Breaking Down Pickleball Face Materials for Spin

The face material on your paddle are the two pieces glued to the core and are what you contact the ball with when you play. In this article, I’m going to break down what the different face materials are and how they can impact the characteristics of a paddle.

The most familiar face materials are:

Composite (A combination of several materials)
Graphite
Carbon fiber
Fiberglass

Fiberglass

Fiberglass provides you with the most power, but it also comes at the expense of the paddle feeling less forgiving and the sweet spot not being as large. If you like playing with a lot more pace and power, a fiberglass face might be a great fit. One of the other main drawbacks to fiberglass is they generally don’t get as good of spin as other paddles on the market. If you check out my paddle stats spreadsheet, you’ll notice that carbon fiber has much higher stats overall. One caveat is that I have tested many more carbon fiber paddles than fiberglass, but I believe part of that is the industry is migrating towards carbon fiber over fiberglass.

Carbon Fiber

The industry has made significant shifts in the last year or two towards carbon fiber because it often provides a better feel, plays a little softer, and has a more forgiving sweet spot. However, as seen above, spin has also made some pretty drastic improvements with carbon fiber faces. The most common carbon fiber referenced with high spin is “raw” carbon fiber. Companies that make paddles with this type of face are Electrum, Engage, Joola, CRBN, Diadem (The Warrior Edge), and Gruvn. Paddles with this raw carbon fiber face are popping up all over the place because of their incredible spin potential.

Graphite

Graphite is interesting in the Pickleball industry because companies frequently use it interchangeably with carbon fiber. It can be difficult to navigate which paddles are carbon fiber and which are graphite. Some companies you’ll even see list their paddle as both. In my experience, many graphite paddles I have used tended to be less forgiving than those marketed as carbon fiber. I can’t say for sure this is an actual characteristic of graphite, but it is what I’ve experienced with the ones I’ve used. So be aware that graphite and carbon fiber can be some tricky terminology in the sport, and I usually view them as close to equal.

Composite

Composite is just a combination of several materials. You’ll notice that some paddles combine fiberglass, carbon fiber, or a few other materials. Many companies aren’t specific when they say composite these days, so it can be hard to discern what materials go into that paddle. I’ve talked to some manufacturers, and they said that composite often means fiberglass if it doesn’t specify. With that being said, it is becoming less and less common to see companies list their paddle face as a composite in the industry.

Grit

Grit on the face of your paddle can be a confusing topic. Generally speaking, the more grit you have on your paddle, the better. It is NOT a hard and fast rule, but it usually applies quite well. There’s even a legal limit from the USAP on how much grit can be put on a paddle. I categorize paddle grit into three different types.

Paint grit
Added textures
Raw carbon fiber

Paint grit

Paint grit is the worst type that you can find in the business. The two primary companies that use paint grit are Franklin on their signature paddle and Diadem on the Warrior. The problem with paint grit is that it fades EXTREMELY fast. Out of the box, they feel very gritty, but depending on how much you play, it will smooth you very fast. In the past, I’ve made a paint grit paddle smooth in just a few days of heavy play. Once the grit wears off, spin potential drops drastically. Many of the pros that use the Franklin Signature paddle show up to a tournament with three or more paddles and use a new one every single day of play. So that should be an indicator to you of how long that grit lasts.

Added textures/coatings

Similar to paint grit, these are textures that are added on top of the face material. Usually these last longer than paint grit (Not that it takes much to do that, though). There’s not a simple way to define added textures, but paddles that come to my mind that are using added texture would be the: Vanguard Power Air, SLK Omega Max, Pro Kennex Pro Flight, Head Radical Tour Co, Selkirk Vanguard 2.0. Some surfaces last longer than others, and there’s no great way to tell how long one will last by looking at the spec sheet. In my reviews, I try and make it a point to mention how the grit is holding up after playtesting it so that it can be a way to get an idea of how long a specific texture is lasting.

Raw carbon fiber

As mentioned before, these paddle surfaces are in a league of their own. In the last year, you have seen them pop up everywhere on the market. These are carbon fiber (or graphite) paddles with quite a rough surface and almost always entirely black with a few logos on the face.

From left to right we have the Electrum Model E, Engage Pursuit MX 6.0, and the CRBN1 16mm.

These are great because many of them are durable, and the grit lasts noticeably longer than paint grit or added textures. They also consistently score high in my spin tests. Just know that even this surface is NOT perfect. There is no texture on the market right now that never wears down. Usually, it just comes down to one being more resistant to wearing down than another. With enough hard play on any paddle, the spin potential will decrease.

The core

Everyone often focuses on grit as the key to getting more spin. While generally, this is true, there are a few exceptions on the market that don’t depend on grit for high spin. One of the most famous examples is the Gearbox CX line. When these came out, these paddles were smooth to the touch, yet they were in my top 5 paddles for spin for a very long time. In their marketing, they call this their “Hyper bite spin technology,” and the phrase you’ll hear them say all the time is “spin from the core.” This implies that the dwell time on the face is longer or sinks in further, allowing the ball to “catch” more as you brush the ball. While Gearbox was never a proponent of adding grit to their paddles, they have recently added grit to the faces of their CX line paddles. A few people notified me that their new ones felt significantly more gritty, and I went to a shop and verified myself. They now have a coating with grit on it to generate even more spin.

Another great example is the Vanguard Power Air. It is the highest paddle I have ever tested for spin. Yet, when you use the Starrett SR160, the device the USAP uses to test the legal limit for grit, the Power Air is well below legal limits, while other companies using raw carbon fiber surfaces usually push the very edge of what is legal. So this is yet again another example where the Power Air has grit, but clearly, the spin it generates is not solely dependent on that grit.

Interesting thought about spin and paddle thickness

A common thought in Pickleball has always been that the thicker the paddle is, the better the spin will be. This is often believed because, in theory, a thicker paddle should allow the ball to sit on the face of the paddle longer since they usually absorb more energy and don’t transfer so much back into the ball. But, a friend took the data from my Paddle Stats spreadsheet and found that, at least for me, the higher the RPMs, the thinner the paddle is. As of writing this article, of the top 15 paddles for spin in my testing, only 3 of them are 16mm or thicker. I found this super interesting because ever since I started and even to this day, it’s believed by almost everyone that a thicker paddle will give you more spin.

*On this graph you’ll see that the Y axis is RPM and the X axis is paddle thickness. As the paddle gets thinner, the RPMs go up.*

In my opinion, there are just a ton of factors that go into spin that aren’t really considered yet, and some of those things will be different for each person. Examples that could impact spin for each individual are: Handle length, face shape, thickness, grit, balance, and weight.

Conclusion

For the majority of people out there, the primary face materials you want to pay attention to are fiberglass and carbon fiber. Many buzzwords get thrown around in this sport, but those are the two most common materials you’ll see. At this point, I would say that carbon fiber is probably the most common face material in the higher-end range of paddles, and you won’t see as many using fiberglass strictly. Carbon fiber is softer, has a better sweet spot and higher spin potential. Fiberglass is usually less forgiving and has more power.