I went to Pickleball 101 four weeks ago at Sterling Heights Rec Center. I'll give you some tips. Before going I went on the Youtube website and searched pickleball and watched numerous videos for a couple of hours. This helped during class because one of the biggest stumbling blocks in 101 was scoring or how you score and how it's said out loud. I was ahead of the class because I had no problem and understood it completely. I also made note of the brand and type of paddles used in the videos, especially by the good players.
The next day when I actually took the 101 class the instructor allowed me to use one of his personal paddles instead of the free wooden paddles provided by the rec center. I liked his Onix Sports Z5 paddle and it was one of the paddles I saw in several of the videos.
The next day I went online and looked for the Onix Sports Z5 paddle at a couple of online sites and they had it for $73.99. Then I went to the 'Softballs R Game' store at Southern Trace and looked at their paddles. They had some nice ones for a good price but didn't stock Onix, they did have the Blaster 2 which was my second choice. I then went LSL on vendor night to the Pickleball stand. They had the Onix Sports Z5 Paddle for $64 so I bought it. Mine looks just like this.
