Chris's integrity with his reviews are 100% the reason for his success. It's the reason we compare his channel to MKBHD. If I get a good review from PB Studio? It makes my buying decisions WAYYY easier. So I get why companies would want to try and pay him. But major props to you chris for keeping it real the whole time.
I was talking to a guy at Red Rock Open who purchased 3 joola gen 3s from the pickleball central tent and ALL 3 failed the PPA testing, so he took them back to the tent and got 3 different ones, and they ALL failed again, so he went back and got 3 more, and 2 of those failed. 8 out of 9 paddles failed the PPA testing. Aboslute joke chinesium quality control, but what else would anyone expect from joola. paddle is such an illegal dud that Ben wont even use it
Or Joola wants the factory to produce these illegal paddles on purpose so it appeals to the masses that want a “legal” paddle that are clearly not. I felt the FOMO initially because I didn’t want to be outgunned at rec, but my senses came around and deleted my cart.
One thing to keep in mind with PPA testing is that they use PPL to conduct their tests. PPL and USAP use completely different methods for testing deflection and have different guidelines for what is "legal" vs "illegal". So, there's a good chance (I can't say for certain) that those same paddles would pass USAP tests but not PPL. So what's "illegal" in one organization would be legal in another. Another example is that PPL's grit limit is higher than USAP. So, an illegal paddle for USAP could pass at PPL. Testing is a mess across the board. at APP tournaments they do a disbond test with a scanner rather than an actual deflection test.
@@PickleballStudio If I remember right he said it was both the grit levels and deflection that were too high for the PPL, which means way too high for USAP, but there isn't paddle testing at ametuer events/local tourneys so at the local level people will get away with illegal paddles, hence the "cheater" paddle sentiment
Your integrity is so admirable and I am confident it will be the foundational reason for your long term success. There are not many people who would be making the choices you are currently making. It is not an understatement to say trustworthiness is your brand - there is no higher compliment!
Last two paddles I’ve purchased have been based on your reviews. Your reviews are very honest and provide the technical qualities I need to make my decision. I watched others do their shtick, prefer your style.
@MKBHD x Pickleball Studio collab 👀 This conversation makes me love your channel even more. Definitely the greatest Pickleball paddle reviewer out there 🙌🏾
The companies failing never crossed my mind. I keep the horse blinders on and worry about the consumers money lol. Wanna see how powerful reviewers are. Look at how Legacy Pro used to be popular due to reviews and now they are non existent. Also, I state in every video I'm getting kickback from the commision codes. It eliminated comments asking if I was getting paid for reviews.
When I got my 6.0 DBD a few months ago, the grit was basically nonexistent. It was completely smooth. I was a little nervous to purchase a joola gen 3 but it has an absolutely crazy amount of grit. When I hit roll volleys the ball literally kicks off of the court and almost rolls, making it impossible to hit. I’m glad I got a paddle with a ton of grit, but consistency definetely could improve in the big picture of production
I enjoyed the podcast. I enjoyed the topics and information. I made it to the kitchen. I think that if you are a 4.85, then you should be allowed to play in a 4.5 tournament. DUPR is taking the average and is not that reliable, but is the best thing that is out there. Thank you, Chris and Will. You both have a wonderful week.
Kitchen Discuss: friend of mine and I played women's dubs in a local tournament at 3.5 & earned gold. Most medal-round teams played at or around 4.0 level. We'd never played tournament. We don't get to play 4.0+ players in rec play. We had no idea where we fell in line. We played 3.5 to figure out where our "rating" was. Fair/Unfair?
no such thing as "fair" and "unfair". It's all subjective nonsense mostly driven from envy. The act of deeming something fair is in fact an unfair act.
On the topic of sandbagging, is there an actual defined range of DUPR ratings intended for each bracket (3.5, 4.0, 4.5, etc)? Without clearer definition and 'enforcement' by tourney officials, I see the struggle for a 4.31 not wanting to play in a 4.5 bracket that's full of 4.9+ players. I just played in my first tourney where I thought this was going to be better aligned as it was stated to be "4.0-4.5", but when a 5.02 player stepped in (that Chris Olson also lost to in the MN PPA 5.0 bracket) it clearly wasn't solved. Add to the rating mismatch that he was wielding a brand new Tyson Gen 3 Joola, it got out of hand real quick.
When I first moved to 3.5, everyone was 3.85+ and we got our butts kicked. But our ratings only went up! All those guys eventually moved up. Three gold medals in a row, and our opponents are tapping their feet, wondering why we don't move up. If I moved up I can still be 35 at best, right? Chris, winning at 4.5 really removes that tag for you!
I lost to a 4.4 and 4.9 in my last 4.0 gold medal match. I assure you nobody is going to be annoyed by 4.7s in the 4.5 bracket. Local tournaments are generally 4.5+ which means most of the sandbagging is 4.5s trying to play in the 4.0 bracket.
I played this morning with the ALW 12.7. What a great paddle. It has a great soft feel and all the power and pop you would ever need. Not a huge fan of the short handle but I had my little finger off the bottom of the handle and that made it seem better
You never will. PPA will never test her paddle. It was supposed to be tested last year because a player challenged it. Nope. PPA wouldn't test it or wouldn't publicize the test. I've heard from many, that her paddle is illegal.
it cant be "sandbagging" if the tournament says 4.5-5.0 until your # starts with a 5... yeah it would suck to be at exactly 4.5 and go up against a 4.99... but I wouldn't consider it sandbagging. personally though if I'm the 4.99 I'm going to play 5.0+ for better competition.
You guys are a very entertaining asset for the sport! I appreciate your quandary regards potential for conflict of issue with industry involvement, but I think you keep it clean and open -- no big payoffs or endorsement deals. I bought the Thrive Azul after seeing your foursome gathering. Further info from John Kew convinced me. I've not been disappointed and was happy to support your efforts and a conscientious brand. (This is not my main or even primary paddle -- it joins 3 Selkirk Power Air and 2 Luxx, plus Gen 1 Joola Anna Scorpeus and Perseus, as well as Diadem 18K Power plus and Warrior Edge.) If anything, your merry band of paddle infotainment promoters are very on the mark as far as I am concerned, providing keen insight to quality products to improve pickleball playing. Chris, Will, John and Braydon -- my favorite sources for the industry, sport and innovation!
For the samdbagging / ratings discussion... It really depends. My understanding is that the devisions are that number, up to the next half step, so 4.7-4.8 makes sense as the ratings of the gold medal match players. The other part is more frustrating from a newer players perspective, that either people are good and dont know it/ don't have a rating. It feels like theres no good place to 'Start out' in tournament play if you're going to get whalloped on no matter what.
I wish there could be a definite limit on a player's rating for each event. In TT, if my rating is 1724, then I'm allowed to play in a 1750 event, but 1700 is off limits.
I went to the PB store near me I checked all the Gen 3 paddles they had, Scorpius, Perseus, and Magnus. I couldn’t find one out of about twenty that had consistent grit. Most were pretty smooth on both sides one Scorpius had a lot of grit on one side but not the other. No way I buy until they get the grit and grip fixed.
I can honestly say Chris has turned down money from a company specifically to have him do a review. I do trust Chris’s reviews and glad he is doing this for us! U deserve to be paid and hope u are being compensated for all the hard work ur doing!!
Thank you for your time and posting. Agree. Pro pickleball actually sucks, most of the productions are poorly constructed with lousy video quality. Especially the PPA. They don't even treat their pro players very well. It's sandbagging with you do it on purpose.
I was paid 150 dollars a few years ago to review EGO electric products, specifically a new 24 inch snowblower and I actually gave input that they used to revise the tool....I gave them harsh and positive critique and 2 yrs later, they wanted me to review another product...I gave it a pretty scathing review but at least they let me keep the 2000 dollar product...but maybe they revised some things I brought about....companies have to accept reality when they get "honest" reviews especially if the reviewers are paid....i think they like the negative and the positives because real people are going to spread the reviews all over the internet and it will spread like wildfire....if a paddle sucks, we have to know and so does the company because that will tremendously affect future sales and future products down the line...keep up the good work guys
The only thing I would add is that you should clearly state that XYZ Paddle company provided you with the paddle/paddles free of charge to review. As long as you are totally transparent, then people can form an accurately informed opinion.
Hey Boys, love your reviews and conversations around this sport. You should start your own hat company. Nothing against Melin (I own one myself) but they do not look great. The giant peak on the front, the "rope" at the base of the brim, the perforation, the branding all over....I know it's made to last and that I appreciate but it is literally the "dad hat" We need more variety and I think you both could make a great brand that people would love.
Preach about that quality control! 🗣️🙌🏻😤 My Gen 3 was gritty on one side and significantly less on the other. Still love the paddle, but that's a bummer. And I was trying to buy from a friend that's sponsored, but then the paddle you get is a crapshoot.
This is the ONLY podcast that I listen to from beginning to end. The interaction between Chris and Wil makes it informative and entertaining. How about setting up a tourney with @pickballstudio fans. I live in Austin and would be willing to drive to Oklahoma to play. One other thought is to put money towards a prize pool and donate it to charity. Thoughts?
4.5 specifically is the hardest one for sandbagging. I would 4.9 and below but the thing is 5.0+ is what most brackets are. Making it so hard if you are a 5.01 player and you are up against 5.5 players it is very difficult. So anything below 5.0 is fine in 4.5 to me. I always went with if you medal 3 times in a division you have to move up. It's a better system then DUPR rating for where you should be.
I’ve always wondered why no review of Volair M2F. It’s unique, won spinner of 2023 and Kew and Brayden both had it in their top three when you colabed in Vegas.
Love this podcast - always. I have bought paddles based on Chris' reviews, John Kew's reviews, and Braydon's reviews. I wonder if Chris wants to say something every time Will butchers a word. :)
They mentioned a point that I've wondered about. How to make televised pickleball more interesting. Was mentioned about slow-mo and more angles. Most of the time I just looks like four people hitting the ball back and forth to each other. Screens with more stats and radar guns would help. Commentary suffers because the action, especially at the net, happened so quickly. Hopefully they'll find more interesting ways to televise the sport.
I have tried watching a full PB match and honestly, after about 10 minutes, I end up changing. PPA is the worst. Poor video, announcers are not interesting. I mean, if they had someone like McEnroe who does tennis do PB, it would help. Also, it's a lot more fun to play than watch because who wants to see dink after dink. Reminds me of watching college basketball before they put in the shot clock. A team would be winning and literally the last 8 minutes of the game, they would just pass until the game was over.
i played singles 4.0 this past weekend and got my butt kicked 11-1 in my first game against a tennis guy with a joola perseus. if you can control it and keep it in, that paddle is a game buster (i say the control piece because i beat a joola hyperion 11-3 in the same tourney). crazy heat for singles
Hope to see what you both think of the OM AERO "RACKET" Heard the ONI plays like a GB Pro. Thanks to you both for all you do. Stay with what works "NO SHILL" I for sure praised "your girl" She's a real baller. DUPR still needs work.
have not watched the whole pod, and maybe you address it later, but I am hoping for a review of the Hudef Viva Pro Gen 3. The Gen 2 is my gamer, along with the B and B Filth, interested in what you guys have to say about the kevlar edition.
I’m both an avid pickle baller and golfer. I’d say , in case you don’t, watch how Mark Crossfield reviews golf clubs because he does it properly; as do you.
Great content. I still think the neonic flow is above average, ha. I do think you and Will gravitate away from more control oriented paddles, but I guess that’s the direction the industry is headed! Keep up the good work!
@@scottdvorak5606 hey, I think it plays somewhat similar, but has very good control, reset ability while being more offensive, more pop than you average control paddle.. I played with one and it’s now on my short list of paddles I might go to next.
@@ashevillescarborough Cool. Thanks. That's kind of what I was hearing from some other reviewers. I need some help with my control game. So I was leaning more toward that. The Double Black Diamond sounds very appealing. But I liked the idea of a bit more spin and pop at a lower price point. I put down 50% on a Flow. So I'm hoping it delivers.
@@scottdvorak5606 I currently mostly play with the pickleball apes PLE S which has amazing control, but more pop than say, a vatic prism flash, but still very low on the pop spectrum. The neonic has just a hair more, and is very manuverable.
Can you comment on forcing Thrive to only let you and 3 other reviewers have the only Azul reviews for the presale? That doesn't seem like it benefits the pickleball community and was done just for more affiliate sales.
I sure can. Thrive asked us in Vegas (or maybe on a phone call before the trip? I can't remember) if we wanted an exclusive launch of the AZUL and I said that I did not want it. I'm pretty sure that's what the other three said too, but I can't speak for them. I don't know if I/we didn't communicate very clearly back to Thrive, but it seems like Thrive still kept it exclusive even though no one wanted it. I thought I heard through the grape vine recently that someone asked about reviewing it for launch and Thrive told them that we had dibs first. Had I heard about this prior to launch, I would have told them to give everyone access to it. So no, we reviewers didn't force Thrive to give us an exclusive review. They asked us if we wanted it and I don't believe anyone said they actually wanted to do that. After knowing Will/John/Braydon for a bit, none of them are the type of people that would demand that. Considering I don't even have an AZUL review out, it would be pretty silly to demand an exclusive review and then not put out a video when it launches.
I really want to believe that Gearbox didn't pay people to review the Power Pro Elongated because that paddle was not very good, Only one guy still plays with that paddle at our 10 courts in Central Florida. Everyone else sold them or got new paddles. Whether it's QC or just a garbage paddle, almost nobody still plays with it around here.
Do you guys feel like generally the 14mm gen 3 paddles are easier to control because there is less foam in the core therefore creating less trampoline squish effect? I’m looking to get the oni but I’m undecided between 14-16MM
Hi! Ok. Genuine question. I THOUGHT the division ratings were for that number rating and below. Like for example a 4.5 bracket is for 4.0-4.5. A 5.0 bracket is for 4.5-5.0. Etc… Is it common knowledge that the brackets are for half a point ABOVE the bracket rating?
Interesting podcast. Can you possibly review the Bread & Butter Shogun, Honolulu Pickleball Co J7k & J7K Pro, as well as the Vatic Pro Oni paddles? Thank you for all of the awesome videos!
love the videos and the podcast, the affiliate backend must be really good though as this is a very niche channel and typically under 100k subs you cannot live off the income, if your upfront about taking money for a review i think its completely fine go get that money Chris get that house with a court keep up the hustle thanks for the content
I so wish pickleball divisions had a hard cutoff for ratings so everyone would just play their number and move on, but until then it’s going to be people playing the closest division below their rating.
I’m relatively new to pickleball, but why don’t they limit the DUPR to be the max allowable at any given level. At the date of tournament entry, you can’t have a current rating above the limit for the bracket. You could still have people trying to game their DUPR to be below the entry level, but it seems like this would limit sandbagging. Rather than 4.5 meaning anything below 5, 4.5 means you must be at 4.5 or below.
bc pickleball directors are absolute buffoons... I love pickleball but literally everything from the rankings to the bracket to the guidelines/enforcement is a joke
Good conversation. If you start picking and choosing which paddles you review, I believe you will lose visitors to other paddle reviewers. if you evaluate one paddle per week as opposed to several. Viewers will be diverted by the more recent paddle reviewers who are reviewing multiple products each week.
Question, hopefully I can get an answer. If I received a Joola Gen 3, and the grits are different on both sides (very different) is that a warranty situation? This is my first time buying a Joola and they don’t answer. Thank you in advance for anyone who answers.
Will u guys ever do a paddle review on the Wilson Blaze Tour 16mm? It’s a tennis brand so I wonder if they can match the paddle’s out there quality/price wise. U dont have to play 2 weeks with it to give a review 🤣
🤣Fisker was going broke before MB. His review had NOTHING to do with its impending implosion -- I mean it didn't help. Keep in mind, this is the 2nd iteration of Fisker (the first went bankrupt as well). Management issues.
The downside for me for your reviews is that we seem to be different players. You prefer the versions of gear box and joola that i don't like. There is room for improvement to have your brother and Will's favorite and their brief reasons, because we have different preferences in swing weight, shape preferences, power, versus spin, vs maneuverability preferences.
You guys are the best. Speaking of negative reviews and repercussions, didn't one company threaten to sue you for publishing starrett/roughness numbers?
Someone from USAP told me that is what the company said. But, looking back at the situation and the person who communicated that information from USAP, I think it was likely a bluff because they didn't want the negative attention of not handling the grit situation properly.
I just purchased the Judah from Triple J it has been pretty good so far. I got it after watching a video review and knocked off 10 bucks. Pickleball Will do you live in OKLAHOMA? Lol I also know Tanner through Pickleball in OKC.
Watched your gold medal match. I meant to comment but forgot Chris. Your partner carried you to the gold! No two ways about it. Remember 3.5 at best (unless you partner with a 5.0!). JK. CONGRATS. IT WAS A GREAT MATCH.
For a 4.5 tourney I feel like 4.8 - 4.99 is borderline sandbagging. If I was a 4.8 I would want to test my skills and potentially raise my skills by playing higher level of competition…5.0.
Depends on what the partner is rated though as well. 4.8 and a 4.3 -4.5 could easily be in the 4.5 tourney. They might be one of the favorites for the 4.5 tourney and lose two quick games in the 5.0 tourney and be bounced. Calling anyone a sandbagger just shows your insecurity and envious nature. I'd much rather enter a lower rated tournament and be a favorite then paying a bunch of money just to more than likely go 0-2 in a higher rated tournament. Anyone calling me a sandbagger can go eat a bag of sand.
@@evk3593 Sure, if we are talking doubles and the partner is closer to 4.5 or below a 4.5 that’s understandable. I’m not calling anyone a sandbagger. The money you pay usually goes to a good cause, it’s the fun of playing in a tournament plus “donating”. I guess I like playing higher level of competition from time to time. To each their own 👍🏽