How to play padel
Everything you need to walk on court for the first time without feeling lost. The rules below follow the International Padel Federation (FIP) Rules of Padel, which is the authority for the sport. Where paduno adds something of its own, it is labelled a house rule.
- stranger
- fourth
- regular
- crew
- competitor
- Four players.Padel doubles is two players a side on one court. Four people, no more. A singles version exists on a narrower court, but it is rare in the UK and paduno does not run it.
- The walls are in play.After the ball bounces on your floor, you can let it come off your own glass or fence and still play it. That is the part that makes padel feel different.
- Serve underarm.Bounce the ball, hit it at or below waist height, diagonally into the box opposite. You get two attempts.
- Scoring is tennis scoring.15, 30, 40, game. Six games win a set, two clear.
- Rallies are long.The walls keep the ball alive, so points last longer than in tennis and placement beats power. This is why beginners can enjoy it from day one.
The court
A padel court is 20 metres long and 10 metres wide, enclosed on all sides. The back walls and part of the side walls are glass; the rest is metal mesh. A net across the middle divides it into two halves of 10 metres by 10 metres.
Each half has a service line 6.95 metres back from the net, and a centre line splitting the service area into a right and a left box. Those two boxes are the only part of the court a serve may land in.
The net is 88cm high in the middle and 92cm at the posts. The enclosure is usually 3 metres of glass with a metre of mesh above it at the back, and most courts have an opening in each side wall.
Scoring
Identical to tennis. Four points win a game, six games win a set.
- Deuce (40–40)
- Under standard FIP scoring, a pair must then win two points in a row: the first is advantage, the second wins the game. If the pair with advantage loses the next point, the score returns to deuce.
- The deciding point
- Competitions may instead play a single point at 40–40 to decide the game. The receiving pair chooses which of them receives it. This is often called the golden point, and it is used on the main professional tours. It is only in use if the event says so. Every paduno session states which applies before play starts.
- A set
- First to six games, with at least two games clear. At 5–5 the set goes to 7–5, or to 6–6.
- Tie-break
- At 6–6 a tie-break is played to 7 points, win by two. Players serve one point, then two points each in turn, changing ends every six points.
- A match
- Normally the best of three sets. Short and timed formats exist, but a format is only a fair comparison with another match if both used the same rules.
Who serves, and from where
One pair serves for a whole game, and the same player serves every point of it. After that game the other pair serves, and so on. Within a pair, the two players alternate who serves from one service game to the next, and they keep that order for the whole set.
The server starts on the right of their half and serves diagonally. After each point they switch to the other side. Ends are changed after the first game and then after every two games.
The receiving pair each defend one side of the court for the whole game and do not swap during it.
The serve
The one shot with strict rules. Get these four right and you will never be called.
- Stand behind the line.Both feet behind the service line, between the centre line and the side wall. Neither foot may touch or cross the line before you strike the ball.
- Bounce it first.Drop the ball and let it bounce once on the floor, then hit it. You may not strike it out of the air.
- Hit it at or below the waist.Contact must be at or below waist height. This is why every padel serve is underarm.
- Cross-court, into the box.The ball must land in the service box diagonally opposite. You get two attempts; miss both and the point is lost.
After the serve lands
This is where padel stops resembling tennis.
- Serve into the glass
- If the serve lands in the correct box and then hits the side glass or back glass, it is good and in play. If it lands in the box and then hits the metal mesh fencing, it is a fault.
- Serve into the net
- Net, then into the correct box: a let, and the serve is replayed. Net, then anywhere else: a fault.
- Returning the serve
- The receiver must let the serve bounce. You cannot volley a serve.
- Your own walls
- Once the ball has bounced on your floor, you may let it rebound off any wall, glass or fence on your side and then hit it back. What you cannot do is let it bounce on the floor twice.
- Volleying
- Outside of the serve and the serve return, you may take the ball out of the air whenever you like.
- Your shot must land first
- Your ball has to bounce on the opponents' floor before it touches anything else on their side. Straight into their glass or fence without a bounce, and you lose the point.
- Hitting the fence on their side
- If your ball bounces in their court and then rebounds into their glass or fence, that is perfectly good, and it is their job to dig it out.
- Out of court
- If the ball bounces in your court and then flies out over the enclosure, the point is not automatically over: you may run out through the court opening and play it back, if the venue's surroundings allow it. Many UK courts do not have the space, so most clubs treat the ball as dead. Ask your captain which applies before you start.
- Losing the point
- You lose the point if the ball bounces twice on your side, if you or anything you are wearing touches the net or the opponents' side, if the ball hits you or your partner, if you hit the ball twice, or if you play it before it has crossed the net.
Short summaries are useful; the full text is the authority. The current rules are published by the International Padel Federation, and British padel is governed by the LTA. If anything on this page and the FIP rulebook disagree, the FIP rulebook is right. Please tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Words you'll hear
Nobody will mind if you don't know these. You will pick them up in one session.
- Bandeja
- A controlled overhead played with slice, used to keep the pair at the net rather than to win the point outright. The shot that defines the intermediate game.
- Víbora
- A faster, more aggressive cousin of the bandeja, hit with side spin.
- Chiquita
- A soft, low ball played at the feet of the pair at the net to force them to lift it.
- Por tres / por cuatro
- Going out of the court through the side opening to return a ball that has left the enclosure.
- The glass
- Playing "off the glass" means letting the ball rebound off the back wall before hitting it. Learning to wait for it is the single biggest beginner improvement.
- Golden point
- A single deciding point at 40–40 instead of advantage. Only when the event says so.
Your first session
What to bring, what to expect, and what nobody will expect of you.
| Shoes | Flat, non-marking solesTrainers are fine. Running shoes with a thick heel are the least suitable thing you can wear. |
|---|---|
| Racket | Borrow onepaduno First Timers sessions include a racket. You do not need to buy anything to try padel. |
| Balls | ProvidedPadel balls are slightly smaller and lower-pressure than tennis balls. |
| Fitness | Less than you thinkThe court is small. Positioning matters far more than running. |
| Experience | None neededTennis experience helps with hand-eye coordination and hurts with technique. Both are normal starting points. |
Now pick a format.
Knowing the rules is one thing. Fixed partners or rotating ones is what changes your evening.