A few companies are starting to post the swing weight of their paddles, and oddly this is THE most important measurement of weight to you. We tried to get our paddles into The pickleball studio, in hopes to get this info for our customers without purchasing a swing weight measuring device or spend hours counting how far the paddle swings in 10 seconds.
So we all know what static weight is, its simply the weight of an item while it is at rest, like laying on a table. Swing weight is a measurement of how much force is required to swing a paddle around an axis near the handle. A simple visual explanation is for you to grab a baseball bat normally in one hand and swing it like you would a forehand drive in tennis or pickleball.. now try the same thing while holding the barrel of the bat and the handle out away from you.. way different feel. The static weight of the bat did not change, but the swing weight did.
So what do we want? The lowest swing weight possible, well.. not exactly. The higher the swing weight the more plow or push the paddle will have through a ball and it will be more forgiving on shots that you hit off center or near the edge of the paddle.. Then we want a high swing weight right, no miss hits, all power! Again not exactly.. Your hand speed suffers the higher the swing weight goes. Ultimately swing weight is a personal feel and that’s why so many manufactures have not provided that info as it was pretty much subjective data, however as more and more provide the info, if you choose to look for another paddle and you know that you like a swing weight of around 118, you can compare with other brands to see if they have a model that is close.
Here is another thought on swing weight, for a while I played with a heavier paddle for singles than I did for doubles, most of my singles at the time was drives and I liked the extra power I got from the paddle without changing the effort on my swing. My 13e without any modifications had a static weight of 7.9oz and a swing weight of 119kg-cm2. My singles version was 10.2oz static and the swing weight was 164kg-cm2, I had added weight to the entire perimeter of the paddle. This made the paddle much more difficult to maneuver from forehand to backhand quickly but in singles I didn’t have a lot of those shots. I now play with the same paddle (flow) with a half ounce added to zone 3 as close to the handle as I can. The standard flow has a static weight of 8.25oz and a swing weight of 122kg-cm2. My version is 8.8oz static and 126kg-cm2, so I barely changed the swing weight with that weight placement. For fun I took a single stick on weight which is 3grams or about a 10th of an oz (1/5th of what I already added to my paddle in zone 3) and I stuck it at the very top of the paddle in the center.. my swing weight increased to 136.. twice the increase in drag with way less weight than what we added in zone 3..
Hopefully this helps you understand swing weight and why its a valuable stat to know about your paddle.
sal