Spin. Texture vs the coefficient of friction.

I was having a discussion with one of our ambassadors about our paddle surface. He was stressing the need for a texture.

I explained our philosophy on building our paddles for long term performance thus why we don’t texture our paddles.

First it puts too much emphasis on spinning the ball for beginner and intermediate players and they lose focus on developing their basic skills. All the grit in the world isn’t going to help somebody who doesn’t understand or have the fundamentals. There is no quick fix to up your game.

Secondly most grit and/or texture wears off and you are left with a surface that has a much reduced coefficient of friction because the finish used to hold the grit even temporarily has to be very hard.

Why do we stress coefficient of friction more than surface texture? Because in the long run a good coefficient of friction will allow you to consistently develop spin over the life of the paddle not the life of the playing surface.

Everybody can feel a texture on a new paddle, but it’s hard to feel a coefficient of friction and manufacturers know that.

So below are the test results from the USAPA on our Brick House Retro series paddles. Our paddles have an excellent coefficient of friction and it is one of reasons our paddles can generate descent spin with a relatively smooth playing surface.

Do our paddles generate Mega spin right out of the box, nope. But they will generate consistent spin over the life of the paddle, which should be more than a few weeks.