Pickleball

I started playing Pickleball in June 2022. Anyone can buy a $40-$60 paddle at your local sporting goods store or Amazon, a pickleball ball, find a court and start playing. I’d recommend taking some lessons, but if you play tennis or ping pong then this game will come easy to you. There are rules and strategy differences compared to tennis. The small court is deceiving as you can get just as much cardio from a pickleball game as you can from a tennis game.

Coming from tennis you will have to get used to the ball and rule differences including:

  1. The ball doesn’t bounce at all compared to a tennis ball. So you have to get close to a ball to hit it properly. You also don’t raise your paddle as high as your tennis racket for ready position. Keep the butt of the handle around your belly button.
  2. The ball slows down so much faster than a tennis ball. If you rip a winner down the line and your opponent chases it down, this is why. This takes some getting used to
  3. During a serve, the service line is out! Not sure why but read the official rules here.
  4. You can’t volley within 7 feet of the net. This is called the No Volley Zone or Kitchen
  5. Serving:
  6. You serve underhand!
  7. The server can either volley the serve like tennis or let it bounce before hitting.
  8. Two bounce rule: You have to let the ball bounce as the receiver and as the server before volleying so player 1 serves, player 2 has to let the ball bounce before hitting, player 1 also has to let the ball bounce before hitting, then you can volley. This takes a while to get used to. A good strategy is if you’re receiving is to hit it deep right at the server so they’ll have to get out of the way and let it bounce before hitting it.
  9. Skills
  10. You’ll need to get really good at drop shots or dinking, especially cross court.
  12. Courts to play on can be difficult to find, use these websites
  13. Generally older adults over 50 can be seen playing this sport but in some cities like Palo Alto, it’s popular with teens and older people.

Drills:

Watch these videos for the basics.

Third shot drop

Third shot drive

paddles

I’ve bought new and used and here is what I’ve learned:

There is not much difference between $40-$100 paddles. One had more pop but it was also significantly louder which is annoying. The $130 paddle didn’t feel any different.

I like long 6″ handles and thinner grips. There are 8-10 paddles with handles 5.75″ or longer so I plan to buy all of them for evaluation. Prince, Gamma, Engage and will decide which one to keep from there.

There is huge variation in paddles of the same brand and model! I bought one at Big 5 and felt the face of one and it was smooth and another of the same brand and model felt like sandpaper 800 grit, so keep that in mind if buying in person.

Marketing is similar to tennis rackets, power and control are the main characteristics, what trade off do you want? There are also some paddles that specifically address tennis elbow.

The big 3 of tennis rackets Babolat, Head, Wilson aren’t big players in the pickleball paddle world.

You don’t have to restring a paddle since it has no strings. Not sure you know when to replace it, I guess when it doesn’t have much pop? I hear every 1-2 years you should replace a paddle.

Paddle maintenance: Replace the border if it gets scraped up, replace the over grip, clean the surface? How?

You will notice overall weight, how the weight is distributed, grip size, and handle length the most defining characteristics of a paddle. The paddle’s other characteristics below are all much less noticeable, at least to me so far…

  1. Core type
  2. Graphite, Composite, Fiberglass
  3. Shape
  4. Length
  5. Width
  6. Thickness
  7. Power
  8. Control
  9. Softness
  10. Sound – Paddles can make a lot of noise

Brands from the tennis world don’t seem very popular amongst all the players I’ve seen: Babolat, Gamma, Head, Prince, Wilson

Brands from the Pickleball world:

Engage

Gearbox

Selkirk

Long Handled Paddles

These paddles work well for a two handed backhand, or for people that like to hold the handle with two hands in ready position or on the backhand backswing. Gearbox has a great demo program for only $20 you can demo 4 paddles for a week. Engage has a 30 day return policy, but you have to pay about $16 postage to send 2 paddles back Priority Mail. Selkirk also has a 30 day return policy but they pay the postage! Selkirk also offers the most grip size options and precise weight options.

The paddles with handles 5.50″ or longer include:

  1. Gamma Compass LH $149 but discontinued as of Sept 2022. Handle Length: 6.25″
  2. Prince Quantum Pro $129 Handle Length: 6.0″ A pretty good paddle but nothing special. This was the first long handled paddle I bought and used.
  3. Engage Poach Infinity MX Elongated $169 Handle Length: 6.0″ Currently my favorite paddle. The handle and grip feel great.
  4. Selkirk Vanguard 2.0 Mach 6 $200 Handle length: 5.875″
  5. Engage Pursuit MX Graphite Elongated Handle Length: 5.75″
  6. Gearbox CX14H $199 Handle Length: 5.625″
  7. Gearbox CX14E $199 Handle Length: 5.625″
  8. CRBN1 $180 Handle Length: 5.50″

Pickleball Paddle Demos

I’ve owned one played with several pickle ball paddles since June 2022.

Initially, I bought the cheapest ones I could find:

Gamma Odyssey 

I think I paid $40 for this at Big 5 Sporting Goods. Fine for your first paddle if you just want to play recreationally. 

https://www.gammasports.com/Odyssey-Pickleball-Paddle

Gamma Fusion 2.0, this was my very first paddle bought in April 2019 for $40 and then again in July 2022 for $70

I then started paying $125-$200 for a paddle:

Prince Response Pro Pickleball Paddle, Red, Large grip. $127. July 2022

This played no better than the two cheap Gamma paddles above.

I also don’t like the larger grip, so I sold it for $100

Prince Quantum Pro, Red, Small Aug 2022 $129

I love the long handle so I have been buying paddles with a handle 5.25” or longer. However, this paddle is nothing special so it’s up for sale.

Engage 

Pursuit MX 6.0, 8.0-8.4oz, $210 – grip was way too big for me so I returned it. Paddle felt okay, but can’t make an accurate assessment. I ordered the Pursuit MX Graphite Elongated which has a smaller diameter grip.

Poach Infinity MX Elongated $170. 8oz. Feels great. This and the Gearbox CP7 and Gamma Compass LH are the three best honeycomb core paddles for me. I will evaluate all three of these to see which I like better.

Gamma Compass LH, 7.2oz, $150. The longest handle available at 6.25” The paddle felt fine. I need to compare to the Engage Poach Infinity and Gearbox CP7.

Gearbox Demo

Sept 2022:

CX14H, standard grip, 8oz. $200. Did not like this paddle much. The sweet spot felt way too small, paddle just didn’t feel right.

CX14E, standard grip, 8oz. $200. Oddly this is my favorite paddle so far. Odd since spec wise it is very, very close to the CX14H, yet to me feels totally different. Not sure if I am using the version 2, I sent an email to Gearbox to confirm. There is much more spin generated compared to the Engage Poach Infinity or Gearbox CP7

CP7 8.5oz. $99. This paddle was great! For $99 I would highly recommend. I don’t think any of the other honeycombs are any better than this one, but will evaluate when my Engage Poach Infinity MX when it arrives in a few days.

GX6 Control. 8.5oz. $150. Didn’t like this paddle. The feel is off, difficult to articulate any better than that, but I won’t buy anything in the GX6 line.