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5 Tips For Choosing Your Padel Racquet - The PopPadel.com Blog™

Whether you are an advanced player or a new comer into the sport of Padel, choosing the right Padel racquet for you is an important decision. There is a wide range of racquets out there on the market but not all have the same prices and performance so which one is the right one for you?

The first thing you need to keep in mind that there is no such thing as “the perfect Padel racquet”. However, there is certainly the best Padel raquet suited for you. Leaving aside considerations like price or aesthetics, there are a few characteristics that determine how the padel racquet performs in your hand and these should be main guiding principle when choosing your Padel racquet. The most important factor when buying your racquet should be your level of play and the characteristics that the racquet can offer to your game.

1. Your racquet should match your level of play

In general, the level of play is divided into 3 levels:

- Beginner or Initiation

- Regular player

- Advanced or Professional

Each level represents a speed and weight of the ball as you play. This means that the ball will come to us more slowly and with less effects as we start playing Padel (assuming we play with equally leveled peers or with a coach) and faster and using more effects (cut, topspin or flat effect) as we play more often and improve our level in the game and the level of our opponents.

In general, Padel retailers and manufacturers already classify their catalogues of racquets into these levels of players. As long as you are able to place yourself into one of this levels, it should be easy to find which racquet is the right one for you.

2. Durability

A padel racquet, like any other purchase should be a good quality manufactured product that lasts. However, due to its inherent purpose of hitting a ball it has to combine features of low weight, certain elasticity and firmness. This means its composition might involve an ideal combination of different materials with different resistance and durability.

Basically, a padel racquet is made up of three parts that, from the outside, might seem like a single piece but are in fact three parts with different compositions fused together into a single shape:

- The frame or profile: the outside around the main impact area which gives the racquet its firmness and strength.

- The impact surface: is the most important part of the racquet as it is the area where the ball hits and depending on their composition will give us different feelings and performance when playing.

- The shaft, which is usually wrapped around a rubber or grip which is where you handle the racket.

Nowadays, there are many racquets in the market which have frames made with carbon fiber to give the best combination of firmness, durability and light weight. The frame is also the part of the racquet most expossed to knocks as we try to hit balls close to the ground and walls. To protect the frame, many models of racquets come with a plastic guard screwed or glued at the top of the racquet.

While having a protector is a sensible feature for beginner players, it is also a part that with time, will loosen or detach from the frame so racquets for advance players who are less prone to hit the racquet against the walls, tend to to come without this protector. Needless to say also that racquets intended for novice players tend to be built with a longer resistance to breakage in mind, as they may be more often exposed to accidental impacts. Fortunately, they also have a cheaper price to make it more accessible to all new first time players.

In general, Padel racquets are more fragile than Tennis racquets. Whereas Tennis racquets use solid frames with strings that can be easily replaced when broken, Padel racquets are made of soft components that will eventually break with intense use or accidental knocks with the ground and walls. Once broken, a Padel racquet is difficult to repair.

3. Hardness. Know your strength

As explained above, Padel racquets have a solid impact surface that is filled with holes to allow an easy swing in the air. This surface may be hard or soft and will greatly determine the performance of the racquet. A softer racquet will have more elasticity to rebound the ball and provide more power to your shots.

The impact surface is normally a core made of EVA or FOAM covered then with different materials depending on the manufacturer but the most commonly found are: fiber glass an carbon fiber.

EVA rubber is hard, less felixble and gives less power to the ball. Its advantage then resides in its loger durability and more control. EVA is the most commonly core used by most of manufacturers. FOAM, on the other hand, is soft, provides a bit less control but much more elaticity and provides more power and speed to the ball. Obviuosly, this means FOAM has less durability. Lately, some manufacrturers have developed a third tyoe of core which combines both EVA and FOAM. This hybrid, is a soft rubber with much longer durability made of a core FOAM surrounded by an exterior EVA rubber.

In general:

Soft racquets: provide power to to your shots as their higher elasticity will give extra energy to the ball. On the other hand, they reduce your control. These racquets will help you defend yourself at the back end of the court (as it will help your hits reach the other side) and will provide power on the volley. Obviously, soft racquets tend to last less than hard racquets as softer materials are easier to damage.

Hard racquets: unlike the soft ones, hard racquets provide control and power. They are more demanding than soft ones, because what they lack in rebound power needs to be provided by your arm and therefore you must have a good technique to optimize your impacts.

It is difficult to recommend a hardness to beginners or initiation players, as for example, a woman who starts probably needs a softer racquet than a man as they tend to have more strength. As we improve our technique, features explained we should then choose based on the, which racquet hardness suits our game better.

4. Weight. Heavy can be good.

Racquets can be generally divided into lighter (less than 375 grams) or heavier ones (over 375 grams). Each of these will give our swing different performance and we should therefore choose the weight depending on what are we after. Once again, there is really no ideal weight for a racquet, but an ideal racquet weight for each player so start by consider your level of play and the kind of performance you need to get from your racquet.

In this regard, note that while we will be able to move a lightweight racquet with greater ease and speed (ideal for volley game) with a light racquet we can however lose power in our shots, especially as we get tired. A heavy racquet will be more difficult to move but, on the other hand, it will give us more power at impact. The key to how we handle the weight of the racquet will come on how this weight is distributed in the racquet itself as we will see in the next point: the balance.

Try to play with the heaviest Padel racquet that you find comfortable. This may seem like a contradiction but the higher weight, the more force is transferred to the ball with every hit with less effort done by your arm. Additionally, under the same use conditions a heavy racquet will last us longer than a lightweight.

5. Balance:

In a Padel racquet, the balance indicates the point where most weight of the racquet concentrates along its vertical axis. Balance can be:

High: these racquets are called “big heads” because they have the weight closer to the head of the racquet, at the opposite end of the handle. Despite weighting less, placing the weight at a further distance from our hand will make us feel that they weigh more. This type of racquets will give us a lot of power, but can overload the wrist as the weight is farther out and so the leverage produced is higher (we will have to do more Comprar palas de padel strength to hold the racquet). This High balance racquets usually have a diamond shape at the top.

Middle/Balanced: the weight is a little closer to the handle which will give us a better handling of the racquet, thus more control, and help us to rest the wrist. This balance racquets usually have a teardrop shape and some models can be round in shape.

Low: weight lies far below, close to the handle and this will give us excellent control, as the hand will be able to move the weight more easily, but we will lose a lot of power which we will miss on the volley and defensive shots. It is a balance used by experienced players with great touch and although it seems contradictory, it is also recommended for beginners due to the fact that will allow them better control. This balance racquets usually have round shape.

If you are just starting in the practice of Padel we recommend you to take a racquet that is underbalanced (or Low balance) and round shaped, and you will control the racquet and not the racquet to you. Besides, the fact of having a round head expands the sweet spot (the natural and best point of impact in the racquet´s surface) and facilitates your shots. If you are a more regular player with more playing time under your belt to know your weaknesses, we recommend you choose a racquet to help you correct your mistakes as explained in the balance and form, considering that a diamond shape has the higher sweet spot, it will give you more power and therefore require more control and mastery of the racquet on your part.

When it comes to thickness, Padel racquets cannot exceed a thickness of 38 mm, so this