Cold Paddles, Hot Mic: Did Todd Fought Do Anything Wrong?

There was another hot mic situation this past weekend at the PPA Orange County Cup. 

Since it picked up some steam on social media and podcasts this week, we wanted to give you all the facts and break down exactly what happened with a timeline of events:

Wednesday, June 26th – Todd Fought is overheard on a hot mic talking about putting his paddles in the refrigerator of his hotel room, hoping they will pass testing. Complete audio below, with the voices cleaned up by Kyle at DinkSmashMedia:

Thursday, June 27th – Dinksmashmedia posts on Instagram, tagging the PPA and UPA saying:

Hey @ppatour and @unitedpbassoc how about we take some time and clean up the sport a bit? We have pros cheating on microphone and saying everyone is doing it. Equipment standards and fees won’t fix cheating.

Saturday, June 29th – Three things happen - I am unsure of the order because of Instagram's way of chronicling posts ...

1. Jason Aspes (President of the UPA-A) responds to the IG post by Dinksmashmedia with the following:

Lots to unpack here.

1. This is precisely why UPA has been using the independent testing PPL for all PPA and MLP events. There are way too many variables for paddles to change and perform differently from when they were certified by USAP.

2. The testing we have in place is not perfect. This is why we are moving to a UPA certification program where we will do destructive testing of all paddles certified. (Essentially hit balls at the paddle and test it in intervals to see how the paddle changes over time) We will test exit velocity, coefficient of restitution, and have a correlating deflection number throughout the lifecycle of the paddle. This provides us a glimpse into how the paddles are expected to behave. We will do this in the lab at different temperatures as well. Paddles will have to behave within the standards both over time and in different climates.

3. In defense of Todd, there is no rule against climate controlling your paddle. In fact, manufacturers understand the importance of this and have built insulation into many of the bags being sold. The testing will only take place once paddles are at room temperature. PPL testers are fully aware that paddles will test better at cooler temperatures and will wait until paddles have acclimated to the room temperature. (Same goes for paddles that are heated up from being outside or left in the car, we will let them acclimate as heated paddles will have a difficult time passing)

PPL recently purchased an infrared thermometer for just these circumstances.

4. So no advantage is gained by cooling your paddle, because it is not tested if cooled, therefore there is no rule against this.

Same as if we were in a cool climate and you left your paddles outside, the same effect would take place. PPL would wait until paddles are at room temperature before beginning the testing process.

2. Todd Fought also made a statement on this same IG post:

Wasn't going to respond to this post, but have read the comments and have decided to set a few things straight. 1. I am the male in this audio 2. Yes, throughout my brief appearance in SC I stored my paddles in the fridge of my hotel room while not playing 3. I have been using the same model of paddle for over 2 years now, not once have I had a paddle effectively delaminate or gain power over time, if you need clarification on what this means, DM me 4. The testing used at PPA/MLP events is a compression test, and an unintended consequence of this is that it is temperature sensitive (picture trying to compress a pickle ball when the ball is 60 degrees vs 120 degrees, you would have extremely different results) 5. I have played most of the PPA events in the last 2 years(30ish events), using the same PPL test, I have had paddles fail at only 3 events, PPA Texas, MLP DC, and PPA SC, all of which the temp was above 90 degrees, this is the first event I have tried storing my paddles in a cool place as the forecast was for very hot weather 6. At any PPA event where the temperature is higher, the number of failed paddles increases dramatically and the testing personnel take steps to get paddles back down to lower temps, like holding paddles overnight, warning players to keep paddles out of the sun, etc 7. The testing personnel have full authority on when they test your paddle, if you turn in a paddle that is frozen solid, they will not test it, if you turn in a paddle that has just been used in the heat, they will not test it because they know it will fail 8. I informed the testers that my paddles have been stored overnight in the fridge, after travel to the venue and warm up, my paddles were still higher than room temp and they had to wait for them to cool down to test my paddles.

3. Fought also added this post on the same day:

As far as I know I broke no written rules and In my opinion have done nothing morally wrong, but if you disagree feel free to rip me a new one in the comments :) At the end of the day the current testing set up is not ideal and will probably change in the next 6 months. The laughter you here in this video is due to the crazy measures that we are having to take just to get a paddle approved to play with, nothing to do with cultural issue of cheating, I am happy to own my actions to my peers and think a vast majority of them will tell you I am not a cheater and was not trying to cheat the system in any way. I think most people would agree that if a paddle is legal to play with in 70 degree weather, you should be able to use it in 90 degree weather as well.

Tuesday, July 2nd – Two podcasts discuss the hot mic situation

• The King Of The Court (KOTC) Podcast addresses the hot mic situation - It goes for approximately 2 minutes and 10 seconds.
• The Pickleball Effect Podcast (the CoHost of the Podcast is Kyle, the guy from Dinksmashmedia) talked with Jordan Briones about the hot mic. This goes on for about two minutes, the conversation goes elsewhere, and then comes back around again.

In Conclusion 

• Todd got caught saying he had paddles in the fridge, hoping to improve chances of passing
• Kyle, from Dinksmashmedia found it, cleaned up the audio, and called Fought out for cheating and asked UPA and PPA to do something about it
• Jason Aspes, the UPA-A President (the governing body over these things) then responds and does an admirable job of explaining the situation from the UPA-A perspective
• Todd went on that same post and made some extremely compelling arguments for himself on why he did it and does it, and that there is no written rule against it
• Kyle, the initial poster, then went on his original post and rescinded his statement of calling Todd a cheater after a phone call with him

For the record, there is no rule against what Fought was overheard saying on the hot mic and his name has been cleared over any wrongdoing by the UPA-A and in the court of public opinion.

Does it further convolute the current state of paddle testing and certification? By the responses to the situation, we’d say absolutely.