Joel Makin’s Squash Racket – Karakal Raw Pro 2.0 Review

Racket	Karakal Raw Pro 2.0
Endorsed by	Joel Makin
Shape	Teardrop
Advertised frame weight	120 grams
Actual weight (inc. strings & grip)	153 grams
String	Karakal Hot Zone 120
Grip	Karakal PU
Stringing pattern	14 x 18
Construction	Karakal NexGen Fast Fibre
Release date	February 2022
Price at launch	£120
Purchase	Amazon | PDH Sports

In mid-2021, British-based brand Karakal announced their latest major signing – none other than the UK #1 – Joel Makin, the ‘Golden Tiger’.

Karakal is synonymous with squash players from the UK, with Makin now stepping in as the cherry on icing on the cake for their pro-player line-up.

After signing for Karakal, Joel briefly used their ‘Core Pro’ racket. Soon after, he was seen playing with an unpainted racket for around six months, presumably testing out various iterations of their brand-new frame. 

In February this year, Karakal then revealed Joel Makin’s squash racket – the Raw Pro 2.0.

Purchase links:
Amazon
PDH Sports

Joel Makin’s squash racket – at a glance

The Raw Pro 2.0 is marketed as a 120g racket, with a fairly dense 14×18 stringing pattern and large 480cm squared head size.

It features a black and blue colour scheme, with Joel Makin’s name sitting just beneath the throat of the racket. 

The main feature of this racket is Karakal’s ‘NexGen Fast Fibre’ – a Graphite construction which claims to offer significantly faster rebound properties (how quick the racket returns to shape after impact) than the current range of Karakal rackets.

The racket comes pre-gripped with a Karakal PU Grip – the yellow variant of this grip is arguably one of the best on the market, and used by tons of professional players, so it’s great to see it come as standard on the Raw Pro 2.0.

And yes, the colour of a grip really does make a difference. Try going from a black to a yellow Karakal grip – the yellow grip feels tackier, less rigid and more squishy (technical term!), and also seems to last much longer too.

Speaking of the grip, this is the first pro-grade Karakal racket to feature an oval grip shape, as opposed to the hexagonal shape found on the majority of their frames – a design specifically chosen by Joel Makin.

Closest competitors

The obvious competitor here undoubtedly the Tecnifibre Carboflex. Anyone familiar with the Heritage or X-Speed Carboflex 125 rackets will feel immediately at home. 

The racket shares a similar mould to these rackets, and features very similar playing characteristics – but more on that later.

Other similar rackets in this space are Unsquashable’s Y-Tec Pro, Ashaway’s Powerkill Meta XBC, Dunlop’s Revelation 125, and Head’s Speed 120SB.

On the scales

While the Karakal Raw 2.0 is marketed as a 120g racket, this is its frame weight, and therefore doesn’t include its strings and grip.

Putting a racket across two scales – one under the head, one under the grip – reveals a lot about how a racket will feel in practice. 

Karakal’s latest racket returned some really interesting results. At 153g overall, it’s a light-to-medium weight racket, in line with most rackets advertised as having a 125g frame weight.

However, this is an ultra-head-light racket, with just 51% (78g) of its weight in the head of the frame. This means, in theory, it should feel very manoeuvrable on court.

Racket	Weight in head	Weight in grip	Overall	Weight distribution
Karakal Raw Pro 2.0 Joel Makin	78	76	153	51.0%
Dunlop Sonic Core Revelation 125	79	73	152	52.0%
Head Speed SB120 (2021)	78	66	144	54.2%
Ashaway Powerkill Meta XBC	75	63	138	54.3%
Tecnifibre Carboflex Airshaft 125	85	70	155	54.8%

In practice: How does the Karakal Raw Pro 2.0 perform?

Manoeuvrability: 9/10

One thing I didn’t expect before weighing the racket was just how manoeuvrable it would feel. Having just 78g of weight at the head of the frame helps this racket to fly through the air. This means preparing your racket, taking the ball early and hunting the volley is an absolute breeze (perfectly suited to Joel Makin’s game).

Players who enjoy adding deception to their swing will also have a blast with this racket. The head light balance allows you to use a shorter swing and generate racket-head speed much faster.

Coincidentally, this is the same head-weight as Head’s Speed 120SB, however, having a little more weight in the grip helps Karakal’s racket feel slightly more head-light.

Power: 7/10

I felt like I could generate plenty of power with the Raw Pro 2.0. However, compared to other rackets, I felt like I had to hit the ball a little harder/use a faster racket-head speed to find the back of the court. This is to be expected with a head-light racket though, so nothing out of the ordinary here.

Now, I do have a strong suspicion that a restring at a lower tension would work wonders. I found Karakal’s stock strings were on the extra-tight side. Tighter string-beds tend to have more control but less power, as a rule of thumb.

It’s worth pointing out that almost all brands string their rackets from factory this tight for a reason, as they can naturally lose tension after sitting on a shelf/in storage for a long time.

On a semi-related note, the thickness of the logo-paint used on the strings felt fairly excessive until it wore away after a few hours of play. As above, most brands are guilty of doing this, so it’s not just an issue specific to Karakal. Again, a total non-issue as a restring would completely resolve this.

Stringer Paul Reilly shared an image of Joel’s rackets on the Squash Stories Facebook group. They’re strung with Karakal Hot Zone at 24lbs.

Touch, control and feel: 8.5/10

A dense 14×18 stringing pattern, combined with a lightweight, head-light frame help to give this racket plenty of control. People who enjoy the feel of Carboflex rackets will undoubtedly get along well with the Raw Pro 2.0 from Karakal. 

Much like the Carboflex, the Raw Pro 2.0 features a very stiff frame, with Karakal stating that the premium-grade graphite construction enables the racket return to shape extremely quickly after impact with the ball.

I particularly enjoyed taking the ball in short with this racket, where I felt I was really able to manoeuvre the racket head to place the ball exactly where I wanted on the front wall.

Consistency: 7.5/10

On the whole, I felt comfortable using the Karakal Raw Pro 2.0, which helped me to play a very accurate game. However, due in-part to the stiff frame and dense stringing pattern, the sweet spot from the strings did feel a little on the small-side. When I didn’t hit the ball dead-centre from the stringbed, I felt it made a somewhat noticeable difference to my shots. Again, a lower string tension will help resolve this.

Design: 7/10

As ever, design is subjective. I love the shape of this racket, with the black and blue paint helping the slimbody frame to look really sleek.

The graphics on the racket do get a little ‘busy’, with a fair few words and graphics dotted around the frame. I personally prefer the simplicity of Karakal’s budget version of this racket, the Raw 120. Of course, that’s just my own opinion, you’re free to make up your own mind here! 

Overall

I’m conscious I’ve spent a lot of time comparing this racket to the Tecnifibre Carboflex, however given the number of players using that frame and the similarities these rackets share, it makes putting this racket into words far easier. 

So, take a Carboflex, shave some weight from the head and add a little weight to the grip, and in essence you have the Karakal Raw Pro 2.0. Both rackets share roughly the same shape, stringing pattern, stiffness and playing characteristics. If you like the Carboflex but would like a little more manoeuvrability, this could be the perfect racket for you. 

This is undoubtedly a racket that will suit a broad variety of players. It’s the typical ‘modern frame’ that most players are now favouring, and it’s therefore a racket that’s hard to go wrong with and very easy to recommend.

I’m looking forward to trying out some lower-tensioned strings in this racket, as I imagine this will really help realise the full potential of the Raw Pro 2.0.

Purchase links:
Amazon
PDH Sports