u/sonics_01

I received the Pakle Fuse elongated last Saturday, and played 1 hour with it today, 2 singles 1 double. I think mine is 8th batch. When I bought this in the early July, the paddle was under sale, it was like 15% or something.

First, I appreciate to PF developers. I asked them if I can receive a lighter weight one because of my injury history. They said yes, and send me 7.75 oz one.

Second, the paddle surface is really gritty. I recently get a new warranty Boomstik elongated, and IMO PF has slightly more gritty than Boomstik, but this is just a personal "feeling" and can be wrong.

Third, I don't know about spin retention, yet. I just played for an hour only today, so it is too early for me to tell or judge about surface grit retention of this paddle. At least I can tell that the surface grit feels the same after an hour of play, even though I played two single games where I hit the ball hard.

Fourth, the paddle showed me some typical characteristics of power paddles.

I feel the paddle is easy to use for attack and offense, and I don't feel any necessity for break-in period for this paddle unlike Boomstik. With a good sweet spot area, the ball directed to the location I wanted in general when I drive, counter, or volley.

However, things are different when defending with this paddle. I felt paddle handle turns when I reset against hard smashes, and the paddle has lighter twist weight compared to Boomstik. And this is poppy paddle, so reset become more challenging. IMO I need to slightly readjust my serve, reset, and dink for this paddle. I was using Boomstik, so I think my readjustment wouldn't be too bad. Lead tape to 4/8 and 5/7 O'clock direction hopefully brings more control. (But maybe 8.0 oz one would offer good twist weight, please remind that mine is light)

I heard the PF hybrid offers better reset and control, but I didn't know about that when I buy PF... :P

Lastly, this paddle has unique hitting sound. But I'm not sure if I like the black rubber grip of the handle. I think I will replace the grip to something else.

With the price slightly above $100, I think PF is a good paddle. Let's see their spin retention. I hope they returned their first batch formula or found a solution for longer grit retention.

I don't know how others deal with wet shirt problem, so let me ask here.

In summer days, I usually carry 5~6 shirts, 3~4 head sweatbands, and perfume when I play 2~3 hours of open play from outdoor court. If I play tournament or league from outdoor courts, I bring ~10 shirts and ~6 head sweatbands. Indoor courts are a bit better which is one of reasons I really prefer indoor courts, but I eventually can't escape from drenched shirt problem even from indoor. My shirts are just usual cheap shirts.

When I play outdoor courts, if weather is humid/foggy and sunny, my shirts become fully drenched by sweat less than an hour, even though I only play at morning or evening when I play outdoor. If weather is dry or if I play indoor, the situation is a bit better. But eventually I have to change shirts because it become fully wet.

I can feel fully wet shirts negatively impact on my performance. Sometimes it subtly prohibits my arm and shoulder movements or subtly drag my step. Plus, fully drenched shirt can actually trap the body heat, will make you feel hotter. It would feel a bit better on dry & windy day. But still, water has high heat capacity. So if your shirt become fully drenched of sweat, you are wearing water/steam with your body temperature around you, sticking to your skin, which can block more heat transfer.

Anyway, I don't know what can I try else. Carrying that much amount of shirts and headbands feels more and more ridiculous, but I couldn't find better options.

Are there any shirts that can be helpful for this situation?

I've been used Boomstik since early Feb this year. Then I recently got a warranty exchanged one, because the old one developed surface crack parallel to side edge.

But then, my performance dropped after I playing with the new exchanged one. The same elongated Boomstik, but feels way too different.

The first one that I used before exchange, it felt poppy but at least it had good reaction and control with wide sweet spot when countering against fast shots, even from the day 1 with the paddle. After the paddle broke-in, I was able to play better in general, and I was able to reach higher position in the league.

But the one I received after exchange...I tried last night for the first time. Something felt not right. It felt like my counter become shotgun. It hit the net or go out. I don't feel the wide sweet spot against the fast speed up or drives, from this Boomstik. I was still able to bring moderate level of drive and drop. But my defense got wrecked. 60% of volley and block hit the net, 30% of them go out, and 10% gets in. Direction and pace control for defense shots are gone.

I swear to god, the first one before exchange excelled from day 1, I never felt this issue with the previous Boomstik. So I really can't understand this huge difference in feeling for the same Boomstik brand.

Is this normal but happens because the second paddle (the new exchanged one) didn't break in yet? Or is this because slight difference of manufacturing batch?

3.7~3.9 player.

My 2HBH dink is good, not excellent but at least I don't pop the ball like I used to anymore.

For kitchen line counter or speed up or fast shot exchange or strong volley, I've been relying on 1HBH only. Especially because I could utilize flick or roll with 1HBH. And, for some reason, I couldn't make myself comfortable with 2HBH volley, it feels more awkward than 2HBH drive or 2HBH dink.

But I found my 1HBH can't generate good top spin unless I bring flick, while I can't bring my wrist flick for every single 1HBH. The problem is that my 1HBH hit the net or go straight out of lines. Especially when I counter against incoming speed up, my 1HBH frequently hit the net. If the speed up comes to my left side (I'm right hander) my 1HBH counter more frequently hit the net...

So I'm wondering. Do I need to drill and develop 2HBH volley? Or would it be better to fix my 1HBH counter more?

The high serve I mean here is NOT the lob serve or any slow serve with really high trajectory.

I'm asking about the serve that has fast pace and heavy top spin, reaches 6~8 feet off the ground at maximum, and drops sharply to near-baseline region. Some call it kick serve, some call it high serve.

I have a good low fast serve, and I want to make the 'high serve' as new option. I'm trying to bring the same pose with low fast serve so that opponent can't distinguish which serve they will receive. I usually use semi western for serve, the same goes to my high serve attempts.

But I just don't know how to do this properly and reliably. The most frequent outcome when I try this serve is the ball flying too far beyond the baseline.

If I slow down the swing speed to slow down the ball, it becomes too easy serve. The ball bounces too short or way too slow, so that it doesn't apply any threat or pressure.

If open paddle surface to bring angle with pace, it becomes too unreliable and almost always fly beyond the baseline. I think opening paddle surface when using semi western grip isn't working well.

If I open my upper body to bring angle with pace, consistency increases but good number of balls still fly beyond the baseline.

From the low fast serve, what changes of mechanics are needed to bring 'high serve' with the same pose or minimum mechanic change? Again, I'm not asking about lob serve, the question is about the serve with fast speed, high curve trajectory, and heavy topspin.

This happened during a small league game. I don't groan usually, but I begin to make grunting sound for fast hard shots as my stamina runs out after ~2 hours of playing. Some of it is unintended sound.

They didn't call the claim for the drive shot. But they claim that during a particular kitchen line fire fight. I didn't make a sound when I bring wrist flick, then opponent countered with block, and then I make a sound when I bring semi overhead against the fast block to my chest~shoulder level. Then his reset against my semi overhead popped up, then he calls the noise fault on me and immediately stopped playing for that point. He shouted it really loud when he said "noise fault."

He claims with the rule regarding intentional distractions with excessive, unnatural noises. But I made the sound only when I hit the ball, not when he hit the ball. But he claims that I was grunting long and I was still grunting, which was loud enough to be heard, when he hit the ball. But it is just what he says without evidences. I don't think my grunting was that long, it is just his claim. But I admit that it was kitchen line fire fight exchange and I agree the ball was very fast...

We didn't record, and this is a small local league of a small town club, so no refs at all. But I swear to god, I never received any claims regarding excessive noise when I play league or tournament or rec play so far.

We never reached the agreement. So, according to the rule, we replayed the point again. But my mental was shaken because I was annoyed, so I mess up and lost the game that we were winning.

Is his claim legit? I feel like he was just pushing an unreasonable demands to change the mood and create a mental war, which I become hooked. It is my fault that I messed up my mental game but I still think the call was ridiculous because I didn't make the noise when he hit the ball. Even if my grunting was long, it was not that loud, he was just nitpicking, but I admit this is just what I think.

So I wonder, is his claim legit?

I somehow developed a bad habit of sending speed up or attack directly to opponent, not to the empty spot or between two players, though I'm not aiming for bodybagging at all. This happens too frequently to me, either crosscourt or parallel, that my attack or speed up heads to sweet zone or center of the opponent, then returned back too easily. This is about kitchen line exchange.

This may caused by my lack of accuracy which causes me to hit more conservatively not to make an out ball. Or, this can be a sort of natural reaction against the fast ball during firefight.

Whatever the reason is, I want to fix this because good players always defend or reset perfectly, no matter how great the speed up or attack I send is.

I want my speed up become sneaky so that even good players miss or return the ball wrong. What should I do? Aim differently?

Brothers and sisters, I stand before thee today to bear witness to a literal miracle on Court 3.

For two games, our faith was sorely tested. Every shot we offered to the net fell back onto our own side, whilst the opposition’s wicked trickles poured over the tape like a plague of locusts. We were cast down, 9-3, and the spirit of wrath did swell within us. Right there at the kitchen line, my partner and I locked eyes. I joined hands in the spirit, bowed my head, and cried out to the Lord of the Tape: “Father, if thou deliverest us from this side-out, we vow to stop calling the 5.0 sandbaggers and 3.0 bangers in our rec league sinners.”

And lo, the heavens opened and a torrential downpour of miracles did descend upon Court 3. First, their mighty drive struck the tape, but the Lord said, “Thou shalt not pass,” and launched the ball into the heavens—a rapture-level pop-up—which my partner smote down with the overhead smash of righteous fury. Immediately after, their next ball clipped the cord and was cast backward, falling dead upon their own soil, while their third attempt hit the white tape and was blown by the holy wind far out of the side line and into the wilderness.

Then did the Lord bless our own paddles, for our next dink, a terrible and unholy thing, grazed the tape and was carried by angels over the net to drop utterly dead upon their kitchen floor. To seal our victory, our final drive clipped the cord and struck the opponent squarely in the chest, a divine branding of the non-believers. The opposition stood paralyzed by the glory of the turnaround as we ran the table to triumph, 11-9.

Hear me now: The Net Cord Deity is real, and His wrath is swift. I have appointed myself as the Grand Inquisitor of the Kitchen Line. If any amongst thee dare doubt His holy intervention, or speak of "simple physics" in the comments, thou shalt be branded a heretic, tried for blasphemy, and banished from the rec courts forevermore.

Praise be to the Tape. Pic-men.

...

Thanks to read shit post, but 50% true story :P

3.75 player. Compared to my noob days and 3.5 days to now, the moment I feel my PB improved is not when I shot a beautiful ATP winner, but the moment when I strongly desire for killer drop.

I learned PB from ex Tennis player so I used to admire power plays, drives, and power serves. But now I really admire, even jealous towards players will awesome drop. Watching 5.0+ guys and girls bring that every third shot like every Tuesday breakfast drives me crazy :P This never means I undermine hard game, I still hit drives, but I just want to get kitchen better and faster against higher level guys.

My drop is still just soso... Push drop is a bit better but topspin drop has high popup rate :(

What is your moment?

Is HD2 enjoyable now? Or is this the same BS and bugs for masochistic glazers?

Hi all,

I'm getting Wegovy for 2 months and 3 weeks so far. 0.25mg for the first month, 0.5 mg for the second month, and 1mg for 3 weeks. So far, Wegovy didn't give me any particular issues but recently it seems Wegovy is giving me digestion problem to my stomach when I do exercise.

I usually play high-intensity exercise like tennis, basketball, and pickleball, 2~3 times a week, 2~3 hours per play, usually evening of the day. When I play evening, I usually skip dinner. I didn't notice clearly but since I begin 1mg, I felt stomach upset 1~1.5 hr after play.

My stomach is fine and well during normal days. The upset stomach only happens as I play 1~1.5 hrs of exercise, and I begin to burp and sense the pressure build up from stomach.

What can I do to keep Wegovy but does not have any stomach issue during exercises? Skip the whole meals except light toast breakfast? Or only have shakes for the game day?

3.7 player.

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I tried various drops but I think push my paddle to the front works the best for me, either BH or FH. Especially, drops were good when I intentionally tried not to bring any vertical direction motions and just focusd on pushing the ball forward.

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I think my motion may still could bring some vertical direction momentum, but at least, when I hit the drop, the mentality I bring is just pushing forward the ball, not lifting up or brushing up. Then the drop shot become much better. The ball drops, and consistency improves.

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But I don't know why, I can't explain this myself.

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Also, if I want to apply more top spin from the current drop shot, what can I do from the current mind set?

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This may be a wrong observation of mine, but I see pros like Big H or Bellamy bring a motion like 2HBH cross court dink for their back hand drop shots, even from the far around the baseline. They position low with (or without) crouch, and bring 'cupping the ball' alike motion, which very looks like 2HBH cross court dink but it was for a drop shot.

More precisely, they weren't exactly like 2HBH cross court dinks, but I don't think their 2HBH drop shots were like those of 2HBH drive motion. To me, they resemble more of 2HBH cross court dink shots, more straight and simpler than drive shot motions.

But how can I bring this?

My 2HBH cross court dink is OK-ish level, so I tried 2HBH drop shot like 2HBH cross court dink. But it usually ended up too high, some even popped up a mile high, then got smashed. :(

When you perform 2HBH drop shot like 2HBH cross court dink, what would be important points that I need to have in my mind? Like focusing more on brushing up or pushing forward?

I just heard about this. Is this true? This means there will be no indoor court in Ithaca... As a person who favors playing indoor over outdoor, this isdevastating.

I heard a lot of indoor PB facilities are financially struggling all across US, but didn't expect this happened to here. Feeling sad.

TL;DR: I got wrecked by drop shots and dinks with heavy top spin against advanced opponents. How can I handle those shots?

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I'm 3.7 and not that athletic mid 40s dude. Last night, I had a chance to play against a tall 5.0 guy and a stout 4.8 guy in a rec open play double match. Both were more than 1.0 above our level, it wasn't a surprise how they felt beyond another level to me and my partner. We got wrecked but it was helpful and gave me a lot to think about.

I had lots of troubles, but the most serious problem especially for me was that I failed to hit back his drop shot, either 3rd or 5th.

He sends drop shot to the middle or very corners. They weren't drive nor drip (or drop-drive). They were drop shots with good top spin. Not too fast but not too slow, so I had to chase them.

Short hop return 100% brought pop up and smash. I lowered myself more and leaned forward further, and connected some volley returns but some volley returns still popped up or hit the net. Overall, I failed to control his drop shot.

Dink rally was also in their favor. Somehow, they all applied really good top spin, somewhat felt heavy, to almost all dinks, I can't recall if they hit any neutral dinks at all. Soon after dink rally, our counter dinks popped up which lead to smash. I thought I could handle his dinks but I wasn't. When I tried to send the ball to his far side, that 100% lead to smash come back. So I tried to return to center but then they changes the direction to lead another pop up...

How can I safely hit back against such drop shot with such top spin? Step back and dink? Or more lean forward for better volley returns?

Against dink with heavy top spin, should I need to counter spin? What would be the best way?

The problem is that, since we play around intermediate level and drill within intermediate level players, we don't have that much chance to play and return such high quality balls. Pressure and lack of experience were key to our failure last night. But I don't know what to do to improve. I already spend too much $$$ to PB this year so coaching session is too much...

The question is for groundstroke serve return. I'm writing this question with 2HBH drive in mind, but it also applies to forehand drive.

If the incoming ball is extremely fast to your body or BH side that you cannot expect or predict, so that you don't have time to bring proper footwork, what would be the best secondary option? Or any half foot works or emergency half steps to save the 2HBH? Or give up 2HBH and do 1HBH slice?

I know the proper foot work is important for 2HBH. But this question is not about proper foot work as I already know that part. This is question about the situation when there is no time to bring proper full footwork for 2HBH, for whatever reasons.

In ideal situations and drills, I can bring the full proper foot work. But things aren't always ideal on the court, and opponents never send balls so good, slow, and predictable like drills.

3.7 player. My forehand drive is OK, it isn't perfect yet, but at least I think I build a good consistency for my forehand drive and drip shot. I use semi-western for my forehand drive from baseline or close to base line and I switch my grip as I approach to the kitchen.

But problem is my 2HBH backhand drive, especially the top spin is too lacking. Top spin is there but it's way too weak. Compared to forehand drive, my 2HBH drive looks like a 75% flatter shot in general.

I do hit with my left hand as a main for my 2HBH as right hander. But I don't do wrist lag for 2HBH drive like my forehand drive for consistency. For me, for some reason, it feels too awkward to bring wrist lag like forehand for my 2HBH with loose wrist and loose grip. It seems pros do wrist lag for 2HBH drive from single games, but I don't know how to.

So I end up focusing more on pushing the ball and applying top spin without wrist motion. But I found that the ball doesn't drop like my forehand, so my 2HBH drive tends to fly beyond the baseline even with a bit of pace.

Are there any tips to enhance top spin to my 2HBH drive? Or, how to bring a proper wrist lag for 2HBH drive?

Regardless of wrist lag, I just hope to enhance my 2HBH drive, so that I can bring more consistent 2HBH drop or drip shot.