backhand in tennis and it's better than my one-handed backhand

[01:06:09] ever was dang so it's like so stupid it's better than my forehand right now tennis players do some two-handed backhand dinking and your two-handed backhand will be elite that's another reason why i started putting uh two fingers up because a tennis racket the handle's so long so you actually have your hand down here and your second hand isn't even touching it's like up here you know and there's like some space interesting all right i was wondering that space between it so that made me want to

[01:06:36] like have my hand closer to the hitting surface which is why i went to two fingers that may have had influenced what happened in pickleball it kind of happened naturally but it happened after i was playing tennis so made me want to have my hand higher up yeah like wow your hands don't even touch it's that big so huge wow uh lucky all right all right sorry rambled that's okay man well this is

[01:06:59] the the pp tennis pod all right new week same main i'm just dialed with a spitfire this is the paddle that i could pick up and go play and be totally fine i think i put 20 games on it this week so we're at probably i think we've probably eclipsed 100 and um one side is a little more worn down than the other

[01:07:22] just slightly so i imagine that's my forehand side um still pretty gritty though still pretty gritty i mean the the edges are just slightly more gritty than the uh which is this is have they said what this is this is i imagine this is a um infused peel ply right yeah yeah like embedded grits and yeah um so that makes sense it seems like it's just getting to a point where it wears down

[01:07:51] those little um pieces are exposed and they're not being worn down anymore so seems like after you know 100 games you're getting to a point where you're not going to see any degradation spin still great though on the court for you i have no issues with it um i would say it's as good as a usap legal grit battle um don't really notice any any problems my two-handed backhand dink still

[01:08:19] um so they're zipping dude i i was horrible with them on saturday that was one of the things that made me so sad that's usually like the kind of the offense generator for my uh my game so i was popping them up and they were everybody was taking them out the air i was like what is going on all right um i am currently playing with the tornillo three shoes just because i started to wear through

[01:08:46] my coco's have another pair coming in but they're a half size bigger so i'm not sure how they're so i'm trying to get used to these just in case they're not not as good as uh you know the the typical size that i get and then still rocking the uh bodi bag so not much has changed all right

[01:09:07] ready to nerd it up all right all aboard let's go train to nerd town take us down the rabbit hole all right so um let me talk about like a little experiment i did and weight distribution when i say weight distribution i mean like basically customizing uh weight this is kind of came from

[01:09:32] tennis racket customization told you i've been playing tennis so these aren't new topics but i haven't heard anyone talk about them in pickleball and i started thinking about it from an engineering perspective and i was like you know what i want to run an experiment so this is where it started the concept is called polarization and this is something that people will know if you're from tennis but polarization basically talks about the weight distribution of a paddle and i'll use this as an

[01:09:58] example if you have more weight towards the ends the tip and the bottom basically like the poles then this is more polarized if more of the weight distribution is in the around the center of mass otherwise known as a balance point then it's depolarized basically and there are people online who talk about polarization for tennis rackets as if it's a good thing and a lot of the pros

[01:10:24] do it that way um a common place for people to add weights on a tennis racket is around the top of the hoop like 12 o'clock then they will add weight to the handle or inside the butt cap in order to bring the balance back down and now you have a really polarized setup that is more popular um and more of what the pros like i would say in tennis so i was like man how does this work in pickleball so here's my

[01:10:49] experiment i took two prototypes which are identical builds they're identical weights and i took the balance point of them um which was the same on both of them and then i made a polarized setup and a depolarized setup so for this one the balance points right here um this is my depolarized setup and i have five grams of weight centered on the balance point so that's on each side so of course the stats after this the balance point did not change because i only added weight right there

[01:11:19] um the swing weight went up to 118 which is pretty comfortable for me it's kind of my normal and of course the static weight went up right and the twist weight went up as well quite a bit it was and now it's like 7.4 which is higher than usual so then i decided okay i'm going to make a polarized setup that matches this one so i took another paddle and i added weight to the top corners i mean i could have went 12 o'clock but that's kind of useless in pit bull paddles you know so i just and this is actually

[01:11:48] stacked so i added it basically as high as i can on both sides until i got to 118 swing weight so i matched the swing weight and then once i got there i tested the balance point of course it moved way up so i added weight on the butt cap there's a flick weight here and then there's some tungsten tape on the bottom to pull the balance point back down so now we have these two paddles that have the same exact swing weight the same core the same exact balance point um and the static weight is only two

[01:12:17] and a half grams off between these two so they're pretty much the same weight honestly it's not that it's like 8.25 to 8.3 ounces it's like barely different i don't really notice it um the thing that is different of course is the twist weight this one had like a 7.1 twist weight and this one had like a 7.4 twist weight but i wanted to test these um in specific scenarios because when you dig deeper into polarizing and making a polarized versus depolarized setup now we're going to talk about

[01:12:45] some other metrics that are pretty useless but um another one that people talk about in tennis is recoil weight and you can measure this if you have the static weight the balance point the swing weight of uh and the pivot point of a paddle and recoil weight um means it's how much the paddle resists recoiling like when you hit a ball like imagine plow through right and you come through and you're

[01:13:11] hitting this uh pickleball how much is the paddle resisting bouncing back when the ball hits so if it has a heavier recoil weight it's going to have more of what we call plow through right if it has a lower recoil weight it's more likely to be pushed around by the ball which we've all felt yeah oh yeah um and another thing that is very similar another metric that you can uh measure here is effective mass you can measure effective mass at different points of the paddle with you know mathematical

[01:13:39] equations based on all these things like you probably want to be able to see but there's a little dot here i i hit some balls and i basically looked at my dust pattern which would be kind of different for everybody and i realized that i hit on this hybrid shape most hybrid shapes about three and three quarters inches from the top of the paddle that's like my normal uh pattern so i wanted to test the effective mass of this part of the paddle at contact when it's swinging with these two different setups

[01:14:10] um and i'll get into the numbers in a second and kind of what they explain but let me tell you my subjective experience first what i wanted to test with these obviously the twist weight's different so i didn't want to test about hitting horizontally off center we already know that the one with a higher twist weight is going to be more stable horizontally i wanted to test how do they feel different vertically how do they feel different to swing does the maneuverability feel different considering they're the same weight the same balance point the same swing weight

[01:14:36] um and how do they feel on different shots and it was interesting um kind of what you'd expect from a physics standpoint but the one i ended up liking was not what i expected let me guess so the you like the polarized version well that's your guess we'll see we'll see um so all that said is it was actually very interesting playing with these the back-to-back

[01:15:04] and there were clear shot types where each one to me this is my subjective feel felt better i will say as a general feel with the polarized setup it has weight in the butt cap weight on the top it felt almost slower to get swinging and slower to stop swinging but once you were in a swing it was more naturally flowing it felt like it flowed more right it was like more difficult to start a stroke but

[01:15:31] then it flowed really nicely whereas the depolarized setup um just felt like similar across the board it felt like the same amount of effort to start it as they continue it it didn't really follow through on its own in the same way it wasn't as whippy if you want to call it that um but it almost felt easier to start the swing it felt just more level the effort level of a stroke yeah um and so as

[01:15:55] expected with those type of things overheads serves drives felt much better with the polarized setup right because you have some wrist lag and once you get it swinging on a fast swing it really wants to follow through on its own which was actually quite nice on like putaways and stuff and things like that the inverse swings where you use basically no wrist or whip so resets blocks uh counters um i was

[01:16:24] having to tighten drive 70 mile an hour balls at me and just blocking them felt much better with the depolarized setup the where it's all the weights in the center this thing was like a brick wall but you're not moving your wrist you're not following through um however it didn't feel as natural for serves drives like roll type flicks from below the net things where you have to get the tip moving um but yeah so like i said that's kind of as expected and like so we'll come back to the numbers when you

[01:16:52] dig into these numbers it's pretty much what you would think the polarized setup has a higher effective mass the higher up on the face you go so there's more i tried to lock it together you're barely holding it together go ahead so the higher up the face you go the more plow through you get with the polarized setup so that's why it feels great on the serves the drives the overheads however the

[01:17:18] effective mass drops off significantly when you get closer to the center of the face and when i look back at my gameplay in slow motion i realized that i actually hit a lot of counters blocks and resets lower on the face and when i'm swinging i'm hitting higher on the face yep so that makes perfect sense this paddle feels better on the swinging shots the ones that you are whipping and following through whereas the polarized feels better when you're holding more of a static paddle angle um and also

[01:17:47] like i said i'm hitting the ball lower on those shots naturally more like the geometric center of the face so this has more effective mass there and the recoil weight same story it's higher on the polarized setup so you get more plow through and lower on this kind of brick wall type setup even though it's very stable if you hit near the tip it does feel like it you know like pushes it out of the way especially when you're like reaching in and you barely get a dink you feel like oh there was like no stability there

[01:18:17] um so for the maneuverability this is where i thought it was kind of interesting and immediately popped in my head like a perfect example they feel equally maneuverable however the polarized setup so the one with the weight at the top and the bottom felt more difficult to time i was miss hitting more because it was harder to time that whip it wanted to whip but it was harder to time

[01:18:40] um and so they didn't feel faster or slower but i will say me personally i was miss hitting more because of timing and i probably could adjust to that but just going back and forth that's what i was feeling and in my head the the perfect kind of comparison um of two pros is hayden patrick and uh patrick quinn and ben johns if you look at their setups hayden actually has a very polarized setup he adds weight to the top of his paddle but he has a hezacore so he has a super heavy handle weight at the

[01:19:08] top that dude is wristy he's whippy everything is like all his serves is everything it's so wristy and whippy right and he's really good and his timing is like excellent then you look at ben johns um he's not wristy if you look at his strokes and slow-mo he like locks his wrist on a lot of stuff there's not a lot of wrist going on but people think oh well ben johns is famous for his backhand roll or flick look at it in slow-mo it's mostly all shoulder some elbow his wrist is like locked out so their setups i'm sure

[01:19:37] they just did it on based on what feels good for them but their setups reflect this perfectly ben is a very depolarized setup not a lot of wrist not a lot of like whip um versus hayden is a very polarized setup and he's very whippy and he has a lot of like timing to nail so i thought that was a super interesting now the one that i liked more you were wrong i actually ended up liking the depolarized one more the more you explain it i was like yeah it's going to be it's going to be

[01:20:07] the depolarized yeah as soon as you said timing i was like oh yeah yeah yeah and i'm actually not that wristy of a player either um except maybe i have a lot of wrist lag on serves but that's about it but that's fine like i can i can figure out how to serve it's like the most controlled shot like i mean you have control over it uh in the game however this did change the way i'm going to weight my paddles

[01:20:31] moving forward this learning about uh recoil weight and effective mass did change it so i told you i looked at my baldest pattern i also looked at some slow-mo footage and i realized i hit most of my shots basically three and a half to five inches from the top down of the paddle you know if i'm swinging i'm hitting higher on the face if i'm more like blocking or resetting a little lower and if you actually add weight and this is pretty intuitive we've already thought about this and people can

[01:21:00] naturally feel it if you add weight at the exact place like right across this band that's when you're going to get the most recoil weight and the most effective mass at contact so you're going to get the most stability people usually just think about stability horizontally as in twisting but there's vertical stability that happens as well yeah so that's we're going to get the most plow through the paddle is going to feel like it's not being pushed around by the ball regardless of the static weight if

[01:21:25] you add weight here so i think my setups from now on i'm going to add weight at the hitting band i'll call it for myself get it to a swing weight that i know i like which for me is probably 116 to 118 and i'll just add enough to get it there and then i'm going to add weight on the butt to bring the balance back down to a point that i like which is like 238 to 240 so that's going to be my setup from

[01:21:52] now on i'm gonna like i said i'll start there add it at my kind of recoil weight hitting band get to the swing weight i like measure the balance point say oh it needs to come down three four points put some weight on the butt just to get the balance point back and i think that's the kind of best of both worlds it's actually not super polarized but it's not completely depolarized either it's completely depolarized setup although this is popular i i definitely notice more deadness at the tip of

[01:22:18] the paddle which for me is volley dinks which i do a fair amount because i have long arms so i can't like sacrifice that and for anybody who's wondering the depolarization setup is virtually the same thing as a min max setup as well yeah if you want a min max swing weight twist weight it's basically four and eight yeah putting all your weight at four and eight um which does make a very horizontally stable paddle oh yeah really great for blocks and counters and resets and things where you're just like putting

[01:22:45] the paddle there it does suffer on uh shots where you have wrist lag and it suffers when you're reaching and hitting something near the the tip so anyway so there's a bunch more metrics and numbers that don't matter at all um but hopefully we learn something i did learn something that was that was good that was interesting i was expecting to i was expecting to uh hear a little more positive

[01:23:13] feedback from the polarized setup me too by the way yeah i was like oh this sounds interesting i was gonna like the polarized yeah i was like this could be this could be interesting maybe i was wrong about this setup but no i think but yeah funny enough i think what i landed on is something between those two i think i'm gonna start waiting my paddles at 10 and two more often and then whatever i need on the butt cap which probably won't be much to bring the balance back down i've been kind of almost all my setups have been like three and nine or just barely slightly above uh with some pad yeah i think

[01:23:42] i'm gonna go a little higher like 10 and two the opals just a little higher than the three and nine and then especially on hybrids on hybrids you know because when you look at elongated they already have more mass towards the top and you may not need to move the weight up that high and of course this is the type of thing that if you want to do this for yourself um recording yourself is great because you can actually see on different shots where you hit the face but also if you play somewhere with a dusty ball i had to consciously not wipe because i

[01:24:08] constantly wipe my face like between points so i never have ball dust but i did this for a couple sessions where i was like ah don't i left the ball dust so that i could measure my hitting patterns and then i also looked at it on slow-mo video but yeah if anybody wants to try it and you already kind of know the metrics you like uh it's i think that's the ideal way to customize is to add weight at the hitting band and then use butt cap weight or handle weight you can do it that way to bring the balance back down to your preferred um but everyone's hitting band it's going to be

[01:24:38] slightly different because different shapes people hit different places in the paddle yeah yeah that's good or you just throw and go you know throw it on and go no i'm just kidding uh definitely this is the this is for sure their town okay i will say you're a nerd and you you're here to optimize weight is the place is the one thing that i think a lot of people should spend time you know fooling around with and finding your preferred weight setup because when you do find it

[01:25:05] it is a game changer like legitimately yeah waiting up your paddle to optimize it for your playing is one of the smartest things you can do um it can take a paddle that you play well with to a paddle you play great with so definitely best case scenario just makes a paddle feel extremely natural and invisible to you yeah if you waited which is your preferences then you don't notice it which is great

[01:25:30] yeah that's the goal uh might make a video about a little more detail on what i just said so all right uh anything else before we sign off dude that's it that's it for the nerd town we man we did it we blabbered uh almost two episodes worth of blabbering we're an hour and 20 minutes that's our 30 minutes almost that's pretty normal actually we talk a lot we always be flirting you know all right well

[01:25:58] i think that's it uh this episode i think was great uh let us know what you picked for the buy borrow burn segment and uh if you have any questions or topics that y'all like for us to cover in future episodes be sure to drop those in the comment section below until the next one i'm lewis here with my co-host justin we'll see you guys peace