11/4: Core Pro 4G, Six Zero Opal, B&B Loco, Hudef Mage SCF-1, and More Charm THoughts

Well one week later of not playing or even hitting the Dinkmaster Pro and I played almost as bad as I did last week. It’s been tough to get out on the courts with all the travel I’ve been doing, plus needing to attend boxing/kickboxing lasses for my monthly membership but hopefully I’ll have more time the following weeks with travel finally starting to die down.

I’ve had the Core paddle for a few weeks now so figured it was time to take them for a paly session. It actually looks exactly like a Joola Agassi but it’s more similar to the Temu/Alibaba versions I’ve seen. Like the other knockoffs, it’s slightly shorter in length which is a shame since it doesn’t maximize all the allowable dimensions; it doesn’t compensate by being wider at all. First game was a bad 11-1 loss. Second game we started down 5-0 and then I thought okay I don’t often blame the paddle but I am really sucking so I switched to the Opal. BUT my partner decided to try out the Core and he proceeded to such as well. Ended up losing 11-0 smh.

Part of it is definitely me being rusty but also… this paddle is not great in stock form. It felt close to being an Agassi clone but the shorter dimensions are noticeable in affecting how it played. The sweet spot felt very bad where at times I thought I was hitting with a thinner 13mm paddle. I felt justified in my dislike for the paddle when my intern picked it up and immediately complained about it too. I’ll probably tape it up and use it on the Dinkmaster and maybe one more game but so far this feels like an inferior Agassi with less power, less forgiveness, and less overall performance.

Next up was the Charm-S so the hybrid shape of the Charm paddles. I had low expectations for this considering how I disliked the X shape last week but I actually thought this was a lot better. It didn’t have as much flex as the X and while it still lacked power, the sweet spot was noticeably better. Not just because we are comparing hybrid to elongated metrics but I felt that the shorter length gave less flex which also made the sweet spot better. This one I enjoyed and felt it was comparable to the Harmony S and I would take it over the Harmony due to the foam core. Looking forward to trying the V shape later

I had more time with the Opal though I didn’t get a chance to add any tape before I went to play. I do think when I do add weight I will enjoy it more. I don’t think the sweetspot is as small as people say but it’s definitely noticeable to not be as good as a DBD.