Anna Leigh Waters' Weighted Tape Setup Explained - Paddletek and Franklin
Anna Leigh Waters discovered weighted tape after returning to competition following COVID. Her approach provides a fascinating lesson in paddle weight, swing weight, twist weight and why elite players don't necessarily play with the paddles that come straight from the factory.
Anna Leigh Waters is known for one of the most aggressive games in professional pickleball. Fast hands, explosive counters, and powerful drives. And a willingness to attack balls that many players would simply reset. But what is Anna Leigh Waters' Weighted Tape Setup? And how does this assist her aggressive game style?
Waters has explained that when she and her mother Leigh returned to tournament competition following the COVID shutdown, something had changed. Their opponents' paddles felt different. The ball was coming back harder, and Waters eventually discovered why. Other players had started adding lead tape to their paddles. So Anna Leigh and Leigh did the same thing. The difference was immediate.
In Waters' own telling, adding the tape made their paddles feel more solid and hit harder, which brings up an interesting question.
How can strips of weighted tape make a pickleball paddle feel more solid and powerful? The answer isn't simply that the paddle becomes heavier. It has to do with where that additional mass is located. And Waters' approach to paddle customization provides a particularly interesting example. A stock paddle can be the starting platform. Mass can then be added strategically to change how the paddle behaves.
Anna Leigh Waters' Weighted Tape Paddletek Strategy
For years, Waters was closely associated with Paddletek. Her signature paddle was the Paddletek Bantam ALW-C, a compact, relatively light paddle designed around her fast, aggressive style. And the light starting weight is important. Rather than beginning with an inherently heavy paddle, Waters had a platform that left considerable room for customization.
Her competition paddles became recognizable for extensive perimeter coverage around the edge guard, with the underlying weighting obscured in places by protective/electrical tape. In her video, Waters says she brings the weight of her Paddletek paddle up to about 8.4 ounces. The starting static weight of the Paddletek Bantam is on average 7.7 ounces. So she has applied about 0.7 ounces or 20 grams of weighted tape.
Anna Leigh Waters Paddletek Bantam Weighted Tape Setup
Her heavily taped Paddletek paddles illustrate a broader philosophy that is particularly interesting from an engineering perspective: Start with a light, maneuverable paddle and add mass strategically around the perimeter.
Why would an elite player do that rather than simply buy a heavier paddle?Because weight and weight distribution are not the same thing.
Static Weight Is Only the Beginning
Suppose you have two paddles, that both weigh 8.3 ounces. One gets most of its additional mass from the handle and central core. The other has more of that mass distributed around its perimeter. The scale sees the same thing but the effect on the ball will be different. Also, your hand will feel different. That's because three different measurements matter:
Static weight — how much the paddle weighs.
Swing weight — how resistant the paddle is to being swung or rotated around the hand.
Twist weight — how resistant the paddle is to twisting on an off-center impact.
Weighted tape allows a player to manipulate these characteristics after the paddle has already been manufactured. And that's exactly what Waters did.
Why Perimeter Weight Makes a Paddle Feel More Solid
Imagine hitting a ball exactly through the center of the paddle. Now imagine hitting the next ball an inch closer to the outside edge. The second impact creates more twisting force. In physics terms, the impact creates a torque:
τ = F × d
where:
τ = torque
F = force from the impact
d = distance from the paddle's centerline
As the impact moves farther from the centerline, the twisting moment increases. The paddle face wants to rotate in your hand. Now add mass toward the outside perimeter. That additional mass increases the paddle's rotational inertia around its longitudinal axis. In practical terms: the paddle becomes harder to twist. That's essentially what twist weight measures.
And that provides a scientific explanation for Waters' description of a weighted paddle feeling more solid. The paddle isn't necessarily becoming physically stiffer. It's becoming more resistant to rotation during off-center contact.
The result can feel like a more stable paddle face and a larger, more forgiving effective hitting area.
But Waters Also Said the Paddle Hit Harder
This is where another part of the physics enters the picture. Additional mass can also increase the paddle's effective hitting mass. When the paddle collides with the ball, a heavier effective system can transfer more momentum through the collision—provided the player can still accelerate the paddle sufficiently. In simplified form:
p = mv
where:
p = momentum
m = effective mass
v = velocity
Adding mass doesn't automatically produce more ball speed because paddle speed also matters. If you make a paddle so heavy that the player swings it substantially slower, the benefit can disappear. But for an elite athlete with extremely fast hands and excellent acceleration, there can be room to add mass without sacrificing enough paddle speed to offset the benefit.
Why Does Anna Start With a Light Paddle?
This is an important point from Waters' historical setup. You can always add mass to a paddle. Removing mass from the internal structure of a finished paddle is considerably more difficult. A light paddle therefore gives an experienced player something valuable, room to tune.
Imagine starting with a paddle that is already heavy and has a high swing weight. If you want more stability, adding perimeter mass may push the swing weight beyond what you find comfortable. Start with a low-swing-weight paddle, however, and you have more freedom. You can decide where the additional mass goes.
Why Not Put All the Weight at 12 O'Clock?
Here's where Waters' extensive perimeter approach differs from simply adding weight for maximum power. If you place additional mass at the very top of a paddle, you maximize its distance from the player's hand. Rotational inertia depends strongly on that distance:
I = mr²
where:
I = rotational inertia
m = added mass
r = distance from the axis of rotation
Notice that distance is squared. That means moving the same amount of mass farther toward the tip produces a disproportionately larger increase in swing weight. Weight at 12 o'clock can therefore be very effective for increasing plow-through and effective hitting mass. But it also makes the paddle harder to accelerate and recover.
For a player whose game depends heavily on rapid exchanges at the kitchen, that's an important trade-off.
For a broader comparison of 12 o’clock, 10 and 2, 3 and 9, lower-side, throat and handle weighting, read our Pickleball Weighted Tape Guide & Paddle Weighting Optimizer.
Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters: Two Different Ways to Tune a Paddle
Waters and Ben Johns approach to weighted tape are different.. Johns has historically concentrated additional weight around the lower sides of his JOOLA Perseus. Why? Lower-side weighting places mass away from the paddle's centerline while keeping it relatively close to the hand. That is an efficient way to increase stability while limiting the increase in swing weight.
Waters' historical Paddletek approach was visibly more extensive. Instead of focusing only on a relatively small lower-side region, her paddles showed perimeter coverage extending much farther around the edge. Conceptually, the two strategies illustrate different approaches to mass distribution.
But don't forget they started with different paddles, and customization will necessarily differ for different starting paddles.
Ben Johns
Concentrated lower-perimeter weighting with the primary objective being increase stability while minimizing swing-weight penalty.
Anna Leigh Waters
More extensive perimeter weighting with the objective of building a more solid, stable and powerful paddle from a very light starting platform. We should be careful here: only Waters can tell us precisely what she intended with every gram of her setup. But the physics tells us what moving mass into those different regions does. And it aligns remarkably well with her own description of the weighted paddle feeling more solid and hitting harder.
What Different Parts of the Perimeter Actually Do
Think of a paddle perimeter as four different tuning regions.
| Weight location | Swing-weight effect | Twist-weight effect | Typical result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 o'clock | Very high | Low | Maximum plow-through / power |
| 10 & 2 | High | Moderate | Power + stability |
| 3 & 9 | Moderate | High | Stability / forgiveness |
| Lower sides | Low | Moderate | Stability with less hand-speed penalty |
Now imagine distributing weight across several of those regions instead of choosing just one. You're no longer tuning only one characteristic. You're building a mass-distribution profile. That's the interesting science behind extensive perimeter weighting.
Then Anna Leigh Waters Changed Paddle Companies
In 2026, Waters moved on from Paddletek and began competing with Franklin. Her current competition paddle is listed by the PPA Tour as the Franklin C45 Hybrid. And its measured stock specifications are fascinating:
Static weight: 7.5 oz
Swing weight: 103.5
Twist weight: 5.42
Balance point: 23.5 cm
Hand Speed Index: 96
Those are extremely maneuverable stock specifications. A swing weight of 103.5 is particularly low. So once again, Waters is associated with a paddle that starts with plenty of room for additional mass.
How Similar Are Anna Leigh Waters' Paddletek ALW-C and Franklin C45?
Interestingly, the stock Paddletek Bantam ALW-C 12.7mm and Franklin C45 Hybrid 14mm are remarkably similar in two important measurements. Their swing weights are almost identical—approximately 103.4 vs. 103.5—and both have a measured balance point around 23.5 cm. That means both provide Waters with an exceptionally maneuverable, low-swing-weight starting platform, despite their very different construction and shapes.
The biggest difference is twist weight. The stock ALW-C measures approximately 6.51, compared with only 5.42 for the C45 Hybrid. That's roughly a 20% advantage for the ALW-C in resistance to twisting. So although the two paddles should feel similarly quick through the air, the stock C45 should be noticeably less stable on off-center contact. The C45's hybrid shape, 14mm thermoformed construction and foam-enhanced design also differ substantially from the thinner 12.7mm widebody ALW-C, so identical swing weight certainly doesn't mean identical playing characteristics.
This type of comparison can be made for any two paddles using our Racket Pro Paddle Advisor App. Rather than simply putting two columns of specifications beside each other, the Paddle Advisor uses the paddle you already know as the reference point and predicts how another paddle should feel different in your hand and on the court. In this case, an ALW-C player considering the C45 would be predicted to retain very similar maneuverability and weight distribution, while experiencing a meaningful change in stability and other playing characteristics arising from the paddle's geometry and construction.
Anna Leigh Waters Franklin Weighted Tape Setup?
Her current competition paddle appears customized, but we have not found anything that gives the precise weighting configuration underneath the protective tape to state exactly how many grams she uses or exactly where every strip is located.
At just 103.5 swing weight and 5.42 twist weight, the stock paddle provides substantial room for an advanced player to increase perimeter mass while still potentially finishing with a very maneuverable paddle.
This is the same basic customization advantage we saw with her Paddletek:
A very light starting platform gives the player room to decide where the final mass should be located.
Why This Matters for Recreational Players
There is a temptation when looking at professional paddle setups to simply copy them. If Anna Leigh Waters puts weight somewhere, put weight there. If Ben Johns uses a particular configuration, duplicate it. That's probably the wrong lesson. Waters herself has said something more useful about equipment: choose a paddle that enhances your strengths. Her strength is an exceptionally aggressive game built around speed, power and rapid exchanges. Your requirements may be completely different.
The important lesson isn't:
"Use Anna Leigh Waters' tape setup."
It's:
Understand what adding mass in different locations actually does.
Should You Add Weighted Tape to Your Paddle. Start by identifying the problem.
"My paddle gets pushed around on off-center hits."
You may want more twist weight.
Consider perimeter weighting.
"I want more plow-through and power."
You may want more effective hitting mass and swing weight.
Weight higher on the paddle can have a greater effect.
"I want more stability but don't want to slow my hands much."
Consider lower-perimeter weighting.
"I want to heavily customize my paddle."
Starting with a relatively low static weight and low swing weight gives you considerably more freedom to build the mass distribution you want. That last approach is particularly relevant to the history of Anna Leigh Waters' paddles.
Want to understand the principles behind this setup? Explore our Pickleball Paddle Customization Guide to learn how weight placement, swingweight, twistweight and balance can change paddle performance.
For help on configuring weighted tape for your paddle, use our Paddle Optimization App, which starts by asking you about your paddle objectives.