What is padel? The sport explained in five minutes
A racket sport played in pairs on a small court with glass walls you are allowed to use. Easier to start than tennis, harder to master than it looks, and the fastest-growing sport in the world for a reason.
The short version
Padel is doubles tennis shrunk to a 20 by 10 metre court, boxed in by glass and mesh, played with a solid stringless racket and a slightly softer tennis ball. The serve is underarm. The walls are in play: a ball that bounces and then hits the glass is still live, and you can play it off the wall the way squash players do. That single rule is why the sport is so addictive. Points last longer, nobody is out of the point because a ball got past them, and the smash that wins in tennis comes back at you off the glass in padel.
Where it came from
Invented in Acapulco in 1969 by Enrique Corcuera, who had no room for a tennis court and built walls around what he had. It crossed to Spain in the seventies, exploded there in the nineties, and Spain now has more padel courts than tennis courts. Argentina caught it early too. Since about 2018 it has spread through Italy, Sweden, the Gulf, the UK, the Netherlands and now the United States, usually with the same pattern: one club opens, the courts are full within months, three more clubs open.
The court
Twenty metres long, ten wide, a net of 88 centimetres in the middle. The back walls are glass to three metres with a metre of mesh above; the side walls are glass for the first four metres from the back, mesh the rest of the way, with an opening beside the net posts where players (and the occasional winning drop shot) can leave the court. Service boxes like tennis, no tramlines: the whole width is in.
The scoring
Tennis scoring: 15, 30, 40, game, six games to a set with two clear or a tie-break at six all, best of three sets. At 40 all most clubs and every professional tour now play a golden point: one point decides the game, the receivers choose the side. Padel points are lost, not won: at every level below the pros, more than half of all points end in an unforced error, which is why the game rewards patience over power.
The shots you will hear about
The lob is the most important shot in padel, because it moves the other pair off the net. The bandeja is the controlled overhead the pros hit instead of smashing, to keep the net. The chiquita is a slow ball to the net player's feet. The víbora is a sliced, angled overhead. The bajada is a drive off your own back glass. The glossary has all of them with the Spanish words, because the whole sport is shouted in Spanish even in London.
Is it hard to start?
It is the easiest racket sport to start. A complete beginner rallies within twenty minutes, because the underarm serve is easy, the court is small and the walls keep the ball in play. It is hard to get good at, because the walls turn every point into a decision: let it bounce, take it off the glass, or hit it now. That is what this site is about: one decision a day, and a game that lets you make them with a coach watching.
What you need
A racket (clubs rent them for a few euros the first times; when you buy, the finder names three for your game), padel balls (not tennis balls; they are slightly softer), and shoes with a sole that grips artificial turf, ideally a herringbone or omni pattern. Everything else is a T-shirt and a bottle of water. Book a court through the club or through Playtomic, where most of the world's clubs list their availability, and find three other people or join an open match at your level.