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Key Tactics of Padel: How To Improve Your Technique

Do you know how to maintain an attacking position when playing padel? Are you a right-side or left-side player? Here's how to develop a better padel technique.

Unlike tennis, padel is nearly always played as doubles. If you’re considering playing padel, you’ll need to decide which side of the court you’re going to play. Although padel is an easy sport to play, each side of the court lends itself to a different skill set, so here are some guidelines to help you choose which one you’d enjoy more.

Court Side Decisions

Players on the right side of the court are often better defenders and good at a backhand volley. Traditionally, their role is to set up for the player on the left side to finish the point, but as the sport develops, neither side has an advantage for scoring.
Players on the left side of the court are often better at the aerial game, and traditionally are more aggressive players. Their main responsibility is to cover the lobs that go down the middle of the court. The position also lends itself to shooting what's known as a bandeja, a difficult shot that is a hybrid of a tennis forehand and smash.

Net Coverage

Winning the net and maintaining an attacking position is a key strategy to playing padel. Here's why:

At the net, the distance to your opponent’s side of the court is smaller, and it is easier to send the ball into that territory
It is easier to play fast and deep from the net
Net coverage is a good defense from your opponents
Net coverage creates gaps by your opponents, making it easier to score.

Moving forward and backward, what does it mean?

There is an important premise in padel: where to play the ball depends on our position on the court to make the opponent move.

If we are at the back and our opponent is at the net, we will lob the ball to recover the net and move forward in the court to make more pressure and attack the ball. If we are at the net, we will play deep balls or try for a topspin as we don’t want to lose our forward position and have to move backward to defense.

Padel is a very dynamic sport, the main goal is scoring points at the net, that position is where you have the advantage, and your goal is to stay there while being aggressive.

On the other hand, when you are defending, you want to stay consistent, try to find angles, or use lobs to push your opponents back. Once you push them away from the net, your goal is to move forward to take control of it.

When playing a competitive match, you will find yourself moving back and forth many times during the same point as this attacking - defending role is constantly changing. Finally, you can keep in mind these tips in order to be successful at your games:

Consistence: maintaining the ball between the court limits and finding an accurate velocity and height will help you control the game
It is important to maintain a good position in the court
Try to move on your opponent as much as possible
Take advantage of your strengths
Take advantage of your opponents' weaknesses

Now you’re super ready to hit the court. Try to remember the padel principles and rules and don't forget to enjoy the game!

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