Collin Johns: Paddle, Playing Style, and Career

Collin Johns is a top-10 professional pickleball player and one of the sport's most respected doubles specialists. He is the older brother of Ben Johns and, like Ben, is sponsored by JOOLA and based out of the Washington D.C. area.

While Ben gets the majority of mainstream attention as the world's number one ranked player, Collin is highly regarded within the pickleball community for his technical excellence. His soft game, kitchen control, and doubles decision-making are considered among the best in the professional field. Players and coaches studying doubles strategy frequently study Collin's positioning and shot selection as a model for how the game is supposed to be played.

The Johns brothers have partnered frequently in doubles throughout their careers and are one of the most successful sibling pairings in professional sports - a combination of complementary styles and years of practice together that gives them a communication and positioning advantage most doubles partnerships take years to develop.

Collin Johns plays with a JOOLA carbon fiber paddle under his JOOLA sponsorship - consistent with the brand's lineup of performance-oriented carbon face paddles built for soft game precision and spin generation.

His paddle choice reflects his playing style: carbon fiber for spin and feel at the kitchen, a control-tuned core for consistent touch on dinks and drops, and a setup that prioritizes precision over raw power. This aligns with the same approach Ben Johns takes with the Hyperion CFS 16, though Collin's specific model and weight preferences may differ based on his individual game.

If you want the closest recreational equivalent to Collin's style of play, the JOOLA Ben Johns Hyperion CFS 16 is the most accessible JOOLA carbon paddle in the lineup - though at 4.0 and above only.

Collin is a soft game specialist whose game is built around patience, positioning, and doubles intelligence rather than athleticism or power. Key characteristics:

• -Elite kitchen game - sustains dink rallies with exceptional consistency and placement
• -High doubles IQ - reads partner positioning and opponent tendencies to set up attacks
• -Precise third shot drop that gives his team time to get to the kitchen line
• -Patient shot selection - rarely goes for low-percentage attacks
• -Strong reset ability - neutralizes hard shots from defensive positions
• -Excellent communication and court coverage with doubles partners

His game is quieter and less flashy than players like Tyson McGuffin, but players who study the sport closely rank his doubles IQ as one of the highest on tour. He wins matches through shot selection and positioning more than athleticism - which makes his game one of the most instructive to watch for recreational players looking to improve their doubles strategy.

The brothers' doubles partnership is notable not just for its results but for how differently their games complement each other. Ben provides elite shot creation and finishing ability. Collin provides court management, positioning discipline, and the ability to sustain kitchen exchanges long enough for Ben to create the right opportunity.

Years of playing together since childhood gives them communication advantages that most professional doubles partnerships - formed in adulthood - cannot replicate. They anticipate each other's movement, cover each other's gaps instinctively, and switch between offensive and defensive positioning without verbal communication that opponents can read.