Volair CMD Hybrid Review

Power and pop both come from the ball speed my Stalker Pro 3S radar picks up, and that radar gives me spin in RPM on my serves too. A Briffidi SW1 tells me how heavy a paddle feels as you swing it and how steady its face stays when you catch one off center, and for grit wear I use a Starrett SR160 surface roughness tester. Sweet spot and control are ratings I give after running every paddle through the same dink, drop and reset drills on my ball machine.

That comes from the face. HexGrit is built right into the face instead of coated on top, so there's no coating sitting on the carbon to wear off.

HexGrit is also one of the most durable grits I've tested. Over 75 games of my wear test, its spin dropped only about 1%, while the raw carbon faces I've tested dropped 14 to 20%. That test was on 11SIX24's own paddles, not on a CMD, but it's the same licensed grit, so over your first 75 games or so, I wouldn't expect the spin to drop much at all.

You notice it most at the kitchen. In my first CMD video, I said it was the softer, more plush paddle next to the J2CR Crystal Blue, and that you really feel that on drops and dinks, where it takes more pace off the ball. So when you're trying to keep a dink low or reset a hard ball back into the kitchen, the paddle does a little of that work for you. It's also why I said in my best paddles video that it's a great fit if you love the spin on 11SIX24's Power 2 paddles but find them a bit too stiff or too hot.

Control is a similar story to power. The soft feel helps you take pace off, but my control rating lands right about where most hybrids do, so I wouldn't call it a control paddle. It swings about like the average hybrid too, so it isn't slow in hands battles, and when you catch a ball off center, the face holds about as steady as most hybrids.

Next to the Vapor Power 2, the CMD gives up a good bit of power and a bit of pop and sweet spot, and in return you get a bit more control, with spin that's close to even. That's the trade I'd want if the Vapor Power 2 felt like too much paddle for you.

Inside, it's all foam, with an EPP foam center that has channels cut into it and EVA foam around the edge. Volair calls that its Channel Core and says the channels low in the core steady off-center hits and give it a bigger sweet spot from top to bottom. My numbers don't show that, though, since its sweet spot and its stability both come out about the same as the average hybrid. That matters most if you're still working on clean contact, or if a lot of your points come down to fast exchanges where you're not hitting it clean every time. If you can live with that, you get the feel that's the real reason to buy it.

What you give up is some stability and some of that soft feel. On harder hits you catch off center, like blocks, the Long Handle twists more than most hybrids, while the CMD is about average there. The Honolulu is also firmer, which is the feel trade I talked about above. The standard handle version is the one I put up against the CMD in my video. Against the CMD, it has more sweet spot and a bit more pop, with power, control and spin about the same, but it twists even more on off-center hits.

Honolulu sells both handle lengths for $195, which comes to about $176 with my code STS10, so about $14 more than the CMD. The 6 inch Long Handle leaves room for both hands on your backhand, while the standard handle is the one to get if you hit your backhand with one hand. They're UPA-A only too, so the tournament question doesn't change, and Honolulu had them available to order when I checked on November 7, 2026. For most players, I'd take one of the Honolulus, since they do more of what wins points for not much more money. I'd take the CMD if that softer feel is what you want.