Why a Padel Lab?

Because Padel Players Deserve Better Answers

Walk into a padel shop and ask which racket you should buy.

You will probably hear familiar words:

Power. Control. Comfort. Carbon. Soft touch. Hard touch. Advanced. Beginner.

But what do those words actually mean?

How much more powerful is one racket than another?

Where exactly is its sweet spot?

Does 24K carbon really produce more power than fibreglass?

How much difference does soft EVA make?

Why can two rackets weighing exactly the same feel completely different in your hand?

And perhaps the most important question:

Can we actually measure any of this?

That is why we created FLO Lab.

Padel Has Plenty of Claims. It Needs More Evidence.

The padel industry has grown rapidly, and racket technology has grown alongside it.

Players are now confronted with an enormous range of choices:

• Round, teardrop and diamond shapes
• Soft, medium and hard EVA
• Multilayer foam constructions
• Fibreglass
• 3K, 12K, 18K and 24K carbon
• Different weights
• Different balance points
• Different hole patterns
• Smooth, rough and textured surfaces

More choice should be good for players.

But choice without understanding can simply create confusion.

A player sees 24K carbon and assumes it must be better than 12K.

Another sees a diamond shape and assumes it guarantees more power.

Another is told that hard rackets are only for advanced players.

Someone else buys a lighter racket expecting it to be easier to manoeuvre, only to discover that it feels heavier than their old one.

These ideas are not necessarily completely wrong.

The problem is that they are incomplete.

A padel racket is a system. Its shape, foam, face material, weight, balance and internal construction interact with one another—and with the player swinging it.

FLO Lab exists to investigate those relationships.

Taking Equipment Conversations Further

Tennis equipment has been studied through measurements such as racket mass, balance, swingweight, string tension, rebound, spin and vibration.

That research has helped move equipment conversations beyond:

“This racket feels powerful.”

It allows us to ask:

Why does it feel powerful?

Can we measure the difference?

Will every player experience it in the same way?

Padel deserves the same curiosity.

But a padel racket also presents a different engineering problem.

A tennis player can change the strings and adjust their tension. A padel player cannot restring the racket.

Much of its behaviour is built permanently into its construction.

That makes the relationship between mould, EVA foam, face material, weight, balance and internal structure especially important.

And that is where FLO Lab begins.

We Are Not Trying to Find the “Best” Racket

This is important.

FLO Lab is not being built to prove that one racket is better than every other racket.

We do not believe such a racket exists.

Consider two players.

One has a fast, aggressive swing and attacks whenever possible.

The other has a shorter, slower swing and wins points through placement, defence and volleys.

Give them exactly the same racket and they may describe it completely differently.

One might say:

“Fantastic control.”

The other might say:

“It feels dead.”

Neither player is necessarily wrong.

The racket has not changed.

The player has.

That is why FLO Lab is interested not only in racket measurements, but also in playability.

The Player Is Part of the Experiment

This may become the most important principle behind FLO Lab.

We want controlled measurements.

But we do not want to lose the human being holding the racket.

Players rarely walk off court saying:

“My racket’s centre of mass needs moving 14 millimetres towards the handle.”

They say:

“It feels too heavy.”

“My volleys are great with this.”

“I can’t get enough power.”

“The ball flies off this racket.”

“My defence feels easier.”

“It feels dead.”

“The sweet spot feels tiny.”

“My arm doesn’t like this racket.”

Those descriptions are incredibly valuable.

FLO Lab wants to investigate what sits behind them.

If a player says a racket feels slow, can we identify whether its total weight, balance, moment of inertia, shape or some combination of these factors is responsible?

If a racket is described as dead, can rebound or stiffness measurements help us understand why?

If players love its control, can we identify measurable characteristics associated with that experience?

This creates a bridge:

Player feeling → Measurement → Understanding → Better equipment choice

Change One Thing. Measure What Happens.

One advantage FLO has is access to racket manufacturing and different construction options.

That allows us to perform experiments that are difficult when comparing unrelated retail rackets.

Instead of comparing two rackets that differ in almost every way, we can keep most variables consistent and deliberately change one.

For example, we can use the same mould and compare:

• Soft EVA
• Hard EVA
• Soft–Hard–Soft
• Hard–Soft–Hard

We can then measure and play-test each construction.

Or we can keep the mould and foam consistent while changing the face:

Fibreglass → 3K → 12K → 18K → 24K carbon

What actually changes?

• Rebound?
• Stiffness?
• Vibration?
• Sweet-spot behaviour?
• Ball response?
• Player perception?

We can then investigate weight.

Balance.

Hole pattern.

Shape.

This approach gives us a better chance of separating individual variables instead of simply describing a finished racket.

It will not remove every source of variation—padel racket manufacturing contains unavoidable tolerances—but it gives us a more controlled starting point.

What Will FLO Lab Measure?

Our testing programme will evolve as we learn.

That is part of the point.

We intend to investigate several areas.

Weight

Not merely the advertised range, but the actual measured weight of each finished racket.

Balance and Centre of Mass

Where is the racket’s mass actually concentrated?

Manoeuvrability

Why do some rackets accelerate and rotate more easily than others?

Rebound

How does the ball respond when it contacts different racket constructions?

Face Stiffness

How much does the face deform, and how might that influence its response?

Sweet Spot

Rather than simply claiming that a racket has a large sweet spot, can we map the area over which it produces a useful and consistent response?

Vibration

What happens after impact, and how does construction influence the vibration reaching the handle?

Off-Centre Performance

Club players do not strike the centre every time.

Perhaps the more useful question is not only how a racket performs during a perfect strike, but how quickly its performance deteriorates when the impact moves away from the optimal area.

Consistency

Does the racket respond predictably across different regions of its face—and from one manufactured unit to another?

And eventually:

Power, Control and Forgiveness

These are three of the most frequently used words in padel marketing.

They may also be among the most difficult to define and measure properly.

We Expect to Be Wrong Sometimes

FLO Lab is not intended to become a marketing department wearing a white coat.

If every experiment somehow concludes that FLO makes the greatest rackets in the world, then the Lab has failed.

Some commonly accepted ideas may prove correct.

Others may turn out to be exaggerated.

Some of our own assumptions may also be wrong.

That is useful.

We will explain our methods, distinguish hypotheses from results and improve our testing as we learn.

The objective is not to produce impressive-looking numbers.

It is to produce useful knowledge for players.

From “Which Racket Is Best?” to “Which Racket Suits Me?”

Ultimately, FLO Lab is trying to change the question.

Instead of asking:

What is the best padel racket?

We believe players should ask:

Which racket characteristics work best for the way I play?

That is a very different question.

Answering it requires an understanding of both sides of the equation.

The Racket

Mould × Foam × Face × Weight × Balance × Construction

The Player

Swing × Technique × Strength × Playing style × Preferences × On-court experience

Put these together and racket selection becomes far more meaningful.

The Long-Term Goal

FLO Lab will eventually become more than a collection of experiments.

We want to build an educational library through which players can understand every important element of their racket.

We then want to connect that knowledge to the language players naturally use to describe their games.

A player might begin with:

“My racket feels too hard.”

Or:

“I want more help in defence without losing confidence in my volleys.”

Or:

“I love my current racket, but I want something slightly easier to manoeuvre.”

Rather than immediately recommending a product, we want to explain why certain construction changes might help—and which compromises they could introduce.

Eventually, this knowledge can support FLO’s racket optimisation and configuration system:

Learn → Describe → Diagnose → Compare → Configure

Welcome to FLO Lab

We are beginning with simple questions.

What does soft EVA actually change?

What happens as carbon-face constructions become stiffer?

Where is the sweet spot?

How should balance be measured?

What makes a racket manoeuvrable?

Why can two apparently similar rackets feel completely different?

Some answers will lead to more questions.

That is exactly what we want.

Because padel does not need another collection of equipment claims.

It needs somewhere willing to test them.

Welcome to FLO Lab.

Feel the difference. Measure the difference. Understand the difference.