Home › Puzzle › Your partner takes every ball, including yours. What do you say?
Your partner takes every ball, including yours. What do you say?
A poaching partner needs a rule, not a fight. Middle balls are called; side balls belong to the side. Call yours early.
Your partner crosses to hit balls that were clearly on your side, and the space they leave keeps getting punished. How do you handle it?
A poaching partner needs a rule, not a fight. Middle balls are called; side balls belong to the side. Call yours early.
Why
A partner who crosses for every ball usually means well, they are trying to win the point, and the fix is structural rather than personal. Between games, agree the rule: balls down the middle are called, and whoever calls first takes it; balls clearly on a side belong to the player on that side. Then call your own balls early and loudly, so the poach never starts. The space a poacher leaves is exactly where good opponents hit, and pointing that out once, calmly, with a specific example, does more than frustration ever will.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Say "mine" as soon as you see a ball coming to your side. A partner who hears the call will usually stop.
Intermediate
Frame it as geometry, not blame: "when you cross, they hit the space behind you: let me take my side."
Advanced
Some poaching is right: a forehand volley on a middle ball, a lob you cannot reach. Agree which crosses are wanted so the rule is not "never".
Common questions
Your partner crosses to hit balls that were clearly on your side, and the space they leave keeps getting punished. How do you handle it?
Agree a rule between games, then call your balls early. A poaching partner needs a rule, not a fight. Middle balls are called; side balls belong to the side. Call yours early. A partner who crosses for every ball usually means well, they are trying to win the point, and the fix is structural rather than personal. Between games, agree the rule: balls down the middle are called, and whoever calls first takes it; balls clearly on a side belong to the player on that side. Then call your own balls early and loudly, so the poach never starts. The space a poacher leaves is exactly where good opponents hit, and pointing that out once, calmly, with a specific example, does more than frustration ever will.
Why not start poaching their balls in return?
Two poachers on one court is a collision waiting to happen, and it teaches your partner nothing. Fix the rule between games instead of matching the habit.
What should a beginner do here?
Say "mine" as soon as you see a ball coming to your side. A partner who hears the call will usually stop.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Some poaching is right: a forehand volley on a middle ball, a lob you cannot reach. Agree which crosses are wanted so the rule is not "never".
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.
beginnerA ball comes down the middle. Who takes it?
The middle ball belongs to the forehand: decided before the match, not during the point.