AI Modeling of Paddle Performance Project

Our analysis of the pickleball paddle market has revealed several key trends and trade-offs in paddle design. The findings strongly support our focus on advanced materials and engineering as the primary path to creating high-performing, competitive paddles.

1. The "Formulas" for Power and Spin Have Been Decoded:

• Power is Driven by Stiffness, Not Just Weight: Our models consistently show that a paddle's Stiffness is the single most important factor for generating power. While a higher swingweight helps, simply making a paddle heavy is a less effective strategy than engineering a stiffer frame. In our case it's very important to note we were able to use thickness as a proxy for stiffness. This is what the USAP does aswell but they just consider stiffness static independent of thickness. We still considered it a numerical feature

• Spin is Driven by the Face: The paddle's face material is the most effective lever for generating spin. We found that specialized materials like "Lava Rock" provide a massive boost to spin, far more than any other single feature.

• The Core is for Control: A thicker paddle core strongly reduces power. This quantifies the industry's primary trade-off: thicker cores provide more control and dampening at the direct expense of power. 

2. The Key Design Trade-Off is Stiffness vs. Spin:

• Our most advanced model revealed a critical trade-off: increasing Stiffness to maximize power has a slight negative effect on spin. This means the "perfect" paddle requires finding the optimal balance between frame stiffness and face material to deliver on both power and spin, this is key in pursuit of well-rounded performance.

3. Market Trends Confirm Your Strategy:

• The Power Race is Real: Average paddle power has steadily increased from 2022 to 2024. The model predicts new paddles to be more powerful than last year's models. but we do not have complete enough data from paddles this year (too many incomplete feature sets),

• Innovation is Beating Brute Force: The market is getting more powerful through better engineering, not just by making paddles heavier. The average rotational mass of paddles has remained stable, meaning companies are achieving more power through materials and design—validating your focus on carbon-fiber injection molding. This brings into question many issues about unlimited weight and mass modification. We can reliably model power based on features of the paddle. PBCOR still doesn't make sense on almost every level.

• The High-End Market is Tightly Packed: Our analysis found no paddles with statistically outlier levels of high power. This indicates that the top of the market is very competitive, but no single brand has created a "super paddle" that dramatically outperforms others. This presents a clear opportunity for a breakthrough design. It also begs questions about paddles that were "decertified". Without knowing HOW and HOW MUCH they failed no one can learn from the implementation of PBCOR.

4. Outlier Analysis Reveals Market Niches:

• We identified a few outlier paddles with extremely low power or low spin. These paddles often featured extreme characteristics, like a 20mm thick core (for the low-power outlier). These represent niche products designed for very specific player preferences (e.g., maximum control) and help define the boundaries of the mainstream market. 

Conclusion for Coretek Pickleball LLC: Our strategic focus on using new materials and advanced molding techniques is the correct path forward. The data shows that the greatest gains in performance come from engineering a stiff, efficient frame and pairing it with a specialized face texture. By understanding and mastering the trade-off between stiffness (for power) and face material (for spin), we are well-positioned to design paddles that can compete with and potentially surpass the top performers on the market today.

You can view our notes and raw data in our notebook:
https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/4b2491a0-17c9-45d9-8e8f-dbf393730d39

More to come soon!