What Is The Best Shape For Your Padel Racket?
What is the best shape for your padel racket? The best shape for your game?
The main two shapes for a padel racket are diamond and round. These are by far the most popular and used in the padel community. This led me to the question, “what is the best shape for your padel racket?”.
I want to find out what the best shape is, and if there even is a “best shape” so I did some research.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents - What Is The Best Shape For Your Padel Racket?
What Is The "Sweet Spot?"
Before we get to the different shapes of each padel racket and how to find the best shape for your padel racket, we need to establish what the “sweet spot” is. Different shaped rackets have different sweet spots.
The sweet spot is the most effective place to strike the ball.
So, when you are on court, you want to hit the ball in the sweet spot, to get that nice striking sound and get the best outcome after the ball is played.
It is one of those things that when you hear it, you know. Maybe when you are on court and you play a shot that just doesn’t sound right, this is probably due to you not hitting the “sweet spot”.
How Does This Effect The Shape Of Your Padel Racket?
Well, the sweet spot will be different on different shaped rackets, so you need to hit the ball in different areas when using different rackets.
This is the biggest factor that will effect your game when using different shaped padel rackets.
Let’s now have a look at the two main different shapes, round and diamond.
A tip for players from other racket sports
If you come from a racket sport where you used a longer racket, such as tennis or squash, you probably find you hit the ball naturally nearer the top on your padel racket.
It might be an idea to look at a diamond-shaped racket, as the sweet spot is at the top already, you are more likely to hit the ball near the top as you are used to hitting the ball higher up.
Resulting in you getting a cleaner shot and better ball output. Just a suggestion.
Round Shaped Padel Rackets
Round shaped padel rackets will have the sweet spot in the middle of them.
This means in order to get the most effective shot, we need to hit the ball right in the centre of the racket.
Round padel rackets also have low balance, this means that the weight distribution is going to be even across the racket, so no side is going to be heavier than the other.
This gives us information that round rackets are good for the following:
- Control
- Beginners/Intermediate Players
The Best Shape For Control
You will get the most control when you hit right in the centre of a padel racket. This is because there is a lot of support and material surrounding the racket.
A sweet spot in the middle is going to be quite forgiving, you could hit the ball around the racket but due to the size of the sweet spot, the shot can still be effective.
The best shape for your padel racket may be round if you are a control player!
The Best Shape For Beginner/Intermediate Players
Beginner and intermediate players may find that they make a lot of mistakes. A round racket with a large sweet spot, and low balance will help them a lot.
It will be a very “easy” padel bat to use. I say easy, because the player does not have any differences in weight, and does not have to think about striking the ball in the right place.
Now, this does NOT mean that if you are of an advanced level, that you should not use a round shaped padel racket. They can still be a great tool to use.
For example the professional world padel tour player Miguel Lamperti uses the Nox ML10 Pro Cup.
The best shape for your padel racket may be round if you are a beginner/intermediate player!
Diamond Shaped Padel Rackets
Diamond shaped padel rackets have the sweet spot at the top.
This is because nearly all of them are power oriented.
Now this isn’t all diamond rackets, but a lot of them are going to have high balance, meaning the top of the racket is going to be heavier.
This tells us that diamond shaped rackets are great for:
- Power
- Advanced Players
The Best Shape For Power
Diamond shaped rackets are going to give you the best shape for power.
Why?
Because when you play an aggressive shot or kick smash/flat smash, you should try and strike the ball near the top of the racket, in order to get the most kick and spin.
The fact that the sweet spot is placed here, AND the weight is at the top, is going to maximise the power.
The best shape for your padel racket may be diamond if you are a power player!
Hold a Hammer
If you held a hammer from the bottom, you would get more power right?
If you held a hammer right near the top, near the head, you would get a lot less power, but more control.
The same principle applies with a padel racket. With the sweet spot further away from where you are holding it, (sweet spot is near the top) you naturally get more power when hitting the ball.
The Best Shape For Advanced Players
A lot of the advanced rackets are based around power.
This is because when you are an advanced player, it is common that control is not your issue, instead you want to focus on getting as much power as possible.
Again, like I said earlier, this doesn’t mean that if you are an advanced player, you have to get a power bat.
From my experience, and the top brands such as Nox and adidas, they release a lot of power rackets at the high end, due to popularity.
The best shape for your padel racket may be diamond if you are an advanced player!
What Is The Best Shape For Your Padel Racket?
What is the best shape for your padel racket? The most crucial part of finding out what shape is for you, is to determine if you are a power player, or a control player. This will help you find out what shape to choose, round for control and diamond for power.
For intermediate players and above, I think this especially applies.
For beginner players, I would recommend that you go for a control padel racket, as it is going to be very forgiving and be control oriented. Very good for a beginner!
What Do The Pro Player's Use?
Let’s have a look at what shape rackets the professional players in the world padel tour use!-
Ale Galan – Diamond Shaped (world no1)
Juan Lebron – Diamond Shaped (world no2)
Sanyo Gutierrez – Diamond Shaped (world no4)
Miguel Lamperti – Round Shape (world no23)
The majority of players that I found had diamond rackets, however, there were a few that used round!
Conclusion - What Is The Best Shape For Your Padel Racket?
Overall, there isn’t a “best shape” for your padel racket, but instead there is a “best shape” for YOU. For me personally the “best shape” is diamond, but for you it may be round, depending on what your game is all about.
This is proven by looking at the professional players, a lot use diamond shape, but some use round.
Hope this helps!
“What is the best shape for your padel racket” – Ewan Ramsden
Ewan Ramsden
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