A 2 minute read, written in August 2026
The eight mistakes every padel beginner makes
Nearly all of them come from playing padel as though it were tennis. Fix these and you will jump a level without hitting a single new shot.
1. Hitting too hard
Power is the least valuable quality in padel. The court is small, the walls give the ball back, and a hard ball to a player at the net returns faster than it left. Placement, height and patience beat pace at every level.
2. Standing on the service line
No man's land. Every ball lands at your feet and every lob goes over your head. Be two metres from the net, or in front of your back glass: pass through the middle, do not live there.
3. Being afraid of the glass
Beginners rush deep balls because they think the wall ends the point. It does not: the ball can bounce once and then use every wall on your side. Move back, give the glass room, let the ball come past you, and hit it in front of your body.
Your call
A ball rebounds off your back wall high and comfortable, around chest height, and both opponents are at the net. What do you play?
The bajada is the attacking shot from the back: a high glass rebound, taken early and driven down.
The whole reasoning, at every level
4. Never lobbing
The lob feels defensive, so beginners avoid it. It is the main attacking tool in the sport: the only shot that pushes a net pair backwards and lets you take the net.
5. Serving and staying back
The serve is underarm and slow, so it cannot hurt anyone. Its whole value is that it lets the serving pair walk to the net. Serve, then go.
6. Attacking a ball below the net
If the ball is below the tape, it has to travel upwards to get over, and upward balls give the other pair time. Block it deep instead and wait for one above the net. Height, not effort, decides whether a ball can be attacked.
7. Splitting up as a pair
One at the net and one at the back opens the middle and offers a free lob. Move as a unit: imagine a three-metre rope. If your partner goes, you go.
8. Watching your own shot
The shot is not finished until your feet have recovered. Admiring a good cross-court ball is how you arrive at the next one late and off balance. Hit, then move: every single time.
What to work on first
If you only fix one thing this month, make it the lob: hit it higher, deeper, and go in behind it with your partner. It fixes more scorelines than any new shot you could learn, and it teaches you the rhythm of the whole game.