The padel serve: how to hit one that wins you the net
Nobody aces anyone in padel. The serve has one job, which is to get you and your partner to the net before the return comes back, and most club serves fail at it.
What the serve is for
In tennis the serve wins points. In padel it wins position. A serve you cannot attack off is a good serve, even if it looks slow, and a serve that goes in at pace but leaves you standing at the baseline is a bad one. Ask yourself after every serve: am I at the net before they hit the return? If the answer is no, the serve is not doing its job, whatever the ball did.
The legal serve, briefly
Drop the ball behind the service line, let it bounce, hit it at or below your waist with one foot on the ground. It must land in the diagonal box. It may touch the side glass after bouncing; it may not touch the mesh. Two attempts. The receiver must let it bounce. That is the whole of it, and the full detail is in the rules guide.
Where to aim
There are three serves worth owning and one to leave alone.
Wide to the glass. The ball lands deep in the box and hits the side wall before the receiver can take it clean. They have to read a rebound, usually while moving sideways. This is the club-level default because it is safe and awkward at the same time. Hit it with a little slice so it stays low off the glass.
Down the T. Straight at the centre line. There is no wall to help you, so the ball has to be deep and low or it comes back as a drive at your feet. Use it when the receiver is standing wide to cover the glass serve. It also takes their angle away: a ball hit from the middle cannot be returned with much width.
At the body. Slightly to the backhand hip. It looks unambitious and it is horrible to return, because the receiver has to move to make room and has no time to. Good against tall players and against anyone who steps in to attack the return.
The one to leave alone is the big serve. Pace in padel comes back. A hard serve sits up off the glass and the receiver drives it past you as you run in.
The first step forward
This is the part most players skip. As the racket comes through, your weight should already be moving toward the net. Two or three quick steps take you to the service line, a split step as they hit the return, and you arrive at the net with your partner as the ball comes over. If you watch the serve land first and then move, you meet the return around the service line with the ball at your feet and no good options. Serve and go. The serve is the first shot of a two-shot pattern, and the second is the volley.
Second serves
Do not change anything except the margin. A second serve is the same swing at the same target, a foot further from the line. Players who go to a gentle push for the second serve give up the net before the point has started: the return comes back hard and low, and now you are defending. A second-serve fault costs you one point; a soft second serve costs you every point you hit it in.
Practice that transfers
Put a towel in the back corner of the box, against the glass, and serve twenty at it from each side. Then do twenty more where you serve and sprint to touch the net with your racket before the ball hits the back glass. That second drill fixes more serves than any change to the swing.