Dated, sourced tape setups for professional pickleball players, each tied to the paddle it was used on.
Last verified Oct 11, 2026 · The guide grows only when another setup clears the source check. Spot an error? Send a correction.
What the public record shows: Most documented pro setups keep the weight low or at the corners: the throat and lower sides (Ben Johns, Zane Navratil), the base (Rachel Rohrabacher), or all four corners (Hayden Patriquin, JW Johnson). The exceptions are Kate Fahey's doubles setup (tape high, none at the bottom), Parris Todd's thin tungsten strip around the whole paddle, and Jorja Johnson, who added none.
Tape setups on the paddle each player uses now.
Current paddle: JOOLA Agassi Pro V 14mm. The tape setup comes from her March 2026 interview, where she described separate doubles and singles paddles.
Tungsten
Doubles: 1 g per half inch of tape, total pending. Singles experiment: about 3 g across the top
Doubles: tungsten high near the upper shoulder, with no weight at the bottom (the interview shows one side). Singles experiment: about 3 g across the top
Current paddle: Friday Fever 102, in an undated player quote on Friday's product page.
Lead tape
Pending
She weighs her paddles and tapes them to roughly 8.3 oz, but gives no tape amount.
Checked Oct 11, 2026
Always at the base, sometimes a bit on the sides; she says she doesn't love tape at the top
Tape Sometimes Other edge not visible
These players have since switched paddle or sponsor. Each setup belongs to the paddle named under the player.
Previous paddle: JOOLA Perseus Pro IV, May 2025. His current Pro V setup is pending.
Tungsten, switched from lead
5.5 g total: two 5.5 x 0.5 in strips at 0.5 g/in
Mirrored on both sides: each strip starts about 1 in above the grip, wraps the bottom corner, and runs a few inches up the side
Previous paddle: ProXR signature, in his September 2023 setup video, restated in a June 2025 ProXR post. He signed with Paddletek for 2026; his current setup is pending.
Lead tape, covered with electrical tape
Paddle went from 8.3 oz to 9.2 oz after his full setup (lead, electrical tape, overgrip); the tape weight alone is pending. He adds more lead in hot weather
Both sides: from the base of the face at the throat, around the bottom, and up each lower side, keeping the lead low
Previous paddle: Franklin C45, in an undated quote and an April 2025 write-up. His current paddle is the C45 Dynasty 16MM; its tape setup is pending.
Lead tape
Varies with each paddle's stock weight; he finishes at 8.9 oz
All four corners
Previous paddle: Franklin C45, 2025, in his own undated Franklin quote and an April 2025 write-up. He left Franklin in January 2026; his current setup is pending.
Lead tape
About 1 g on each lower side and each upper side, finishing between 7.74 and 8.04 oz
Both lower sides and both upper sides, which an April 2025 write-up describes as each corner
Previous paddle: Franklin C45, in an undated quote and an April 2025 write-up. Her current paddle is her Parris Todd C45 signature; its tape setup is pending.
Tungsten, not lead
Thin strips, half a gram per inch per an April 2025 write-up; finishes at 8.2 to 8.3 oz
Around the entire paddle, plus both sides of the grip
Previous paddle: Franklin C45 Hybrid, in an undated quote and an April 2025 write-up. She now plays a PIKKL paddle; its setup is pending.
None
None added; she played it stock, within the 7.6 to 7.9 oz range she quotes
No tape
Previous paddle: Paddletek Bantam ALW-C, February 2025 video. She left Paddletek in January 2026; no Franklin-era setup is public.
Lead tape
Pending
Her first-party videos show the taped paddle but state no amount, and no Franklin-era amount has been published.
Checked Oct 11, 2026
Pending
The video frames do not establish a precise, repeatable placement, and no Franklin-era placement has been published.
Checked Oct 11, 2026
Tape Sometimes Other edge not visible
These players remain in the research queue. They are named so the boundary of the public record is clear, not to imply an undocumented setup.
Pending
A retailer's undated setup page prescribes a tungsten recipe for his paddle in the shop's own words, not his, so it is not treated as his match setup.
Checked Sep 16, 2026
Pending
No source describes tape placement or added weight on her current paddle.
Checked Sep 29, 2026
Pending
Broadcast footage usually cannot establish the hidden fields, so rows are not added without a direct source.
Checked Oct 11, 2026
Tape is often covered by edge tape, grip details are hidden by the overgrip, and weight is not visible in broadcast footage. A filled-in table without a source would only be a guess.
Ben Johns' detailed record above is from his Perseus Pro IV era in May 2025. His current Pro V setup is pending. The rows for Zane Navratil, JW Johnson, Jorja Johnson, and Anna Leigh Waters also describe paddles from sponsors they have since left, and Hayden Patriquin's and Parris Todd's rows describe earlier Franklin paddles.
Where tape sits changes how a paddle plays, even when the added weight is the same. Selkirk's June 2026 guide says weight on the sides makes the sweet spot feel larger, while weight higher on the paddle adds power at the cost of hand speed. The Dink notes that tape near the handle adds stability with less swing-weight cost.
This guide records what a player or source says; it does not turn general placement advice into a claim about a specific professional.
Try it yourself
These are general category links, not the product any named player uses. Start light: a few grams changes how a paddle swings.
A common lead tape.
A lead-free weight tape, 1 g per inch.
Questions fans ask
Both appear in the public record. Ben Johns' May 2025 setup, Kate Fahey's March 2026 interview, and Parris Todd's Franklin C45 quote describe tungsten, while Zane Navratil, Hayden Patriquin, Rachel Rohrabacher, Anna Leigh Waters, and JW Johnson describe lead tape.
There is no single pro placement. Documented setups include the throat and lower sides (Ben Johns, Zane Navratil), all four corners (Hayden Patriquin), both upper and both lower sides (JW Johnson), the base and sometimes the sides (Rachel Rohrabacher), a thin strip around the whole paddle plus the grip (Parris Todd), and high on the paddle for Kate Fahey's doubles setup. Jorja Johnson played her Franklin paddle with no tape at all.
The documented Perseus Pro IV setup used 5.5 g of tungsten in two strips. No source yet shows whether he uses that amount on his current Pro V paddle.