The J2CR's 4-Week Run Ended by 9 Views

How this list is built: I do not pick the paddles on this list, you do. It is generated from research activity across mattspickleball.com over the last week. No editorial curation, no sponsor influence, no paid placement. Some links are affiliate links, and no brand pays to be here. Codes are the same ones I use.

Format note: the Top 10 ranks by model line, so each family appears once no matter how many shapes it ships in. Movers leads the email.

The top spot changed hands by under half a percent. 11SIX24’s Power 2 climbed 11% and edged Honolulu’s J2CR out of a run it had held for 4 straight weeks, and the J2CR fell to #3. 11SIX24 also debuted the Jelly Bean 2 on the site on Wednesday and put it at #5 in 4 days, which gives one brand 2 lines in the top 5. The Spartus Spitfire posted the biggest climb on the board at 42% in its first full week on sale. 9 of the 10 lines run a foam core.

Under half a percent separated #1 from #2 this week. That is the closest finish I have measured since I started ranking by line, and it took 11SIX24’s Power 2 climbing 11% to get there while Honolulu’s J2CR cooled 9%. Four weeks at the top ended on a margin thinner than a rounding error.

The other story is how fast a launch can move now. 11SIX24 put 4 shapes of the Jelly Bean 2 on the website Wednesday afternoon, and by Sunday the line sat at #5, ahead of paddles that have been on the board for months. Last week’s issue had 11SIX24 holding 1 line. It now holds 2 of the top 5.

Breakout: Jelly Bean 2 | 11SIX24 Pickleball (new at #5, 4 shapes) Live on the website Wednesday, at #5 by Sunday, with all 4 shapes counting into it. The Hybrid carries most of the research. $169.99 · Code MPB · USA Pickleball approved.

New #1: Power 2 | 11SIX24 Pickleball (↑1 to #1, up 11%) It ends the J2CR’s 4-week run by under half a percent. The Ultre took the flagship shape back from the Vapor after 1 week. $209.99 · Code MPB · Full Review

Spitfire | Spartus (↑1 to #2, up 42%) The biggest climb of any line on the board, in its first full week with a checkout button. It is also the only single-variant line in the top 5. $109.99 (~$99 with code) · Code MPB · Full Review

Glider 2026 | Luzz Pickleball (↑1 to #9) It moved up while cooling 5%, which is what happens when the lines around you cool faster. $119 · Code MPB · Video Review

Heating in the long tail: Bread & Butter’s Loco climbed across all 3 shapes at once (Standard up 53%, Hybrid up 39%, Elongated up 36%), likely due to the insane sale they’re running right now to get space ready for the Loco 2 (!!). Speaking of which, use code MPB to buy a Loco for around $130! Ronbus had 2 movers in the Quanta family, the R5 up 64% and the R4 up 45%. Volair’s Mach 2 Forza rose 78% off a small base.

Ranked by what players researched on mattspickleball.com last week, grouped by model line so each family appears once. The number next to each line indicates how many buyable variants it groups. No editorial picks, no paid placement or sponsorship.

$209.99 · Code MPB · Buy · UPA-A Comes in Elongated, Hybrid and Standard. The Ultre Hybrid carries the price and specs below.

Contact is crisp, sort of sharp. That’s a characteristic of the MPP foam in the core. You know where on the face you hit it. Power is there without a big swing, and off-center contact holds its line. Get sloppy on a drop, and you’ll know it when it comes back hard.

$109.99 (~$99 with code) · Code MPB · Buy · USA Pickleball Elongated only.

I picked it up and played, with no adjustment period at all. The surface grit grabs hard enough that you can see some kick after the bounce, and the bite is there at slow swing speeds. It plows more than it snaps, and the sweet spot is generous when you miss center contact. Excellent value.

$195 · Code MPB · Buy · UPA-A Comes as a Hybrid. The Crystal Blue Long Handle carries the price and specs below.

This one plays fast for a foam core, quick enough at the net that punch volleys have excellent pace with minimal motion. Even light contact at the kitchen keeps generating friction, so backspin dinks bite, and topspin dinks dip.

$220 · Code MPB · Buy · UPA-A Comes in Elongated, Hybrid and Standard. The Hybrid carries the price and specs below.

Serves come off with more shape and stay lower without swinging harder, because the surface and core are doing that work. You can absorb a hard drive and reset it soft, or counter a hard drive and send it back quick. Grit is holding up very, very well after hours and hours and hours of play.

$169.99 · Code MPB · USA Pickleball Comes in Elongated, Hybrid and Standard. The Ultre Hybrid carries the price and specs below.

This went up on the site Wednesday. Four days later, all four shapes are near the top of people's research. The face measures among the grittiest I’ve recorded, and the Ultre swings really heavy for a hybrid. There’s a foam in this core I haven’t seen in a paddle before. 11SIX24 names it as EMA. EMA dents easy and feels rubbery, more insole than midsole (shoe reference)

It’s also the heaviest of the three on paper, roughly double the density, according to my research, and that shows up in the Ultre’s swing weight. Every Jelly Bean 2 swings heavier than the Power 2 in the same shape. The Vapor by almost eleven points.

$119.99 · Code MPB · Buy · USA Pickleball Comes in Elongated, Hybrid and Widebody. The Elongated carries the price and specs below.

I hated this paddle for 2 games, then it clicked in game 3, and after a few sessions I did not want to go back. This one…is, fantastic and a great value. When this model comes out with durable grit the market is going to go crazy. The crack off the face is sharp and you know immediately how clean you hit it.

$195 · Code MPB · Buy · UPA-A Comes as an Elongated. The Crystal Blue carries the price and specs below.

Coming from another elongated, this needs no adjustment period. It carries the same Crystal Blue surface as the J2CR CBG, so the bite on all shot types is the same. Resets come off easier than the power numbers would suggest, but hits toward the edge…and you’ll know it.

$119 · Code MPB · Buy · USA Pickleball Comes as an Elongated, in standard and DuraSpin faces.

This one is loud. The ball jumps off the face, so counters come off fast, and drops run long until you take some time to figure this one out. Point is, I didn’t pick this one up and played my best games, it took a while to figure this one out (or calibrate).

$119 · Code MPB · Buy · USAP & UPA-A Comes as a Hybrid. The Glider 2026 carries the price and specs below.

One of the best Gen 3 builds you can buy today. Drives come off faster than a paddle this light should manage, without the extra effort. Crisp on a punch, more give on full groundstrokes. The launch angle runs a little high, which gives margin on drops, and the grit has held through a couple of months of play.

$300 · Code INF-MPB · Buy · USA Pickleball Comes in Elongated and Standard. The Elongated carries the price and specs below.

The feel changes with how hard you swing, and not subtly: soft shots give at the face, drives come off crisp and firm. For my game, all shot types are just easier to execute. The side weights reposition cleanly and move the swing across a real range, so the Omni is easy to dial in to your preference.

6 paddles hit the website this week, from 3 brands.

11SIX24 added the full Jelly Bean 2 line on Wednesday, all 4 shapes at $169.99 and UPAA approved: the Ultre and Vapor hybrids, the Pegasus standard, and the Hurache elongated. The line went straight to #5.

Pickleball Apes added the Zen S+, a hybrid at $188.88, USA Pickleball approved. It drew the most research of any paddle outside the top 10 in its first week. Hollow and thuddy at contact. That’s the sound, and that’s the feel. It sits on the stiffer end of the spectrum, but I want to be careful with that word, because nobody is picking this up and going “whoa, this thing is so stiff.” It’s not. It’s closer to the midpoint. A denser kind of stiff.

Fortix Sports added the Lance 16mm, an elongated at $189, USA Pickleball approved.

Selkirk CourtStrike Pro 3.0 · $127.99 · Code INF-MPB · Buy · Rated 4 out of 5

Selkirk kept the outsole from the 2.0 and rebuilt everything above it. Breathability is the real gain: my feet come out drier and cooler after hot afternoons than they did in the Pro 2.0, and the lateral toe pressure point from the first two CourtStrikes is gone. The cushioning is firmer IMO.

One caveat: it runs long. Size down half a size from your v1 or v2 size.

One brand now owns 2 of the top 5 lines. 11SIX24 climbed 58% as a brand this week, took #1 with the Power 2, and landed the Jelly Bean 2 at #5 four days after putting it up. No other brand on the board holds more than 1 line. Honolulu is the closest, with the J2CR at #3 and the J6CR at #7, and it cooled 3% overall while 11SIX24 was climbing.

Every brand on this week’s board:

• 11SIX24 (Power 2, Jelly Bean 2): code MPB

• Spartus (Spitfire): code MPB

• Honolulu Pickleball Co. (J2CR, J6CR): code MPB

• Six Zero (Coral Pro): code MPB

• Enhance (Turbo MPP): code MPB

• PAKLE (Fuse): code MPB

• Luzz (Glider 2026): code MPB

• Selkirk (Omni, CourtStrike Pro 3.0): code INF-MPB

A gap that thin at the top is a coin flip, and I would rather tell you that than dress it up as a changing of the guard. What is real is the speed: a line that did not exist on Tuesday (Jelly Bean 2) is now #5.

The Jelly Bean 2 is next up for testing. Reply and tell me which shape you want measured first.

Matt