Senior Pickleball Paddle Pick: Engage Alpha Pro — Power, Spin, and Fast Hands at the NVZ

Hey everyone, Keith Valentine here, talking about the new Alpha Pro from Engage. Just a quick disclaimer here, this paddle was sent to me for free for a review. They were not promised any content and have no say in what I show in this review. So this opinion is my own. Now, let's just go over the specs real quick, then we'll get into the playing characteristics and then we'll end with who this paddle is for. So first off, this is a hybrid shape. It is a 16 and a half by seven and a half. It has a five and a half inch handle. So really good handle for the twoy. It's got a four and a quarter inch grip on it. Now both the 14 and the 16 both have the four and a quarter inch grip. So really good, comfortable one for smaller hands and really good for the twoy. So you can comfortably get two hands on here. This paddle retails for 207. They lowered the price here and with our discount, you can get this for under 200 bucks. So for 200 bucks, the specs I'm about to give you make this paddle a really good purchase for the price point. So this is their first foray into the carbon fiber face thermo form unibody. So let's go through the normal characteristics. It is a thermo formed unibody. It's got the sealed edges with the foam injected edges. And then it also has an EVA foam ring around the inside. Now, one of the things that they're doing a little bit differently is they've got their PowerPro core, but they've got a thinner layer of the EVA foam. So it's more of a thinner layer here. And then they've got a little bit more EVA foam here around the neck. We know that a lot of companies are doing that to give you a little bit more power down by the handle. So it's not the dead spot. Like most paddles have a dead spot right here. So what they're doing is they're putting more mass down here by the handle. That'll help with the twist weight and that'll help with the power down here in the handle area. Now, as far as the specs go, this thing has a swing weight of 117. It's got a 6.25 twist weight. And this is around 2,300 RPMs on the spin. One of the higher performance in the 84th percentile on spin. It is also a power paddle. This paddle ranks up there with the Opals of the world. It's a little bit more powerful than the Perseus Pro 4 and Hyperion. So the Yola paddles, this is more powerful than several of their models. So top power, top spin on this paddle. The twist weight and the swing weight, a little bit low on the twist weight. It's only 6.25. That puts it in the 60% category, 60, 65% category of the paddles tested by Just Paddles, but with a little bit of weight. So this comes in from 7.9 to 8.2 ounces. So I play mine at about 8.3. So I just put a little bit of tungsten tape here on the edges, kind of similar to where the Selkirk Boomstick has their MOI weighting right here on the edges. That brings this up closer to a 6.7 swing weight, which is a lot more stable on the paddle. But with the top spin and the top power, this paddle is a good top performer there. Now this is in the power category. This would be in the upper third of the power category. There are paddles more powerful than it. And there are paddles that have more spin on it in the top tier. But this is in the good 85, 90 percentile. In all the metrics that you care about, it's 95 percentile when it comes to the power. Now, in this paddle, I was able to pick this paddle up and immediately be able to play with it. I was able to hit all the shots I needed to hit. I was able to hit third shot drops, third shot drives, really stand it out on the power shots and really stand it out in the pop. Counterpunching with these paddles, I could really just get the ball away. I was winning more hands battles, really getting the ball onto my opponent pretty quickly. For a power paddle, this paddle is very controllable and very even across the face. So because the twist weight is in the sixes, we need to get that up around seven if you want a super stable paddle. But for a power paddle, very controllable. In the kitchen, I was able to do anything I wanted to shape it with the dinks and with any kind of counter punches and being able to generate offense because of the spin. Now, this is more of a crisp feeling. So if you like the plush feeling power paddles, like the Opal that's plush, Opal has a smaller sweet spot, but the plushness of that feel, this is more of a crisp feeling and more of a striker's paddle. So the ball doesn't have an extreme amount of dwell time, but for a power paddle, super controllable, and you're able to do anything you want, any shape you want. And because of the extra spin and the power that comes off of this thing, this is a counter puncher's dream and you can drive and do everything you want with power with this paddle and you're gonna get some points with it. So the 16 is my choice. Amazing enough, the 14 millimeter actually has lower spin stats and lower power stats. So unlike a lot of the 14 millimeters versus the 16 millimeters on other models, the 14 millimeter in this model is actually less power, less spin, a little bit more deflection on it. So if you want the powerful one, the 16 millimeter, now the 16 millimeter is not UPA approved. It is only USAP approved, PB Core 43 approved. So it has more power than the UPA will allow, which tells you what category that's in. And the 14 millimeter is the only one that is approved on both. So the 14 millimeter is approved on the UPA and the USAP. That one is approved for both, but you are sacrificing a little bit of power. You're sacrificing about two miles an hour on the power and the exit velocity. And then you're sacrificing about 400 RPMs on the spin. So it is a lower spinning paddle, a little bit more deflection. The other thing that I appreciate about what Engage is doing, Engage has been around for a very long time. They're doing a limited lifetime warranty on this paddle. So any manufacturer defects, anything that is the core structure breaking down, they're gonna replace it for you. So that's always good. One last thing, the edge guard, the only knock I can really put on this paddle is the edge guard has paint on it. So it is a painted edge guard. So the paint does peel off a little bit when you rub it. So like, if you can see there, you can see that I've got some chips in it, but I usually put white electrical tape around the edges. I didn't on this one because I always play them stock. So I know how they perform at the stock level before I start weighting and modifying them. The other thing they've done is they got really firm slats in here. So the handle really is a firm handle, very pronounced bevels. You can see the bevels, the really good bevels here. So you can really feel where the paddle is at in your hands. Overall, I really like these paddles. This has been my main now for about four weeks and I'm really starting to settle in with it. The paddle had little to no break in. As far as I know, there's no warranty problems and there's no delamination in this. Now this is a gen three, right? So it is thermoformed unibody, just a reminder, two EVA foam rings, a little bit smaller EVA foam ring with the foam injected walls. Overall, very well worth the price with our pirate discount, you can get this for under $200. So look at our code below and if you don't like Engage and you wanna try a different paddle model, check these out.