Two and a Half Years of Padel Lessons, Sorted by Shot

I’ve been playing padel for about two and a half years now, and along the way I’ve had coaching from a few different people. Everyone’s given me really good tips, but they’re scattered all over my head, so I wanted to pull them together in one place and organise them by shot.

The coaches I’ve had:

Guy, from Kenny West.
Sami, from Romania.
A coach in Málaga, Spain, whose name I never actually caught.

I’ve also picked up things from watching padel online, including a Federico Chingotto video that really stuck with me.

The serve

Everyone’s given me really good serve advice, and it mostly points the same way.

Guy’s main point: the serve should be slow, not quick. The higher you go in level, the easier fast serves are to return, so pace doesn’t help you. You can’t win the point off the serve anyway, so the job is just to get a good ball in and get up to the net as fast as you can.

The rest is about spin and placement:

Put backspin on it so it drops down off the wall and stays low.
Serving from the left, aim to catch the side wall.
I like to always serve to the opponent’s backhand, hitting the wall so the ball stays down.
Serving down the middle, I don’t want it jumping up off the wall, so a bit of topspin with not much power works, letting it die before the wall. Or just keep it flat.
From the right, similar idea: a bit of backspin, low power, let it come off the wall. A touch of side spin toward the centre if I need it. I like to scoop it and brush from right to left so it stays tight to the left wall.

The Málaga coach told me to keep every serve looking the same, basically one repeatable motion, so the opponent can’t read what’s coming. And two non-negotiables from him: bend your knees on the serve, and get up to the net as quickly as you possibly can.

Lobs and defending from the back

I watched a Chingotto video a couple of weeks ago that changed how I think about lobs. His point was to be confident with them: play them high, play them long, and if a few go out, keep going until they start landing. Don’t shorten them out of fear.

That’s exactly my problem. I play too many short lobs and I hate it, because they hand the opponents momentum. A short lob lets them pop it off the court, get set, start hitting good shots and build confidence. I’d almost rather hit it long and lose the point than feed them an easy one. Good high, long lobs are what let you defend properly from the back.

Sami gave me a great one for defending: hold the racket more in the palm of your hand rather than gripping the whole handle. It gives me way more flexibility and angle, which helps on both smashes and defence from the back.

Things I need to keep reminding myself at the back:

Bend my knees.
Move with the ball, and use the left hand to follow the right hand across.
Get low, and read where the ball is going early.
Turn my hips. Don’t face the net square on with my body open.

Sami also showed me a good attacking option from the back: a topspin shot off the wall, like a chiquita into the net, or a return of serve down the side.

Overheads: bandeja and víbora

Overheads are where I’ve had the most to fix. I tend to play a lot of bandejas, and I had a good session with Guy where I was complaining about not being able to play defensive overheads from awkward positions.

His advice: don’t try to play a long bandeja from a tough spot, because it’s too easy to defend. Instead play a slower shot to the cage, or a bandeja that sits in the middle, but ideally aim for the cage. That’s the shot I want to build into my game.

Guy also explained the bandeja itself really well when I started. Bandeja means “tray” in Spanish, so you play it like you’re carrying a tray. The racket goes behind your head in preparation, and that prep has to be early and in the right position. No laziness.

Reminders for my overheads:

Lift my left hand (I always forget this one).
Don’t jump if I don’t need to. Choice of shot matters more than power.
Don’t go for two powerful víboras in a row.
Follow through. Don’t stop halfway. The movement has to be continuous and natural, and that’s what makes it a good shot.
Don’t drift too far towards the net after playing it. I do this too often.

Volleys

Guy was really firm on volleys: turn your hips and use a natural body movement. Don’t take the racket way back, and don’t hit off the wrist. Generate the power from the body and the hips, put a lot of slice on it, and move your weight through the shot. On the backhand volley, shift the weight onto the left leg and use the right one to drive the power. Then boom.

A few general things

Hit the ball in front of me, roughly just above head height and slightly in front. Really important.
Play a variety of shots. Don’t get predictable.
Change partners. It’s easy to just play cross-court with the same person, but changing partners makes me better.
Don’t be afraid to go for the powerful shots when they’re actually on.