Are 85% of Players Really Better Off With an Elongated Paddle?

Elongated paddles dominate pickleball. RPM Founder James Ignatowich thinks they might dominate a little too much.

RPM Pickleball Founder James Ignatowich recently dug into his company’s sales numbers and found that a whopping 80 to 85 percent of its paddles sold are elongated — despite RPM also offering widebody, hybrid flat-top and hybrid curve-top shapes.

And, he surmises, other paddle brands are likely seeing similar sales trends.

That number caught his attention.

Ignatowich’s theory? Some players aren’t necessarily choosing elongated because it fits their game. They’re choosing it because that’s what everyone else is using.

“I think a lot of people buy elongated just because their friend got one and they want to kind of just copy whatever their friend is doing,” he said.

Elongated paddles offer obvious benefits: additional reach and leverage, plus the familiar dimensions many tennis converts gravitate toward. But that typically comes with a narrower face and less stability than wider alternatives.

And for plenty of recreational players (particularly those below the 4.5 level, Ignatowich argues), the additional twist weight and forgiveness available in other shapes could be more valuable.

His hypothetical breakdown of what the market should look like? Roughly 45–50 percent elongated, 25 percent hybrid and 25 percent widebody.

Not 85 percent elongated.

The takeaway isn’t that elongated paddles are bad. It’s that paddle shape has quietly become another place where pickleball players may be following the crowd instead of choosing what actually fits, and amplifies, their game.

Ignatowich’s advice is simple: try the other shapes before assuming elongated is the answer.

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