The King of Value Paddles is Here & Pickleball Apes Thoughts

What’s up, guys? This week I recap my recent review on the Vatic Pro Prism, thoughts the Pickleball Apes Pro Line Energy, and discuss the Anna Leigh Waters drama yesterday.

Oh, and here’s another poll, because I enjoy the comments and results I get from you guys. I read all the responses!

Vatic Pro Prism 16mm Review

• Video review

• Written review

• Discount code: PBSTUDIO to save $10

I’m back with the reviews! I finally finished my Vatic Prism 16mm review. Unfortunately, the 14mm version launched and was delivered to me the day I posted the video, so those results aren’t included in the review. My hunch is it won’t play drastically different, just slightly more power as you expect from a 14mm paddle.

If you want the summary, this paddle is unbelievable for the price. Easiest recommendation I’ve ever made for $100.

Lots of people have asked me about the differences between this and the Ronbus R1.16. The primary difference is the sweet spot. The Ronbus doesn’t have a bad sweet spot, but I think the additional edge foam from the Prism is giving a slightly better sweet spot.

Also, the Ronbus is still a great option if you want a long handle because the v7 and Flash don’t have very long handles.

They are comparable paddles, but I do give the edge to the Vatic Pro Prism.

Join the brand new Facebook group!

I launched a new Facebook group this week to help people find the perfect Pickleball paddle for them. The goal is for it to be a community where people can share their thoughts and opinions to help others evaluate paddles, and it gives me another place to share thoughts as I test paddles.

I’m excited to grow the community.

If you’d like to join, you can do so right here.

Pickleball Apes Pro Line Energy

A BUNCH of you messaged me after John Kew’s review of the Pickleball Apes Pro Line Energy which you can watch here.

I was briefly testing it last week. I have all of my August content scheduled, so you probably won’t hear me talk about it until September.

But, to not leave you hanging, I can share some of my early thoughts on the paddle.

I would call it an all court paddle that leans slightly toward control. It has reasonable power, but nothing that blew me away.

My only real complaint was resets. Since it’s a 17×7 shaped paddle, you lose out on some width which makes resets more difficult. I found myself catching the edge more than I was used to. I’m sure with more games I will adapt though.

My spin wasn’t nearly as good as Johns. In fact, I ran my test twice to confirm. I got a number in the 1700s both times. Apes did give me two units, so perhaps I need to check the other one.

Though, John does tend to get higher spin rates than me overall (even though our relative rankings are similar), so he’s probably just better at generating top spin as a whole.

I think this paddle will be great for Tennis players. You get a long handle, long shape, higher swing weight, and solid spin.

It’s also a very reasonable price of $150 ($135 after discount code PBSTUDIO). I don’t know that I think it’s a paddle that is changing the market, but it does hit a nice price point and good performance.

More thoughts will come in the future.

You can buy the paddle here

Perspective on the Anna Leigh Waters drama

If you haven’t watched the singles matches from the PPA yesterday, there will be spoilers below.

Yesterday at the Takeya PPA event, Anna Leigh Waters lost in 3 games to Hurricane Tyra Black. It was a really fun match to watch, but the ending of the match had a really bizarre reaction from Anna Leigh that people are still trying to figure out. You can see some of it here on the Memes of Pickleball page

I wanted to share some perspective on it, because I feel like there’s a lot of thoughts about the behavior. Some are reasonable, some are less reasonable (to me, at least).

First, anytime Anna Leigh loses, people tend to call her a sore loser, entitled, spoiled, and a variety of other names. Everyone says she needs to act with more grace and “be a better champion”.

It’s funny watching all these reactions online about how she needs to act more mature after a loss. Have you ever been to your local rec courts? I sure have and I’ve watched people absolutely lose their mind over far less.

Heck, I like to think I’m one of the most level headed people when it comes to not losing my cool on the Pickleball court. I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve acted out of line.

In fact, just the other day was one I’m not particularly proud of. I was practicing with my team for a MLP style tournament this weekend and I played AWFUL. I lost with every single one of my partners. I couldn’t seem to make a correct decision, put a ball away, or really do anything correctly.

It was genuinely embarrassing.

After my 5th loss, people could tell I was annoyed. When that last game finished, I just packed my bag and left the courts without saying a word. Even with people trying to ask me what was wrong.

I wouldn’t really call it a melt down, but I’m not particularly proud that I left mid practice without saying anything. That isn’t what a good teammate should do.

I tell this story to put some perspective on the fact that almost all of us have probably had a behavior on a Pickleball court that we aren’t proud of. We also aren’t competing to create our livelihood. Most of us are playing this recreationally with zero stakes on the line.

At the age of 16 with thousands of eyes on you (and many of those eyes hoping you lose), I can only imagine the pressure. Especially when you aren’t used to losing.

I’m not here to say Anna Leigh should get a free pass to act however she wants. In fact, I hope she learns from this and in the future has a different reaction.

But I do think it’s too easy for all us on the couch to make quick judgements about situations we will never fully understand because we aren’t in it.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this article from NML Pickleball who I think perfectly summarizes my thoughts on the situation.

🎙️ Latest podcast

If you missed it, Will and I talk about Beer City Open, the Seattle Golden qualifier, and variety of other topics during his travel times.

If you enjoyed this newsletter or have thoughts to share, feel free to respond! I like the interactions.