Padel Tennis Blog
Our blog about all things Padel Tennis! The most exciting, dynamic game that will captivate you from the first ball you hit.
Padel Tennis Courts
The foundation on a Padel Tennis Court is made from concrete and finished with astro / synthetic turf field as the surface and the walls are made from glass and a mixture of weld mesh supported by steel posts. A Padel Tennis court looks just like a mini-tennis court but with 4 walls around the sides which players use during the game. Some would describe it as a mixture of tennis and squash / racquet ball mixed together to create a new and highly popular sport which we highly encourage you to try. A Padel Tennis court is roughly a third of the size of a tennis court – roughly 20 meters long by 10 meters wide.
Padel Tennis Rules
The rules of Padel are similar to tennis however, there is no singles for Padel, only doubles, which some people prefer as there is more of a social side to playing the game. To play Padel Tennis, you will need a partner, two opponents and a Padel / Tennis ball. Here are some of the basic Padel rules for you to have a better understanding of the game and how it differs to tennis.
- Much like tennis, you start the point with a serve or return and the scoring format is the same. The difference in the serve is that in Padel Tennis, you have to bounce the ball on the ground and ensure it bounces below hip height before serving it cross court into your opponent’s service box like tennis.
- You also score points similarly to tennis through a double bounce, hitting the ball into the net or directly against the walls (we will get to the walls soon), hitting outside the playing area or your own side and if you hit your partner or get hit then you automatically lose the point.
- In Padel, the walls are used frequently for attacking and defensive plays and you need to have good vision to detect where you think the ball will be directed after coming off a wall.
- Like squash or racquetball, you can use the walls to your advantage by trying to make the ball bounce and then go into the wall to confuse your opponents and make their next shot much more difficult. However, the ball you hit must bounce before hitting a wall on your opponent’s side. When it comes to the walls on your side of the net, you are able to hit a ball off any of the walls on your side so long as it crosses the net and lands onto your opponent’s side.
- Lastly, the coolest rule in Padel, you can run out of the court and hit the ball through the entrance onto your opponent’s side. This is a crazy rule which mostly occurs in professional or high skilled amateur matches where the ball is hit and bounces over the walls.
Padel Tennis UK
Padel courts are being unveiled all across the UK at the moment and many people are wondering what they are and what this new sport is. It is becoming one of the fastest growing sports in the UK and the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) are getting behind this new racket sport development to help you find out how and where to play. You can use this link on the LTA website to Find a Padel Court near you and find out more about how the LTA are creating more opportunities in the fast-growing sport.
Our team of tennis coaches had the chance to all get on a Padel Tennis court last year whilst in Portugal and had an amazing time learning and playing the new craze of racket sports. In the coming years, we can expect to see Padel being incorporated as a British sport that many tennis players will also enjoy due to the similarities between the two sports. It is exciting to see how rapidly the sport has grown across other parts of the world and whether it will do the same in the UK. With British Tennis Stars like Andy Murray showing their love for this new sport as well as Laura Robson (former WTA number 27) starting to compete in professional Padel tournaments, we hope the growth continues to rise consistently in the UK to get more and more people playing sports.