For the past year, questions about the increasing speed and power in pickleball have become more frequent in circles around the sport.

Those concerns only grew with the release of JOOLA’S Gen 3 paddles last April, which brought a never-before-seen degree of power into the sport.

Since then, paddle companies have been trying to find ways to make their paddles as strong as possible while also falling within United Pickleball Association of America (UPA-A) equipment guidelines, which were recently updated for 2025.

There’s one company, however, that seems to have only one thing in mind: power.

The aptly named Powerful Paddles prides itself on being able to modify paddles to make them as powerful as possible.

The Gilbert, AZ-based company offers two services that share that goal: paddle modification and paddle break-in.

Paddle modification involves replacing the core material of the paddle in the sweet spot with “a more flexible material, thus greatly enhancing its trampoline effect and power,” according to the official company website.

There are three levels of paddle modification that the company advertises will give paddles an increase in ball speed ranging from 15%-35%, depending on the level.

The second service, called ‘paddle break-in service,’ involves applying pressure to the paddle between two rollers “to turn your whole paddle into a sweet spot and eliminate any dead spots.”

As you can probably imagine, virtually any paddle that is put through these processes would become ineligible for use at UPA-A tournaments.

“If you are a competitive tournament player, this service is not for you, as it will take paddles well beyond the performance restrictions imposed by the associations governing these tournaments,” reads a statement on the website. “However, if you are a recreational player, then our service is for you.”

Having a company solely dedicated to making paddles more powerful—even if just for recreational play—is something that we haven’t seen anywhere else in the sport, but that might be for good reason.

If power limits exist at the pro level, should amateurs respect those limits in recreational play as well? Should it be considered cheating for recreational players to put paddles through any of these services?

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