Effortless spin with the Diadem Edge 18K

I’ve been playing with the Diadem Edge 18K paddle for a few weeks. Mainly versus 4.0-5.0 opponents. This seems to be one of the most slept on paddles. Players are overlooking it. You should wake up and give it a chance. As per usual, let’s start with a quick TLDR.

This paddle makes spin truly feel effortless. The 18K carbon fiber texture isn’t a gimmick. Instead of a drastic cutting motion, I can simply cut half or a third into the ball for the same amount of spin compared to my other paddles. It could use a bit more weight for wicked drives at the net, but I can’t hold that against this paddle. Almost every paddle is being released at a lighter weight so the player can customize it. So adding your own weight is par for the course since paddles keep getting poppier and more powerful.

This is a non-thermoform paddle. If you’re new to the pickleball scene, researching paddles, and wondering what the heck I meant by, “thermoform,” it’s basically how the paddle core is constructed with the face. Thermoform means it’s hot pressed during the molding phase. Unfortunately, those types of paddles have had defects because of the molding heat process. The core gets crushed and traps air in the holes of the core. This causes the paddle to have too much bounce or pop off the face. It can be so powerful it’s hard to control. Rest assured, many new paddles since May of this year experience this issue less to the point where it’s almost non-existent. The Edge 18K won’t suffer from this because it’s not hot pressed molded. Since it’s inherently a softer paddle you’ll find drop shots are much more natural. Thumbs up for that.

The Edge 18K is currently my go-to paddle. As a paddle nerd myself, I get in a situation where it’s difficult to main one paddle. I’ve gone from brand to brand, model to model, just trying to find the one. The one doesn’t exist. But you can find a paddle that offers specific traits that are important to your overall play style. And at the moment, the Diadem Edge 18K fits my spinny curvy needs.

My favorite shot with this is the backhand slice. I can cut right into the ball with a heavy slice and follow through with a slight curve. This type of shot is devastating if you are slicing from the opposite baseline corner. The shot will angle like it’s going out-of-bounds, then quickly curve right into the corner. If you’re playing 4.0s, you may find that they give up on it thinking it’s going out only for them to end up falling to their knees and weeping.

The only negative for me is plowing through an opponent’s hard drive while I’m at the net. When I played without customization, I could feel it twist from trying to return a hard drive at the net. It needs extra weight. Like I mentioned above, every paddle seems to be releasing at a lighter weight so you can customize it by adding your own weighted tape. I found adding 3 grams on each side of the bottom throat and 1.5 grams on the top corners works really well. I have no issue slapping a hard drive back at the opponent’s feet or angling a slap back that’s nonreturnable. Allow me to write a postface here: your mileage may vary. Every player is built differently. You’ll need to consider your build, strength, and height when researching and customizing paddles. The 9 grams of weight I add might be too much or too little for you. I know players that love playing with 10 oz. paddles and others that won’t play with anything that weighs more than 8 oz. Get a paddle, test it out for a few games, and take note of any issues. Customize from there.

Overall, the Diadem Edge 18K makes the spin shots I love much less risky. It makes the matches more fun to play since I feel like I don’t need to hold back on my favorite spin shots and serves.