Is This the New Direction of Pickleball Paddles in 2026? Flik F3 Triple Core Review

Flik just made their Flik F3, which is their iteration of the gen 4 core paddle.

Flik became more popular with their Flik F1, which hit super hard but many people claimed the sweet spot was too small. Let's see how their new Flik F3 plays.

Image via Flik

My name is Pickle Li. I'm a 5.0 pickleball player and reviewed over 35 paddles. I created MyPickleList, which does community driven paddle ratings, and there are currently over 700 ratings.

Caveats & Disclosures

Reminder: This is a first impressions review, not a full review. I played with this for a week straight but can't speak to long-term durability.

I'll be rating this paddle on my website MyPickleList at the end so stay tuned for that.

If you are interested in buying this or any Flik paddle, use code PICKLELI for 10% off.

Shout out to Flik for sending this paddle over for the review.

Quick Specs Overview

The Flik F3 comes in the 3 typical shapes. Elongated, hybrid and standard.

All the shapes are 16mm thick.

I chose to test the standard and hybrid shapes.

In general, it seems like Flik is moving in a different direction than the F1, which had crazy power and a small sweetspot. They are purposely creating a paddle with controllable power and trying to maximize the sweet spot with their new core.

So the special thing about the Flik F3 is that it features 3 solid foam cores of differing densities. The idea is that the center is the more dense (poppy) and the layers get less dense for the most energy return. So essentially it should hit the same no matter where you hit it.

Also, the handle and paddle cover are on the nicer side which is a nice addition.

My paddle weighed in at 7.92 oz.

I did try it with additional weight. The setup I chose was 3gs at 4 and 8 o'clock along with a 7g flickweight on the handle. The weight after was 8.5 oz.

On-Court First Impressions

Pop

So my initial reaction was that this paddle is super poppy and muted. It kind of seems like the ball pops right off the paddle, but if you focus a little more, it does sink in a little, just very muted.

Overall very poppy paddle. Good for quick kitchen exchanges and counters.

Compared to a boomstik (caveat a modified setup) it was poppier.

Control & Feel

So regarding feel, like I mentioned before, it is very poppy and muted.

I hit it right after coming from a CRBN4 Trufoam Waves, which probably leans to the more muted side, and the F3 felt like I wasn't even hitting the ball.

To start with the good, I will say the sweetspot is really big on the F3, so I guess their core technology actually does what it claims. The standard shape's sweetspot in particular was really big and any time I could get a paddle on the ball it was going back over.

I never had such an easy time doing out of the air dinks and close range resets.

Now onto the parts I didn't like as much.

If you've been watching my channel, you will kind of know my personal preferences in paddles. I like softer paddles with more dwell time, since I am a topspin heavy player. I also prefer less pop so I can reset a bit easier.

For me, it was just not the most intuitive of paddles I reviewed. Most of the time, I am able to play relatively well with new paddles. To be fair, most paddles are very similar, so there aren't too many drastic differences.

I think the feel was just very different than most paddles + it was very poppy, which made it a tough transition overall. The main issue was a lot of my shots were just higher than normal + I was more so reacting to the shot itself instead of the feel from hitting the ball.

On the bright side, because of the sweetspot, I didn't really edge hit much and didn't get the ball over the net, more so an issue of getting the ball down.

Overall the hybrid felt a bit more intuitive for more aggressive shots like rolls and off the bounce shots, but the sweetspot was bigger on the standard shape, so kind of similar to what you would expect from the shapes.

For what it's worth, my friend didn't feel like it was too muted and actually played very well with it. So there is definitely some playstyle component to it.

Power

The paddle's power is what Flik set out to achieve. It is probably an all court paddle leaning more towards the power category.

Although it has lots of pop, it doesn't really go too far after the initial hit. Good for counters + when the opponent is closer, but nothing crazy on overheads, and other types of putaways.

The overall power level is what you expect from an all court paddle leaning power.

The good thing is you can full swing and the ball still stays in. I noticed a couple returns where I hit it a bit hard and high, and with a power paddle it would have gone out, but it ended up being a good deep return.

Early Verdict

Now let me rate this on MyPickleList. MPL is a website I built that does community driven paddle ratings. The purpose is to be a quick and easy way to see how good a paddle is without having to watch youtube videos like this one. We currently have over 146 members and over 700 ratings, and it's only going to get better with more ratings so please join!

If you're in the atlanta area, you're in luck since we are currently giving $20 giftcards to Premier Racquet Sports if you rate and comment on 5 paddles. We had 29 out of the 100 people redeem them so far.

Back to the review.

Overall, a very unique paddle that is pretty different from other paddles I played with recently. I'm always glad to see companies trying out new technology, in this case, 3 solid foam cores of differing densities.

I think they did accomplish what they set out to do. They created an all court paddle with a really big sweetspot.

It was just too poppy for me personally and I found it hard to keep the ball down even though it's not a power paddle. But that could be just personal preference based on my playstyle and/or a skill issue.

I would rate it a 7/10. I think a lot of the things I don't like are more so personal preferences and how I play.

It is similar to my thoughts on the Vatic V-Sol Pro Bloom and even the Luzz Cannon, both of which I gave a 7/10. All of them I think are solid options with high upside, but I just couldn't dial them in as much as I would like with the time I had with them.

Who Is This Paddle For?

This paddle is for you first of all if you like or can handle a muted feel. That is probably the most distinguishing feature that can either make or break the paddle for you.

A lot of people like a more responsive feel, but I did hear some people wanting more muted paddles due to tennis elbow or what not. So first of all if you want or need a muted paddle, this could be for you.

The second thing is if you like a more poppy paddle, this is also could be a good option. You really don't need to do much to get the ball back over the net. You can for the most part just let the ball bounce off and it will go back over.

If you have trouble getting the ball over, whether it be mishitting or what not, this could definitely help you out, especially with the giant sweetspot.

Like I mentioned, my friend played better than normal I felt with the F3, coming from an RPM widebody. It won't be as fun probably, but sometimes going down in power a bit, and especially increasing the sweetspot can make you play a lot better.

Overall, a unique paddle that has a different profile than most paddles out there. It has pop equivalent to many top tier power paddles if you like that, but in all court form so you don't have to worry about your shots sailing out of bounds too much.

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