Pickleball for newbies
November 2, 2020 11:31 AM   Subscribe

My HOA has added pickleball nets to our neighborhood tennis courts. I’ve played enough to know my whole family will love to play. How much should I plan to spend on paddles? My girls are young teens and I assume could share with me. Husband is a tall guy. This would just be for recreational play in our family. Any recommended brand/style/material of construction, etc? Thank you.
posted by gryphonlover to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I've watched people play, never played myself, but this guide seems both exhaustive and impartial.

From skimming it: wood's popular and cheap, but doesn't have the same 'pop' as other materials (think of the strings of a tennis racket versus the wood of a ping-pong paddle). Good for beginners. Composite is more expensive but lighter and better for generating spin, and graphite is yet lighter and yet more expensive (more serious players mostly use graphite).

There's a lot more than that in the guide, of course, but, if you're only ever going to play within your family, I imagine you want to start with something inexpensive, but not bottom-of-the-barrel. If it turns out that some people in your family are much better than others, you might be able to mitigate that to some degree by getting different types of paddles for different players.
posted by box at 3:39 PM on November 2, 2020


I've been playing for a year and change now. Definitely just start with some simple wooden paddles, there's absolutely no reason to spring for the good stuff yet (or possibly ever). I think my two paddles cost something like $20, and included four balls. If there's any likelihood at all of your daughters playing with you I'd recommend getting four paddles though, playing four-handed is a ton of fun.
posted by saladin at 6:02 PM on November 2, 2020


Response by poster: The guide was very thorough and helpful. I chose some graphite paddles and can’t wait for Christmas to open them up and play.
posted by gryphonlover at 9:00 PM on December 21, 2020


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