The CRBN TruFoam Barrage 4 is a 14mm hybrid that hits hard and still moves faster in your hands than almost any hybrid I've tested. It's the one I'd grab if your game is built on fast hands at the net and you'd rather feel a solid paddle than a hollow one. Right now it's the hardest-hitting 14mm paddle you can get, and only one other hybrid both swings lighter and hits harder. It's also approved by both USA Pickleball and UPA-A, the approval the PPA Tour and MLP use, so if you play both kinds of events, this one paddle covers you.
What you give up is control, which is a bit below the average hybrid. The spin is just average, and it comes off a raw carbon face that goes smooth the more you play. The sweet spot is about average in size, but it drops off toward the edges, which is the usual trade with a thin 14mm core. With my code, STSPICKLEBALL, it was $207 at CRBN when I checked on November 3, 2026, and that's $37 more than the Pickleball Apes Zen S+, a 16mm hybrid that beats it on all five of my scores. So the Barrage 4 is for the player who wants a rigid, solid feel, or who plays both USA Pickleball tournaments and PPA Tour or MLP events. If that's not you, I'd look at the Zen first.
Pros and cons
What I like
- It's really quick in your hands for how hard it hits.
- Pop is a real strength, so the ball jumps off the face at the kitchen even when you barely swing.
- The feel is dense and solid, not hollow, with a sharp sound on drives and a quiet one on dinks.
- You can play it at USA Pickleball tournaments and at UPA-A pro events.
What I don't
- Control is below average for a hybrid, and since the ball leaves the face fast, your soft game has to come from your hands.
- Spin is only about average, on a raw carbon face that loses texture as you play.
- The sweet spot falls off toward the edges, so mishits out there come up short.
- A cheaper paddle, the Zen S+, beats it on every one of my scores.
Quick answers
Is the Barrage 4 worth $207?
It's worth it if the solid feel and the two approvals are what you're after. If you only play rec games or USA Pickleball events and don't care much about the feel, I'd get the Zen S+ instead, since it scores higher across the board and costs less. And if you need both approvals but care more about spin, Bread & Butter's Loco 2 Hybrid, a 16mm hybrid with a durable grit, has a lot more of it for about the same money.
Should I get the Barrage 4 or the Barrage 2?
The Barrage 2 is the widebody version, with the same core, face, handle and price. Widebodies usually swing lighter than hybrids, so I was surprised in my March 2, 2026 video when the hybrid came in lighter, and it still does in my numbers. So I'd take the Barrage 4 if you play fast at the kitchen and want quicker counters, and the Barrage 2 if you'd trade a little of the hybrid's hand speed for a bit more room for error.
Is it better than the Genesis 4?
The Genesis 4 is CRBN's 2025 hybrid from the same TruFoam line, and it costs the same and swings almost exactly as light. The Barrage 4 has a lot more power, with a little more pop and control, and spin and sweet spot are a wash. So if you're choosing between the two today, the Barrage 4 is the easy pick.
Is it approved for tournaments?
Yes. USA Pickleball and UPA-A both approve it, and it's been on both official lists since early February 2026. CRBN's own FAQ still calls the UPA-A approval provisional, but the official UPA-A list showed it as approved on November 3, 2026.
How I tested
Every score here is from my own testing. Power and pop come from the ball speed my Stalker Pro 3S radar picks up off the face, and the same radar gives me spin in RPM on serves. My Briffidi SW1 gives me swing weight, meaning how hard the paddle is to whip around, and twist weight, meaning how steady it stays on a mishit. Grit wear gets tracked on my Starrett SR160 roughness tester. For sweet spot and control, I feed balls from my ball machine and rate how the paddle does on dinks, third-shot drops and resets. Scores are out of 100. When I count or rank paddles, I only count the ones you can still buy, and when I say average, I mean the middle paddle of that shape, like the middle of the 61 hybrids you can still buy.
Quick in your hands, and it still hits hard
The first thing you notice is how light it swings. Its swing weight is about 106 against the average hybrid's 112, so the face gets there in time when a ball comes at you fast.
Power and pop both land a good bit above the average hybrid. On drives and putaways that means real pace, and you can swing out from the baseline without the ball running away from you. And you'll feel the pop every time you counter, speed a ball up or punch a volley. In the video I put out on March 2, 2026, I called the Barrage "very rigid, just ridiculously poppy," and the kitchen is still where this paddle wins you points. If you struggle to finish points at the net, this paddle gives you an advantage there.
A solid feel, and what it does to your soft game
A lot of today's power paddles, like Bread & Butter's Loco 2 and Selkirk's Boomstik, feel stiff and hollow. The Barrage 4 is firm too, but it feels dense and solid rather than hollow. You don't get much of that feeling of the ball sitting on the face before it leaves. It's on and off quick, with a loud crack when you drive and a much quieter, muted sound on dinks.
That quick release is a big part of why control trails the average hybrid. The paddle won't take the pace off a drop or a reset for you, so your touch has to come from your face angle and how softly you swing. Once you have the angle dialed in, dinks and resets feel predictable, but if you're coming from a soft, plush foam paddle, expect your touch to need some adjusting.
Sweet spot, stability and the 14mm trade
On this paddle the sweet spot is right around average for a hybrid, about the same as the Genesis 4's. It's a real step up from CRBN's 2025 TruFoam Waves 4 hybrid, though.
You'll feel the limit out toward the edges. A thin 14mm core has less foam to take an off-center hit, so a reset off the edge comes off firmer or dies short instead of landing soft. Stability on those hits is middle of the pack for a hybrid, and the Barrage 2 is steadier. If you want more, a few grams of weight at 3 and 9 o'clock is the usual fix, and with a swing weight this low you have room to add it before the paddle starts to feel slow.
How it feels in your hand next to other hybrids you can buy
Quick in your hands, about average when you miss the middle
How heavy the paddle feels when you swing it. Lower means faster hands.
Only three hybrids you can buy swing lighter.
How well the paddle resists turning in your hand when you hit off center. Higher means steadier.
About average twist weight for a hybrid.
How its sweet spot stacks up against other hybrids you can buy
An average-size sweet spot for a hybrid
Both rings are sized to their score.
Spin, and how long it lasts
How its spin stacks up against other hybrids you can buy
About average spin for a hybrid, right at the average
The top three for spin
- 1Honolulu J2CR Long Handle Crystal Blue2,467
- 211SIX24 Vapor Jelly Bean 22,40364 RPM behind
- 311SIX24 Ultré Jelly Bean 22,39770 RPM behind
- 34CRBN TruFoam Barrage 42,264203 RPM behind
The spin is middle of the road. On my serve test it came in at 2,264 RPM, right around the average hybrid, and in my April 13, 2026 top five video I called it "definitely solid spin, not ultra elite." Your topspin drives will still dip, but if heavy spin is the center of your game, there are better hybrids for it.
The bigger issue is how long that spin lasts. The face is bare raw carbon with nothing on top to protect the texture, and a face like that wears smooth fast. In my own wear testing, raw carbon faces lost up to about a fifth of their texture in 50 to 60 games, while long-lasting grits like 11SIX24's HexGrit and Honolulu's Crystal Blue lost about 1 to 2%. At this price, I'd want a durable grit, and both the Loco 2 Hybrid and Enhance's MPP Turbo ArmorGrit Hybrid have one.
What owners are saying
I read the owner reviews on November 3, 2026, and almost all of them so far are on CRBN's own site, where the Barrage 4 page shows 225 reviews and 209 of them are five stars. Only a handful of written comments show up on the page, and they're short and upbeat about the power, the pop and the balance, with one owner calling it their go-to and another calling it the perfect combination of power and control. That control comment doesn't quite match my numbers, where control is one of its weaker scores. I'd read it as good control for how hard it hits. Reviews on a brand's own store lean positive, so I'd weigh them that way. Nobody in anything I read reported delamination, a rattle or a dead core.
The paddle that beats it on paper: the Zen S+
The Pickleball Apes Zen S+ is a 16mm hybrid, and on paper it's the stronger paddle. Its power is the highest of any paddle I've tested, and no hybrid has a bigger sweet spot. Next to the Barrage 4, the Zen also has a bit more pop, a good bit more spin and a bit more control, and it swings about as light. And at $170 with my code, it's cheaper too.
So why buy the Barrage 4 instead? For one, it has both approvals, while the Zen only has USA Pickleball's, so you can't play the Zen at PPA Tour or MLP events. You can also only pre-order a Zen right now. Pickleball Apes sells it in batches, and on November 3, 2026, the one batch listed showed no ship date, while CRBN had the Barrage 4 available to order. And then there's the core. The Barrage 4 is a 14mm paddle, and like I said in April 2026, 14mm paddles feel more rigid off the face than 16mm paddles, so if that rigid feel is what you want, the Zen won't quite give it to you. If none of those reasons matter to you, the Zen is the better buy.
Three more to look at
Two paddles you might pick instead
How it stacks up against the Loco 2 Hybrid and the MPP Turbo ArmorGrit Hybrid
A paddle only wins a score when it leads by 5 points or more.
TruFoam Barrage 4Hybrid · $206.99
Loco 2 HybridHybrid · $198.00The Loco 2 spins more. Power, pop, sweet spot and control are about the same. The Loco 2 costs about $8 less.
TruFoam Barrage 4Hybrid · $206.99
MPP Turbo ArmorGrit HybridHybrid · $99.99The MPP Turbo ArmorGrit spins more and is more controllable. Power, pop and sweet spot are about the same. The MPP Turbo ArmorGrit costs about $107 less.
I checked prices and stock on all three on November 3, 2026, and every price below is with my code, STSPICKLEBALL.
Bread & Butter Loco 2 Hybrid ($198)
This is the one I'd look at if you need both approvals and want more spin. Bread & Butter's 16mm hybrid hits about as hard as the Barrage 4, with about the same pop, sweet spot and control, but it spins a lot more, and its face uses Space Dust, the brand's durable grit. That face is in my wear test right now, and so far it's holding up really well. The trade is feel and speed. The Loco 2 is stiff and hollow where the Barrage is dense, and it swings a bit heavier, close to the average hybrid, so it won't feel as quick in a hands battle. Right now it's on pre-order, expected to start shipping November 11, 2026.
CRBN TruFoam Barrage 2 ($207)
CRBN's widebody Barrage comes at the same price, with both approvals. It hits, pops and spins about the same as the hybrid, with a bit more sweet spot and control, so blocks and resets off the edge hold up better. It swings slightly heavier, so it won't be quite as quick at the kitchen. Just know that for a widebody, its sweet spot is about average and its control is a bit below average, so if forgiveness is your top priority, there are more forgiving widebodies. CRBN had it available to order.
Enhance MPP Turbo ArmorGrit Hybrid ($99.99)
At $107 less than the Barrage 4, this is the budget pick. Enhance's 16mm hybrid matches the Barrage closely on power, pop and sweet spot, and it spins a good bit more with more control on top. Enhance added ArmorGrit so the face holds its texture longer, and early in my wear testing it was wearing a little faster than HexGrit and Crystal Blue but slower than Selkirk's InfiniGrit. The catch is the feel, plus it's only approved by USA Pickleball. Its MPP foam plays more plush and hollow than the Barrage's dense core, and it swings a little heavier.
My call
The Barrage 4 is a quick, solid-feeling hybrid with real power, and right now nothing at 14mm hits harder. If you want a dense, rigid feel over a hollow one, or you play both USA Pickleball and PPA Tour or MLP events, it's a really good pick at $207 with my code. Just go in knowing that control is a step below average, and that the spin, average to start with, fades as the raw carbon wears. For anyone who doesn't need UPA-A approval and isn't set on that feel, I'd go with the Zen S+. And if you want both approvals plus a durable grit, the Loco 2 Hybrid is the one I'd wait for.
Testing details
- Tested
- September 15, 2026
- Power and pop
- 20 full serves for power and 20 punch volleys for pop, every ball speed read on a Stalker radar gun.
- Spin
- 20 more serves on the radar. I drop the outliers and average the rest, which gave this paddle 2,264 RPM.
- Swing and twist weight
- Measured on a Briffidi SW1 swing weight machine.
- Sweet spot and control
- The same dinks, drops, resets and drives off a Titan ONE ball machine, for every paddle.
- The scores
- Out of 100, with the same tests for every paddle. The top paddles I've tested score 100.
- Published
- Scores from
- My database, updated November 8, 2026. How I test
No. 1
No. 2
No. 3
No. 2
