If you are new to pickleball you may not know that to play a national pickleball association’s officially sanctioned tournament, paddles have to be approved by the national association. For those of us in North America this is the USAPA.
Paddle approval
The approval process is to ensure that paddles meet a certain standard and are not providing an unfair advantage to a player.
There are restrictions on, what type of materials can be used, size, surface texture, appearance, identification and surface compression.
https://equipment.usapickleball.org/paddle-list/A competitive tournament player will need at least one approved paddle. The USAPA website has a list of over 3800 approved paddles including Brick House paddles. Despite the label on the paddle the paddle model and manufacturer must be listed on the USAPA website. There are lots of knock offs on e-commerce sites that simply “borrow” the USAPA logo but are not actually listed. USAPA APPROVED PADDLES
If you are playing at a club or recreational level you likely do not need an approved paddle but you should ensure any paddle you are considering is at least made to meet USAPA specifications.
USAPA paddle certification isn’t free, and in fact it can be quite expensive which ultimately gets passed on to the consumer. For this reason some manufacturers including Brick House may opt to only certify certain paddles in their line. This is usually done in order to lower the price of the paddle to the consumer or sometimes during an acceptance test period for a new paddle design.
There are lots of great paddles on the market to suit any players style and budget. It is important to understand that USAPA certification in no way guarantees the quality of the paddle. Do all paddles need to be USAPA approved, not necessarily but they should be at least manufactured to meet or exceed USAPA standards.
