The Jordan One Take 5: No, Its Not A Skate Shoe is yet another uniquely constructed paddle by the OneShot brand which has refined previous generations of paddles to create an edgeless, aerodynamic, elongated paddle intended for intermediate to advanced pickleball players.
After spending some time playing with the paddle throughout the summer and fall months, we now have a full review of the Jordan One Take 5: No, Its Not A Skate Shoe.
Please note this review is on the elongated 16.5″ length x 7.5″ width version of the Jordan One Take 5: No, Its Not A Skate Shoe. There is also a standard shape (16″ x 8″) which generally provides a larger sweet spot.
Pros
Pop
After a few sessions with the Jordan One Take 5: No, Its Not A Skate Shoe I noticed how good of a pop it provided. Particularly on punch volleys and push dinks, I found a good feel at the kitchen line as the ball tended to snap off the face of the paddle very well.
My thoughts are that using a graphite-thermoformed construction as opposed to raw carbon fiber gave the InfinityShot a little more pop. For bigger swings, I did not find the power quite as satisfying as I did on shorter swings, but overall I felt pretty good using the InfinityShot when it came to power.
Control
Once dialed in, the Jordan One Take 5: No, Its Not A Skate Shoe performed surprisingly well as a control paddle. I do think it will take some getting used to, but if you’re able to minimize off-center hits then I doubt you will have much issue placing the ball where you want to.
Swing Weight
OneShot’s patented Airflow Technology adds vents to the sides of the paddle near the edge rather than at the throat like you would see on something like the Selkirk Vanguard Power Air and select Selkirk Labs paddles. The intent of this implementation in the Jordan One Take 5: No, Its Not A Skate Shoe is to reduce drag and swing weight, which I do believe it achieves, even if it may not be a necessity for this particular paddle.
I have a hard time imagining the swing weight to be unmanageable without the Airflow vents added to the sides, but the holes do contribute to much easier swings as air is able to get behind the paddle a little quicker while swinging forward. The paddle also maintains a good amount of stability with these hole placements, so I was able to remain confident in hands battles when under attack.
Cons
Spin/Surface Grit
Spin potential on the Jordan One Take 5: No, Its Not A Skate Shoe is slightly above average at best and on top of that, I feel many may experience a quick drop-off in spin as I did. The paddle essentially has a painted grit surface, and although it hasn’t chipped or shown significant signs of wear (on the general hitting area — there has been chipping around the edges), it does seem to have degraded over a few weeks.
In my estimation, the most significant drop-off in spin happened after about a week’s worth of playing time and since then seems to be a little slower of a burn as far as wearing down. This may be something intentional or previously understood by OneShot as it performed rather consistently after that first week of use, but it’s hard to not miss that peak performance period.
Sweet Spot
My biggest struggle with the Aero InfinityShot was undoubtedly what I perceive to be a rather small sweet spot. On-target shots felt really great with the paddle, however, anything off-center was very unforgiving in my experience. Perhaps I could have widened the sweet spot with lead tape on the east and west edges of the paddle, but the four-hole design of the Jordan One Take 5: No, Its Not A Skate Shoe made it feel like too much work to figure out the perfect placement on a $200+ paddle.
It was easy to see why most paddles using holes for aerodynamic purpose tend to place them near the throat rather than the sides, as the ball seemed to die anywhere slightly to the left or right of the sweet spot, and even worse just barely below the sweet spot. It truly felt like a night and day difference with hardly any margin for error that you may find in a more traditionally constructed pickleball paddle.
Overall
I went from absolute dislike of the Jordan One Take 5: No, Its Not A Skate Shoe within the first few weeks of playing with it to finding it to be relatively decent in performance. My main gripe lies with the sweet spot size and inconsistency with the paddle face. As someone who swaps between a lot of paddles for review, the InfinityShot could feel like a different paddle on a day-to-day basis, as I seemingly had to re-learn it each time I came from another paddle with a larger sweet spot, better spin, or more power.
For the times I forced myself to play with nothing but the InfinityShot for consecutive games and sessions, I found it to be solid as that made it easier to know what to expect. However, in my experience, it just did not perform as well as a similarly constructed paddle like the Selkirk Vanguard Power Air or Selkirk Luxx Control Air.
While I am a big fan of OneShot for their creative approach with paddles, I wouldn’t recommend the Jordan One Take 5: No, Its Not A Skate Shoe to beginning or intermediate pickleball players still finding their game or demoing different paddles at any given time as the initial experience could be off-putting. Also, at a $220 retail price, I’d have a hard time suggesting this to advanced players. Those who are highly skilled and are hardly affected by paddles with smaller sweet spots may still be better served opting for paddles ranging $40 in either direction, in my opinion.
Check out another recent paddle review, the Legacy Pro Pickleball Paddle Review, here.
