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How deep do you stand to receive serve?
Receive from behind the service line, a metre or so inside the glass, and step in to the ball.
You are about to receive. Where is the right place to wait?
Receive from behind the service line, a metre or so inside the glass, and step in to the ball.
Why
The serve must bounce before you play it, so you want to be behind where it lands: about a metre and a half behind the service line, toward the side of your box, with weight forward. From there a deep serve bounces in front of you and you step in; a wide serve into the glass comes back off the wall to a position you are already in. Standing on the line means the ball is at your feet, and standing on the glass means you cannot attack a short one. Adjust half a metre either way depending on the server.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Stand where the serve will bounce a metre in front of you. If you are half-volleying serves, you are too close.
Intermediate
Move your starting spot with the server: deeper against a sliced serve into the glass, closer against a soft one you can attack.
Advanced
Your return position tells the server what you are planning. Start deep and move in as they bounce the ball, so they cannot serve to your position.
Common questions
You are about to receive. Where is the right place to wait?
Behind the service line, toward the side. Receive from behind the service line, a metre or so inside the glass, and step in to the ball. The serve must bounce before you play it, so you want to be behind where it lands: about a metre and a half behind the service line, toward the side of your box, with weight forward. From there a deep serve bounces in front of you and you step in; a wide serve into the glass comes back off the wall to a position you are already in. Standing on the line means the ball is at your feet, and standing on the glass means you cannot attack a short one. Adjust half a metre either way depending on the server.
Why not against the back glass?
From there every serve needs the wall, and you have no way to attack a short one. Be a couple of metres inside the glass.
What should a beginner do here?
Stand where the serve will bounce a metre in front of you. If you are half-volleying serves, you are too close.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Your return position tells the server what you are planning. Start deep and move in as they bounce the ball, so they cannot serve to your position.
Puzzles like this one
Your partner got pulled wide. Where do you stand?
The pair moves like one body. When your partner is pulled wide, you take the middle.
beginnerYou have served. Where do you go?
In padel you serve in order to get to the net. Serve, then go.
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.