How to Play Padel: A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide

Padel is one of the most approachable racket sports you can pick up as an adult. Within a single session, most beginners are rallying, serving, and starting to read the walls — and that's precisely what makes it addictive. This guide walks you through everything you need to know to get on court and actually enjoy yourself, from the basics of the game to the three shots that will carry you through your first few weeks of play.

If you are still wondering what the sport actually involves, start with our introduction to padel first, then come back here when you are ready to learn how to play.

The basics: what you need to know before you start

Padel is a doubles sport. You always play two versus two — there is no singles format in standard club play. Each player uses a solid padel paddle (smaller than a tennis racket, with no strings — it has a perforated face instead) and you play with a depressurised ball that looks like a tennis ball but bounces lower.

The court is 20 metres long and 10 metres wide, roughly a third of the size of a tennis court. A net runs across the middle, and the entire court is enclosed by a combination of glass back walls and metal mesh side walls. That enclosure is not just cosmetic — the walls are active parts of the game, and learning to use them is what padel is all about.

Running across the width of each half are two service boxes (left and right), divided by a centre line. These boxes are only relevant during the serve. Once the rally is underway, the entire half of the court is in play.

Before your first session, make sure you have a padel paddle, appropriate court shoes (not running trainers — padel shoes have a herringbone sole for grip on artificial grass), and comfortable clothes you can move in. Our getting started guide covers equipment in more detail if you need it.

How to serve: padel's first skill

The serve in padel is nothing like a tennis serve. There are no ball tosses, no overhead swings, no power serves to worry about. The padel serve is underarm, and keeping it consistent matters far more than hitting it hard.

Here is the sequence, step by step. Stand behind the service line (the line that runs across the court roughly in the middle of each half) on the right-hand side of the centre line — this is called the deuce court, and every service game begins here. Hold the ball in your non-paddle hand and drop it to the floor. Let it bounce. As it rises back up, strike it at or below waist height with an underarm swing, directing it diagonally across the net into the opponent's service box on the far side.

The ball must land inside the service box. If it lands out, clips the net and drops short, or fails to reach the opponent's side, it is a fault — and you get a second attempt. Two faults in a row means you lose the point.

A useful target is the junction between the service line and the centre line on the opponent's side, often called the T. Balls landing near the T are harder to return and give you less to worry about in terms of faults. Use a continental grip — the same grip you would use for a slice in tennis, with the base knuckle of your index finger on the top bevel of the paddle handle. This grip naturally produces a low, slightly angled serve that sits well in the box.

After each game, the serving team switches who serves, and both teams alternate serve each game throughout the set. Within a service game, the serve alternates between the right (deuce) and left (advantage) sides after each point.

Rallies: how the point is played

Once the serve is in, the rally begins. The receiving pair must return the ball before it bounces twice on their side. After that, the rules are straightforward: keep the ball going, make the opponents miss or hit out, and do not let it bounce twice on your side.

You can return the ball in two ways: let it bounce once and then hit it (a groundstroke), or hit it before it bounces at all (a volley). Volleys are common in padel, especially at the net, because controlling the net is where you win most points. The only place you cannot volley is immediately around the net — if you are standing very close to the net and the ball has not crossed to your side yet, you must wait.

The rally ends when: the ball bounces twice on one side, a player hits the ball into the net, the ball lands outside the court without touching a wall first, or the ball strikes the metal frame of the enclosure (rather than the glass or mesh playing surfaces). Any of these outcomes ends the point immediately.

Wall play: how to use the walls

This is what separates padel from every other racket sport. The glass back walls and metal mesh side walls are not obstacles — they are part of the game, and using them well is a genuine skill that you will develop over time.

The key rule to remember: the ball must bounce on the floor before it can rebound off any wall and still be in play. If an opponent hits a ball that travels directly into your back wall without bouncing first, it is out — you do not need to return it. But once the ball has bounced on the floor, any subsequent contact with the walls is fair game.

Two situations come up constantly for beginners. The first is returning a ball that has already bounced on the floor and is now coming off the back glass wall towards you. The instinct is to rush forward and intercept it, but the right move is usually to wait. Let the ball come off the wall, let it settle, and then play it calmly with time to spare. Rushing leads to errors; patience produces clean shots.

The second situation is playing deliberately into your own back wall when you are under pressure. If an opponent has put you in a difficult position with a deep ball, you can play the ball into your own back wall as an escape shot — the ball travels back over the net, giving your pair time to reset. This is a legitimate tactic, not a mistake, and you will see experienced players use it regularly.

One shot worth knowing exists even if you will not attempt it early on: the lob over the glass. When opponents are dominating the net, a well-placed lob can send the ball over their heads and, crucially, over the back glass wall entirely — exiting the court and forcing them to play it from outside. This is an advanced move, but understanding it exists will help you make sense of what you see in club games around you.

Scoring: games, sets, and matches

Padel uses exactly the same scoring system as tennis, which makes it easy to pick up if you have any racket sport background — and only slightly less easy if you do not.

Within a game, points run 15, 30, 40, game. If both pairs reach 40, the score is deuce. In traditional padel, one pair must then win two consecutive points to take the game — first an advantage point, then the game point. At recreational level in the UK, many clubs play the golden point rule instead: at deuce, a single point decides the game, and the receiving pair chooses which side the server serves from. Ask your club or your hitting partners which format they use before you start.

A set is won by the first pair to reach six games, provided they lead by two (so 6–4 or 7–5, not 6–5). At 6–6, a tiebreak is played: a seven-point tiebreak, where the first pair to reach seven points with a two-point lead wins the set.

Matches are best of three sets. The pair that wins two sets wins the match.

For the full official rules — including what happens when a ball rolls onto your court mid-rally, or when a player is hit by the ball — see our complete padel rules guide.

Court positioning: where to stand

Poor positioning is the single most common reason beginners struggle in padel, and it is also the easiest thing to fix with a small amount of awareness.

The fundamental principle is this: the pair that controls the net controls the match. Standing at the net allows you to cut off angles, play crisp volleys, and put pressure on your opponents. Standing at the back lets your opponents dictate every point.

When you are the receiving pair, you will start at the back — that is fine, because the serve pushes you there. But as soon as you have returned the serve successfully and the ball is in play, your aim should be to move forward together as a pair. Do not charge the net recklessly, but look for opportunities to step in and take position approximately one metre behind the net.

Moving together as a pair is important. If one player is at the net and the other is at the back, you leave a gaping hole in the middle that any half-decent opponent will exploit. Think of yourselves as connected by an invisible rope — when one moves forward, the other moves forward; when one retreats, the other retreats.

The smash (a hard overhead shot) and the lob (a high, arcing shot) are the two main weapons used to contest net position. When you are at the net and your opponents lob over you, you may need to retreat quickly and defend — then work your way forward again. When you are at the back and your opponents are at the net, a well-placed lob is often your best route back into the point.

Three basic shots to master first

There are many shots in padel — the vibora, the bandeja, the bajada, and more — but none of them matter until you have three fundamentals in place. Focus on these in your first few sessions and ignore everything else.

The first is the serve. It does not need to be powerful. It needs to be consistent, land in the box, and give your opponents as little pace to work with as possible. A flat, well-placed serve at 60% effort beats a powerful fault every time.

The second is the punch volley. When you are at the net, you will often have to deal with balls coming straight at you at pace. Do not take a full swing — there is no time and no space for it. Instead, use a short, firm punching motion with the paddle, redirecting the ball back over the net. Think of it as blocking rather than hitting. Keep your wrist firm, use your shoulder to guide direction, and aim for depth rather than winners.

The third is the lob. A soft, high ball that sends your opponents retreating from the net is one of the most effective shots in the beginner game. When you are under pressure at the back, open your paddle face (tilt it upward slightly) and swing through the ball to send it in a high arc over the opponents' heads. Aim for the back third of the court. A good lob buys time, resets the point, and forces your opponents to work their way back in.

These three shots — serve, volley, lob — cover the majority of situations you will encounter in your first weeks of play. Building a reliable padel racket suited to your game will also help, but technique matters far more than equipment at the beginner stage.

Common beginner mistakes

A few habits tend to trip up new players, and knowing about them in advance will save you a lot of frustration.

Staying at the back is the most widespread error. It feels safer, but it actually makes the game much harder — you are defending from a disadvantaged position and giving your opponents free control of the net. Resist the urge to hug the back wall and start moving forward.

Swinging too hard is the second. Padel rewards control, not power. The enclosed court means the ball does not have far to travel, and the walls keep balls in play that would be out on a tennis court. Big swings produce errors and spray balls into the metal frame. Shorter, more deliberate strokes will serve you far better.

Volleying a ball off the wall is a rule that catches beginners out regularly. If your opponent plays a ball that bounces on the floor and then hits your back wall, you cannot volley it — you must let it come back off the wall and then play it. Volleying it before it bounces is a fault and costs you the point.

Finally, communication with your partner is underestimated. Padel is a doubles sport, and the gap down the middle of the court is where confusion kills points. Call "mine" or "yours" clearly and quickly when a ball is heading between you. It feels awkward at first, but it becomes second nature fast and makes your pair far more effective.