Pickleball Paddles
When pickleball was invented on a badminton court in Washington State in 1965, it was played with table tennis equipment. The game soon graduated to perforated plastic balls and one of its inventors, Barney McCallum, fashioned a simple wood paddle—the M2—that became the sport’s longtime standard. Flash forward almost 60 years: the game is the fastest growing sport in America and the equipment choices are vast and often expensive.
Paddle buyers are now presented with options that include carbon and fiberglass bodies in various thicknesses, with foam cores and a choice of facings and shapes. Accordingly, prices have soared with the most expensive in the $250 range. In 2019, faced with a market that seemed to present a new latest-thing every six months, Braydon Unsicker, an Oregonian player, created pickleballeffect.com, a website with paddle reviews and a paddle fitting quiz “to cut through the marketing jargon.”
The good news? He counsels that for beginners there are not many bad paddles. “If you just want to try it out, Amazon paddles [the kind you get in a set for $50] are definitely the way to go.”
It’s when you become a regular player that it’s worth getting a good paddle. “Going from a cheap Amazon paddle and your first performance racquet makes a big difference because the spin, the forgiveness, is greatly improved. It’s finding the one that fits you and has the right balance and right amount of power and pop.”
Even then, an $80 to $120 paddle may fit the bill. It’s at the 3.0 to 3.5 skill rating (5.5 and higher are top caliber) that you should consider top quality from such brands as Engage, Franklin, JOOLA, Paddletek, Selkirk and Vatic Pro. At that level, the criteria are things like swing speed and choosing between power and finesse (often a function of paddle shape). The pitfall, Unsicker says, is not being truthful to yourself. “The pros will typically use longer and skinnier paddles for more power and reach. But the drawback is they’re just not very forgiving. So many amateurs will use these elongated shapes when they shouldn’t be.”
The website’s assessment will point you in the direction of the paddle that’s right for you. Beyond that, Unsicker advises to find a retailer that will let you test drive a paddle before you buy.
