Have you been thinking about upgrading your current pickleball paddle but you're
not sure what to get or how to choose the best one?
Then you're going to want to stick around because we've got some tips for you.
Hey everybody, I'm CJ Johnson. Welcome to the Better Pickleball channel.
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Brandon Swanson recently joined me on one of this channels,
monthly YouTube lives. Now you may not recognize his name,
but he owns over 140 paddles and he's affectionately known as "the paddle geek."
He has some practical advice to helping you understand what goes into choosing
your next pickleball paddle. By the way,
I've taken Brandon's advice plus a few others who visited Better Pickleball in
the past and put it into a paddle primer just for you.
Make sure you stick around to the end of this video. During our live stream.
Brent J asked this question,
"my game has improved to a 4.0 level and I'm looking for a more advanced paddle
if that exists.
My first upgrade was head paddle two years ago and I really like it.
Now I'm looking for another upgrade. Any recommendations?"
It depends on what you want to get from that upgraded paddle because you know
what you have is going to work fine. Like they make, they make okay paddles. So
it's just what are you looking for?
I will say that something you can do is look at some of the modern trends it
seems to be, and not everyone,
but a modern trend seems to be towards slightly longer paddles.Whereas paddles
used to be more in the 15 and a half inch range. You know,
people can try out something in the 16 and a quarter to 16 and a half inch
length and it'll change, it'll change,
the play of the paddles pretty dramatically.
Like a couple examples of that would be,
like this Gearbox paddle.
It's a little bit longer handle and then a longer length as well.
And then, and the one I play with,
which is the Players Pickleball Rouge 2.
It has even more of like a teardrop shape. So this one is really for me,
I love to drive the ball with this paddle and I like hitting a hard volleys with
it.
So I would say these are a little bit trickier for,
these might be what he's considering.
Like an advanced paddle would be something where,
the sweet spot will move farther away from your hand.
You'll lose a little bit of control, but you do gain power like on serves,
drives and volleys.
One other one would be like this TMPR Ascend.
This is another one by TMPR and I really, really like, this shape.
That's similar to my Rogue 2 actually, it's sort of a teardrop shape. Pretty
aerodynamic for swinging through.
Now that you've created your list, it's time to try some paddles.
That prompted a question from our chat moderator and avid pickleball player,
Dale K.
She wanted to know what do you do when you have limited time to try a paddle?
How do you pick the best one for you quickly?
My recommendation would be really don't try too hard to like a paddle,
you know, as if you're trying something out, you know, first things first,
grab the paddle. If you don't like the grip on it,
sometimes you can change the grip. But some,
some paddles like have more of a square shaped grip and I don't like that.
I'm like, I'll grab the paddle and be like, nope,
ain't gonna be nothing I can do about that. And so that's kinda just out.
You know, I don't,
there's so many good paddles in terms of how they play at this point that you
can be that picky. So if you don't,
if you could just hate the handle shape or something, just put it back.
You don't like it, nope, that's not it.
And we didn't really talk about that too much. We can if people want to,
but we're, maybe a different time.
So that'd be where I'd start. Do you like the feel of it in your hand?
Because that is your one point of contact with the paddle.
I mean that's everything. So start there. I don't like that, put it back.
It's if it's good then start playing with it. But like I said,
don't try too hard to like it. You know, either you, you know,
I'm more of a proponent of this point, of just,
you've got to kind of fall in love at first feel, so to speak with a paddle.
I don't know that you necessarily need a super long window of time.
If you like the feel of it. Then you like the feel of it.
Either you do or you don't.
The one time that I think that it takes longer to transition is if you want to
go to a longer paddle, if you want to try a longer shape paddle,
that's when you need a longer window to adjust because you need it in your
muscle memory.
Where the sweet spot is because you're going to move the sweet spot out from
your hand, like I showed you before.
With a standard shape you're like 15 and a half inch paddle,
it's closer to your hand. And so when you switched to that longer paddle,
you're going to be still hitting in the same spot.
And now it's lower in the paddle where the sweet spot isn't. You know,
it's more, you'd be hitting more, before you were hitting here,
in your old paddle, now you're hitting in the new paddle,
you're hitting down here where you don't.
And so sometimes that can be worth,
the transition to,
I eventually decided that the transition for me from a shorter paddle,
even though it's more maneuverable and maybe I have a tiny bit more control on
blocking situations, the extra power that I got in other scenarios was worth it.
So that would be the time when you'd need longer time with a paddle and it's,
and it would be,
other than that, that's my recommendation. If you have a short window, just
write it off. If you don't, if you don't like the feel of it in your hand,
that's, then it's out. You don't like the sound, it makes, it's out.
Like it can be like, embrace your idiosyncrasies. Did
I say that word right? And just be you. It's all, it's,
there's no wrong choice. It's all up to you and it's your decision. So,
fall in love at first feel, I'll sum it up with that little mantra.
Click right here to get your free paddle primer and then check out these videos
for more information on how to pick the best paddle for you.
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