Behind the Scenes of Pickleball Studio

What’s up, guys? This week we are discussing Joola’s upcoming event, my latest vlog, and updates on the Rokne Aero Blade (It should really be called “Thor’s Hammer”).

Behind the scenes of Pickleball Studio | Vlog

Watch the video here

I tried something new on the channel this week. I did a vlog of my typical work week. There’s a lot that goes into a paddle review (this video was originally 1.5 hours long and I cut it down to nearly 1/3rd the length because it was way too long lol).

If you give it a watch, let me know what you think. To be honest, I think this content could be significantly more polished than this first one that I put out, but done is better than perfect I suppose.

I’ve filmed probably….3 different vlogs similar to this and never published them because I wasn’t happy with the quality of it.

Anyways, in this video I go over some of our filming process, paddle testing, the ridiculous amount of packages we receive in a week, and a bunch of other random things.

If you enjoy the content, let me know with a comment on the video. I’ll have at least one more vlog I post from the Vegas trip that I’m doing with John Kew, Pickleball Will, and Braydon from Pickleball Effect.

Rokne Aero Blade Updates

Specs:

• Price: $299

• Shape: Elongated

• Thickness: 19mm

• Face: 3k carbon fiber with paint grit

• Handle length: 5.5”

• Grip size: 4.25

• Weight: 8.5oz

  • 9.5-10oz with all three weights in the paddle

• Core: Polymer

• Twist weight: 5.71

  • 6.09 with all three weights in the paddle.

• Swing weight: 133

  • 140 swing weight with all three weights in the paddle

• Spin: 1543 RPM

My brother and I finally got to take out the Rokne Aeroblade for testing. I don’t have a ton to say other than….holy crap this thing is SOOOO heavy.

I frequently wonder what type of testing companies do prior to launching their paddle, because the Aeroblade feels like a perfect example of very little effort put into player testing prior to launching.

The paddles stock swing weight is 133 which is VERY high for ANY paddle. The original Ben Johns Hyperion was 127 and people thought that was a tank. Going up 6 more swing weight points is a considerable amount.

Not only that, but it has one of the highest balance points of any stock paddle that I have seen (this means it is very head heavy).

The starting weight and swing weight of this paddle are far too high for the average Pickleball player in my opinion. Even my brother who is quite strong thought the Rokne felt extremely slow in the hand.

Once you add in all the weights, it’s game over. Good luck reacting in a hand battle unless your name is Thor. It was by far the slowest paddle I have ever swung with all the weights in the paddle.

Now, the upside is that the paddle hit very, very hard. Serves and drives you could crush the ball because there is so much weight behind the paddle. However, you could probably do this with almost any paddle if you added 1.5-2oz of weight to it.

The paddle reminds me a bit of the Luxx in how it feels. A similar hollow/soft feel. However, the spin on my unit was quite poor coming in around 1540 RPM, which is quite bad by todays standards.

To be honest, I imagine if you weighted a Luxx to have the same weight and balance as the Rokne, you’d have very similar feeling paddles. Except the Luxx is cheaper and gets much better spin.

I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know that there’s a single person I could recommend this paddle to. The rubber weights feel like a gimmick since they don’t increase twist weight much (5.71 to 6.09) and you’d be far better off having a lighter paddle that you can place lead anywhere you want.

Not to mention the $300 price tag which is WILD for what this paddle offers.

There are far superior options for 1/3rd the price.

New Joola Paddles?

It is no secret that the Joola pros have all been using new prototypes, but it wasn’t clear when they might be coming. Joola just announced they are doing a special event March 19th-20th with their Joola pros and a number of guests. Probably very similar to the launch they did last year with some content creators for the Perseus.

This means that the paddles (probably) aren’t very far from launching. Based on what I’ve been hearing about these paddles, it sounds like they are quite the upgrade in the power department. So, if you’re looking for a new paddle, you might want to consider waiting 2 or so months to see what Joola does.

🎙️ Latest podcast

If you missed it, this was one of our best podcasts yet (in my opinion). Will gets his own signature paddle (You have to be kidding me…), I talk about learning how to counter better, getting called out as a Selkirk shill, and a number of other fun topics. It’s a great one if you haven’t had the chance to listen yet.