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Thedink Pickleball
"As the power novelty fades, players will shift back toward all-court and lower-power paddles because that’s where they play their best ball."
This year has seen a seismic shift in the pickleball paddle landscape.
- Seemingly every brand pursued the race to peak power (remember the Metalbone? Pour one out for the MOD)
- Full-foam cores are now ubiquitous (the CRBN TruFoam started it all)
- Counterfeit paddles have entered the chat and aren't going anywhere
- And while we saw the premium paddle market crest the $300 mark (thanks, Selkirk), we're also in the midst of a golden age of budget paddles (look no further than comeback brand of the year contender, Luzz)
It's a spoil of riches for the paddle consumer. But it also begs the question: where does the industry go from here?
To help get some answers, we asked six of the top paddle reviewers in the game to give their predictions for 2026.
- Braydon at Pickleball Effect
- Chris at Pickleball Studio
- John at Johnkew Pickleball
- Louis at Pickleball Pursuit
- Matt at Matt's Pickleball
- Rafa at Pickleball Tech Dude
From better grit to bigger sweet-spots to built-in sensors, here's what they had to say:
Braydon, Pickleball Effect
Most people will probably say grit longevity, which is true. We'll also likely see more foam variants and brands exploring with mixing up different foam densities in different places to enhance feel and sweet spot.
Here's my take: Rec play is heading into a power recession. After years of innovation, capped by 2025, power paddles have hit their ceiling. For most recreational players, today’s popular high-power paddles are more limiting than helpful. As the novelty fades, players will shift back toward all-court and lower-power paddles because that’s where they play their best ball.
Chris, Pickleball Studio
With PBCoR putting more limits on power, and with the recent switch to the faster Life Time ball for PPA, my predictions are:
- Focus will be put more on longer-lasting textures now that cores are more durable than prior Gen-3 paddles.
- Companies will focus less on trying to completely max out pop and power and rather, work on things like: feel, sweet spot, and spin.
Unless people find a magic way to add even more pop and power without exceeding PBCoR, these are the avenues companies will need to focus on to stand out.
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John, Johnkew Pickleball
My paddle prediction for 2026 is increased experimentation with different foam types in full-foam paddles — materials like MPP, Pebax, TPU, silicone foam, and polyimide foam (and others we haven't heard of yet). I expect brands to be far more intentional about foam density and stiffness, using them strategically for weight distribution and core tuning rather than treating foam as a one-size-fits-all solution.
In particular, we’ll likely see denser yet softer foams placed closer to the perimeter of the core, with the goal of increasing twist weight, broadening the sweet spot, and improving overall ball-strike feel and forgiveness.
Looking a bit further ahead (possibly 2027), I think the next frontier will be a deeper application of rigid body analysis and vibration analysis, including concepts like nodes and antinodes, to better understand and quantify paddle “feel.” This could lead to more explicit feel profiles that map paddles along spectrums such as stiff–soft and dense–hollow, allowing players to match equipment more precisely to their preferences.
💡
Voting Begins Jan. 5 for The 120/Life Dink Awards.
If you care about the state of pickleball paddle regulation in 2026 and beyond, make your voice heard. Categories include Most Influential Voice, Paddle Reviewer of the Year, and Paddle of the Year.
Louis, Pickleball Pursuit
Matt, Matt's Pickleball
I think 2026 will be about grit, which, if I’m honest, is a little boring. It will be a step year, not a leap year like 2024 (Gen-3 honeycomb) to 2025 (Gen-4 foam cores).
Instead, I hope we will develop sensors (accelerometers / gyroscopes) as attachments or built into the paddles that capture a variety of data about a user’s performance, which can be reported on and help the user improve.
Rafa, Pickleball Tech Dude
We have NOT seen the most powerful legal paddle yet.
Power paddles will continue to rule in 2026 and the technology already exists to bring back a paddle that can legally pass PBCoR and ABI while being hotter than even the currently banned JOOLA MOD-TA 15 or Gearbox Pro Power Elongated paddles.
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