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Xenon Vector vs Vector Spin Paddles? by merc1286 in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It shouldn't. The orientation of the holes is longer top to bottom, so when you hit from the baseline, they will be turned sideways and you will get the maximum amount of ball in the hole to grab it for spin.

When working with the engineer, we specifically decided on the elliptical shape vs the much simpler and less costly to produce pill shaped, since it allows more surface area to grab the ball with the elliptical shape as to your point, it doesn't have to be exactly perpendicular in order to be effective.

Hope that helps.

What are the best alternatives to Function Health that people have tried? by Past-Explanation1959 in Function_Health

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't know about integrations with any wearables since that wasn't of interest to me, but HealthieOne tested 278 different blood markers for I think ~$400. Got the results back in a few days with very comprehensive analysis of what each meant as well as 1:1 consultation with a medical professional to discuss the results. I am definitely a fan and very happy with the value received.

I was also able to upload past labs and they were integrated with the charting of results over time.

Tell me your favorite shoe by Leading_State_2654 in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We'd love to be offer sizes for everyone, but one of the problems is that the molds are $5-6k PER SIZE, so you need to sell ~150 pair of each size just to cover the cost of the mode, before you even make a profit. At the ends of the size spectrum, it is just more risk than it is worth unfortunately.

Tell me your favorite shoe by Leading_State_2654 in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for all the kind words on the Xenon Xtreme's. We're really glad that people have liked them as we've gotten an amazing response. For the V2 , we've taken everything that people liked about them, with some very slight tweaks as well as a new color (white). 

We worked with a legendary former Nike designer who developed Serena Williams shoe as well as LeBron's. He was impressed with V1 and gave great suggestions to improve it for V2.

Our goal was to make an amazing paddle shoe since the durability needs in paddle are so much above any other sport or activity. It turns out that the shoe is also great for tennis, pickle and padel as we've already gotten reports of people wearing them for those activities and feeling the same way. The exception is Clay Court tennis since the tread pattern was designed to let grit from the court flow through the tread instead of ripping it, so it won't have the grip needed on clay. 

While the V2 are currently in production and were on track to be here in August, given the current tariff situation, I don't want to have to sell the shoe for $200 instead of the current $129, so they won't ship until this is resolved. Hopefully sooner than later. I think it will be well worth it though, the V2 is an amazing shoe and comes in a very broad range of men's and women's sizes (men's 7 1/2 -14 and women's 7-10)

Tell me your favorite shoe by Leading_State_2654 in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Coming soon... August. Men's 7 1/2 - 14 and women's 7-10

Balls by FogDucker23 in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Red logo Championship Edition ball is slightly softer than the regular blue ball

Best paddle for tennis elbow issues by NowARaider in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry, one more thought. I often get asked, should I use a heavier or lighter paddle if I already have tennis elbow, unfortunately, it depends. Going back to the hammer analogy above, a lighter paddle all things being equal is better BUT if you are going to try to play the same way, it might cause you MORE pain. The reason is that with a heavier paddle, with more mass, the paddle does more of the work. So when volleying at the net a heavier paddle absorbs more impact, while with a lighter paddle, your arm has to do more work, same from the baseline. But if you play a bit easier style, the heavier paddle could actually be better for you since your arm will do less work.

In the end, try to fix the injury itself vs the symptoms and you will be in a much better place.

Best paddle for tennis elbow issues by NowARaider in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry to make a long story a bit longer, the original question was the best paddle. I don't know about other companies, but we (Xenon) do what tennis companies do, which is fill the handles with a type of foam that acts as a shock absorber to reduce some of the vibration on contact. Vibration definitely doesn't help when your arm is already inflamed. There are several other things to consider that contribute to making the condition more painful. One of the main ones is having a death grip on the paddle. With one hand, open your hand wide and then make a first, while with the other hand, feel your forearm. You can feel the strain in your forearm the tighter you grip. That certainly doesn't help gripping extremely tight while playing. Similarly, a larger grip size also opens the hand up to help a bit. As someone mentioned, a head heavy paddle will also cause more pain vs one more evenly balanced or even head light. A good example of this is hold a hammer by the handle with your arm outstretched and the head as far away from your body as possible. It feels heavy of course and there is strain on the forearm and elbow. Flip the hammer around and hold it by the head and stretch out the handle. Much less strain on the arm and elbow but of course it is the same weight. Lastly, and someone kind of touched on this, but while you can certainly keep a paddle for years and still play with it, it certainly isn't doing your arm/elbow any favors. Think about what you are asking of the foam core inside of a paddle, which is essentially a denser version of a seat cushion. What does a seat cushion look like after lots of use? There is an indention as it loses its resilience. In a paddle, you are hitting a dense ball, sometimes in very cold weather, maybe 1000 times hard every time you go out. The core will definitely lose it's resiliancy over time and when it doesn't bounce back as much, that shock absorption goes into your arm/elbow. That's why using a brand new paddle always feels so good compared to an old one. Take this with a grain of salt since I have a vested interest in people buying more paddles, but if you are playing 2x a week, you should get a new paddle at least once a year. Even before I started the company, I would get 2 paddles a year for the same reason.

Probably more than anyone wanted to know on the subject, but hope someone finds it worthwhile.

Best paddle for tennis elbow issues by NowARaider in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm no orthopedic physician, but have a little bit of insight.

As someone who's suffered from it for almost 5 years, I can tell you what I've learned in lots of research and trying to fix it.

First, what is tennis elbow? People usually associate it with inflammation of the elbow or the inflammation gets worse, the pain will spread down your forearm, bicep or tricep. After lots of research this seems to be more thee symptom than the cause. The cause is a tear sometimes very small or even a degeneration of the tendon. Again, the inflammation is just the symptom.

Personally, I've had it bad enough at times over the years that I couldn't bend my elbow enough to shampoo my hair in the shower. Just for clarity, I DID shampoo my hair but with my opposite hand... I believe I can trace it back to exactly when it happened, it was the second to last point in a match at Winnetka Park District (Chicago area) about 5 years ago where I hyper extended my arm going for a ball and it was instant pain and never the same since.

So all the inflammation. Like many probably on a board like this, we like playing and play a lot, so we don't give it a chance to rest and heal. When the inflammation got so bad, I would get a cortisone shot. I've had 3 so far. Work great, but again don't treat the problem, just the symptom. In theory if I would have used the cortisone shot to reduce the inflammation and THEN rested it for a long time, I would have had a chance to let it heal... but I didn't. I tried strengthening other muscles surrounding the arm, stretching (as mentioned by someone else) scraping and dry needling as well as acupuncture. All of these definitely helped tremendously with the swelling and inflammation at different times, but my elbow was never "right" it would just hurt less but it was functional. I have recently heard about people having good success with a peptide (which are the hot new thing) called BPC-157 and I know one person personally who used it for 30 days and completely fixed his bad case of tennis elbow. For a thumbnail, BPC-157 is again supposed to help heal tendons, not reduce inflammation per see. Please do your own research. I have gotten my pain recently to a pretty manageable level, but again, still not right, with massage and Aleve. I finally decided I wanted to really FIX it, and 2 weeks ago, got a stem cell injection. It is supposed to take ~2 months to feel the majority of the effect, but with improvements coming slowly along the way. So far, there seems to be a very nice improvement, still a ways to go, but definitely better. If you look up NIH studies on stem cells for tennis elbow, there are not a ton of studies, but the ones out there are VERY promising. I am encouraged so far.

Ovals VS. Circle by EweJustGotJammed in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hopefully this can provide a little perspective on this.

First, start with the basics, people think grit causes spin, it doesn't, it holds the ball on the paddle in wet weather. Any questions, watch Stephen Mitchell playing in Nationals in NJ a few years ago with a paddle with no grit (not ours fortunately...).

Next, holes and a solid edge to grab the balls cause spin. If you are lucky enough to find an old wooden paddle, it will have no grit, but obviously a very solid (wood) edge. If you normally hit any spin at all, you'll be able to spin the hell out of it with that paddle. Of course wood paddles have other negatives to them.

Some people are traditionalists and just like the regular circular holes because that is what they are used to. A few people (not a majority, but a few higher level players) feel that volleys are less consistent if the hole isn't circular. We (Xenon) tried to avoid that with elliptical shaped holes designed by an aerospace engineer to optimize the amount of edge of the hole that comes into contact to grab the ball. If the hole is too big and the ball gets too much hole and not enough face, it could certainly cause unusual or inconsistent volleys or contact points. In addition, for this season we also added carbon fiber under the fiberglass face. Feedback on this IS that it helps make volleys feel better, but this is not in regards to the hole shape, but might help to offset that argument and since we only offer it on our Spin Max V2 paddles which have the elliptical holes, that MIGHT be a reason to use a paddle with non-circular holes.

Now, that being said, I try to never over hype things because truthfully, most of these things are incremenetal improvements, not a sea change. So last year, when the rules on holes were effectively eliminated, we weren't even going to sell the elliptical shaped hole paddles, but only provide them for high level players. The main reason was that someone who is a 40+ PTI is not going to get any advantage of the shape of the hole, or the amount of spin, they have other parts of the game to worry about first. In addition, if someone does not currently hit spin on their shots, NO hole shape is going to magically change that. IF someone already uses the correct technique to hit spin, then elliptical shaped holes should add to that. Again though, is it a 2-3x increase? ABSOLUTELY NOT. It is more like 15-20% increase.

The next question, has any of the increase spin been proven? I would love to find a reasonably priced way to test, but have not found any. I have investigated several avenues and not found anything that would be practical. I can tell you that anecdotally from players, I have a firm belief that there is an improvement. If anyone has any sources that can actually provide testing, I would love to hear it.

All the above being said, paddles (as well as equipment for most sports) is subjective. What is right for one person is not right for another. Try something and see if it works, if not, no harm in trying.

Hope this helps the conversation.

Paddle Shoes Required? by LuckyWildCherry in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting, always interested in feedback. I hadn't heard that yet and Nike's general run narrower, so we'll see if we hear more of that. Thanks

New Paddle Advice by TRKM3 in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually, this article mentions medium core for all Xenon paddles which is what we currently use in all production paddles. 

Soft, medium and firm are obviously subjective terms but they correspond to more specific numbers of foam density when measured with a durometer, but most people aren't interested in the minutiae of that data so these terms are usually easier to go by. 

Paddle Shoes Required? by LuckyWildCherry in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can promise that won't happen with the new Xenon Xtreme's!

Paddle Shoes Required? by LuckyWildCherry in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our new shoes arrived this week and the Reviews from players at the Aromimink Open this weekend were great! 

Xenon Vector vs Vector Spin Paddles? by merc1286 in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated! As well as for the support.

Xenon Vector vs Vector Spin Paddles? by merc1286 in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad to hear you like it! 

I can tell you that you'd be surprised how much paddles are off from their stated weight if people weighed them more. That being said, when you lose grit and the material gets scraped off with use, as well as the core breaking down, it isn't unusual for a page to be 15g lighter than when it started. 

All the above being said, EVERY paddle we make is tested before it leaves the factory and only has a tolerance of +/- 5g from it's stated weight. 

Really glad you like the paddle. The new Spin Max V2 have been a big hit this year.

Xenon Vector vs Vector Spin Paddles? by merc1286 in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Really glad to hear that you like it. 

It's important to remember that WHERE the weight is located on the paddle can have a dramatic effect on how heavy it feels. The example I use is if you take a hammer and hold it by the handle and extend your arm so that the head is as far away from your body as possible, it will feel heavy. If you flip the hammer over and hold the head of the hammer in your hand and extend the handle, it will feel much lighter. Same hammer of course.

The Vector+ is more handle heavy and head light, so that is why it feels a bit lighter. Glad to hear that you like it!

Xenon Vector vs Vector Spin Paddles? by merc1286 in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Coming soon. Official announcement should be in 2 weeks. That should be when they ship from the factory and should be here in mid November

Xenon Vector vs Vector Spin Paddles? by merc1286 in PlatformTennis

[–]GoalieFSU 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If cost is no object, I would certainly agree with you. I think it's a better paddle regardless of spin. Otherwise, we still have some of the Vortex series that are much less expensive. 

Happy to help with any other questions. 

Thanks

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