Padel, gamified
Train the decisions that win padel points.
Every point is a string of choices: lob or drive, bandeja or smash, the line or the middle. Make today's in a minute, get a rating for how you decide, then play the game that coaches every shot.
The server hits and stays on the baseline instead of coming in. Their partner is at the net. What is the best return?
New to the words? The glossary explains every one
Server stays back? Return deep and firm, then take the net. A split pair is a gift.
Why
When the server does not follow the serve in, the serving pair is split, one at the net, one at the back, and the returning pair should take the net immediately. The return is a firm, deep ball, usually through the middle or toward the server's side, hit with enough control that both returners can advance behind it.
The rest of the reasoning
The lob is wrong here, because the server is already deep and plays lobs comfortably off the glass; the drive at the net player is wrong because they are the one in position. The split shape is the weakness, and taking the net attacks it.
What this means at your level
Beginner
If the server does not come forward after serving, hit the return deep and walk to the net with your partner.
Intermediate
Aim the return through the middle. It splits the two of them and neither is sure whose ball it is.
Advanced
Once you have the net against a split pair, the ball at the feet of the back player through the diagonal gap ends most points. Do not rush it; the shape is broken and it stays broken.
Today's Mock Game: one point, shot by shot
Your wins
Your misses
Still there to read.
Your wins and your misses
The positions you have met, the ones you got and the ones you did not, kept for you and open to replay. Sign in and they follow you to every device, with your PELO and the pairs you have beaten in the game.
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More ways in
Settle it
Every rules argument at the club, answered in one line. Show them the screen.
a gamePadel: The Game
Play a padel point. Pick the shot as the ball comes; the coach tells you what decided it.
the wordsGlossary
Bandeja, víbora, chiquita, por tres: with the Spanish and a puzzle for each.
One padel position a day
Every morning there is a new position on this page: four players, a ball, and one decision to make. Pick an answer and you get the reasoning: which option was right, why the other ones lose the point, and what the same situation asks of you as a beginner, as a club player and as somebody who has been playing for years.
It takes about ninety seconds. Do it before your next match and you will start seeing these positions on court instead of finding out about them afterwards.
How the levels work
- Beginner: positions about where to stand, when to lift, and what the walls actually do. If you have played fewer than fifty matches, start here.
- Intermediate: shot selection under pressure: bandeja against smash, when to move in, where the lob goes.
- Advanced: patterns, the chiquita, reading contact points, and the exceptions to every rule above.
Every puzzle answers all three, whatever level it is filed under. One a day, and your last seven stay on this device. For the rest, read the guides.