Online Paddle Reviews: what to take away

It seems like new paddles come out every other week. And with that, the reviews keep coming. One reviewer loves it, one likes it, one says you must have, and another says it’s too fast for most. Well, what is the take away here? You have to listen carefully. You have to know what you like and don’t like. One very well known reviewer likes high swingweight, high power, stiff, hollow paddles. So when he likes a paddle, that’s what it is. But do you like high swingweight, head heavy, hard hitting paddles that tend to be slow in hand and punish you on hard resets? If you play singles, you probably will. If you play doubles you probably won’t. You must learn what you like, not what a specific reviewer likes unless you both have the same preferences. More recently, reviewers are starting to acknowledge this and their reviews are stating their preferences and bias. What is useful? This paddle hits harder than this. This paddle feels softer at contact than this. This paddle has more vibration than this. That is useful information no matter what their preferences are, although we see variation in this “subjective” information. Impacttune will help you find what paddles meet your needs and desires. The more paddles you play and input/save your experiences, the better the recommendations will be.