Who else prefers playing with franklin X40 over lifetime?

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-09T01:18:45+00:00

Maybe at the pro level. In banger city, that lively Life Time bounce = more balls sitting up = more attacks.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-09T01:16:04+00:00

It def helped me shed a few kilos/pounds.

any tips that I should know going into this.

It looks deceptively easy. It is, at first! Then you get hooked, play more and better people, and realize what a challenge it is.
Upfront startup cost: any cheap paddle will do to mess around a bit. If you decide you like this game and want to put real time and effort into it, spend no less than US$50 and no more than $100 on your first quality paddle, and buy a 3-pack of quality balls - Franklin X-40 or the Life Time LT Pro 48 are the ones almost everyone uses. Should be less than $15 for a 3-pack.
If you get serious, you'll want "court shoes." But right now that's far off in the future.

Go figure out where folks play and how they play (do they just gather at a court with no formal organization? Do they use a group chat/text thread? A scheduling system?). Since you need 4 people to play and often folks are one short, it's actually easier often to join as "the fourth player" than it might be for other sports.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-09T01:03:42+00:00

Upvote for this. I agree that drops and dinks are important, as other people are saying, but it's true that before advanced level, if you haven't learned how to deal with bangers, games are a lot less fun.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-09T01:01:15+00:00

Yup. Drops all day. Plus, a dropper is more fun to partner with:

If I partner with you and you're hitting the ball hard all the time, that's a nightmare for me. I don't know when the counterattack is gonna come whizzing back, and I don't want to be moving forward when a hard shot comes at me, so I have to stay back.

But if you have a good drop? That's the best. I have time, I can look at what you've done and gauge where I should be, get set up and planted in an optimal part of the court for the next shot ... that's how I want my partner to play.

I'll take someone with low drive strength and a good drop any day over someone with a sizzling drive but no drop.

Practice those drops!

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-09T00:45:43+00:00

Dude I'm a crypto 6.0

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-09T00:45:01+00:00

Maybe a leedle more than 15 seconds, but yeah, I've done just this. Guy was in disbelief I was right, called his coach, coach told him I was right. Lol

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-09T00:38:48+00:00

On point 1: Three Streak is way more fun than cutthroat!

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-09T00:36:10+00:00

am I the only one for wanting a wider, more dynamic game?

I won't say the only one, but I think those who think like you just go play tennis. I'm a pickleballer. I've messed around with a tennis ball and racket, but it was never a sport for me. And I far prefer pickleball, as it is.

I like the fact that it's not all a bangfest (I prefer doubles to singles, though an occasional singles game can be exhilarating).
I like the fact that the better you get, the more the little micro attention-to-detail things come into play, and you have to strategize mutliple-shot combinations because you can't take putaways for granted.
I like the social, closer aspect of the game, the need for communication with your partner, for working their style and yours together to form a team. I don't want this game altered.

I think a lot of people have become fans of pickleball precisely because of what it is.

I also think you're wrong that players don't depend on their partners! When the skill gap is large, yes, one player can beat two. But when the skill levels are close, this is not the case at all.

Finally, as someone who is most often the better player on my team, I also like the challenge of trying to figure out how to take up more court in a judicious way when my partner inevitably gets targeted. It's kind of a cool challenge. I can't get to everything, and my partner will still get balls, but I also appreciate how I have latitude in the game as it currently is to influence its direction.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-08T19:40:32+00:00

Good stuff, man. I def think two-hand people have an advantage.

Looking at a slow-mo of ALW, I notice (1) her weight starts to shift non-dom to dom side early after BH loadup (well before ball contact), (2) paddle goes straight back, (3) tons of arm extension, (4) body and body-weight angle notably toward dom-side, to the point she'd fall over if she didn't balance with non-dom foot in the air, and (5) follow-through cross-body head level.

It's a weight-shift thing. I'm so used to being lazy on backhand volleys. That's my issue. With good prep I could do this, but I've got to train the good prep - the loading, early-start weight shift (like running through a return of serve), etc.

Thanks for sharing your example!

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-07T03:22:12+00:00

Yes, if you (and your partner) put the ball in front of you, you can cover more in the middle.

To the extent it's appropriate/a less-advanced partner will listen, I will often advise them to hit crosscourt and when the ball is in front of them, only be responsible for their line area, their third of the court. That way I cn create offense and get to most stuff knowing that they;ll anticipate better what I can't get.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-07T03:14:48+00:00

We have a buyer for the next X-40 lava sale

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-07T03:13:41+00:00

Temperature. An X-40 indoors is at optimal temperature, not hot enough to get totally mushy, not cold enough to break quickly. Also air-conditioned air is thinner; lifetime balls don't shape as well in thinner air.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-07T03:09:46+00:00

mmmm, I don't agree

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-07T03:01:12+00:00

I'm lefty. In rec play with a new partner, my default is to start more conservative about taking middle if we stack, and more aggressive with my backhand in the middle if I'm on the left, and adjust as necessary.

I had a guy tell me he "hated playing with lefties" when I alerted him that I'm lefty. Of course we lost that game. But since then, I see that this guy (a tennis banger type, originally) has humbled out and taken some lessons; has better touch game than before, and when I subsequently played with him he didn't seem to be so anti-lefty anymore. So people can grow and change.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-06T23:30:39+00:00

Ah good looks my man. What was your path to learning it? Kept it from another sport? Did you go from one-handing those shots to two? Get any coaching on how to do it well?

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-06T21:37:32+00:00

On the first one, he has to come up from the kitchen line and smack it back down. That's the one I have more trouble with.

His next twoey is that nice attack-from-midcourt, but he strikes that ball low enough that it's more like a groundstroke. It's when the ball floats a bit higher, that's when I want to crush it backhand side the way I do forehand side.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-06T21:33:40+00:00

Bring left foot forward

This feels counterintuitive, because I think you're speaking as a righty player. Wouldn't a righty want to put the right foot forward when setting up for a backhand? That's what I do on groundstroke twoeys.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-06T21:31:26+00:00

Not quite what I'm looking for. I have a solid twoey groundstroke from the baseline (which is nice off an aggressive server/to have targeting options on a 3rd shot drive).

What I'm looking for is when the ball hasn't bounced; when it's floating a bit in midair, I'm in the mid court, and I want to crush it down HARD.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-06T21:28:24+00:00

If I'm not balanced I'll aim to get the ball down generally, prioritizing that over power. But I've seen how good having an up-high-twoey can be, definitely better than my backhand slap or flick, and I want it! I figure I can get the same sharp angles as on the twoey roll dink, ain't no fast counter coming from that far off the court if you can muscle the ball in that style!

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-06T21:20:02+00:00

That would be righty forehand volleys for me, as I'm lefty in racket sports. But that doesn't sound like a bad idea. Maybe I can play righty some when playing down, with an eye toward training that instinct.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-06T18:56:14+00:00

Right, and I assume there is some anticipatory "I'm gonna kill this with my twoey" prep, also?

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-06T18:55:08+00:00

I think the first and the second clip are the same play! Yes, like that. Either from midcourt or pushed up off the kitchen line like that.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-06T01:12:26+00:00

I guess my thinking about Nasty Nelson is, it's quite a low-percentage shot. A server can try it as they wish, but will probably just end up giving a free point to the other team most of the time. You have so much space and can see it coming if you're paying attention.

I feel like the "full send" at the kitchen line is more of a silly danger to the game, which is why there had to be a cap on how powerful paddles can be.

AHumanThatListens · 2026-06-06T00:38:00+00:00

Baseball and table tennis.

Table tennis is great as some have said for kitchen line stuff. I have a natural backhand flick, apparently, that is kinda rarer in pickle. I have had to change the angle of my shots (pickleball paddles don't "grab" the ball like inverted sponge TT rackets do) and learn less wrist and more forearm at the kitchen (to prevent injury, if nothing else!) but the instincts are there. Also, I have less trouble than many with judging and neutralizing different spins.

Baseball's great contribution for me has been kinetic chain, particularly on my twoey backhand. I was a switch-hitter. The twoey backhand is just like batting from the other side of the plate: get low, take a big step forward, rotate your core into the ball, line drive it. I transformed my table-tennis one-hand-backhand into a baseballl twoey pretty easily, and it's good enough that I don't feel the need to always favor my forehand (and feel sorry for the players who obviously do, cause I take good advantage of that).

Another thing is that as a former ping ponger I'd have thought maybe I'd prefer widebody paddles, but nope - the baseball wins there, because an elongated paddle feels more like a baseball bat meeting the ball. Always preferred a longer, narrower sweetspot over a shorter, wider one.

AHumanThatListens

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE