Common padel mistakes — fix these to break out of the beginner level

Using the wrong grip

The single most common mistake. Beginners default to the eastern forehand grip they know from tennis, then try to use it for every shot. The correct default is the continental grip (the 'hammer' grip) for almost every shot in padel — forehand, backhand, volley, smash, and bandeja. The continental grip is what allows the wrist mobility and racket-face control padel needs. If you're switching grips between shots, you're losing reaction time and consistency.

Not serving and going to the net

Staying at the back of the court after your serve is a beginner habit that costs you matches. The serve in padel is a setup, not a weapon — the goal is to push the return high or weak so you can volley. Stay at the baseline after serving and you give the receiving team the entire court to attack. Always serve and move forward to the net.

Standing in no-man's-land

Two to three metres back from the net is the worst position on the court. Volleys land at your feet. Lobs go over your head. You can't attack and you can't defend. Make a decision: commit to the net (within one metre), or drop back to defend off the back glass. Never linger in between.

Body facing the net on overheads

Smashes, bandejas, and víboras require your body to be turned sideways before you hit, with your shoulder pointing toward the target. Most beginners face the net the entire time and try to overhead with their chest square — it kills power, control, and accuracy. Turn early. Hit through the contact. The good shoulder turn is the difference between a 5-out-of-10 bandeja and an 8-out-of-10 one.

Hitting short lobs

A short lob is an invitation for your opponent to smash you off the court. The whole point of a lob is to push the opposing team off the net so they can't attack — that requires depth and height. If your lob is below 4–5 metres of arc and lands inside the service box, it's not a lob, it's a free attacking ball. Better to hit a few lobs out long than to feed easy smashes.

Not stepping into volleys

Standing flat-footed and reaching for volleys is how you lose the net advantage you worked to gain. When an easy ball comes, step forward. Put your body weight into the volley. You take time away from your opponents and you put the ball where you want it. Static volleys end up floating back to the middle of the court, which is exactly where strong players will smash them.

Bad ball pressure

Padel balls lose pressure quickly — usually within 2–3 hours of play. Playing with dead balls means slower bounces, less wall rebound, and a completely different game from what you'll face at any decent level. Use new balls (or a pressure-restoring tube) for at least one session a week. Otherwise your timing calibrates to the wrong bounce and your real-match performance suffers.

Not communicating with your partner

Padel is a doubles game and the partner you don't talk to is the partner who'll let you down. Call who's taking the ball when there's any ambiguity ('mine' or 'yours'). Tell your partner where you're serving so they can position. Tell them what the opposing team is doing tactically ('they're staying at the back' or 'they're crowding the net'). Players who communicate constantly win matches against more talented teams that don't.

Practising your strengths instead of your weaknesses

Nobody wants to drill the shot they hate. So intermediate players keep hitting the shots they're already good at — usually forehands and basic volleys — and never fix the broken backhand, the missing bandeja, or the fragile defensive game. Real improvement comes from drilling the shots you avoid. The reason people don't is that there's no objective way to know which shot is actually the worst until they video-record themselves.

Questions