The Bandeja Lab

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A 3 minute read, written in August 2026 and read over again on 10 October 2026

Padel for tennis players: what carries over and what you have to unlearn

Tennis players pick up padel faster than anyone and then get stuck at the same place, usually about six months in. The swing that got you here is the thing in the way.

What you already have

Hand-eye, footwork, a volley, a reading of the ball's flight and an understanding of scoring. You will beat beginners from your first session and you will feel like a natural. Enjoy that, because it is also the trap.

YouPartnerOpponentsBall
The flat drive comes back off the glass Your flat tennis drive does not end the point here. It hits the back glass and comes back to them at a comfortable height.

The swing

A tennis groundstroke is a long swing that generates pace. In padel the court is small, the ball is softer and the walls send pace back to you. A full swing from the back of the court hits the glass at head height and comes back over your head as a lob you did not mean to give. Shorten everything. The padel forehand is a compact stroke with the racket finishing in front of you, and the volley is a punch, not a swing. If it feels like you are not hitting the ball properly, you are probably doing it right.

YouPartnerOpponentsBall
The padel lob instead Put the racket under the ball. A high lob that lands near the back glass moves them off the net and gives you the court.

The baseline does not exist

You will want to stay back and rally. Padel is won at the net, and a pair that camps on the baseline loses to a pair that lobs and comes in. When you hit a lob, follow it. When you serve, go forward. When you are at the net, stay there unless a lob forces you back, and then get back as a pair. Your tennis instinct to hold the baseline and wait for a short ball is the single biggest thing between you and the next level.

YouPartnerOpponentsBall

Your call

You are two metres from the net and the ball arrives below net height, right at your shoelaces. What do you do?

A ball below the net cannot be attacked. Block it deep and wait for one above the tape.

The whole reasoning, at every level

The serve

Underarm, after the bounce, at or below the waist. There is no ace in padel. The serve exists to get you to the net, and a slow deep one that hits the side glass is far better than anything with pace. This is the easiest adjustment on the list and most tennis players still fight it for a month.

YouPartnerOpponentsBall
You have served. Where do you go? In padel you serve in order to get to the net. Serve, then go.

The glass

Here is where tennis instinct is not just unhelpful but wrong. Your reflex is to take the ball before it reaches the wall, because in tennis a ball behind you is gone. In padel the ball behind you is coming back. Let it go past, watch it hit the glass, and hit it as it comes out in front of you, usually with more time than you expected. Practise this alone with a bucket of balls before you try it in a match, because the first fifty attempts will be ugly.

YouPartnerOpponentsBall
The ball comes off your back glass sitting up. What is the shot? The bajada is the attacking shot from the back: a high glass rebound, taken early and driven down.

The overhead

You have a smash. Good. Put it away for a month and learn the bandeja, the sliced overhead that lands deep and lets you keep the net. Tennis players smash every lob, from everywhere, and lose the net every time the ball comes back off the glass. The smash returns once you can tell a lob you can finish from one you cannot, and the bandeja is how you learn the difference.

YouPartnerOpponentsBall
A lob is coming. Bandeja or smash: what decides it? In front of you and high: smash. Pushing you back: bandeja. Depth decides, every time.

Six months in

The plateau comes when your tennis has run out and your padel has not started. You are winning points on athleticism and losing them on decisions: too much pace, too much smash, too much baseline. Get lessons then, not at the start, because at the start you do not yet know what to ask. And play with padel players who are better than you rather than tennis friends who are also converting; you will pick up the patience from watching it beat you.

YouPartnerOpponentsBall
A very deep lob hits the back glass before the floor. Do you play it? Their lob into your back glass on the full is out. Leave it and take the point.
The Playbook, chapter 8: Positioning as a pairDecide left and right in advance: for two right-handers, the bigger forehand and smash usually plays the left.See the chapter

Try it on court: chains on this idea

The gap in the middle

Both of them have drifted to your left at the net.

The gap in the middle, from the right

Both of them have drifted to your right at the net.

Attack is right 5% of the time

Lab note: Every position in the Lab's bank has one right call and up to three wrong ones, each with a written reason.

What the pros and coaches say

Most of the top men came to padel from tennis as juniors, Paquito Navarro and Fernando Belasteguín among them, and they describe the same adjustment club converts face: the racket comes back shorter, the ball is allowed to pass, and the baseline stops being home. Coaches who work with converts say the smash is the easiest thing to keep and the hardest thing to control, so they take it away for a month and teach the bandeja first.

Drawn from interviews with Paquito Navarro and Fernando Belasteguín about their tennis years, and the conversion programmes run by club coaches for tennis players.

Questions people ask

Is padel easy for tennis players?

Easy to start, hard to get good at. The hand-eye and the volley carry over; the long swing, the baseline habit, the hard serve and the instinct to take the ball before the wall all have to be unlearned.

What is the biggest mistake tennis players make in padel?

Hitting too hard. Pace comes back off the glass. The second biggest is staying on the baseline when the point is won at the net.

How long does it take a tennis player to get good at padel?

Most reach club level in weeks and then stall around six months in, when the athletic advantage runs out. The players who get through the stall are the ones who learn the bandeja and the glass instead of leaning on the smash.