As relatively novice players, we had been using inexpensive Panda KillShot paddles, and we were amazed at the difference these Kenji rackets made. Not only is the surface very grippy, the ball shoots off the thing at incredible speed. We wanted to make sure the difference was real, so we compared dropping a ball on this and the Panda racket from the same height. It wasn't even close.The curved handle takes some getting used to. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. It took a few hours of play before we felt comfortable with these rackets.We haven't tried any of the other $50 range rackets, so maybe they are all this good. (We got ours during the T-day sale, so they were much cheaper then...) But we were definitely impressed. It's definitely a huge step up for the beginning player...