How to Find the Perfect Pickleball Paddle: Part 2 - Power vs Control Paddles

In Part 1, we covered paddle shapes and how they affect your game. Now let's dive into one of the most important factors when choosing a paddle: power vs control. Understanding this distinction will help you find a paddle that matches your playing style and skill level.

Why Power vs Control Matters

Every paddle falls somewhere on the spectrum between power and control. Power paddles are most popular nowadays. They help you hit harder shots and generate more pace, which the majority of people like. Control paddles are more forgiving, and will help you reset and hit shots where you want them. The right balance depends on your game, skill level, and what you're trying to achieve on the court.

Control Paddles

Control paddles will have less firepower but will be more forgiving. Resets won't pop up as high, which is typically good, and you can swing more without having the ball sail out. Almost everyone will say beginners should start with control paddles, which generally is true, but I will go over that more later.

Pickleball doubles is a game of errors, if a paddle helps you be more consistent and is more forgiving that's usually the right decision over trying to overpower opponents.

A lot of brands don't make control paddles as much anymore, I will go onto that a bit later.

Power Paddles

Power paddles are just the paddles with the most power (and pop) on the market. These are the most popular types of paddles since everyone, beginner or advanced, love hitting the ball as hard as possible. And the thing is, that strategy can work for the most part, especially at lower levels when players can't handle pace as well.

Just some key terms, Power refers to how hard a ball can be hit on full swings like drives, serves, and overheads, and pop refers to how hard/fast a ball pops off a paddle face on short swings like counters or even when resetting. Power paddles are towards the top in power, and usually will be at least above average in pop if not towards the top as well.

More pop and power will let you end points quicker especially if you are in the front, the trade off is typically your control is not as good, for example resetting and dropping the ball into the kitchen. Also the serve and return are very important to set yourself up, in which power paddles do help with that.

A good example is a Joola Pro IV and a Selkirk Boomstik.

All-Court Paddles

All-court paddles are the paddles that are in between.

They will have more pop and power than you control paddles, but you can usually control them easier than a power paddle.

Pretty self explanatory, but now we get to the interesting part.

How Technology Has Changed the Game

Control paddles used to be the standard recommendation for beginners. Beginners need the extra forgiveness and won't be able to control a power paddle. Right?

Paddle technology has come a long way. Paddles have way better technology now than even a year of two ago. Bigger sweetspot, more spin, more controllable power.

Also these terms power, control, all court, are all relative. The power paddles from 2+ years ago are now today's all court and maybe even control paddles.

If you think about it, the power air was the "top" power paddle a while back, now it probably sits all court at best and nobody really thinks it's even worth playing with.

I remember when the Gearbox Pro Power first came out, and it was so powerful that it changed the pickleball scene. But the thing was, it was hard to control it, not the best spin + smallish sweet spot. So there was a trade off there between top tier power and control.

Although that power is now banned, paddles just as powerful + way better spin and sweetspot came out that people can control way easier than before.

Which Type Should You Choose?

As a 5.0 player, there are still paddles where I feel like I lost some consistency due to the power/pop (like the Selkirk Boomstik, at least without drilling with it), but there are power paddle where I think I can control relatively well, even compared to an all court or control paddle.

So in a scenario like that, where you can control a power paddle and all court paddle relatively the same (and both well) I would say that's when you may want go for that extra firepower.

99% of the time it is someone using a power paddle when they probably shouldn't, so I'll go over that situation.

Ultimately, I think you just have to be honest with yourself. How am I losing these points, and is it because I can't hit my drops/resets well and/or hitting stuff out etc.

Drilling/Practicing is probably the most important thing but you can make it a lot easier for yourself by getting a paddle that will help you out.

All in all, as a higher level player, I'm starting to feel like control paddles may be less viable for me. Due to better technology, I am able to control a lot of all court and power paddles well, and why wouldn't someone want the extra power.

I would like to say I think there are a lot of controllable all court and maybe even power paddle beginners can start with and should be able to control with some drilling. That being said, everyone is different and this is just an assumption. I rarely play with control paddles nowadays, so maybe they are a lot easier for beginners.

The best way is to keep this in mind when you play with paddles, and demo/play with other paddles if you can. Hopefully you can be honest with yourself and find the most powerful paddle that you can still play your best with.

Coming Up Next

In Part 3, we'll dive into another paddle characteristic, or maybe wrap them all up, who knows.

Until then, think about your current paddle—is it more power-focused or control-focused? Are you giving up easy points because you can't control it, or do you think you could handle some extra power.

Once you do decide on a paddle type, you can search MyPickleList for the best paddles in that category.