Pickleball Spin Prediction And Comparison Tool
(Powered by Pickleball Physics)
(Powered by Pickleball Physics)
- PURPOSE
- The purpose of this tool is to demonstrate the role of surface roughness and friction in spin production. The question is this: does surface roughness really matter? If so, how much, when, and why? This tool answers those questions. For any chosen paddle, it shows how much spin can be expected given user-defined inputs of incident spin, speed, angle, and roughness.
- CONCLUSION
- Most of the time, for most of the shots, given the same incident spin, speed, and angle, all paddles produce the same spin, regardless of surface roughness! This is true at all angles of impact above each paddle's maximum spin angle (see tool results).
- EXAMPLE
- Choose two different paddles (and their COFs). Set the same incident speed, spin and trajectory for each paddle. Click 'Caluclate' button. The spin data plots lie on top of each other for almost all angles of impact common for pickleball strokes.
- METHODOLOGY
- The results have been compared against actual impacts and measurements performed in the PWU lab. Those experiments can be seen here: Pickleball Spin: The Role of Surface Roughness in Spin Generation
- All measurements are made using physics conventions: velocity is negative to the left or down, and it is positive to the right or up. Spin is positive counter clockwise (CCW) and negative clockwise (CW). Hovering over Figure 1 data with the mouse reveals incident and rebound spin directions. The key observation is whether the incident and rebound spin directions are the same or opposite each other. For topspin, opposite is usually desired.
- All angles are measured from the paddle surface.
- All calculations (and therefore, velocity and spin signs) are formulated assuming right-to-left impact of ball to paddle, as shown in the diagrams.
- Illustrations are of impacts with stationary paddles. However, calculations assume that the incident velocity chosen is the combined speed of any combination of paddle and ball speeds.