How to play · four minutes · every shot linked to the glossary
How to play The Rally
One tie-break to seven against a pair you choose from level 1 to 7. The ball is real, the walls are real, the four players move on their own. Your job is the one decision that matters in padel: which shot, and where. Everything else the game does for you, and tells you about afterwards.
The controls
- Phone: press a shot button where you want the ball to go (left of the button is your left), slide to adjust, lift to play. One touch.
- Mouse: click a shot and the arrow follows the mouse; click again to play. Or press, drag and release in one motion.
- No decision? The world waits about two seconds from the back, less at the net, then plays a sensible default and marks it as a hesitation.
- Sound is on by default: the racket, the glass, the crowd, and each player's own grunt on a smash. The button top right mutes it.
The shots, by where you are
The menu changes with the ball. Each shot is one word in the glossary; the links go to its paragraph.
| Situation | Your options | What the coach usually wants |
|---|---|---|
| From the back | Lob, Chiquita, Drive | The lob against a pair leaning in; the chiquita to the feet of a pair sitting on the service line; the drive only above net height. |
| At the net | Block, Volley, Drop, Lob | The volley to the deeper player's feet; the drop only when both of them are deep; the block when the ball is fast. |
| High ball | Bandeja, Smash, Víbora, Rulo | The bandeja to keep the net; the smash only inside the service box on a short lob; the rulo to climb their glass; the víbora into their side glass. |
| Lob gone behind you | Gancho and the overheads | The gancho: the hook that pushes a ball behind you deep. Any other overhead from there carries a big error. |
| Off your own glass, chest high | Bajada, lob, chiquita, drive | The bajada at their feet when they hold the net. |
| Pinned on your back glass | Wall smash, lob, chiquita, drive | The wall smash when it is the only ball that gets there; otherwise the lob to buy time. |
| Pinned on your side glass | Side-wall smash, lob, chiquita, drive | Into your own side glass, hard, so it comes off the wall and over the net. |
| A fast ball at you at the net | Block, Drop | The reflex: hands, not thoughts. Block deep, or drop if they are both back. |
| They drop you to the door | The save event | A marker sweeps left and right: tap in the band for a perfect parallel lob; miss and it is a short lob they finish. |
| Their save sits up | The finish event | Same marker: tap in the band and it is a winner; miss and you fluff it. |
What the court does
- The back walls are three metres of glass and a metre of mesh above. The side walls are four metres for the first two metres from the back, three after, glass near the back and mesh toward the net. Mesh kills the ball; glass gives it back.
- The door is a metre either side of the net posts. A ball that has bounced and runs out through it is the hitter's point: the door drop, the best point in padel.
- A ball that bounces and then leaves over the fence is por tres or por cuatro: the hitter's point. A ball that hits the glass before it bounces is out.
- The point's line at the end says what decided it, including by how much a ball cleared the fence.
What the players do
- Long rallies: from the seventh shot everyone tires, errors grow a degree a shot on both sides, reactions slow, and the point quickens by up to a fifth.
- Statuses: a pair well behind can turn Optimistic (fewer errors, quicker, sharper, and a tank that empties fast in a long rally) or Hopeless (more errors, slower, tired early); a tight finish can make a pair Anxious (quicker feet, wilder racket). The word sits over their heads and a line beside the score says what it does and for how long. Your partner can get them too; you only very rarely.
- The door duel: a defender standing near the post blocks a door drop two times in three; one caught across the court barely ever. A blocked drop sits up short three times in ten, and then someone has a Finish.
- The crowd grows with the level, from three friends on a bench to a full stand, and stands up when you finish a point.
The levels
| Level | Who they are | Speed | Reaction |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 · First months | Late to the ball, generous with errors. Learn the menu here. | 3.4 m/s | 0.45 s |
| 2.0 · Improver | They lob and wait and miss a few. Take the net and hold it. | 3.8 | 0.38 |
| 3.0 · Club | Solid club pair. Patient, they find your feet when you are deep. | 4.3 | 0.28 |
| 4.0 · Strong club | They read the lob early and finish at the net. Depth wins here. | 4.6 | 0.22 |
| 5.0 · Regional | Every short ball is punished. You need the right shot and the right side. | 4.9 | 0.18 |
| 6.0 · National | Fast, precise, ruthless on the smash. Win one and you have earned it. | 5.2 | 0.15 |
| 7.0 · Professional | The tour. They make no unforced errors that you did not force. | 5.5 | 0.12 |
The first three levels are open. Beat a level and the next opens; the levels you have beaten are kept on your device.
The coach, the rating, the badges
- After every point the coach names the call that decided it, in one line, and a tip from a bank of padel truths keyed to what just happened.
- The chain puzzles use the same engine: one point, three to five calls, judged as you go, with a rating that moves like chess.com's and a streak.
- Badges are for the firsts: a winner, a víbora, a wall smash, a side-wall smash, five in a row, ten bandejas, ten deep lobs, a level beaten. One card a point.
- Everything lives on this device. One link carries it to another.
Three habits that win here
- Stand still until the ball is yours; the game moves you to it, and a player who is not running hits cleaner.
- The bandeja before the smash, always, unless the lob is short and you are inside the box.
- When they drop you to the door, breathe: the band is wider than it looks.