How to play padel: rules, scoring and your first game
Updated
In short
Padel is a doubles racket sport played on a 20m by 10m enclosed court with glass walls you can play the ball off. You serve underarm below waist height after bouncing the ball, the scoring is identical to tennis, and once the ball has bounced on your floor it may come off your own walls and stay in play.
- Always doubles — four players, on a court about a third the size of a tennis court.
- The serve must bounce first and be struck at or below waist height; overhead serving is a fault.
- Floor first, then wall. A ball that hits your wall before bouncing is your opponents' point.
- Scoring is tennis scoring: 15, 30, 40, game, six games a set, tiebreak at 6–6.
- The team that takes the net wins most points — padel is won on positioning, not power.
Padel is the easiest racket sport to start and one of the hardest to master, which is exactly why it spreads the way it does. Most people can hold a rally in their first half hour — something that takes months in tennis — because the walls keep the ball in play and the court is small enough that you barely have to move.
Here is everything you need to walk onto a court and play a real game, in the order it will come up.
The court and the kit
A padel court is 20 metres by 10, enclosed by glass and mesh walls, and split by a net at roughly tennis height. It is about a third the size of a tennis court, and it is always played in doubles — two against two. Singles padel courts exist but you will almost certainly never see one.
The racket is solid, stringless and perforated, roughly the size of a large table-tennis bat, with a wrist strap you are required to wear. Balls look like tennis balls but are slightly less pressurised, so they sit up rather than skidding. Wear court shoes with a decent tread — the sand-dressed turf is slippery in trainers with worn soles. Most venues in Pakistan rent rackets and sell balls at the desk, so your first session needs nothing but shoes.
The serve
The serve is the rule people get wrong, and it is the one thing worth learning before you arrive. You must bounce the ball on the ground behind the service line first, then strike it at or below waist height — underarm, never overhead. Serve diagonally, into the opposite service box, as in tennis.
The serve must bounce in the correct box. If it then hits the side or back glass, it is still good and play continues. If it hits the metal mesh fencing after bouncing, it is a fault. You get two serves, and a serve that clips the net and lands in is a let, replayed.
Playing the walls
This is what makes padel padel. After the ball bounces once on your side of the floor, it may come off any of your own walls and you can still play it — in fact letting the ball come off the back glass and hitting it on the way out is the single most valuable shot to learn, because it turns defence into a neutral rally.
The order matters: floor first, then wall. A ball that hits your wall before it bounces on your floor is your point — you don't touch it. And you may never play the ball off your opponents' walls directly; your shot must cross the net and bounce on their floor first.
- Ball bounces on your floor, then hits your wall: play it.
- Ball hits your wall before your floor: it's your point, leave it.
- You may hit the ball into your own wall to get it over the net — legal, and occasionally the only option.
- You may volley — take the ball before it bounces — anywhere except on the return of serve, where the ball must bounce first.
Scoring
Scoring is identical to tennis: 15, 30, 40, game. Deuce at 40–40, then advantage, then game. Six games win a set, with a tiebreak at 6–6, and matches are usually best of three sets. Most casual bookings in Pakistan are an hour, which is roughly one set plus change, so many groups simply play as many games as the clock allows.
The one thing that differs in spirit rather than rule: because the walls extend rallies, points last far longer than in tennis. An hour of padel is a genuine workout even at a gentle level.
Where to stand — the part nobody tells beginners
Padel is not won by hitting harder, it is won by taking the net. The pair standing a metre or so behind the net controls the point: they can volley downwards, they force errors, and they have nowhere to retreat to because they do not need to. The pair at the back is defending and waiting for one thing — a chance to come forward.
That is why the most valuable shot in the game is the lob, not the smash. A good lob over the net pair's heads forces them back to the glass and lets you take their place. Whole matches turn on this exchange, repeatedly, and a beginner who learns to lob well will beat a beginner who hits hard.
Move as a pair, in a diagonal. If your partner goes forward you go forward; if they are pulled wide you shift across to cover the middle. Two players standing on different lines is the single most common way club-level points are lost.
The shots that have names
Padel borrowed its vocabulary from Spanish, and four shots come up constantly enough that knowing the words makes lessons and videos far easier to follow.
- Bandeja — a controlled overhead played with slice, more like a serve than a smash. Its job is not to win the point but to keep you at the net while the ball stays low and awkward.
- Víbora ("viper") — a sharper, more aggressive cousin of the bandeja, hit with sidespin so the ball skids away after the bounce.
- Chiquita — a soft, low ball played to the feet of the net pair. Deeply unglamorous and one of the best shots in the game: it forces them to hit upwards, which gives you the net.
- Globo — the lob. The shot that swaps who is attacking and who is defending.
Where the sport came from
Padel was invented in 1969 by Enrique Corcuera at his home in Acapulco, Mexico. He wanted a tennis court, did not have the room, and built a 20 × 10 metre enclosure instead — then decided the walls should be part of the game rather than the edge of it. His wife Viviana wrote the first rules and gave them to him as a birthday present.
Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe played on that court, built two more at his hotel in Marbella in the early 1970s, and Spain took the sport as its own. An Argentine member of the same club carried it to Buenos Aires. Spain and Argentina remain the two strongest padel nations, and their dominance is why every shot you will be taught has a Spanish name.
Your first session, practically
- Book a court for an hour with three other people; two people can rally but it is not the game.
- Wear court shoes with intact tread. The sand-dressed turf is unforgiving of worn soles, and lateral slips are how ankles go.
- Rent a racket for the first few sessions rather than buying. Padel rackets vary a lot in shape and weight, and you cannot tell what suits you until you have played.
- Wear the wrist strap. It is not optional, and a released racket in an enclosed court is dangerous.
- Expect to rally within the first ten minutes and to have no idea where to stand for the first hour. That is the normal experience, and it is why people come back.
Five things that catch beginners out
- Serving overhead. It is the most common fault and an automatic loss of serve.
- Backing away from the glass. Give the ball room to come off the wall and hit it on its way out, don't crowd it.
- Standing at the back. Padel is won at the net; the team that gets there first usually wins the point.
- Smashing everything. A hard smash comes back off the glass; a controlled one that bounces high and out of the court wins the point outright.
- Splitting the pair. Move as a unit — if your partner goes forward, you go forward.
Common questions
Is padel easy to learn?
Yes — it is the easiest racket sport to start. The court is small, the racket is short and solid, and the walls keep the ball in play, so most people can hold a rally within their first session. Depth comes later.
Can you play padel with two people?
Padel is designed for doubles and essentially every court in Pakistan is a doubles court. Two people can rally and practise perfectly well, but a real game needs four.
Do I need my own racket to play padel?
No. Most venues rent rackets and sell balls at the desk, so you can turn up with court shoes and play. Buy your own once you know you'll keep playing.
How is padel scored?
Exactly like tennis — 15, 30, 40, game, with deuce and advantage at 40–40. Six games take a set, with a tiebreak at 6–6, and matches are typically best of three.
Can the ball hit the wall in padel?
Yes, and that is the point of the sport. Once the ball has bounced on your side of the floor it can come off any of your walls and remain in play. A ball that hits your wall before bouncing on the floor is the other team's point.
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