Top 5 Paddles for Control Players

Author

Chris Olson
August 11, 2023

What’s up, guys? This week we are talking about my top 5 paddles for control, paddle company tier list, PaddleTek’s new Tempest launch, and putting lead in the handle of your Pickleball paddle.

Top 5 paddles for control

Continuing on from my best paddles for $100 or less, we have my top 5 paddles for control.

I have more of these planned for various categories that will hopefully help you narrow down a specific set of paddles that would be ideal for you.

Just know that even if a paddle isn’t in this list, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great control paddle. It’s honestly very difficult to narrow these categories down to just 5 paddles. There’s a lot of paddles that are very close to getting into that top 5 slot that just didn’t quite make the cut.

Ranking Pickleball paddle companies

A year ago I made a video where I ranked my least favorite to favorite companies in Pickleball.

In these videos, the highest factors are price and performance. I’m basing this off paddles that I actually enjoy playing with.

Of course, things like warranty, company history, durability will factor in, but largely I’m focusing on what I enjoy playing with.

It’s a very personal type of video and not necessarily a ranking system that everyone should agree with. So, use it for some entertainment and to learn what I like, but just know that you very well may not like a paddle that I really enjoy.

Let me know what you thought of my list!

PaddleTek is alive!

PaddleTek has been sleeping for ages. In fact, I don’t know that they’ve released a new paddle since I started playing Pickleball.

They finally released the new Tempest line of paddles.

As far as I can tell, the only thing that really changed was the addition of what they call “iced carbon fiber” and “perma spin”.

So, clearly it’s meant to fix the biggest issue that PaddleTek has which is a lack of spin. If the “perma spin” claim holds up how I think they mean it, that could be pretty huge.

However, it really took them 2 years to take the same paddle and add a coating to it? Seems odd to me unless the perma spin really does what it says.

They also didn’t go crazy with the price. Sure, $200 isn’t cheap, but life time warranty isn’t bad for that price. Especially when you consider the other big legacy brands have started to push $220+.

I can’t wait to get my hands on them and see how they perform. I hope after 2 years that it’s good.

Oh, and Memes of Pickleball put me in a meme. It made me chuckle. 😂

Lead in the handle of your paddle

You know, I’ve talked at length about how putting lead in the handle of your paddle won’t increase hand speed (because it can’t) however, one thing I didn’t put much thought into was that it shouldn’t make your hands noticeably slower even with quite a bit of weight.

So if that’s the case, in what ways would it impact the paddle?

I’m still determining this, but I tried it on the Ronbus R1 Nova that I’m reviewing and it took the paddle from something that I thought was okay, to something that I thought performed quite a bit better.

The paddle felt more substantial in my hand, without sacrificing my hand speed.

Of course, you’re also getting the benefit of lowering the paddles balance as well.

I still need to do more research on the court as well as online to find the exact ways it would impact a paddle, but I’m much more of a fan than I expected to be.

For the Ronbus, I put 0.8oz in the handle. The paddle now weights about 8.8oz and doesn’t feel noticeably harder to swing than before.

I only tried this yesterday, so I’ll have more in-depth thoughts in the future.

For those curious, I primarily use this lead tape these days. I enjoy the convenience of it.

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If you missed it, Will and I cover the new drama surrounding Zane’s paddle, Anna Leigh’s reaction to losing, and more from last weekends exciting PPA tournament.