After a lot of paddles in two years (including most of the Vatics and use a Vatic bag

) … now using that purple pickleball apes paddle (Pulse S), and love it. Wife has Pulse S also.
Here is my input after 2 years of play (as a tennis player to a tennis player), just talking doubles. Power matters more in singles, not so much in doubles, I don’t play singles.
- Unlike racquets, many paddle tradeoffs … the best at baseline and overheads won’t necessarily be the best for you at the kitchen. From good intermediate on, kitchen and transition skills will matter more than your baseline drives. Sucks … pickleball is more fun for tennis players at lower level pickleball because you can hit tennis shots through/past opponents.
So … that part was important. If you want to play tennis on a pickleball court (I did for first 6 months), you will want the longer, heavier swingweight paddle and not care about hand speed at kitchen.
Paddle shapes:
1) extended (16.5 x 7.5)
2) hybrid (16.2-3 x 7.7-8)
3) standard/wide (15.8-16.0 x 8ish)
Paddle power:
1) control
2) all court
3) power
Standard shaped paddles fast at kitchen, big sweet spots, … I liked my Apollo on everything except overheads, and reach which is weird talking about 1/2”. But it’s more than that, standard shaped paddles tend to have sweet spots toward center, hybrids and extended more toward tip.
Extended … played early 6 months with Vatic Pro V7 … probably never hit my drives and overheads better. Started playing better players, they would invite me to the kitchen where I found out head heavy, and sluggish (for me) was a slow death. I said “for me”, because some players hands are still fast at kitchen with extended paddles (most of the pros, but I have noticed many choke up on grip at the kitchen.
I settled on hybrids, good at baseline, transition, kitchen if not best at all.
Power … interesting thing happened. After months with V7 (good power when it came out, now would be considered all court), I bought a Vatic Prism Flash (control hybrid). I started beating players I had been losing to. Lesson … defense and control (blocks, transition resets, dinks, etc) matter much more in this stupid game than a tennis player would think. The Vatic Prism Flash 16mm is a no-brainer $100 paddle … it’s now my backup.
Is the $200 Pulse S better for me now than the Prism Flash? Yes, because I’m getting the same control with more power. Also … feel is subjective, and it’s a wiffle so even saying “feel” is lol … but Pulse S is best feel so far (I’ve hit a lot of paddles.
Power … what I have found out in doubles is any paddle that makes me shorten my swing is not for me. It means less control, and precision counts more than a few extra mph. You come with your own power from tennis, where others might want power help with short poppy swings. This shows up most on return of serve, and 3rd shot drives for me. I am starting to go for returns to tight spots (backhands hard to find), ironically more opportunity to affect outcomes on returns than serving. When I demoed JOOLA Mod 15, Magnus 3S … not for me ... had to back off baseline strokes.
What else … 16mm for me, no more 14mm, no more standard shape paddles.
Difference between power (baseline drives, overheads) and pop (kitchen flicks, rolls, counters, speedups).
I haven’t hit J2K, but it’s highly ranked by most top paddle reviewers. Hybrid, 16mm, forgiving, stable, not that expensive … checks of a lot of boxes. There is also a J2TI (poly, fake titanium

) that is supposed to be a softer feeling J2K. Also power versons of both just now coming out.
Oh … 5.5” is all you need for 2hbh. What you gain in grip length, you lose in paddle surface a balance. I have found although weird at first, it works out better to put off hand index finger behind paddle face. It’s not a 27” lever, and the finger behind paddle helps more than hurts (2hbh dinks, 2hbh topspin 3rd shot drops).
Ask away … I have killed as much time on paddle reviewer channels as watching Fed’s forehand in a previous life.