CONSTRUCTION GUIDE; The generation label is a shortcut. The actual core architecture matters more.
GENS, CORES & ARCHITECTURE

“Gen 4” does not tell you how a paddle plays.

I am separating normalized construction class, the brand’s marketing label, the actual core materials, and the on-court character. That makes it possible to compare two “Gen 4” paddles without pretending an MPP core, a floating EPP/EVA core, and a structured TruFoam core are the same thing.

NORMALIZED TAXONOMY

How the database classifies generations.

These generation names are industry shorthand, not official USAP categories. “Gen 3.5” and “Gen 4.5” are particularly inconsistent, so I preserve them as brand labels instead of treating them as universal standards.

GEN 1

Traditional honeycomb

Cold-pressed / conventional honeycomb construction without structural perimeter foam.

GEN 1.5

Honeycomb + edge foam

Traditional construction with perimeter foam added, but not the fully thermoformed unibody recipe associated with Gen 2.

GEN 2

Thermoformed honeycomb

Unibody/thermoformed honeycomb construction with perimeter foam. The playing core is still honeycomb.

GEN 3

Foam-enhanced honeycomb

Floating or widened foam structures become a major part of the response, but honeycomb remains inside the playing core.

GEN 4

Foam-primary

Full foam, floating full foam, MPP/EPP foam, structured foam, or another architecture where foam replaces the conventional honeycomb playing core.

“GEN 4.5” / “GEN 3.5”

Brand label, not universal class

I show the wording when a manufacturer uses it, then classify the actual construction separately. That keeps marketing nomenclature from becoming the database schema.

CORE FAMILIES

The part I care about more.

Core material and architecture are much more useful for predicting break-in, feel and tunability than the generation number by itself.

01

PP honeycomb

Traditional polymer cell structure. Cell size, thickness, thermoforming and perimeter foam can change the response dramatically.

02

EPP / EPU foam

Common in foam-primary paddles. Density, perimeter elastomers and floating geometry influence stiffness, dwell and break-in.

03

MPP foam

Microcellular polypropylene-based foam seen in paddles such as Pakle/Enhance/Ronbus platforms. It can feel very different from conventional EPP.

04

EVA / TPE rings

Often used around a center core to tune rebound, stability, vibration and power. They are a layer in the architecture, not a generation by themselves.

05

Lattice / structured foam

Carbon lattices, wave cores, mortise-and-tenon foam and other structural systems deserve their own labels because “full foam” hides too much information.

06

Character ≠ construction

Power, control, low pop, dwell, forgiveness and fast hands are tracked separately. Two paddles with the same core family can still play nothing alike.

Filter by generation/core →How I review →