Many prime execs are left questioning whether or not they can play their very own paddles. All of it comes all the way down to the UPA-A’s new certification requirements, and the way paddle manufacturers selected to play the sport.
In case you tune into PPA Cincinnati, you may discover one thing peculiar: A bunch of execs aren’t taking part in with their regular paddles.
Fashionable fashions from manufacturers like JOOLA, Selkirk, Proton, Paddletek, ProXR, and extra are conspicuously absent from the courts. And a number of the gamers who use them – together with greater than a handful who may compete for podiums – are understandably not thrilled about it.
It is all associated to new paddle testing requirements mandated by the UPA-A that went into impact on September 1, 2025.
Breaking Down the UPA-A 2025 Pickleball Paddle Pointers
The United Pickleball Affiliation of America (UPA-A) has introduced pivotal updates to paddle laws, efficient September 1, 2025, aimed toward guaranteeing equity and consistency in skilled gameplay. With the current formation of the UPA-A, gamers have been anxious to see how the group would deal with the problems associated to paddle
It is excessive drama, particularly with a lot up within the air as we kick off the spherical of 64 at PPA Cincinnati, an all-important, late-season Slam.
However there’s extra occurring right here than meets the attention.
Paddles That Didn’t Make the Reduce
Going ahead, any paddle utilized in professional play should seem on this listing.
As of this writing, there are 85 paddles listed.
A couple of notable omissions:
- Parris Todd’s signature Franklin Dynasty, a brand new 13.25 variation, just isn’t on the listing (Replace, 9/10/25: This paddle is now authorised)
- JOOLA has a couple of fashions lacking, together with the Scorpeus Professional IV 16mm
- Almost all of Paddletek’s 12.7mm fashions aren’t on there, together with the Anna Leigh Waters signature (there are new ALW fashions with 13mm and 13.3mm cores, plus this new one, the TKO-CX2 12.7mm)
- Each PIKKL signature fashions for Gabe Tardio and Tyra Black do not seem (only one does, the brand new Vantage Professional X 14mm)
- Selkirk has simply three fashions on the listing: The Period Elongated and Widebody, and the Boomstik – however with out the fire-red MOI clamps on the facet (these are labeled as “semi-permanent” options, which do not fly in professional play)
- The Proton Flamingo just isn’t on the listing (and the Roadrunner, a 15mm edgeless paddle, solely popped up both very late Monday night time or very early this morning)
For a paddle to look on the listing, it means it is gone via the UPA-A’s new testing protocols and been assigned a novel mannequin quantity, an alphanumeric code between three and 10 characters used all through the certification and compliance ecosystem permitting the lab to trace, confirm, and implement requirements extra effectively.
It additionally permits for extra seamless on-site testing at occasions.
The mannequin quantity is that they key to enforcement and accountability going ahead. As soon as a paddle is licensed and carrying a mannequin quantity, it is locked in from future tweaks and modifications.
Producers are testifying that any paddle carrying that very same Mannequin Quantity is similar in development, supplies, and efficiency to the unique model of the paddle which was licensed with the distinctive Mannequin Quantity.
This attestation extends to paddle form, size, thickness, deal with sort, or “the rest that may impression efficiency habits.”
Professional Gamers React: Confusion & Frustration
There does look like some confusion amongst execs on the bottom in Cincinnati.
I’ve spoken with a handful of top-ranked gamers, women and men, who weren’t certain as late as final night time whether or not they’d be capable to play with their very own paddle or not.
Came upon simply days earlier than a slam that my paddle isn’t authorised. It’s been examined tons of of occasions and solely failed as soon as, then handed the following day, so I used to be positively shocked. Now I’m at a professional tourney in Cincinnati and don’t know what paddle to make use of. Can’t make this up 😩😂
— Hurricane Tyra Black (@Hurricanetblack) September 8, 2025
I am on the follow courts and fairly a couple of gamers do not have their paddles. It is wild:/
— Hurricane Tyra Black (@Hurricanetblack) September 8, 2025
Paddle insanity this week in Cincy. Plenty of Proton gamers on the follow courts utilizing paddletek paddles. https://t.co/majGq0jwUU
— Zane Navratil (@ZaneNavratil) September 8, 2025
Proton’s Predicament: Flamingo on Maintain
When the listing went up shortly after September 1, one outstanding model’s absence caught my consideration instantly: Proton.
The signature pink and blue Flamingo, in spite of everything, has develop into the go-to paddle for high-profile execs like Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger, Meghan Dizon, Jackie and Jade Kawamoto, Alex Crum, Alex and Angie Walker, and Genie Bouchard.
Actually, earlier than an occasion as significant as PPA Cincinnati, a paddle that might make its strategy to a couple of podium could be cleared for play, proper?
PPA Veolia Cincinnati Showcase Match Preview
It is a match preview for the PPA Veolia Cincinnati Showcase is going down on the Lindner Household Tennis Middle, simply outdoors Cincinnati, Ohio, from September 9-14, 2025.
Nope.
Spherical of 64 motion has begun and the Flamingo is nowhere to be seen.
I spoke with Charles Darling, the founder and president of Proton. This is what went down.
Proton approached UPA-A testing with one tactic in thoughts: Submit the very best performing Flamingo they’d and see the place the chips fall. If it handed, nice; their sponsored execs would have essentially the most potent model of their favourite paddle doable. If it did not, Proton would make the mandatory tweaks and resubmit.
No hurt, no foul. Proper?
It seems, Proton and different manufacturers I’ve spoken with thought the re-testing course of could be faster than it was. If one mannequin failed testing, their subsequent submission went to the again of the road. As an increasing number of manufacturers submitted an increasing number of fashions, that line grew lengthy. And UPA-A’s lab can solely take a look at so quick.
Roughly talking, one mannequin takes about 4 weeks to move via testing. If it fails and materials modifications are required, that may simply take two months or extra. Then it is again into the queue to attend its flip.
“Implementing new paddle requirements is a Herculean effort,” Darling informed me of the UPA-A’s testing labs in the intervening time.
“That is simply the burden of falling again into the queue. The issue is we ran out of runway.”
New UPA-A Paddle Take a look at Mimics Months of Play in Minutes
UPA-A is introducing a brand new lab-based stress take a look at designed to imitate the consequences of paddle degradation over time. It’s an accepted proven fact that the efficiency of many pickleball paddles modifications over time. As core supplies break in, energy, pop, and spin can improve. Typically, this transformation is noticeable at first
Hand up, Darling concedes his technique was sound however he misjudged how lengthy the entire course of would take.
The paddles he submitted first had been on the most allowable grittiness, he thought, however ended up testing simply over the restrict.
“We would like our execs utilizing the utmost allowable energy and most allowable spin,” he stated, particularly referencing the Flamingo. “We have been informed we’re shut.”
Whereas upset that Proton execs cannot use their beloved Flamingos in Cincinnati, Darling lauds the trouble of the UPA-A and its lab companions, PPL.
This complete course of is a bit rocky now, however that is comprehensible: Establishing the benchmark is the toughest half. Implementing it going ahead ought to be smoother crusing.
Finally, it is all for the great of the game.
“PPL is attempting to do one thing extraordinary. They’re doing it with the neatest guys within the nation, possibly the world. It is for the good thing about the athletes, the gamers. They’re doing it to protect the equity of the sport.”
When the Flamingo passes, he thinks it will be on the prime of allowable energy and spin. That, to Darling, means the method is working. “And that is a great factor,” he stated.
A ‘New Period of Equity and Consistency’
Paddle testing in pickleball is notoriously troublesome.
On January 16, 2025, the UPA-A – the governing physique for all MLP- and PPA-affiliated occasions – introduced its official 2025 Tools Guidelines and Rules, together with “complete Requirements and Working Procedures for paddle certification and compliance on the skilled degree.”
The plan was to develop world-class testing requirements utilizing third-party, extremely accredited labs that had confirmed comparable processes in different sports activities like baseball:
In collaboration with Pickle Professional Labs (PPL) and the esteemed engineers from the Baseball Analysis Lab at UMass-Lowell, UPA-A has developed a rigorous framework of research-based requirements to determine clear and enforceable limits on pickleball paddles utilized in competitors.
The requirements deal with a couple of key metrics associated to the efficiency of a paddle:
Spin
Spin, or the RPM’s of the ball measured off the face of the paddle, is the product of many elements, like form and core development, however primarily it comes all the way down to the grittiness of the floor texture.
Energy
Measured utilizing PEF, or Paddle Effectivity Issue, a metric that evaluates a paddle’s energy output by measuring how effectively it transfers power to a ball throughout play.
As beforehand introduced, efficient September 1, 2025 all UPA-A paddles should meet the 0.385 PEF customary when new and should additionally not exceed a PEF ceiling of 0.405 after present process a normal break in process.
Sturdiness
Measured utilizing ABI, or Synthetic Break-In Commonplace, that is UPA-A’s reply to paddles “heating up,” or getting extra highly effective, over time – a standard prevalence throughout many manufacturers and fashions at each degree of play.
ABI is a course of that bodily breaks down the construction of a paddle in a managed and systematic method such that it doesn’t lead to seen injury to the paddle. The efficiency acquire ensuing from the ABI course of is measured via subsequent PEF testing.
UPA-A to Use ‘Harmful Testing’ to Degree the Professional Enjoying Discipline in 2025
The UPA-A will use “harmful testing” to find out whether or not or not a paddle can be utilized in professional pickleball occasions beginning in 2025. Discover out what that take a look at is and the way it may form the PPA and MLP.
Registration for UPA-A Certification started on February 1, 2025. Interim and provisional certifications had been granted all year long.
However, critically, there was a tough line within the sand:
UPA-A 2025 certification is required for all skilled play starting on September 1, 2025.
Penalties for paddles discovered to be outdoors of the allowable limits will fall on the producers.
UPA-A intends to make sure that the results of paddles discovered to be non-compliant are proportional to the offense. In some circumstances paddles could also be instantly delisted and never allowed in play and in different situations paddles could also be ‘sundown’ over a time frame.
“We got down to have enforceable requirements in place in 2025,” learn an electronic mail despatched to all UPA gamers, “and whereas extra time was essential for producers to fulfill these necessities, September 1, 2025, marks the start of a brand new period of equity and consistency in skilled pickleball.”
