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Your return lob is good and the server bandejas. Where are you?
Return lob, then advance to the service line and split as they hit the bandeja. The next step depends on the depth.
You return serve with a deep cross-court lob. The server retreats and plays a bandeja. Where should you and your partner be as it is struck?
Return lob, then advance to the service line and split as they hit the bandeja. The next step depends on the depth.
Why
A good return lob turns the point around: the server is retreating and playing an overhead from the back rather than a volley from the net. The receiving pair advances as the lob travels, arriving around the service line as the bandeja is struck, and split-steps there. If the bandeja is short, both continue forward and take the net; if it is deep, both drift back and defend, ready to lob again. Rushing all the way to the net before the bandeja is hit walks into a deep ball behind you; staying back wastes the return. The service line is the decision point.
What this means at your level
Beginner
After a good return lob, walk forward with your partner and stop at the service line as they hit. Then decide.
Intermediate
The split step at the service line is what makes this work. Land as their racket meets the ball.
Advanced
Read the bandeja from their body: a full turn and a high contact means deep, a rushed contact means short. Adjust your advance before it is hit.
Common questions
You return serve with a deep cross-court lob. The server retreats and plays a bandeja. Where should you and your partner be as it is struck?
Both at the service line, split-stepping as they hit. Return lob, then advance to the service line and split as they hit the bandeja. The next step depends on the depth. A good return lob turns the point around: the server is retreating and playing an overhead from the back rather than a volley from the net. The receiving pair advances as the lob travels, arriving around the service line as the bandeja is struck, and split-steps there. If the bandeja is short, both continue forward and take the net; if it is deep, both drift back and defend, ready to lob again. Rushing all the way to the net before the bandeja is hit walks into a deep ball behind you; staying back wastes the return. The service line is the decision point.
Why not both at the net already?
A bandeja from a good player lands deep. Arriving at the net too early means it lands behind you.
What should a beginner do here?
After a good return lob, walk forward with your partner and stop at the service line as they hit. Then decide.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Read the bandeja from their body: a full turn and a high contact means deep, a rushed contact means short. Adjust your advance before it is hit.
Puzzles like this one
Both of them are at the net. What is the highest-percentage ball?
Only the lob moves a net pair backwards. Everything else invites them forward.
intermediateYour 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.