The shape difference is the real difference
Everything else about these paddles — carbon faces, mid-to-premium pricing, reputable brands — is closer than the marketing suggests. The shape is not.
The Selkirk is an XL, elongated paddle. That gives you reach, which is genuinely useful at the kitchen line and when you’re covering a court with a partner who doesn’t move much, and it gives you a longer sweet spot. What it also does is push the paddle’s mass further from your hand. A wrist or elbow that’s already sore feels that on every swing, because the further the weight sits from the joint, the more work it takes to accelerate and stop. The ProKennex keeps its weight closer in.
If you’ve read our wrist-pain roundup, this is the same argument in a different context: elongated shapes buy reach with leverage, and leverage is paid for by the joint at the other end of it.
Comfort engineering vs a bigger sweet spot
Both paddles reduce the harshness you feel on contact, but by different mechanisms — and the distinction matters when you’re choosing.
- ProKennex reduces the shock itself. The brand designs its comfort line around vibration control and pairs it with an unusually cushioned grip. The intent is that less impact energy reaches your hand and elbow on every shot, including the ones you hit cleanly.
- Selkirk reduces the number of bad shots. A larger sweet spot means more centered hits, and a centered hit sends far less jarring vibration up the arm than a mis-hit off the edge does. That’s a real benefit — but it helps most on the shots you were going to miss the middle of.
If your arm is fine and you just want to play better, forgiveness is the more useful of the two. If your arm is the reason you’re shopping, buy the paddle that lowers the load on the good shots as well as the bad ones.
Price, and what you actually get for it
The Selkirk is the cheaper paddle, and that’s not a small point — it is a carbon face and a respected brand for meaningfully less than the ProKennex. If you’re stepping up from a budget fiberglass beginner paddle and nothing hurts, it’s the easier recommendation and the better value.
The ProKennex costs more because comfort engineering is the product. As we argue in are expensive paddles worth it, most of what a higher price buys is refinement you may not need — but a brand that engineers specifically for arm comfort is the one genuine exception, and it’s exactly the case here. If a sore elbow is what keeps you off the court, that premium is buying you court time.
The one honest caveat on both
Neither brand publishes a weight or a grip circumference for these models on the listings, which is why several cells in the spec tables read “Not published.” We won’t fill those in with a guess. It matters here more than usual, because weight is the spec that most affects strain on an older arm — so with either paddle you are, to a degree, buying on the maker’s stated design intent rather than a number you can check. If a published figure is important to you, that’s a reason to look at a paddle that provides one.
Which should you buy?
Buy the ProKennex if your elbow, wrist or shoulder has started making itself known, if you’ve had to stop playing or cut sessions short because of your arm, or if you already wear a counterforce strap to play. Protection is worth paying for when it’s the constraint.
Buy the Selkirk if your arm is fine, you’re an improving player, and you want more forgiveness and reach for the money — and you’re comfortable with an elongated shape. If you’re not sure about elongated, the Halo against the JOOLA Hyperion covers that ground in more detail.
