Tennis Background
I grew up playing tennis. I have a two-handed backhand in tennis. One thing that has been rough for me transitioning to pickleball has been getting topspin off the backhand side. Getting topspin has been rough for me on both dinks and high balls. When I started playing pickleball, I would slice everything that came to my backhand. Hitting underspin was just fine, but as I got better, it became apparent that I need to learn to hit some topspin.
One hand or two
I had years of muscle memory hitting topspin backhands with two hands and slice with one hand. Pickleball paddle handles are much smaller than tennis racket handles. For this reason, I never really used two hands. It was hard to get both hands comfortably on the handle. I was using the Selkirk Epic at the time. At this point, this paddle and the Invikta had the longest handle out of all the paddles Selkirk made. Engage has the Maverick paddle with an even longer handle, and I tried it. My hands could fit great on the handle!! But I did not like the paddle itself.
Injury
I decided to go all-in with a two-handed backhand, even if I couldn't fit my hands great on the Selkirk Epic handle. I choked down with my right hand and made it work. It felt great to hit topspin backhands with two hands. I couldn't ever get the power I wanted with one hand. Over a few months, I started to get pain in between some fingers on my left hand. The spot with the pain was where the finger was right up against the paddle. The pain got bad enough that I switched back to the Engage Maverick paddle with the longer handle. The pain went away because my fingers were not resting up against the paddle. I was not happy though. It did not have the Selkirk feel.
Mach6 Time
- It was at this time Selkirk released their Mach6 paddle. I was excited about it! I stayed up on the night of release so I could order one as soon as they were available. This paddle was all I dreamed of. My hands fit so comfortably on the handle, and it had the amazing Selkirk feel. If you have a two-handed backhand, you will love this paddle. I cannot recommend it enough.
The New Hybrid Mach6 from Selkirk
