How Organized is Pickleball?

There have been many occasions where I’ve wondered just how “put together” pickleball really is. Across all levels. Because the reality is that pickleball is growing in popularity faster than the infrastructure, this is just my humble opinion.

Over the years, I have experienced the growing pains; as a recreational participant, competitive tournament player, working professional, and as a governing sport body volunteer.

So, why am I writing about it now? The hot topic of delaminated paddles continues to burn on, and more recently due to the controversial situation at the most recent PPA tournament.

As opinions continue to circulate around paddle fairness and consistency it’s clear that the parties involved must take a certain level of responsibility. Yet again, just another growing pain that this sport is experiencing.

Anyway, let's dive in...

Delamination and Thermoform Paddles

To help clarify, thermoformed paddles means the paddle is constructed one piece and glued around the poly honeycomb core. This unibody construction is done using carbon fiber.

But when the glue fails to keep these pieces intact then delamination occurs. When the face has become unahered to the core and believe it or not the paddle then gets a trampoline effect which will increase the transfer of power.

A paddle that has become delaminated will sound different from a paddle that is not; it will sound like a dull thud rather than a pop.

The face of the paddle will feel soft and you can almost feel the paddle sink into the core and this is where that springing or trampoline effect happens. If you can’t pick up on the sound, the power of the paddle will become noticeably different.

From the Top

Professional pickleball continues to increase the gap between it and lower levels. Paddle manufacturers have been getting pros to assist in the design, demoing and evaluation of prototypes for years.

Nowadays pros are using paddles not yet on the market - this concept is not unique to our sport, for example, touring tennis pros also use different racquets that are on the shelves of sporting goods stores.

The concept of delamination was not a “thing” when I first started pickleball. Back in the day, a paddle that was soft in the middle or made a different sound was just a “dead” one and a person would do their best to get a new one under warranty.

At sanctioned tournaments, referees will “test” the surface of a paddle. This is to ensure that no one has manipulated the texture in any way. And then “CRBNgate” happened.

In the middle of last year’s US Open the CRBN pickleball paddle was banned from the rest of the competition. Players were left scrambling to change their paddle so that they could still compete.

A few days later, USA Pickleball removed the CRBN 16mm paddle from their approved list and PPA banned the paddle from their tournament as well. Now, the PPA Tour has gone to the next step and has implemented a paddle testing system before each match - to test for a variety of elements.

The information below, has been collected from social media accounts and the statements made are from the two parties involved - the pro player and pro tour. I have not personally spoken to anyone directly involved in the situation.

Photo credit: PPA

In the most recent PPA tournament at Newport Beach, CA professional player Sarah Ansboury’s paddle passed the test leading into her next women’s doubles match; she and her partner won that quarter final match.

The opponents challenged the paddle she was using and it was tested again - and failed - apparently the integrity of the paddle had deteriorated over the course of the match and in a statement made by PPA, Ansboury was forewarned this could happen prior to the match.

Ansboury and her partner were disqualified from the rest of the category. So, this situation leads to a flurry of conversation amongst the community. Should the company be penalized, the player?

The manufacturer does have a responsibility for providing their players with paddles that won’t fail (and should continue to work on resolving this issue) and if the player has in fact been given a warning about their paddle leading up to a match, should they not replace it?

All of the pros have multiple paddles on hand - and if those back up paddles have the same issue, well then, the onus lands back onto the manufacturer. 

Photo credit: GAMMA Pickleball

Photo credit: PPA

Governing Sport Bodies 

The major sport bodies that are governing pickleball that you might be more familiar with are USA Pickleball (USAP) and Pickleball Canada (PCO).

The International Federation of Pickleball (IFP) used to work alongside USAP in regards to the rulebook; it currently lists 78 affiliated countries on their website. A couple of years ago, I, alongside many other Canadians, was an Ambassador of IFP however, well over a year ago there seemed to be a rift between organizations and possibly some conflict with the leadership.

The head of the ambassador program resigned and USAP and Pickleball Canada both withdrew their alliance to IFP and so, the Canadian Ambassadors were no longer that.

It appears that IFP has reframed their ambassador program into a diplomatic program. I do not know - or wish to know - the inner details but the perception is that there was a lack of leadership and organization. 

Image credit: Pickleball Canada

Quite recently, Pickleball La Liga Profesional de Pickleball Mexico, USAP and PCO announced the continental formation of the Pickleball Federation of the Americas (PFA), with the goal of uniting pickleball across the Americas and growing pickleball on an international level.

What will be interesting to see is how exactly PFA will grow the sport’s infrastructure, which is what is desperately needed. From what I know, more governance, policy and framework is needed in order for the sport to really accelerate forward.

So let’s loop back in the topic of delamination for a second, USAP has a responsibility over the quality control of paddles. USAP revises the rulebook every year, which contains the qualifications of a legal paddle and they conduct paddle testing for new paddles that have yet to hit the market.

As you likely know, each paddle type that is tournament approved has “USAP Approved” on the face of their paddle and a full list of approved, pending or declined paddles is available on USAP’s website.

Each paddle goes through a series of tests including grit level (checking the amount of texture on the face on the paddle), measurements (must be within 24 inches length and width combined), and the overall construction.

But with all of these “gates” occurring are the paddles being altered after the approval? Perhaps it’s as innocent as some inconsistencies with the manufacturing. Whatever it is, there seems to be a lack of quality control going on.

Image credit: PPA

The most popular tour and USAP, both considered a leader of pickleball, will have to come together with regard to equipment consistency.

If USAP has the responsibility to control the quality of new paddles then manufacturers and tournaments that chose to test the paddles also have a responsibility to uphold.

But let’s not forget the fact that PPA has chosen to ignore a few USAP rules surrounding a re-serve; let serves are replayed and referees have the ability to call a re-serve on what looks like an illegal serve.

The PPA is not a sanctioned tour, meaning, participants do not need to be a member of USAP. In a way, they have chosen to not align with USAP, and at a rec level, the tour causes confusion.

Participants are always questioning the let serve - thinking it has been re-implemented when really, they are watching a PPA match on YouTube and not realizing that PPA has chosen their own rules.

This article was taken from our 'Control the Kitchen' Newsletter, if you're interested in receiving more content like this, please feel free to sign up using the subscribe section located at the bottom left of this page (or underneath the article if you're on mobile), thanks!