The Bandeja summer 2024 issue

products
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All holes
barred
Padel rackets are round (ish) with
approximately 55 holes, right? Er. wrong,
according to racket manufacturers Head,
Stiga and Siux, which have pushed the
boundaries of design. The Bandeja finds
out more.
The Head Extreme One is extreme for one reason
- there’s just one hole in the racket face. But why?
And how? We’ve spoken to Head’s R&D boffins to
find out more.
The Head Extreme One is a good
looking racket that attracts
attention even before other
players realise it has no holes - then
there’s a double take and questions,
usually about weight, wind resistance
and having a go with it! Court time is
precious so generally the answer is
short - light, no major difference and
of course.
Yes, light. The design experts at Head
have managed to create a solid
racket that is extremely light at just
345g. Compare this with standard
bats which can be up to 380g and
‘light’ rackets which are generally less
than 355g (even with a grip added the
Extreme One is still sub 355g).
Lightness doesn’t mean a compromise
on power though. The diamondshaped
racket is aimed at higher level
players and in tests was a hit with those
playing tournaments. Head recognises
it may not have enough ‘mass’ for some
but considers that its key advantages
will hit the sweetspot for a wide range
of people.
Better without
Head returned to the design drawing
board for what it considers to be one
very good reason - that padel rackets
without holes make more sense than
padel rackets with holes, delivering
potential for improved manoeuvrability,
durability, aerodynamics and a
consistent spin.
Pasquale Ruzicka, Head Global Business
Manager for padel, explained further:
“We always had doubts with regards to
the holes. We had limitations because
there were holes in rackets and holes
weaken the construction. It was
therefore an ongoing process to think
‘let’s wait a second, do we really need
the holes?’ Always the answer was the
best thing would be to have no holes.”
Putting holes in rackets was borne
out of the need to make early
wooden padel rackets lighter, with
players drilling their own to reduce
weight. As the sport progressed
holes became enshrined in FIP - the
International Padel Federation - racket
specifications, with it ruling that
rackets must have at least one hole
with a minimum 9mm diameter. Head
has implemented this to the letter with
a single 9mm diameter perforation
very low down on the racket face.
Air resistance & spin
It’s a commonly held view that holes
improve racket aerodynamics but
Head research turned this thinking,
quite literally, on its head; testing
via external labs showed that
aerodynamic performance was
heavily influenced by the angle of
each shot - and most padel shots are
not hit straight but at an angle.
“If you hit with the leading edge of the
racket the air resistance of the holes
make it less aerodynamic,” added
Pasquale. “The air moves in the holes,
out of the holes, in the holes, out of
the holes and not really through the
holes. Of course if you hit a smash
it might behave differently because
it is very straight and the air runs
through. But in general we found that
the aerodynamics of the (no holes)
racket improves in total. Not on every
shot, but in total, which was pretty
interesting for us to see.”
Removing holes also delivered a
‘cleaner’ hitting surface. “You have
a better consistency of play without
holes,” said Pasquale. “You can
generate spin with a hole if you hit
it correctly but timing this is pretty
tough depending on the level of your
play. And if you don’t hit the hole as
intended you have a different kind
of spin. With the Extreme One spin
surface everywhere there is more or
less the same spin no matter where
you hit the ball on the racket.”
Former padel World Champion
Mauri Andrini gave his verdict
on the no-holes approach: “It
makes the racket go very quick,
the manoeuvrability of the racket
is much quicker. I think it goes
together with padel - padel is
going faster, it is going quicker.”
Durability
When padel rackets break its often
on the frame or between the holes.
Designing-out holes allowed greater
focus on designing-in strength and
removing or redistributing weight. Many
of the materials used are familiar -
carbon and fibreglass - but they’ve
been used in different ways. Or as
Pasquale described it ‘more cleverly’.
The result is a robust diamondshaped
racket with a 12K carbon
hitting surface and larger than normal
sweetspot. Durability tests have shown
the Extreme One to offer twice the
durability of previous rackets in the
Delta line (which the Extreme
line replaced).
According to Pasquale it’s also proved
a hit with padel coaches: “We’ve had
really good feedback from coaches
- they are a long time on court and it’s
not about the weight of the racket to
demonstrate shots, it is more about
consistency and a long period of
time working with the racket.”
Revolution
A hole-less racket has been done
before - Drop Shot launched a version
some 10 years ago but the idea
failed to take off. So will the Extreme
One be different? We think it may
well; Head hasn’t just removed the
holes, it’s engineered a whole new
racket with no holes, which is very
different. Pasquale feels they have
‘revolutionised the possibilities of
rackets’ and he may well be right.
For sure the science seems to stack
up - remove the holes, use different
types of carbon and fibreglass given
you aren’t drilling through it, improve
shot consistency thanks to the uniform
hitting surface, beef up durability and
positively impact manouverability. It’s
a fun racket to play with and quick to
get to know. And the durability aspect
may well prove popular with those
who’ve lost rackets to cracks.
But we’ll leave the last word to Daniel
Picot, Head product manager for padel:
“This is the product I was looking for.
When you have this racket in your
hand the feeling is just amazing. The
racket plays amazingly even though
it has less weight. We balanced the
racket to be stable and solid. The 12k
carbon hitting surface has a really nice
feeling, it has a powerful feedback and
the sound is something different, the
sounds impresses you (editor’s note:
we can vouch for this, it makes a much
deeper ‘swoosh’ noise).”
“It has been such a special project.
Working so many hours with the team
doing lab tests, creating prototypes
etc, when you have this racket in your
hand and play with it you have the
feeling that what we have done is
going to be perfect,” added Daniel. •
Watch Pasquale Ruzicka talk
about Extreme One on the Total
Padel YouTube channel.
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