Quick one before you buy: if you have been searching for a pickleball racket, a pickleball bat, or a pickleball racquet, you are all shopping for the same thing. The gear you hit a pickleball with is officially a paddle: a solid, stringless bat a bit bigger than a table-tennis bat and a lot smaller than a tennis racket. Plenty of Australian players search "racket" or "bat" out of tennis and table-tennis habit, so if the word has been tripping you up, you are not alone. Here is what to call it, why the names differ, and which paddle to actually buy.
Pickleball racket, bat or paddle: are they the same thing?
Yes. A pickleball racket, a pickleball bat and a pickleball paddle are three names for one piece of gear. The official term, and the one the USA Pickleball rulebook uses, is paddle. It is a solid hitting surface with no strings, which is exactly what separates it from a tennis or squash racket.
The reason "racket" feels natural is that most racket sports (tennis, squash, badminton) use a strung frame, so the brain reaches for that word. "Racquet" is just the older spelling of the same thing. "Bat" comes from table tennis and from the cricket-and-tennis vocabulary a lot of Aussies grew up with. None of them are wrong in conversation. They are simply not what the manufacturers or the rules call it, which is why every paddle you will find on our pickleball paddles page is listed as a paddle, not a racket.
Why Australians say "bat" and "racket"
Pickleball landed in Australia off the back of tennis and table tennis, so the words came with it. If you played table tennis at school, you called it a bat, and that habit carries straight over. If tennis was your sport, "racket" is the default. British and Australian English also lean on "bat" far more than American English does, which is why you will hear "pickleball bat" around Aussie clubs a lot more than you would in the United States.
The practical takeaway: search whatever word feels right. Whether you type "pickleball racket", "pickleball bat" or "pickleball paddle", you should end up looking at paddles, and the buying advice is identical. So let's get to the part that actually matters, which paddle suits your game.
So which pickleball paddle should you buy?
Rather than list fifty options, here are three we sell a lot of, one for each budget and playing level. All three are Australian-stocked and in stock as we write this, so there is no three-week wait from a United States site.
Best first proper paddle: Friday Fever 102 Gen 3 (AUD $175)
If you are stepping up from a starter bat, the Friday Fever 102 Gen 3 is the one we point new players to most. It runs a Gen 3 build with a triple-layer Toray T700 raw carbon face and a 16mm honeycomb polypropylene core, so you get genuine spin and a forgiving sweet spot without spending $300. ElasTECH perimeter weighting steadies off-centre hits, which is exactly what an improving player needs while the swing is still settling. At 232g with a swing weight of 118, it is balanced enough to learn on and sharp enough to keep once you are winning at the kitchen line. It is also the paddle world number 5 Rachel Rohrabacher competes with, which tells you the ceiling is high. Want the deep-dive first? Read our full Fever 102 review.
Best all-rounder: Six Zero Coral 16mm (AUD $275)
The Six Zero Coral 16mm is the paddle for the player who wants one bat to do everything. It is the successor to the much-loved Double Black Diamond, and Six Zero's Tectonic Core Suspension lets the core float inside the frame for a plush, connected feel on soft shots. The Diamond Tough textured face is rated to hold its spin far longer than standard raw carbon, so you are not chasing grip after a few months of hard club play. With a swing weight of 114 and a twist weight of 6.7 it stays stable on off-centre contact, and at PBCoR 0.42 it sits comfortably under the 0.43 tournament limit. Control players love it, and it has more than enough pop when you want to speed the ball up.
Best for power players: RPM Q2 16mm Elongated (AUD $357.50)
If you already know your game leans on drives and put-aways, the RPM Q2 16mm Elongated is the pick. It is RPM's most ambitious paddle, the first to swap honeycomb for a fully moulded EPP foam core co-designed with paddle engineer John Kew. The long 16.5 inch frame gives you reach and leverage for high volleys and singles coverage, TPU perimeter inserts tighten up torsional twist on wide contact, and the CarbonBite surface bites hard for heavy topspin. It plays heavier and more connected than the spec sheet suggests, which is what advanced players are chasing.
The three at a glance
| Paddle | Price | Core | Shape | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday Fever 102 Gen 3 | AUD $175 | 16mm polypropylene honeycomb | Elongated | First proper paddle, all-court |
| Six Zero Coral 16mm | AUD $275 | 16mm floating PP (Tectonic Core) | Hybrid / Elongated | All-rounder, control |
| RPM Q2 16mm Elongated | AUD $357.50 | 16mm moulded EPP foam | Elongated | Power and spin |
What to look for, whatever you call it
The name on the search bar does not change the four things that decide how a paddle plays:
- Core thickness. 16mm cores feel softer and more controlled, 14mm cores feel poppier and faster. Most club players are happiest on 16mm.
- Shape. Elongated adds reach and power, widebody adds a bigger sweet spot and forgiveness, hybrid splits the difference. Beginners usually want forgiveness first.
- Weight and swing weight. Heavier and higher swing weight means more plough-through but slower hands. Lighter is quicker at the net.
- Face and spin. A raw carbon or textured face grabs the ball for spin. Better textures also last longer before the grit wears smooth.
If those terms are new, our plain-English guide to paddle jargon unpacks foam cores, thermoforming and Gen 3 versus Gen 4 in a couple of minutes. For a wider set of picks by play style, see our best pickleball paddles in Australia 2026 guide, and if you are brand new to the sport, start with pickleball for beginners in Australia.
Pickleball racket questions we get asked
Is a pickleball racket the same as a pickleball paddle?
Yes. "Pickleball racket" is just a common name for a pickleball paddle. The official term is paddle, because it is a solid surface with no strings, but the two words point to the same gear. If a shop lists "pickleball rackets", they mean paddles.
Can I use a tennis racket for pickleball?
No. Pickleball has to be played with a solid paddle, not a strung tennis or squash racket, and a strung frame is not legal for the game anyway. A tennis racket is also far too big and springy for the short, controlled game pickleball rewards. You want a proper paddle like the ones above.
What is a pickleball bat?
Same thing again. "Bat" is the word a lot of Australian players use, carried over from table tennis. A pickleball bat, racket, racquet and paddle are all names for the flat, stringless paddle you hit the ball with.
Buying a pickleball racket in Australia
Whichever word you searched, buying a pickleball racket (paddle) from an Australian-stocked store means it ships from here, not from a warehouse in the United States. Our paddles go out with fast domestic delivery, free AU shipping over $150, and a 30-day return on factory-fresh paddles. You can browse the whole range on our pickleball paddles page, filtered by skill level, shape and play style so you can find your paddle by how it plays, not by what it is called.
Still stuck between two? That is genuinely the kind of thing we like helping with. Reply to any of our emails, or use the chat on the site, and one of us will talk it through with you.
Ben
Pickld carries the brands featured. Picks are based on customer order data and product specs, not affiliate incentives.
