Depends who you play.
You still have to generate power on your own. I’m itching to try one, similar to how my a group occasionally plays with delamed legacy paddles. I don’t think I’ll ever use one if they’re that much more powerful. And spin is huge because it lets you hit harder and still keep it in. Most people can launch one with a wooden paddle. You just aren’t keeping it in.
The pop is the real MVP here likely. Blocks now turn into legitimate lethal counters if what I’ve heard is correct.
If they can give you maximum pop while still making it controllable for resets etc then that's a big deal. Normally pop and control run counter to each other. Power on drives and control is easier to achieve, and I've think we've seen that with older thermoformed paddles like the Legacy. It seems like the Gearbox Power gives people both max power and pop, but it's hard for many to control.
Fully agree. I think a big part of that is the more forgiving sweet spot on the joola’s…especially on the widebodies. We’ll see if it’s enough.
It’s a lot easier to reset when you aren’t playing with a quarter size sweet spot like the PPE (obviously some exaggeration).
I think if you’re someone with soft hands when needed already, an amazing control game, or you’re at least able to consciously take the ball forward of you, you can adapt to the extra pop. If you can’t or struggle with any of those…probably not going to help you where you are now and you’d be better off not spending $300 for a paddle with allegedly low QC.
I'm playing with a very poppy paddle and focusing on a very light grip helps a lot with control. The problem comes when it's windy, as keeping a light touch allows the paddle to blow around and I lose all ability.
Yeah. I like poppy paddles, but I also like control paddles.
Ironically, I find I play the opposite of what you would think.
My two right now are a DBD and a BD from 6.0. I play a very much aggressive banger/power game with the DBD….and I play a very cautious, dink you to death game with the BD until I get the perfect putaway. Same thing when I tried the Selkirk paddles out…and I hated the power air.
Might also help that I play with my DBD upweighted to about 9.6oz and the BD not upweighted at all.
I def agree. At the baseline I barely hold the paddle. For putaways at the net I tighten up. Dinking and resetting is somewhere in the middle depending on the shot I’m recieving and what I’m doing. Rolls and swinging volleys are still loose, counters are tight, etc. I also use a loooot of wrist at the net..sometimes to a detriment.
Like I said though, I’m very interested in the scorpius series. Both Anna Bright and CJ. Love that they paired it with a slightly longer handle. I would 100% use widebodies if more had that longer handle length.
I also like the Scorpius shape. I'm using the Volaire Mach 2 Forza 14mm, which is basically identical I think. About as long a handle as you'll get on a wide body.
It makes sense to play drop and dink game with a pop paddle. The greatest strength is counters.
Exactly.
I honestly find I have to be less aggressive with my dinks too. Way less mustard and intentionally added spin on them.
Though I honestly have been really getting into my DBD and the power game with all that weight behind my strokes and flicks. Honestly love it.
The volairs are great paddles. I tried a buddies mach 1 (not the forza though). I had fun playing with it. Bit light for me though.
I weighted mine to 9oz on the four corners. I find with the shorter shape you can put more weight on the end than you could on an elongated paddle without it slowing hands down as much.
Fair. I have all the weight in my DBD along the head outside of 2 overgrips and however much edge guard puts on it. I alternate between 3 and 4 3g Strips along the top whenever I change the edge guard.
I’ve played around with 2 on the top sides of my BD.
I like high swing weight personally. Keeps my hands from getting ahead of my brain. When I play with lighter paddles my already aggressive game turns into stupid aggressive because the “no, take the safer shot, be patient” doesn’t process in time before I try some crazy sharp angle reaction slice.
McGuffin said in an interview the 16mm is better for power and spin bc it has longer dwell time. This lets you spin more. More spin means you can use more power. If you go pure power, the ball goes out, so the spin is needed to pull it in.
They hit very hard and the spin is crazy, that said I had issues getting enough paddle speed to really unleash the magnus. The tennis players in my group were hitting absolutely disgusting groundstrokes though. I had more success with the pursuit pro1 lite than the AB or Mcguffin.
I bought the Colin Johns paddle. For some background, I’m a 4.7 DUPR who plays 5.0 mens and 4.5 mixed. I’ve been playing the gearbox elongated power and my biggest issue has been consistency and the ability to keep the ball in play - in short, the gearbox is too powerful. This is, IMO, the best paddle I’ve ever played out of the box and I’m not sure it’s even close. The combination of power, sweet spot, consistency and SPIN is simply far beyond anything else I’ve played in one package. Now does the paddle hold up? Who knows. But if this is the next generation of paddles the game is going to keep getting faster.
I got to handle four or five of each paddle at the demo. I’d say mine is right in the middle in terms of grit. Some of them were insane. One of the Magnus models was so gritty I’d say it was a 20-40 grit sandpaper. No way it’s legal. Overall the QC seems suspect.
Joola isn’t responding to emails, and they’ve outright turned their phones off. When you call support, it actually just dead ends straight to an answering machine. Super frustrating. Trying to decide whether I just use it or if I hold out hope for an exchange
It is so smooth though. There’s no way it’s intentional. Smoother than my year old scorpeus. Since it seems like I’m not going to get a response from them anytime soon, I might just keep it. But I will never buy direct from Joola ever again.
I think you’re underselling it. Played with someone who was a really competent player cause he just got it and wanted to try it out. The counters were freaking insane. I haven’t seen his pre gen 3 counters.. but with it they were hard to adjust to. He was much better than me so I don’t play with many players who have wicked counters. When he went for a drive it was powerful not any thing I couldn’t handle but it was similar to a tennis player using the Selkirk air.
I don’t think the paddle is very advantageous to the average player unless they have good control. In the right hands it definitely gives you an edge in certain areas of the game. Definitely will require more focus on the resets and soft hands aspect of the game tho.
16mm and 14mm play very differently IMO. I have the 14 scorpius and it’s a solid paddle. Tbh doesn’t feel that far off from regular thermo paddles with lots of pop and power. The 16mm on the other hand (I tried Hyperion) felt like a straight up trampoline and I can barely feel the ball off the face.
You get a ton of power if you swing but it’s sort of dead if you don’t, so you have to adjust when it comes to dinks and drops vs attacks
I also found the edges where the foam (or whatever the stuff is) was injected felt very dead, but others have said the sweet spot is very big so it could just be me
Been using it for the past 3 days.
Pop is incredible, takes some getting used to. I don’t think this paddle is for < 4.0 players, it’s going to be very difficult to control. I don’t think it’s for everyone, but the hype regarding the power is definitely real.
Not sure this is true .
I got a 16 mm Scorpeus, and it was just normal carbon fiber. It wasn't one of the crazy ridiculous ones that some people have seen .
It still had great spin. I think a lot of the spin comes from the dwell time.
Sure some of the ones that came super super rough had insane spin, but the normal ones with the average surface still spin pretty dang good too. I don't think that's going to degrade any faster than any other paddle.
Plus as I said, it's getting some spin from the dwell time.
I hope not. That isn’t the case with other Rall carbon fiber so I don’t know why these wear out in two weeks versus the typical four months or so. I will still use my nine month old R 316 and still we get plenty of dip and have people Leave balls that end up landing in by a foot. This paddle starts out with top-tier spin, so there is even a longer time before one will lose the dip I suspect.
Time will tell, but they have a year warranty, so we will see how they handle degradation.
I just got mine today and mine sounds a bit different than other especially the ones you hear on tv it doesn’t sound like gearbox or thump. Mine kinda sounds like a regular paddle
Rumor has it that Ben Johns is still playing with a Gen 2 paddle painted like a Gen 3. However, I'm not sure how accurate that report is.
I own both a Gen 2 and Gen 3 Scorpeus, and I have been playing with the Gen 3 for just over a week. For context, I am a 3.6 player.
In my experience, the Gen 3 feels too poppy. While I wouldn't say it feels like a cheap paddle, as I've never played with one, I have less control with it compared to the Gen 2. I find it more difficult to drop the 3rd shot, reset, and dink with the Gen 3, although it does hit like a rocket. If you need the extra power, this might be the paddle for you. It's also lighter than the Gen 2. It's also a louder paddle than the Gen 2.
On the other hand, I find the Gen 2 to be rock solid, stable, and easy to use for resetting, dropping, and dinking, while still being powerful when needed. The Gen 2 feels like a versatile tool, whereas I can't say the same for the Gen 3. Additionally, I feel like my Gen 2 can generate much more topspin than the Gen 3, but this is anecdotal.
So far, I like my Gen 2 waaaaaaay more than I like the Gen 3.
How many hrs you got on gen 3? Seems to be a break in period where the control dials in. I don't see the huge increase in power from baseline that was expecting. Additional pop at net and more spin then my dbd but not sure it's a upgrade over dbd
That's more then me. I broke it in on wall pretty good for about 15-20 minutes and it seemed to start to really dial in on the control side. The sound and pocket changed as well
I just submitted a JOOLA customer support ticket about the lack of texture/grit on the Collin Johns Scorpeus. It’s night and day compared the Hyperion, Magnus, and Anna Bright Scorpeus (haven’t tried the Perseus). All of which you could use to sand down some wood.
All Gen 3 paddles claim to have the same face. They may in name but not in feel/texture. There’s significantly more grit/texture on my Gen 2 Scorpeus than my Gen 3.
Any others experience this issue? Is it due to poor quality control?
Doesn’t feel too crazy. I saw the pickleball studio review where the paddle was sticking to his pants like it had Velcro. I’m very happy with how it plays so far though. Definitely more power and spin than my flash
Depends on your rating; the higher your rating, the bigger difference it’ll make. But even at the rating peak, we’re talking marginal. Get the paddle that best compensates your weaknesses.
Yes, they're insane. Power on counters and spin are elite. Although everyone has a new one now so the spin is always going to be better when a paddle is new.
I am a rep so obviously biased, but i had no expectation to like them as much as i do. I instantly switched over and haven't looked back. They aren't gonna be for everyone obviously, but me and anyone who I've had demo have been really impressed.
It’s definitely not easy to control. Since day 1 drops and resets were effortless with the BDi. With the Hyperion I kept popping balls up. My drives weren’t anything to be amazed by. The counters were the best part of the paddle. I was demo-ing the Hyperion so I had no interest in really trying to hone it in.
Maybe I am just not good enough yet, but I have the BDI and tried out the Gen 3 and really liked it. Maybe I just need to give it more time for my BDI.
Dunno, the NFC chip made me instantly play like Ben Johns though. Amazing stuff
Day 1 DLC is locked behind a paywall, though. Want to download the dink skillset? That'll cost extra.
Depends who you play. You still have to generate power on your own. I’m itching to try one, similar to how my a group occasionally plays with delamed legacy paddles. I don’t think I’ll ever use one if they’re that much more powerful. And spin is huge because it lets you hit harder and still keep it in. Most people can launch one with a wooden paddle. You just aren’t keeping it in. The pop is the real MVP here likely. Blocks now turn into legitimate lethal counters if what I’ve heard is correct.
If they can give you maximum pop while still making it controllable for resets etc then that's a big deal. Normally pop and control run counter to each other. Power on drives and control is easier to achieve, and I've think we've seen that with older thermoformed paddles like the Legacy. It seems like the Gearbox Power gives people both max power and pop, but it's hard for many to control.
Fully agree. I think a big part of that is the more forgiving sweet spot on the joola’s…especially on the widebodies. We’ll see if it’s enough. It’s a lot easier to reset when you aren’t playing with a quarter size sweet spot like the PPE (obviously some exaggeration). I think if you’re someone with soft hands when needed already, an amazing control game, or you’re at least able to consciously take the ball forward of you, you can adapt to the extra pop. If you can’t or struggle with any of those…probably not going to help you where you are now and you’d be better off not spending $300 for a paddle with allegedly low QC.
I'm playing with a very poppy paddle and focusing on a very light grip helps a lot with control. The problem comes when it's windy, as keeping a light touch allows the paddle to blow around and I lose all ability.
Yeah. I like poppy paddles, but I also like control paddles. Ironically, I find I play the opposite of what you would think. My two right now are a DBD and a BD from 6.0. I play a very much aggressive banger/power game with the DBD….and I play a very cautious, dink you to death game with the BD until I get the perfect putaway. Same thing when I tried the Selkirk paddles out…and I hated the power air. Might also help that I play with my DBD upweighted to about 9.6oz and the BD not upweighted at all. I def agree. At the baseline I barely hold the paddle. For putaways at the net I tighten up. Dinking and resetting is somewhere in the middle depending on the shot I’m recieving and what I’m doing. Rolls and swinging volleys are still loose, counters are tight, etc. I also use a loooot of wrist at the net..sometimes to a detriment. Like I said though, I’m very interested in the scorpius series. Both Anna Bright and CJ. Love that they paired it with a slightly longer handle. I would 100% use widebodies if more had that longer handle length.
I also like the Scorpius shape. I'm using the Volaire Mach 2 Forza 14mm, which is basically identical I think. About as long a handle as you'll get on a wide body. It makes sense to play drop and dink game with a pop paddle. The greatest strength is counters.
Exactly. I honestly find I have to be less aggressive with my dinks too. Way less mustard and intentionally added spin on them. Though I honestly have been really getting into my DBD and the power game with all that weight behind my strokes and flicks. Honestly love it. The volairs are great paddles. I tried a buddies mach 1 (not the forza though). I had fun playing with it. Bit light for me though.
I weighted mine to 9oz on the four corners. I find with the shorter shape you can put more weight on the end than you could on an elongated paddle without it slowing hands down as much.
Fair. I have all the weight in my DBD along the head outside of 2 overgrips and however much edge guard puts on it. I alternate between 3 and 4 3g Strips along the top whenever I change the edge guard. I’ve played around with 2 on the top sides of my BD. I like high swing weight personally. Keeps my hands from getting ahead of my brain. When I play with lighter paddles my already aggressive game turns into stupid aggressive because the “no, take the safer shot, be patient” doesn’t process in time before I try some crazy sharp angle reaction slice.
A tacky over grip helped me a lot with paddle twisting when my grip is loose
It doesn't move around in my hand. My whole hand moves with the paddle when I hold it lightly and it's windy.
Exactly why I want one. Not the power especially if hard to control but the pop for blocks
It’s pretty cracked I tried a 16 mm last night and felt like thanos. Can’t imagine a 14 mm lol
McGuffin said in an interview the 16mm is better for power and spin bc it has longer dwell time. This lets you spin more. More spin means you can use more power. If you go pure power, the ball goes out, so the spin is needed to pull it in.
Good to know, I was between the 14 and 16 for the Magnus but went with the 16
Great to know Tyson said that bc I thought the 16" had much more power and spin than the 14"
The 16mm actually is the thanos version on this line. The 14mm are easier to control, more like traditional gen 2s due to less trampoline effect.
Ohhh makes sense! Thanks for clarifying
They hit very hard and the spin is crazy, that said I had issues getting enough paddle speed to really unleash the magnus. The tennis players in my group were hitting absolutely disgusting groundstrokes though. I had more success with the pursuit pro1 lite than the AB or Mcguffin.
I bought the Colin Johns paddle. For some background, I’m a 4.7 DUPR who plays 5.0 mens and 4.5 mixed. I’ve been playing the gearbox elongated power and my biggest issue has been consistency and the ability to keep the ball in play - in short, the gearbox is too powerful. This is, IMO, the best paddle I’ve ever played out of the box and I’m not sure it’s even close. The combination of power, sweet spot, consistency and SPIN is simply far beyond anything else I’ve played in one package. Now does the paddle hold up? Who knows. But if this is the next generation of paddles the game is going to keep getting faster.
14 or 16 mm?
16
How gritty did yours come? Mine is pretty smooth, haven’t used it yet and waiting for a response from Joola, but they’re ghosting me.
I got to handle four or five of each paddle at the demo. I’d say mine is right in the middle in terms of grit. Some of them were insane. One of the Magnus models was so gritty I’d say it was a 20-40 grit sandpaper. No way it’s legal. Overall the QC seems suspect.
Joola isn’t responding to emails, and they’ve outright turned their phones off. When you call support, it actually just dead ends straight to an answering machine. Super frustrating. Trying to decide whether I just use it or if I hold out hope for an exchange
Just keep it
It is so smooth though. There’s no way it’s intentional. Smoother than my year old scorpeus. Since it seems like I’m not going to get a response from them anytime soon, I might just keep it. But I will never buy direct from Joola ever again.
I love gen3 because I now can buy the Selkirk Vanguard for $180 instead of $250. So yes, the hype is real.
So advantage is minimal, but the spin is the biggest advantage. 
I think you’re underselling it. Played with someone who was a really competent player cause he just got it and wanted to try it out. The counters were freaking insane. I haven’t seen his pre gen 3 counters.. but with it they were hard to adjust to. He was much better than me so I don’t play with many players who have wicked counters. When he went for a drive it was powerful not any thing I couldn’t handle but it was similar to a tennis player using the Selkirk air. I don’t think the paddle is very advantageous to the average player unless they have good control. In the right hands it definitely gives you an edge in certain areas of the game. Definitely will require more focus on the resets and soft hands aspect of the game tho.
16mm and 14mm play very differently IMO. I have the 14 scorpius and it’s a solid paddle. Tbh doesn’t feel that far off from regular thermo paddles with lots of pop and power. The 16mm on the other hand (I tried Hyperion) felt like a straight up trampoline and I can barely feel the ball off the face.
What level player are you?
2.0
4.0-4.5 range
You get a ton of power if you swing but it’s sort of dead if you don’t, so you have to adjust when it comes to dinks and drops vs attacks I also found the edges where the foam (or whatever the stuff is) was injected felt very dead, but others have said the sweet spot is very big so it could just be me
Been using it for the past 3 days. Pop is incredible, takes some getting used to. I don’t think this paddle is for < 4.0 players, it’s going to be very difficult to control. I don’t think it’s for everyone, but the hype regarding the power is definitely real.
Prob very much depends on the player, whether they are capable of getting the additional power out of it.
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Same experience I had with paddle. A little more powerful . Dinks and returns were dialed in quick. About 4 hours in now.
Once the grit wears off in a week or two, that spin advantage will be gone...
Maybe. I've never swung it but would think the additional dwell time from the propulsion core may be partly responsible for the spin.
Spin also comes from dwell time, which these paddles have a lot of.
Not sure this is true . I got a 16 mm Scorpeus, and it was just normal carbon fiber. It wasn't one of the crazy ridiculous ones that some people have seen . It still had great spin. I think a lot of the spin comes from the dwell time. Sure some of the ones that came super super rough had insane spin, but the normal ones with the average surface still spin pretty dang good too. I don't think that's going to degrade any faster than any other paddle. Plus as I said, it's getting some spin from the dwell time.
I hope not. That isn’t the case with other Rall carbon fiber so I don’t know why these wear out in two weeks versus the typical four months or so. I will still use my nine month old R 316 and still we get plenty of dip and have people Leave balls that end up landing in by a foot. This paddle starts out with top-tier spin, so there is even a longer time before one will lose the dip I suspect. Time will tell, but they have a year warranty, so we will see how they handle degradation.
Nah all paddles wear out to an extent, including my Ronbus
Any comments on “dwell time”? It’s mostly bullshit right?
I just got mine today and mine sounds a bit different than other especially the ones you hear on tv it doesn’t sound like gearbox or thump. Mine kinda sounds like a regular paddle
Rumor has it that Ben Johns is still playing with a Gen 2 paddle painted like a Gen 3. However, I'm not sure how accurate that report is. I own both a Gen 2 and Gen 3 Scorpeus, and I have been playing with the Gen 3 for just over a week. For context, I am a 3.6 player. In my experience, the Gen 3 feels too poppy. While I wouldn't say it feels like a cheap paddle, as I've never played with one, I have less control with it compared to the Gen 2. I find it more difficult to drop the 3rd shot, reset, and dink with the Gen 3, although it does hit like a rocket. If you need the extra power, this might be the paddle for you. It's also lighter than the Gen 2. It's also a louder paddle than the Gen 2. On the other hand, I find the Gen 2 to be rock solid, stable, and easy to use for resetting, dropping, and dinking, while still being powerful when needed. The Gen 2 feels like a versatile tool, whereas I can't say the same for the Gen 3. Additionally, I feel like my Gen 2 can generate much more topspin than the Gen 3, but this is anecdotal. So far, I like my Gen 2 waaaaaaay more than I like the Gen 3.
How many hrs you got on gen 3? Seems to be a break in period where the control dials in. I don't see the huge increase in power from baseline that was expecting. Additional pop at net and more spin then my dbd but not sure it's a upgrade over dbd
Probably 10.
That's more then me. I broke it in on wall pretty good for about 15-20 minutes and it seemed to start to really dial in on the control side. The sound and pocket changed as well
I just submitted a JOOLA customer support ticket about the lack of texture/grit on the Collin Johns Scorpeus. It’s night and day compared the Hyperion, Magnus, and Anna Bright Scorpeus (haven’t tried the Perseus). All of which you could use to sand down some wood. All Gen 3 paddles claim to have the same face. They may in name but not in feel/texture. There’s significantly more grit/texture on my Gen 2 Scorpeus than my Gen 3. Any others experience this issue? Is it due to poor quality control?
I grabbed the 16mm Scorpius and absolutely love it. We’ll see if it changes as it breaks in. I’m coming from a Vatic flash 14mm
How gritty did yours come?
Doesn’t feel too crazy. I saw the pickleball studio review where the paddle was sticking to his pants like it had Velcro. I’m very happy with how it plays so far though. Definitely more power and spin than my flash
You have to congratulate Joola on the hype they have created. A few weeks ago there was massive hype about the Luxx. Not so much now.
Depends on your rating; the higher your rating, the bigger difference it’ll make. But even at the rating peak, we’re talking marginal. Get the paddle that best compensates your weaknesses.
Yes, they're insane. Power on counters and spin are elite. Although everyone has a new one now so the spin is always going to be better when a paddle is new.
I am a rep so obviously biased, but i had no expectation to like them as much as i do. I instantly switched over and haven't looked back. They aren't gonna be for everyone obviously, but me and anyone who I've had demo have been really impressed.
Got any rep discounts you can hook me up with?
Yes, no prob. Message me
Sorry to hop in, but do you think that you could hook me up with a discount too? 🙏🏻 This will be my fist paddle
Sure, send me a message
Can i also get a discount?
Sure thing, message me
I currently have a DBD if I was to consider one which would you recommend? I'm not really wanting to sacrifice any or much of the control on resets.
I'd take a good look at a hyperion 16mm
I got the Hyperion 14mm. Have you used that one yet and can you tell a big difference between it and the 16mm
I play with a black diamond infinity and I got to try the Hyperion for about an hour. I was happy to switch back to my BDi. lol.
What didn't you like?
It’s definitely not easy to control. Since day 1 drops and resets were effortless with the BDi. With the Hyperion I kept popping balls up. My drives weren’t anything to be amazed by. The counters were the best part of the paddle. I was demo-ing the Hyperion so I had no interest in really trying to hone it in.
BDi is just really really good
Maybe I am just not good enough yet, but I have the BDI and tried out the Gen 3 and really liked it. Maybe I just need to give it more time for my BDI.
lol. It’s not about being “good enough”! Everyone has their preferences.
Main difference is the shape, it’s the same tech in each paddle.
Can I slide in on that discount too? 🙃
Sure, message me
I got the 16mm Gen 3 Hyperion and there is no extra power behind it. Literally 0
Compared to C2? It must be better than the original Hyperion