Guide to Peripheral Weighting
Most serious players will add weight to their paddle. It could be for more power or to decrease vibrations or to lessen the impact of off-center hits. Adding weight has many benefits, but comes at the cost of "slower hands" due to the added static weight and swing weight.
How much weight should be added and where? How much is gained vs how much is lost? One example is pictured to the right. Two 3 gram lead strips are added to a Ronbus R2.16 Quanta.
The stock specs are:
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Static weight: 7.8 oz
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Swing weight: 102
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Twist weight: 6.34
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Testing with an air cannon puts the rebound velocity of a 50 mph inbound ball at 8.8 mph (equivalent to a 58.8 mph serve)
The specs with two 3 gram strips located 11.5" from the butt are:
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Static weight: 8.0 oz
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Swing weight: 105.5
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Twist weight: 6.94
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Testing with an air cannon puts the rebound velocity of a 50 mph inbound ball at 9.1 mph (equivalent to a 59.1 mph serve)
Most players would not notice the change in performance. The improvements in speed (0.3 mph) and twist weight (0.6) are modest. The extra weight (static, swing, twist) is modest. But what happens when the weight is increased (2.5x or 5x) and placed at different locations. How are pro players weighting their paddles? When does extra weight make the paddle too hard to swing?
More Aggressive Weighting
Several paddle reviewers have mused that the $99 Quanta could be equivalent to a $333 Selkirk Boomstick if 15 grams of weight are added. This is similar to the two external 7.5 gram weights on the Boomstick. To test the concept, 15 grams of weight were added to the Ronbus R2.16 Quanta as shown in the picture to the right.
The stock specs of the paddle without weights are:
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Static weight: 7.8 oz
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Swing weight: 102
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Twist weight: 6.34
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Testing with an air cannon puts the rebound velocity of a 50 mph inbound ball at 8.8 mph (equivalent to a 58.8 mph serve)
The specs with a total of 15 grams located at 6 locations are:
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Static weight: 8.3 oz
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Swing weight: 110.2
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Twist weight: 7.84
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Testing with an air cannon puts the rebound velocity of a 50 mph inbound ball at 9.6 mph (equivalent to a 59.6 mph serve)
With this weighting the Quanta's static weight and swing weight are average, but the twist weight and power (serve speed) are above average. Note that the increase in swing weight of 8.2 (102 to 110.2) is the reason the serve speed increases by 0.8 mph for a ratio of about 1 extra mph for each 10 point increase in swing weight. Keep this ratio in mind because later in this article we'll find this is applicable to another paddle.
What happens if the weight is tripled - putting 12 additional lead strips on top of the existing 6 lead strips for a total of 45 grams of additional weight? Everything is additive and fairly linear. The increase in swing weight triples - an increase of 8.2 points with 15 grams of weight to 25 points with 45 grams of weight. The increase in serve speed goes up by a factor of 2.5 - 0.8 mph with 15 grams of weight to to 2.0 mph with 45 grams of weight.
Note: the swing weight has now gone from 102 (stock) to 127 (45 grams) - a very hard paddle to swing for the average player. The nice thing about the Quanta is the paddle can be customized for every level of player. Want extra fast hands? Play the paddle stock. Want something for the average player? Add 15 to 30 grams. Want overpowering serves? Pile on the weights!
Pro Weighting
Braydon Unsicker of Pickleball Pursuit did a recent podcast on how four pros weighted their Franklin C45 paddles (similar to the Quanta) and the effect on ball speed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dzq9lfmTlY
The details of how much weight is added and placement of the weights are in the podcast. In general, the weight was added to the four corners of the paddle face. The swing weights of the four pro C45 paddles are listed to the right.
Braydon took his C45 paddle and added weight in the same locations to duplicate the pros' paddles. He then served the ball from each paddle and recorded the speed using a radar gun. The serve speeds are pictured to the right.
If serve speed is plotted versus swing weight it's easy to see a linear relationship. Note that the increase in swing weight of 22 (107 to 129) is the reason the serve speed increases by 2.1 mph (55.2 to 57.3) for a ratio of about 1 extra mph for each 10 point increase in swing weight. This is the same ratio seen above for the Quanta paddle.
The Downside of Extra Weight
Braydon also wanted to see the effect of perimeter weighting on "pop" - a term used to describe the ball speed resulting from a flick or punch. The ball is held at arm's length and is struck by the paddle accelerated from the chest. The resultant ball speed is recorded using a radar gun.
The pop speeds are listed to the right along with a graph of pop versus swing weight.
The nonlinear relationship is unexpected.
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An increase in swing weight of 4 (107 to 111) causes an increase in ball speed of 0.6 mph (35.6 to 36.2).
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An increase in swing weight of 6 (111 to 117) causes an increase in ball speed of 0.4 mph (36.2 to 36.6).
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An increase in swing weight of 12 (117 to 129) causes a decrease in ball speed of 2.1 mph (36.6 to 34.5)!
What's the explanation? Why does the speed drop drastically with high peripheral weighting?
Theory tells us that there should be a monotonic increase in ball speed with extra perimeter weight. An educated guess as to why there is a drop-off in ball speed at the 129 swing weight level is that Braydon is not strong enough to accelerate the heavy paddle (swing weight of 129) to the same speed as the lighter paddles when executing a punch/flick. In contrast to the serve, the punch/flick maneuver is not assisted by gravity and there is less distance over which to accelerate the paddle. Thus, there comes a point where extra weight becomes a disadvantage at the net.
For doubles play where fast hands at the net are critical, Braydon's optimum swing weight would be in the 115 range. He gets the advantage of increased twist weight, fast pops and fast serves. He avoids the drop off in pop speed at the 129 swing weight level.
For singles play where powerful ground strokes are paramount, Braydon's optimum swing weight would be in the 120 and above range. He gets the advantage of higher twist weight,very fast drives from the baseline and very fast serves, but at the expense of slower hand speed and pop. However, hand speed and pop are not that important for singes play. Hand battles in singles play are rare.
