In a previous article, we discussed how it might not be appropriate to rate pickleball paddles into the mutually exclusive categories of “power” and “control”. We then developed an alternative technique to categorize paddles, where a paddle’s “power” rating is independent of its “control” rating. It is reasonable to separate “power” from “control” because a paddle’s power (or reactivity) is derived from its trampoline vibration modes, and a paddle’s control (or accuracy) is dependent on its diving board vibration modes.
Dynamic Testing Technique
Our technique involves performing dynamic impulse tests of paddles to extract their diving board and trampoline modes. We then normalized the frequency data and plotted the normalized frequencies on a 2-dimensional (2-D) graph. This graph provides insight on how a paddle’s power and control characteristics compare to other paddles. Although we tested over 70 paddles for this assessment, we include the data for only about 50 paddles, since the other paddles were either prototypes or in development. We also did not include paddles that exceeded PBCoR limits or were otherwise disqualified by USAP or UPA.
Figure 1 shows a scatter plot where the vertical axis represents Power capability, and the horizontal axis represents Control capability. Each point on the graph represents the normalized frequency data for a paddle. This chart is divided into nine regions, showing different combinations of high, medium, and low Power and Control. In the center of this chart is a region that defines “Hybrid” paddles.
Power vs Control Trendline
What is immediately obvious in Figure 1 is that if you perform a linear regression curve-fit of the data, it will fall on a trendline (shown in green) that passes through the origin from the upper left quadrant to the lower right quadrant. This should not be surprising, because this line follows conventional knowledge that high power paddles have low control, and high control paddles have low power. In fact, we can easily put the 1-dimensional Power vs Control spectrum across this line, as shown in Figure 2.
Why is this so? As we discussed in an earlier article, paddles are traditionally manufactured using the same composite materials in the paddle face and throat. This means that the bending stiffnesses of the paddle face and throat will track together. We can now examine two cases at the opposite ends of the power vs control spectrum:
- If the composite materials have a low bending stiffness, the paddle will have a low frequency trampoline mode, generating more power, but it will also have a low frequency diving board mode, generating less control.
- If the composite materials have a high bending stiffness, the paddle will have a high frequency trampoline mode, generating less power, but it will also have a high frequency diving board mode, generating more control.
The 1-D Power vs Control spectrum therefore makes sense for certain paddles that fall on the diagonal, verifying the conventional knowledge that paddles with more power have less control, and paddles with more control have less power.
Paddle Reactivity and Accuracy
In our paddle assessments, we use the terms “power” and “control” rather loosely, as these terms are commonly used to describe paddles. In reality, power and control are complex terms that cannot be described by a single parameter. We will therefore use the following conventions when referring to “power” and “control”:
- When we measure “power” we are really measuring the “reactivity” of a paddle, which is the ability of the paddle to return energy to the ball on rebound. In a broader sense, the power capability of a paddle must include its reactivity, mass, swing weight, and swing velocity.
- When we measure “control” we are really measuring the “accuracy” of the paddle, which includes the amount of energy absorbed by the paddle during contact with the ball that is lost in deformation at the paddle throat. The greater amount of deformation that the paddle will have at the throat, the lower accuracy it will have. The control capability of a paddle must include this deformation, its ability to be positioned properly, and spin capability.
Paddle Power vs Control Data
Here is the 2-D Power vs Control spectrum (Figure 3) with the names of the paddles tested shown on the diagram and in Table 1:
Table 1. Paddle Ratings
Observations
Further interpretation of the 2D Power vs Control Spectrum chart (Figure 3) and Table 1 indicate the following:
- Paddles with frequencies above the diagonal will have more power than the average paddle, and paddles with frequencies below the diagonal will generally have less power.
- Paddles with frequencies to the right of the diagonal will have more control than the average paddle, and paddles with frequencies to the left of the diagonal will generally have less control.
- Only one of the paddles tested, the TMPR Nimbus falls into the high power / high control category. While there are certainly other paddles with higher reactivity than the Nimbus, no other paddles have a similar combination of control and power. This demonstrates the challenge of engineering a paddle with a soft face and stiff throat.
- There are no paddles in the Low Power / Low Control category. This indicates that it is difficult to manufacture a paddle with a low throat stiffness and a high face stiffness. We found, however, that paddles with holes near the throat (like the Luxe LX, the Selkirk Labs Project 007, and the Onix Malice) are especially problematic because their diving board and trampoline vibration modes are significantly different from the conventional paddles. In fact, we needed to remove these paddles from our assessment because their test results significantly skewed the test data.
- The High Power / Medium Control paddles have among the highest levels of reactivity of the paddles tested. In the high-power range, we also note that the paddles tend towards the Low Control range.
- Care must be taken in selecting paddles in the High Power / Low Control category. These paddles might be ideal for players with limited arm strength who do not hit the ball hard. In this case, they will gain the benefit of extra “pop”, but the lower force acting on the paddle will limit static deflection at the throat, thereby improving accuracy.
- In the center of the chart, the Medium Power / Medium Control (Hybrid) paddles comprise the largest group of paddles. Following the trendline, increasing paddle power implies reducing paddle control and increasing paddle control implies reducing paddle power.
Conclusions & Recommendations
These results indicate that the categorization of pickleball paddles in the manner described above appears to be a valid indicator of paddle power vs control capability. The 2D Power vs Control spectrum provides a quick, easy, and graphical means of comparing several paddles, so that consumers can make informed decisions. The dynamic impulse tests might also be easier to perform and more reliable than the USAP PBCoR test. Manufacturers and researchers should perform dynamic tests on their paddles to further validate this technique and develop a quantitative means of categorizing their paddles for power and control.
