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The serve is wide into the glass. Before the wall or after?
Wide serve into the glass: let it rebound if it has pace; take it before the wall if it is dying. Read the pace early.
A well-sliced serve lands deep and wide and is heading into your side glass. Do you take it before or after the wall?
Wide serve into the glass: let it rebound if it has pace; take it before the wall if it is dying. Read the pace early.
Why
The wide sliced serve is designed to give the returner a bad choice. If the serve has pace, letting it hit the glass gives you a ball coming back out at a comfortable height, and the return lob from there is straightforward. If the serve is heavily sliced and slowing, it dies at the base of the glass and a returner who waits for the rebound is left with nothing: that one has to be taken before the wall, stretched, usually as a lob down the line. The decision is made from the pace and spin as the ball crosses the net, and good returners are already moving before it bounces.
What this means at your level
Beginner
If the serve is going to the wall with some speed, let it, and hit it as it comes back. If it is slow and dying, go and get it.
Intermediate
Start a step wider than usual against a server who slices wide, so the dying ball is a step away rather than a lunge.
Advanced
Against a heavy-slice server, the lob down the line over the server's partner is the return from the stretched position. It is shorter than cross-court and buys you the time you need.
Common questions
A well-sliced serve lands deep and wide and is heading into your side glass. Do you take it before or after the wall?
After the glass if it has pace; before it, if it is dying. Wide serve into the glass: let it rebound if it has pace; take it before the wall if it is dying. Read the pace early. The wide sliced serve is designed to give the returner a bad choice. If the serve has pace, letting it hit the glass gives you a ball coming back out at a comfortable height, and the return lob from there is straightforward. If the serve is heavily sliced and slowing, it dies at the base of the glass and a returner who waits for the rebound is left with nothing: that one has to be taken before the wall, stretched, usually as a lob down the line. The decision is made from the pace and spin as the ball crosses the net, and good returners are already moving before it bounces.
Why not always before, never let a serve reach the glass?
Taking every wide serve before the glass means stretching for a low ball from outside the court. The wall is your friend on the ones with pace.
What should a beginner do here?
If the serve is going to the wall with some speed, let it, and hit it as it comes back. If it is slow and dying, go and get it.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Against a heavy-slice server, the lob down the line over the server's partner is the return from the stretched position. It is shorter than cross-court and buys you the time you need.
Puzzles like this one
The ball is coming off the back glass. When do you hit it?
Move back with the ball, let it pass you, hit it in front of your body.
intermediateWhat do you do with the return of serve?
The return lob is how the receiving pair steals the net. Aim over the player who is still moving.
beginnerCan you volley the return of serve?
The return of serve must bounce. It is the one ball in padel you are not allowed to volley.