Swing weight and lead tape calculator.
Work out what a strip of lead tape will do to your paddle before you stick it on, or measure your paddle's swing weight at home with a skewer, a stopwatch and a kitchen scale.
- Weigh the paddle on a kitchen scale.
- Find the balance point. Balance the paddle across a table edge and measure from the butt cap to the edge, in centimetres.
- Make a pivot. Tape a thin skewer or nail across the butt cap and rest its ends on two level supports, so the paddle hangs head-down and swings freely in the plane of its face.
- Time 20 swings. Pull the head a few centimetres to one side, let go, and time 20 full back-and-forth swings. Keep them small.
Time it three times and average the results. A 1% timing error shifts swing weight by about 3 points.
The maths behind it
Pickleball swing weight is the paddle's moment of inertia about an axis 5 cm from the butt cap, in kg·cm². That is the pivot used by the swing weight machines most paddle reviewers measure with, which is why the numbers you see quoted for paddles sit around 100 to 130.
Lead tape
A small mass m adds its mass times the square of its distance from the axis. So tape near the tip moves swing weight a lot, and tape on the edges moves twist weight.
x is the tape's distance from the butt cap and y its distance from the paddle's centreline, both in cm.
Pendulum test
A hanging paddle is a physical pendulum. Its period T gives the moment of inertia about the pivot, and the parallel-axis theorem moves that to the 5 cm axis.
d is the distance from the pivot to the balance point, b the balance point from the butt cap.
Want the numbers for a paddle before you buy it? See the paddle specs table, or read our guides to pickleball lead tape and paddle weight.
Swing weight questions
What is swing weight on a pickleball paddle?
Swing weight is how heavy a paddle feels when you swing it. It is the paddle's moment of inertia about a pivot 5 cm up from the butt cap, in kg·cm². Two paddles with the same static weight can have very different swing weights, because mass near the tip counts far more than mass near the hand.
How much does lead tape change swing weight?
It depends on where the tape goes. Each gram adds (distance from the 5 cm pivot, in cm)² ÷ 1000 to swing weight. A gram near the top of a 16.5-inch paddle adds about 1 point, a gram at the middle of the face adds about 0.5, and a gram on the handle adds almost nothing.
What is twist weight?
Twist weight is the paddle's resistance to rotating around its long axis when you hit off-centre. Higher twist weight means a more stable face and a bigger effective sweet spot. Tape on the side edges raises it the most, because that mass sits furthest from the centreline.
Can I measure swing weight without a machine?
Yes, with a pendulum test. Hang the paddle from a pivot at the butt end, time 20 small swings, and enter the time with the paddle's weight and balance point. The physics is exact, and the result is as good as your timing: a 1 percent timing error moves the answer by about 3 points.
Is this calculator exact?
The lead tape maths treats each strip as a point mass at its centre, which is close for short strips and slightly rough for long ones. Treat results as estimates to within a point or two, not as a lab reading.
Not sure yet? Hit with it.
Rent a demo paddle for $8 at the front desk and play it on a real indoor court before you spend a few hundred dollars on it.