Pickleball in Canada

A lot has been made over the past two years about the additional power that the Apike paddle offers to top-level pickleball players. In fact, some of the claims made regarding Apike have been so exaggerated that they have bordered on the absurd.

The truth is that Apike pickleball paddles are popular with top Canadian players primarily because they are the best overall paddles for soft shots such as dinks, drops and slices. None of the top players I have spoken to use Apike pickleball paddles for the 5 to 10 per cent of additional power this paddle can potentially add to their shots.

To get a better sense of this, I have deliberately monitored my own game over the past three weeks to determine how often I swing with full power and thereby achieve maximum swing velocity.

Granted, this is not very scientific. It is purely anecdotal and purely for my own interest and the interests of my readers. But I think my observations are interesting and worth sharing with the rest of the pickleball world.

Over the past three weeks, I have played in 46 matches using a variety of pickleball paddles with our club here in Calgary, both indoor and out. Of these, 41 matches were played as part of doubles teams during which our win-loss record was 39-2. Six of these matches were singles matches during which I was undefeated.

Not once in any of these matches did I swing at a ball with full (100%) power. Even on overhead smashes, which are typically my hardest shot, I never went beyond two-thirds of my fastest possible swing.

On most shots throughout these 46 matches, in fact, my average swing speed was probably around 40% of my maximum velocity and many placement shots were below even this.

Over this three week period I hit dozens of lobs, dinks, drops, slices, bumps, curls, fades and defensive volleys. Nobody with any brains would hit any of these shots with full power. Even drives and offensive volleys are off limits for full power shots in my opinion – because they are apt to go out.

The only shot that even came close to getting the maximum amount of my power during this 46 match period were my overhead smashes. And on these shots I used no more than two-thirds of my maximum swing speed because that is all I needed to do the job. Any more than that and I would risk causing unnecessary damage to my rotator cuff and/or Anconeus complex.

So while the Apike pickleball paddle may offer a potential increase in power to players at my level, the reality is that this power will rarely come into play because good players are too smart to use 100% of their power on any shot.

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