11/17 Back To Basics: Tourney Prep Day 1
Wow today was exhausting. After work I went to a kickboxing conditioning class for an hour doing drills on the heavy bag. Afterwards since I figured I was already at the gym, I decided to do a leg workout. I had dinner after and then went to play pickleball for another 2 hours. Originally I was only going to play for a little over an hour but our last game ended up taking a long time. The score was literally 10-10 at 10:30 PM before finally ending 12-14 at 11:00 PM. I’m really feeling it this morning with my legs being super sore but also with bruises on them.
It was my first time playing pickleball in a while and my confidence was pretty low today considering how poorly I’ve played in the previous few sessions. Since I potentially have a tournament coming up, I really wanted to focus on mechanics and go “back to the basics.” I wanted to dial in my technique and get myself comfortable again so I feel more confident about my play.
Things I wanted to focus on staying on my toes instead of being flat footed, staying low at the kitchen line with bent knees, always prepping for the ball to come back in hands battles, and overall making sure my drops and dinks were dialed in. Because of that I decided not to test out any new paddles this week but also on top of that, I wanted to search for a tournament paddle.
With the weather getting colder, I know it’s going to be tougher to get court time and find time to train so I ruled out any power paddles. I would have loved to use the B&B Loco but I know I won't have time to dial it in so today’s session was focused on paddles in the all court to low power category.
I was also unsure of the exact shape too because I didn’t know if I’d be okay hitting with an elongated paddle or if I needed additional stability from a hybrid/standard so I ended up bringing my large Vatic bag with lots of options. Here was the full list:
Chorus ShapeShifter EX/HX: These are going to be the softest paddles on the list. I ideally didn’t want to use these but these were both safe options that I always play well with. I’ve normally really enjoyed the HX shape more but I wanted to test out the elongated EX for a bit more aggression
Chorus SuperCourt EX/HX: If I could, I wanted to use this over the ShapeShifter. Previously I found these a bit too poppy for my game. But with the rise of power paddles in the game, I felt that I should adapt to having more firepower
Pickleball Apes Harmony X/V: Going in, the X was the paddle I have found myself playing the best with over the summer and it was the current front runner to be the tournament pick. Overall a solid paddle with a great feel and sweet spot. The V I brought just in case I was playing absolutely terrible today but didn’t feel I would realistically be testing this
Honolulu J6NF: This one is going to be a maybe, I enjoy the shape but was unsure if the pop/power would be too much. I considered the FC+ too but that I knew was going to be too soft feeling and I’ve always played better with the NF
Honolulu J2NF LH: In case I wasn’t vibing with the J6 shape and wanted a little bit more stability, I brought this as a backup.
Franklin Dynasty C45 Dynasty 14mm: I’ve always enjoyed the feel of the C45 series and wanted to see how I’d do with more time on the elongated 14. I prefer the 14 to the 16mm because I found the 16 to be a bit too dwelly so didn’t bring that one
SLK Era Elongated: A bit more firepower than the Chorus paddles that was also a maybe. I do enjoy this better than the 11Six24 Hurache as the shape is more to my liking and the impact feel is softer and easier for me to control
11Six24 Pegasus Alpha Pro: Another standard shape paddle but a more aggressive one than the Apes V. Also a maybe paddle that I ideally wouldn’t be bringing out today
I started off with the SuperCourt Ex and the Apes Harmony X. Between the two, the Harmony had a bit more firepower while the SuperCourt had a lighter feel. I felt the sweet spot better on the Harmony and felt more connected with it too so I dropped the SuperCourt EX after two games. I played pretty solid with the HX when I switched to it but on my dinks, especially my aggressive top spin ones, really benefited from the reach of an elongated paddle and I wanted to practice using more aggression in my game so I dropped both the SuperCourt paddles from the running as well as the Harmony V.
This also meant that I dropped the ShapeShifters as well without having used them. I felt I was playing better with the extra punch from the Harmonies and didn’t feel a need to use the ShapeShifters if I didn’t find the SuperCourts enough. Despite having not played for ~2 weeks, my play with the Harmony was significantly better than my previous 2-3 sessions and this gave me a confidence boost I was taking a step in the right direction.
Next up was the C45 Dynasty 14mm and the SLK Era. I still really enjoyed the ball feel of the C45 but felt it was just a touch too poppy. In addition, the sweet spot wasn’t great either, even with weight added. For someone that won’t be drilling or training too much, I really need a paddle with better forgiveness and a 14mm elongated really wasn’t going to be the right move for me. The SLK Era elongated actually pretty solid and I felt I did pretty decent with that. I felt I had a better sweetspot at the top of the paddle because of the higher balance and I could be a bit more aggressive but I wasn’t entirely sold on the ball feel. I kept this on the side along with the Harmony X and moved onto other paddles.
Moving on I decided to skip the Pegasus APP for today and just stick with longer shapes so I moved onto the the two HPC paddles, the J6NF and the J2NF LH. I started with the J6 at first and immediately noticed the added pop I was getting from my shots. Firepower felt higher overall compared to the Harmony X but the main thing I noticed was the improved stability and better sweet spot. For weight setup I did 3 inch strips at the 10 and 2 positions because the J6 has a lower SW at 117 so it can afford having weight in that area and because I wanted to raise the balance higher. While the J6 does offer more stability, compared to other elongated shapes it does have a slightly lower balance which is why I opted to add higher tape. Overall I played better with this than I thought I would and the power was in a manageable state. I thought I would pop my dinks up more and struggle with drops but surprisingly I played pretty solid. I hit a few points with the J2 LH but at this point I was pretty tuned into the J6 so I opted for a different session to do hybrids and widebodies.
So final 3 paddles: Harmony X, SLK Era Elongated, and the J6NF. The Harmony X felt like the safe choice. It has the lowest firepower compared to the other two so it was the safest option. The SLK Era was the one I placed at the bottom, I played well with it and I did like how it has a higher balance than the Harmony but I didn’t connect the best with the feel. Lastly the J6NF was the surprise entry that I enjoyed with the current weight setup. As of now the J6NF is going to be the front runner but I’ll continue testing in the weeks to come
