PPL Questionable

Selkirk has recently published an open letter displaying their distrust and ppl's ability to enforce and possibly create pickleball rules. We do not understand why this company would be chosen over to NTS Chesapeake which is the world's premier tester of pickleball paddles. We believe this is a purpose-built lab and PPL is meant to enforce rules that limit materials and bias against manufacturers.

As we said in an earlier blog post we will not do business with PPL on any form. We simply do not have confidence in them and there are many very good reasons not to. We do have confidence in NTS Chesapeake though. There is a high desire to use procedures for testing that are more complicated and frankly much more expensive than alternative methods. For example the use of high-speed cameras over traditional methods and extensive computer analysis. Testing Labs need to make money. It doesn't make sense to have one that only test pickleball paddles. That is basically implicit bias.

Technical skill is also an important aspect here. NTS Chesapeake tests much more complex equipment than pickable paddles. Their technicians are trained and better able to troubleshoot issues as they have broad experience.

Taken to it's extreme technology will be a hiderence. When paddles are part of the internet of things and you get emails saying your paddle is broke every niche of the sport will be exploited. From data analysis of pros to the question of privacy and data. 

We applaud Selkirk for making this public as they are a major manufacturer and a leader in the sport.