UPA-A's Paddle Certification Plan for 2025

UPA-A announces Paddle Certification Rollout Plan

There seem to be two subjects that consistently create drama in pro Pickleball.  One is line calls: who should make them, how should replays work, and who “hooks.”  The second is paddle testing and approval: who breaks them, who freezes them, which paddles are illegal, and how bad is USAP at its job.  A week ago, the UPA-A added one more wrinkle to the story with the announcement of their provisional certification rollout plan for 2025.  We’ve already seen their “interim approval process” which we discussed at length in previous issues.

Fees & Timeline

It seems the public (and private) pressure has forced UPA-A to drop their certification prices from an eye-watering $6,000/month to a flat annual fee of $20,000. This fee, according to the UPA-A, “covers expenses and salaries for the buildout of a state of the art laboratory.”  (Whose laboratory - PPL’s or UPA-A’s own - is not made clear.) Manufacturers can front $2k to get provisional status for the first 3 months of 2025, which means UPA-A wasn’t ready yet with their actual standards and are trying to buy themselves another 3 months to get things finalized.

Until November 15, manufacturers with USAP-Approved paddles can apply for UPA-A Provisional Status. Testing for full 2025 UPA-A Certification begins January 1, 2025, and all paddles used in professional play must have either interim or provisional certification. Starting April 1st, 2025, full UPA-A Certification will be required for all professional play (interim and provisional certifications expire March 31st).

How the guidelines changed, and what it means 

In our view, this further solidifies that the hot paddle trend will only get worse in 2025.  UPA-A set their new “Average Deflection Force” (ADF) at 42 lbs, instead of the interim standard of 46 lbs.  A lower number represents more deflection, which in general means more power.  In addition, the procedures laid out for the provisional approval seem very easy to design around and create trampoline like paddles that just don’t flex in the center 6”.  Similarly, the spin test limit seems quite high of the method of test.  Some extensive spin tests  have been done by Tennis Warehouse engineer Crawford Lindsey, and in general he found that the surface roughness had little-to-no impact on the spin of the ball at a given angle.  Incident angle (angle in which the ball hits the paddle) and dwell time (time the ball sticks to the paddle) was drastically more important.  A rougher paddle allowed the ball to spin at more shallow angles (think semi-western shots like Quang Duong).  This shallow incident angle allows for a greater force to be imparted in the direction to create spin.  Crawford also felt that rubber surfaces created more spin due to the time the ball was in contact with the rubber.

Industry response

There is a contingent of manufacturers that believe this is the wrong path for the holistic health of the sport of Pickleball.  Joola entered the market with a belly-flop sized splash, and has fundamentally changed the sport of Pickleball with their MOD TA-15 and Gen 3S paddles. Now other manufacturers feel forced to follow if they want to survive.  In a world where everyone is using a power paddle, does Pickleball become a game that casual/new players don’t want to play, due to the constant body bagging, and it slowly dies like racquetball before it?