Published : 2017-09-21

Padel Rules: Quick overview of official padel regulations

WELCOME TO PADEL

Whether you have heard of this sport or not. It does not really matter. With this post we will introduce you the padel rules in an accessible way, making sure you understand the game fast and easy. We profoundly believe padel has the potential to become your favorite new sport. Are you ready? Let´s start the game.

WHAT PADEL RULES SHOULD I KNOW IN MY FIRST APPROACH TO IT?

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:

Padel is a team sport in which we play with a partner to face another couple. That means we need 4 athletes to play it.

DYNAMICS OF THE GAME:

1.Padel imports the scoring system of tennis. Matches are played to the best of 3 sets. The games follow the score of 15, 30, 40, Advantages and / or Equals. Since 2020, the use of golden point at 40-40 has been implemented in the professional circuit. 2. As in tennis, we change side courts in the odd games. Thus, we will change sides with 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 4-3, 5-4... 3. The ball can be hit indistinctly by any player in any zone of the court. 4. In padel, for the ball to be considered good it must touch the ground before hitting the walls or fences. The only exception is with the serve, when we serve, the ball can only hit the wall after the bounce, never the fence. During the course of a point the ball may hit the walls and fences. The player may hit the ball with or without a bounce depending on the situation of the point.

SERVE´S RULES

5. How to perform a correct padel serve? This is one of the most important rules of padel. The serve is considered good if the ball bounces inside the corresponding cross-quadrant . As in tennis, the serve must be crossed, that is to say, the player serving from the right half of his court must direct the serve towards the square to his left in the opponent's court. Unlike tennis, the ball is not thrown over the head to serve. In padel, the player must bounce the ball and can't hit it above the waist. The serve can go to any area of the opponent's square but can never hit the side fence after the bounce. On each service we have two opportunities to put the ball in play, that means if we missed our first service on the net or the ball bounces out, we still have another chance. 6. And when I serve, the ball touches the net and goes to the other side of the court? When the ball touches the net after the serve and goes to the other side of the court, there are several situations:

If after touching the net, the ball does not bounce in the corresponding square it will always be bad.
If after touching the net, the ball bounces in the corresponding square these situations can happen:

The ball bounces once and does not touch the side fence> It is considered null and the player has the right to repeat that service.
The ball bounces twice and touches the side fence> It is considered null and the player has the right to repeat that service.
The ball bounces once and touches the side fence> It is considered bad and the player is not entitled to repeat that service

MORE RULES

7. Hitting the ball twice in the same shot is not allowed. 8. You are not allowed to play without adjusting the safety rope of the racket. Get used to it as your partner safety is very important. 9. If the opponent hits the ball hard, the ball bounces and goes out of the court, the point is considered won by the player who hit it. However, we always have the chance hit it from outside to the opponents side before the second bounce. 10. When the ball bounces, touches the wall or fence and returns to the opponent's court, the point is considered won by the player who hit it although we have the option to "safe" the point and hit the ball again even when it has crossed the net line into the opponent size of the court. This is a really flashy thing to do but is not easy, be careful, especially for begginers. 11. If we touch the net with the racket, clothes or any part of my body while playing any point, the point is won by my opponent. Now you know all you need to start enjoy this wonderful sport. But do you know the best way to learn anything? Trying it by yourself!. IT´S TIME TO PLAY PADEL.