https://thebandejalab.com/ Padel, gamified: train the decisions that win points with one real position a day, a Mock Game that plays a whole point and a padel game that coaches every shot. Plus a level test, the rules settled in one line, a racket finder and a tournament maker. en https://thebandejalab.com/learn/padel-shoes-by-foot-type/ https://thebandejalab.com/learn/padel-shoes-by-foot-type/ Fri, 09 Oct 2026 06:00:00 GMT Padel shoes by foot type: what wide feet, narrow feet, flat feet, high arches, heavier players and old ankle injuries should look for, and the fits to avoid. https://thebandejalab.com/learn/the-chiquita-in-padel/ https://thebandejalab.com/learn/the-chiquita-in-padel/ Wed, 07 Oct 2026 06:00:00 GMT When to play the chiquita in padel, the slice that keeps it low, where it must land at a player's feet, and why the Lab's engine rates it above how it looks. https://thebandejalab.com/learn/can-the-ball-hit-the-fence-in-padel/ https://thebandejalab.com/learn/can-the-ball-hit-the-fence-in-padel/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 06:00:00 GMT Can the ball hit the fence in padel? Yes, after it bounces, never before. Three drawn cases show when glass and mesh keep a rally alive and when they end it. https://thebandejalab.com/learn/padel-glasses/ https://thebandejalab.com/learn/padel-glasses/ Fri, 02 Oct 2026 06:00:00 GMT Playing padel with glasses: prescription sports frames, contact lenses and protective eyewear compared, and why fogging is worse within 2 metres of the net. https://thebandejalab.com/learn/left-or-right-side-in-padel/ https://thebandejalab.com/learn/left-or-right-side-in-padel/ Wed, 30 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT How to choose left or right in padel: the Lab's bank has 239 positions set on the left side against 64 on the right, and who actually takes the middle ball. https://thebandejalab.com/learn/padel-scoring-explained/ https://thebandejalab.com/learn/padel-scoring-explained/ Mon, 28 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT Padel scoring explained with the maths behind it: how advantage, golden point and star point change who wins, how often games reach deuce, and the tie-break. https://thebandejalab.com/lab/padel-price-index-2026/ https://thebandejalab.com/lab/padel-price-index-2026/ Sat, 26 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT An hour of padel, one court, pay and play, in 13 cities: €15 in Madrid, about €24 in Barcelona and Lisbon, €70 in London, €119 in New York. https://thebandejalab.com/lab/attack-is-right-five-percent-of-the-time/ https://thebandejalab.com/lab/attack-is-right-five-percent-of-the-time/ Sun, 20 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT What 303 hand-written padel positions say about the game: the right answer is a position or a patient ball nine times in ten, an attacking shot one time in twenty, and the tempting smash is a trap in 85 of them. https://thebandejalab.com/lab/the-lob-is-the-best-shot-and-the-most-overused/ https://thebandejalab.com/lab/the-lob-is-the-best-shot-and-the-most-overused/ Sun, 20 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT When to lob in padel and when the lob is a gift: what 303 scored positions say, the four situations where the lob wins, the three where it hands the net away, and how the game engine settles the argument. https://thebandejalab.com/lab/we-built-a-padel-engine-what-it-taught-us/ https://thebandejalab.com/lab/we-built-a-padel-engine-what-it-taught-us/ Sun, 20 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT Lessons from a padel game engine: why a smash from behind the service line loses, why the wall smash needs a number not a feeling, what the four-metre fence changes, and how a door drop becomes a duel. https://thebandejalab.com/notebook/ notebook-2026-09-20-an-account-if-you-want-one Sun, 20 Sep 2026 09:00:00 GMT You can sign in with Google now. Nothing changes for anyone who does not: the puzzle, the chains and the game work the same, and the browser keeps your streak as before. If you do, your ratings, your levels and badges, and your locker (your shirt, your hair, your racket) follow you to every device, and the puzzles you have met, right or missed, are yours to replay from your account page. We hold your name, picture and email from Google and the same saved state your browser has, nothing else, and one press deletes it all. The puzzle bank itself has come off the menus: the daily position is for everyone, the archive is for the people who played it. https://thebandejalab.com/notebook/ notebook-2026-09-20-we-were-wrong-about-the-serve-and-six-other-things Sun, 20 Sep 2026 09:00:00 GMT We checked every rules puzzle against the FIP rules that came into force on 1 January 2026, and the check found seven of ours stated something the rules do not. The biggest: the serve needs one foot behind the line now, not two, though neither may touch it; deuce has three systems in the rules (advantage, the new star point, golden point) and no default; a ball that hits a spare racket lying on the floor is live, not a let; a dropped racket loses the point at once. All seven are corrected, the glossary with them, and the corrected puzzles say so in their reasoning. If you answered one of them before today and were marked wrong, you may have been right. https://thebandejalab.com/notebook/ notebook-2026-09-20-harder-at-the-top-and-a-match-to-watch-while-you-choose Sun, 20 Sep 2026 09:00:00 GMT From level four the other pair is quicker, sharper and slower to tire; at seven they get to everything and only miss what you make them miss. It is still winnable, following the coach we went point for point with them, but it takes the door drop and the lob they did not expect. Behind the menu two pairs now play a demo while you pick; nothing from it is recorded. And the stand has sides: your supporters in blue and yellow on the left, theirs in red on the right, and everyone leans in and goes quiet when a rally passes ten shots. https://thebandejalab.com/notebook/ notebook-2026-09-20-the-block-that-was-not-there Sun, 20 Sep 2026 09:00:00 GMT For about a day, the defenders in Padel: The Game never blocked a door drop. We had moved a brace while adding the Finish event and the whole branch was sitting after a return, unreachable, and we did not notice because the drops still looked right. A code review caught it. It is back: a defender standing by the post blocks two in three, one caught across the court barely ever, and you can see the lunge and the "too late". If you played on Saturday and every door drop was a winner, that was why. https://thebandejalab.com/notebook/ notebook-2026-09-20-lab-notes Sun, 20 Sep 2026 09:00:00 GMT We started writing articles from our own numbers rather than from other people's articles. The first one counts the 303 positions in the bank and finds that attacking is the right answer sixteen times. We knew the game was patient. We did not know it was that patient. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/deep-lob-over-your-head/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/deep-lob-over-your-head/ A deep lob has pushed you back from the net. Smash, bandeja or let it bounce? The answer, and why the bandeja keeps you in the point. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/low-ball-at-your-feet/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/low-ball-at-your-feet/ A low ball at your feet at the net has no attacking answer. Here is the block volley that keeps you at the net and keeps the point alive. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/both-opponents-at-the-net/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/both-opponents-at-the-net/ Both opponents are at the net and you are pinned at the back. Why the deep cross lob is the only shot that changes the situation. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/ball-off-the-back-glass/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/ball-off-the-back-glass/ Wall play is the skill that separates padel from tennis. Learn the timing of the back glass rebound: move back, let it pass, hit in front. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/partner-pulled-wide/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/partner-pulled-wide/ Your partner is stretched to the side wall. Should you hold your half or cover the middle? The rule that keeps a pair connected. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/after-you-serve/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/after-you-serve/ The padel serve is not a weapon, it is a ticket to the net. What to do in the second after you hit it. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/return-of-serve-choice/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/return-of-serve-choice/ The single highest-percentage return of serve in padel is not a winner. It is a deep cross lob over the incoming server. Here is why it works. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/short-high-ball-smash/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/short-high-ball-smash/ When to bandeja and when to smash. The rule is not about how high the ball is. It is about how deep it lands and where your weight is going. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/the-chiquita/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/the-chiquita/ The chiquita: a slow low ball at the feet of a net player. What it is, when to choose it over a lob, and how to move in behind it. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/ball-down-the-middle/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/ball-down-the-middle/ The middle ball is the most commonly lost ball in club padel. The simple rule that stops two players watching it land between them. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/stuck-on-the-service-line/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/stuck-on-the-service-line/ No man’s land in padel: why the service line is the worst place to stand, and the habit that gets you out of it. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/after-a-good-lob/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/after-a-good-lob/ The lob buys you the net, but only if you go and get it. Why both players must move in together, and when to stop. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/which-way-to-lob/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/which-way-to-lob/ Cross-court or down the line? Why the cross lob is the default in padel, and the two situations where you go straight instead. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/serve-against-a-weak-wall-player/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/serve-against-a-weak-wall-player/ Serving strategy in padel: how the wide serve into the side glass exposes a returner who is uncomfortable with wall play. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/can-you-volley-the-serve/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/can-you-volley-the-serve/ Padel rules: can you volley the serve? No, and it is the only ball in the game with that restriction. What that means for your returns. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/ball-off-your-own-wall/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/ball-off-your-own-wall/ Padel wall rules explained: the ball can bounce once and then hit your own back and side glass. What is legal and what is not. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/chasing-the-ball-out-of-the-court/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/chasing-the-ball-out-of-the-court/ Yes, you can run out of a padel court to chase a smashed ball, if there is an opening. The rule, and what it means for your smash targets. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/when-to-move-in-from-the-back/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/when-to-move-in-from-the-back/ Attacking from the back in padel: the exact cue that tells you it is safe to move forward to the net, and when to stay put. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/defending-the-smash/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/defending-the-smash/ How to defend a smash in padel: back up, let the glass do the work, and reset with a high deep ball rather than counter-attacking. https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/four-nil-down/ https://thebandejalab.com/puzzle/four-nil-down/ Losing 0-4 in padel? The one-variable rule: change one thing, give it two games, and stop panicking your way through the set.