In previous articles we compared the dynamics of pickleball paddles to tennis racquets and baseball bats. Subsequent analyses determined that the frequency of the paddle diving board mode is an indicator of paddle control capability, and the frequency of the paddle trampoline mode is an indicator of paddle power capability. Generally, paddles with higher frequency diving board modes tend to have more control, and paddles with lower frequency trampoline modes tend to have more power.
Conventional wisdom suggests that control paddles will lack power and that power paddles will lack control; however, we showed that a paddle’s control and power characteristics are not mutually exclusive. That is, paddles can exhibit various degrees of both power and control. With this in mind, we performed dynamic (modal) tests of several paddles and plotted their control and power characteristics on a two-dimensional (2D) spectrum (Figure 1).
While the 2D power/control spectrum provides a useful illustration, many readers have asked us to develop a more quantitative methodology that integrates both power and control in an overall paddle rating. In this article, we develop such a methodology and provide power, control, and overall ratings for several paddles.
Power, Control, & Spin
Your ideal pickleball paddle can allow you to develop a considerable amount of power and speed when needed while allowing you to accurately control the placement of your shots with an appropriate amount of spin. Too much power without control or spin may cause you to hit the ball erroneously or out of bounds. Similarly, well-controlled shots without sufficient speed or spin may be easily tracked down and returned for winners. Your ideal paddle will therefore be matched to your strengths and weaknesses with the optimum mix of power, control, and spin.
One of the shortcomings of many paddle reviews is that they are usually performed by highly-skilled individuals who might be professional pickleball players or instructors. The reviewers might push the paddles to their limits to evaluate power, control, or spin, which might exceed the skills and capabilities average pickleball players. Therefore, the advantages, disadvantages, or differences that the reviewers find in paddles might not translate into performance improvements for an average or novice pickleball player.
As an illustration, let us suppose that you are given the task of selecting the best Formula 1 race car among several similar cars (Figure 2). A professional driver might be capable of driving at speeds exceeding 200 MPH around the track. However, since you lack experience (and are chicken), you might only be comfortable driving at speeds of less than 100 MPH. As a result, you cannot discern any differences in power, control, or aerodynamics among the cars and might therefore select a car that is not well suited to your skillset. We believe that the same thing happens to average or novice players when they select pickleball paddles.
Power & Control Ratings
We developed paddle power and control ratings that are independent of player skill level by measuring the paddle dynamic response to a ball striking the geometric center of the paddle face and calculating the paddle vibration modes. These vibration modes (in general) can be characterized by a lower frequency diving board mode and a higher frequency trampoline mode. As mentioned above, the diving board mode is an indicator of paddle control capability and the trampoline mode is an indicator of paddle power capability (Figure 3).
We took the overall range of frequencies for the diving board and trampoline modes of the various paddles and subdivided them into five regions as shown in Table 1. A 1-rating corresponds to low control or low power, and a 5-rating corresponds to very high control or very high power. The frequency criteria against which we assigned the numerical ratings are also shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Paddle Rating Criteria
Based on experience, diving board frequencies greater than about 500 Hz are not desirable, since vibration feedback would be excessive and the paddle would feel too stiff. For such paddles, we penalized the paddle rating by one point. Similarly, trampoline frequencies less than about 500 Hz would be too reactive, and not likely to pass the USAP PBCoR test.
We then added the control and power ratings to yield the paddle overall rating. Paddles with high power and high control will have a 10-rating, whereas paddles with low power and low control will have a 2-rating.
We included the paddle weights in Table 2, as these are an indicator of paddle stiffness. The paddle vibration frequencies are directly proportional to the paddle stiffness-to-weight ratio. Therefore, for a given frequency, paddles with a lower weight must also have a lower stiffness. This is significant because lighter paddles will feel like they are flimsier or have less power than heavier paddles, especially for stronger players or bangers. On the flip side, to compensate for their additional mass, heavier paddles will need to have a higher stiffness, which may make them feel less responsive to weaker or finesse players. Players can therefore match the paddle mass and vibration frequencies according to their abilities or style of play.
Table 2 is organized by first sorting the overall ranking from highest to lowest, then within each rating number, the paddles are ordered with the most powerful paddles listed first (i.e., with the lowest frequency trampoline mode). Note that paddles with the most power or the most control will not necessarily have a “10” overall rating as we are considering the combination of power and control.
Table 2. Paddle Power & Control Ratings
Observations & Recommendations
Table 2 is searchable and sortable, so readers are invited to do their own data-mining with the following “rules” in mind: (1) higher control paddles will have higher frequency diving board modes up to a limit of about 500 Hz, and (2) higher power paddles will have a lower frequency trampoline mode down to a limit of about 500 Hz. With the numerous paddles available, readers should consider paddles that have a minimum of a 3-rating for BOTH power and control (at least a 6-rating overall). Paddles with power and control ratings that both exceed a 4-rating are highlighted in green (13 paddles) and paddles with power and control ratings that both exceed 3-rating are highlighted in yellow (13 paddles).
An examination of Table 2 yields the following items of interest:
- Out of more than 60 paddles tested, only four of them have an overall 10-rating, with the top two being the RPM Q2 and Friction Pro 16mm v2 paddles.
- The highest power paddle tested is the 3rd Shot Drop Powerfoam Carbon paddle with a trampoline mode of 502 Hz. This paddle has a 9-rating because it has a diving board frequency of less than 400 Hz.
- As discussed above, paddles that weigh less than about 7.5 oz may appear to lack stiffness to individuals who tend to hit the ball hard. Similarly, paddles that weigh more than about 8.1 oz may appear to be too stiff for individuals who tend to hit the ball softly.
* Disclosures: Some of the embedded links in our website are affiliate links, meaning that at no cost to you, Pickleball Science will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Purchase of merchandise through these affiliate links will help support the Pickleball Science website so that we can continue to provide meaningful content to our readers.
Following are discount codes for the footnotes in Table 2:
- For RPM paddles, you can get 15% off of your purchase by entering discount code “PSCIENCE15”
- For TMPR paddles, you can get $10 off of your purchase by entering coupon code “PSCIENCE10”
- For CRBN paddles, you can get 10% off of your purchase by entering discount code “PSCIENCE10”
- For 11SIX24 paddles, you can get $10 off of your purchase by entering discount code “PSCIENCE10”
- For Ronbus paddles, you can get $20 off of your purchase by entering discount code “PSCIENCE20”
