We begin the guide by defining what the shape or mold of a paddle tennis racket is:
The shape or mold of a racket will influence mainly three aspects: the balance of the racket, the power of the racket, and the sweet spot.
Depending on their shape, we can classify padel rackets into three large groups: round rackets, tear-shaped or pear-shaped rackets, and diamond rackets.
Round shaped blades
The round-shaped blades have the following characteristics:
- High maneuverability: The main characteristic of round-shaped blades is to present the closest weight distribution to the fist. This will cause the vast majority of round blades to have a low balance, around 25-26 cm, which will increase handling.
- Reduced power: By presenting a lower balance than other formats, the round blades will hinder the leverage effect in blows such as the auction, thus reducing the power that we can print to our blows.
- Greater sweet spot: The blades with a round format will give us a higher sweet spot than the blades with a tear or diamond shape, helping us more in off-center hits. A characteristic of round blades is that their sweet spot is more towards the fist than tears or diamond blades.
The combination of these three characteristics makes round rackets ideal for those players who are looking for comfort and safety in their racket.
These rackets are specially designed for beginner players, advanced players looking to boost their defensive game, and players who want to prevent or cure arm joint problems.
Diamond shaped blades
Diamond-shaped blades have the following characteristics:
- Maximum power:The shape of these blades means that most of the weight is shifted towards the head, resulting in a high balance (26-27 centimeters) . This distribution of weights will allow us to maximize the leverage effect, consequently getting the maximum power in the shots.
- Limited maneuverability:The fact of having a high balance and a weight displaced from the fist makes diamond-shaped blades more difficult to move than round or tear-shaped blades.< /span>
- Reduced sweet spot:The sweet spot of diamond blades is, by definition, smaller than that of round blades, requiring a higher technical level and penalizing us more in off-center hits. This sweet spot is located more towards the head than in round format blades.
These three characteristics make diamond format rackets the ideal option for players looking for rackets with the best performance in the offensive aspect of the game.
Diamond blades are options limited to players who have a sufficient technical level to take advantage of them. The use of these rackets by beginning players can lead to arm injuries, either by forcing the arm due to its high balance, or by the vibrations generated by not hitting the sweet spot.
Teardrop shaped blades
The teardrop shape (also known as the pear shape or inverted drop) is the shape that has experienced the greatest growth in recent years, gaining ground over the diamond shape by managing, in certain molds, to achieve offensive performance similar to the diamond form, but with superior defensive performance.
The teardrop shape is characterized by being an intermediate sweet spot between the round shape and the diamond shape:
- Intermediate sweet spot:The tear-shaped blades have a higher sweet spot than the diamond-shaped blades, but less than the round blades. Its sweet spot is slightly displaced towards the head of the blade, although without reaching the position of the diamond blades.
- Balanced handling:The teardrop shape presents an intermediate balance, slightly displaced towards the head (25.5-26.5 cm from the grip), which makes that they are shovels with medium manageability. They are rackets that move more easily than diamond rackets, but with greater difficulty than round format rackets.
- Intermediate power: Teardrop-shaped blades, having the balance slightly shifted towards the chead, they allow to exercise a certain leverage effect, helping us to print power in the auctions. With these blades we achieve offensive performance superior to round blades, but without reaching the levels of diamond blades.
As we mentioned before, the market share of tear blades has not stopped growing in recent years to the detriment of diamond blades. The reason is that, with the necessary combination of mold and materials, power levels comparable to diamond blades are reached with teardrop blades, with the benefit of having a lower balance and a wider sweet spot.
The teardrop-shaped rackets are designed for players with an intermediate - intermediate/advanced level, who seek versatility on the court, without giving up high performance in the offensive aspect.
