GRUVN RAW-16X paddle review by The Pickleball Pirate Keith Valentine!
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I hold in my hands the new 16x paddle
from groovin and I gotta tell you I
really like this pedal hello everyone
I'm Keith Valentine I'm the pickleball
pirate and today I'm going to be talking
to you about the 16x paddle from groovin
really love this paddle if you want to
hear about it stay tuned okay I gotta
say I uh picked up this paddle and I was
pleasantly surprised now I don't mean
pleasantly surprised in the sense that I
expected it to be bad I just expected it
to be very very similar to the groovin H
model which it is if you look at the
shape of these paddles they're very very
very much the same shape very
um similar characteristics a little bit
difference though if I stack these up
here you'll see that the groovin H has a
little bit higher neck area a little bit
longer handle and the groovin 16x comes
down a little bit further than that and
what I think this does for this paddle
is give it a little bit more stability
my only knock on the the raw 16h was it
has a little bit of a smaller Sweet Spot
compared to the other carbon paddles of
its like so just to show you the size
comparison and the shape comparison so
here's the diadem Warrior Edge and you
can see that these paddles are almost
identical the difference between the
edge and this one is this one has a
little bit more blocky handle whereas
the diadem Warrior Edge has a more
modified handle it is actually shrunk
down because this is a 20 millimeter
paddle so they actually make the paddle
uh handle a little bit smaller so it
fits a little bit better in smaller
hands this is a little bit more head
heavy than the 16x so comparatively they
feel very similar all of these pedals
this one the warrior Edge the groovin
16h and the 16 millimeter carbon one
you're not going to go wrong with any of
these paddles it's really going to come
down to the graphics and the price is
going to be the main differentiator
between all these carbon face paddles
but I love the groovin 16x it's going to
to go in my bag along with these others
I have about seven paddles that I play
regularly on the channel and you can see
them in any games I play but they all
have similar characteristics because I'm
a control player so I love the carbon
face paddles because I don't need any
help from the paddle I don't need any
pop from the paddle I would say this has
moderate power I could still put the
ball away with it but as most carbon
face paddles they're not the poppiest
paddles on the market so when I played
this I was extremely surprised it was
like it had been in my bag and this
paddle would probably go in my bag and
stay in my bag and be one of the paddles
I play it has an incredibly large sweet
spot it doesn't feel like you could miss
the ball very much I really hit decent
shots with it my resets were phenomenal
my dinking was phenomenal my third shot
drops were really really good and I
think this paddle can generate a lot of
spin so as we start getting into this
carbon Face Market a lot of these
paddles they're all having the same
characteristic in fact a lot of these
pedals come from the same manufacturer
overseas so the difference is going to
start being the face material how they
do the face material and the core how
long will the core hold up I gotta say I
think the 16x is probably going to be
the best seller for Grooving and let's
just talk about some of the things I
liked and didn't like about it so the
first thing that I didn't like was it's
a little bit more of a blocky handle
just like any of the other 16 millimeter
paddles the the handles are a little bit
blocky so for females or people with
small hands you might want to go with
the 13 model the 13x model or the 13
model in any of these guys they have a
13 8 they have a 13x now you'll lose a
little bit of The Sweet Spot but you'll
get more power and spin so you got to do
something with the weighting when you go
to the the smaller handles I would say
that compared to any of the other 16s
out there this paddle is right up there
with them I didn't feel like I missed a
whole lot of shots with it I felt like I
could hit the ball all the way out here
on the edge and still have some control
and not lose all the power more so it
was really really good for that type of
stability blocking was really really
good in a very stable blocking the one
thing I think that groovin is doing
different than any of the other
manufacturers is these Edge guards the
color Edge guards you can order multiple
color Edge guards and I think this is
one of the unique factors about it
because most of the other brands other
than the diadem Warrior it it has a red
Edge guard all the other ones have black
Edge guards so this one actually gives
you some options for colors I know this
is a lime green it might not be the
color I would choose but hey it's a good
looking paddle it's a good feeling
paddle and I don't think you'd go wrong
with getting a paddle like this the
price is 160 plus the discount you get
or minus the discount that you get from
us this is a very very fair price paddle
and I think it's going to be very well I
think you do good to grab it so if you
like this review or you want to see any
other paddle reviews maybe this isn't
the paddle for you click here
