Padel tactics: how to read opponents and plan the rematch
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After a padel match, write down one rally that you and your partner want to understand. Record the shot, the reply and where each of you moved. Was your lob short, did an opponent attack a deeper ball, or did you leave a gap by moving forward too early?
Keep those observations in an opponent journal so you can check them against later matches. Include what each opponent did as well as your own shots and movement. Before you face the same pair again, go through the notes with your partner and choose one or two changes to try together.
What is worth watching before you pick a tactic?
Start with the pair, then distinguish the two players. Note their names, usual sides and handedness if you know it. Define left and right from their viewpoint, facing the net. A right-side player may cover different space with a new partner or after changing sides; a note about one partnership is not a permanent verdict on either person.
Watch the serve, return and next reply:
- How quickly does the server move forward, and where is their partner?
- Does your return give them a comfortable first volley, or force them to dig out a low one?
- When you serve, which return gives you or your partner trouble?
Keep the opening exchange separate from what happened several shots later.
Next, watch what happens after a lob. A deep lob may push both opponents back, while a short one may give them an easy attacking shot. If their reply lets you, move forward together, and stay ready to defend a strong overhead either way.
Record three things:
- the lob’s direction and depth
- how the opponent replied
- where both pairs ended up
“We lobbed and lost” misses the sequence that might explain the point.
The Lawn Tennis Association’s padel coaching guidance discusses net control, lobs, playing through the middle, using the glass and communication. Those are useful things to watch, but the guidance is coaching advice, not an experiment. A controlled ball through the middle is something to test when the opponents are spread wide, rather than a rule to aim there whatever their position. Agree who covers the likely reply, and who takes a ball between you.
What does the research tell us about the net and the lob?
In Perceptual and Motor Skills (2023), Adrián Escudero-Tena of the University of Extremadura and colleagues at Extremadura, the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the University of Murcia analysed 2,756 rallies from men’s and women’s matches on the 2021 World Padel Tour. Finishing the rally in the net zone was associated with winning it.
This was observational research in professional padel, not a test of what happens when club players are told to rush forward. For your notes, the useful question is how a pair gained or lost the net and what followed.
An earlier study by Escudero-Tena and colleagues in the University of Extremadura’s GOERD group, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2020), examined selected defensive actions across 14 women’s WPT tournament finals in the 2018 season. It studied actions that sent the ball past the attacking pair’s position. Lobs were associated with gaining the attacking position, but the rally often carried on after that. Gaining the net and winning the point are different outcomes.
The selected actions do not represent every attempted lob, and these elite women’s matches cannot establish a universal tactic for club players. In your own notes, the same three things matter:
- the shot
- which pair moved up or back
- how the rally ended
Which notes will be useful at the next meeting?
Our recommendation is to build every note around three questions: what worked for you as a pair, what didn’t work and what the two of you will do next time. We see them as the three things most worth noting in any racket or combat sport, padel included. Two background prompts, on the context and on the opponents, come before them. Neither of those studies looked at what note-keeping does for a padel pair’s results.
- Context and pair. Date, partner, opponents, their usual sides and any relevant conditions.
- The opponents. Serve, return, next reply and which pair first took the net. When a shot moved a pair up or back: its direction and depth, the opponent’s reply, how both pairs moved and how the rally ended. Mark where the ball landed only if it bounced. If it rebounded off the glass, describe what happened next. Add an example that contradicts your first impression of them.
- What worked for us. Shots and movement that got you and your partner to the net or forced a weak reply.
- What didn’t work for us. Short balls, rushed decisions, gaps between partners or unclear calls.
- What to do next time. One or two adjustments to discuss with your partner, with a reason to revise or abandon each one.
You can agree on more, but one or two changes are usually enough for a pair to try in one match. Beyond that, the plan becomes too complex before the first serve. Blank fields are fine when you do not remember. A court sketch can help locate an exchange, provided you label the shot and context and keep one viewpoint throughout.
What could one match entry change in your plan?
The entry below is invented to show the method, so it is neither a real player’s record nor research data.
Context and pair: Friendly club doubles with Dan, my usual partner, against Owen and Matt. Owen on his usual right side (their right, facing the net). Didn’t note whether they were right- or left-handed. I didn’t count how often each situation happened.
The opponents: When Owen served, Matt was already near the net. Don’t remember all the serve directions. Owen hit a good overhead off a deeper lob, so I can’t assume a deep lob will always push him back.
What worked for us: Some of our low returns left Owen hitting his first volley upwards as he came forward. Some deeper lobs towards Owen made both opponents retreat, and Dan and I could move up.
What didn’t work for us: When I left the return high, Owen had an easier volley. They attacked the short lobs and kept us defending. I sometimes moved forward before judging how deep my lob would go. Dan stayed back and a gap opened between us. We also left a ball between us because neither of us called it.
Next time: From a neutral rally, lob deep and come forward together only if their reply lets us. If the lob is short or the overhead is still dangerous, stay back and reset. When they are spread wide, try a controlled ball through the middle and agree who covers the reply; drop it if one of them covers the centre well or our ball gives them an easy attack.
The useful detail is the contrast between deep and short lobs, together with your own movement. One match’s worth of remembered rallies cannot tell you how often a tactic will work. Leave the counterexample on the page, even if it spoils a neat explanation.
How do you and your partner put the notes to use?
Before the rematch, go through the changes you agreed on and turn each into a short cue you both understand. In the early games, look for signs that the old pattern still holds. The opponents may have changed partners or sides; the conditions, their replies and your own execution may differ too.
After the match, write down together what worked, what failed and what remains uncertain. Try to do it while the rallies are still clear, and do not give a precise count unless you kept one. The article on match memory covers how reliable recall is, and it sets no fixed deadline for remembering a padel rally.
Compare your notes from matches against different opponents. If the same gap keeps opening after your lob, ask your coach to watch how you and your partner move towards the net. If you want the evidence behind reviewing matches, the research on reflection and sporting performance sets it out, including the limit: it does not show that the writing itself makes you better.
In OpponentBook’s free journal, you can place pins on a padel court diagram and add notes about the play at each location. Synced records are saved in the storage you connect; OpponentBook’s account database does not hold a copy of your journal. When you request AI processing, the necessary content passes through an OpponentBook server to the AI provider. Optional end-to-end encryption protects encrypted records from the storage provider, while photos, videos and provider-visible file metadata remain outside that protection. The privacy guide explains these distinctions.
Think back to your last doubles match. Write down a rally in which one pair moved back and the other moved towards the net. Then, with your partner, answer the three questions — what worked, what didn’t and which one or two things you will discuss before you meet those opponents again.
