Padel Serve Technique

The padel serve isn't aggressive the way the tennis serve is. It's underhand, aces are rare, and most of the time the receiver returns it cleanly. That's why beginners treat it as a formality — 'just get it in.' That's the mistake. The serve is the shot that starts the point, and in padel, the shot that starts the point decides who gets the net.

A good serve gets you to the net before your opponents and forces a defensive return. A bad serve does the opposite — it gives the receiver a clean read on the ball and lets them attack with a deep return or a lob before you've even cleared the service line. At the pro level, hold rates are very high. At the amateur level, players regularly drop serve, and the cause is almost never lack of power. It's lack of placement, rhythm, and reading the receiver's weak side.

The basic rules of the padel serve are clear: stand behind the baseline with both feet on the ground. Drop the ball, let it bounce once, and strike it below waist height. The ball must land in the diagonal service box — from the right side of the court into the receiver's left box, from the left into the right. Out, into the wrong box, or short of the service line is a fault.

If the ball clips the net and lands in the correct service box without hitting the side glass before the bounce, it's a let and the serve is replayed. If it clips the net and lands wrong, doesn't make it over, or hits the side wall before bouncing, it's a fault. After the bounce in the receiver's box, if the ball strikes the side glass directly during a serve, that's also a fault — in regular play that bounce is legal, but not on the serve.

Two consecutive faults lose the point. You get a first and second serve like in tennis, but the goal of the second serve isn't to 'save' the point — it's to keep the point alive. We'll come back to that.

The standard padel serve grip is the continental grip. Hold the racket as if you were shaking a hammer, with the V between your thumb and index finger sitting on the top edge. If you've played any racket sport, you already know this grip — in padel, you use it for almost every shot: volleys, smashes, slices, and the serve. Being able to play through the whole point with one grip is exactly what the composite frame is built for.

Eastern and western grips don't really work for the padel serve. With an eastern grip, you hit too flat and lose the slice that keeps the ball low after the bounce. With a western grip, designed for high-contact topspin shots, you'd have to twist your wrist into an awkward position to angle the racket head down — power drops, and so does your wrist. Continental in, continental out.

Set up behind the baseline, sideways to the net, with your feet about shoulder-width apart. If you're right-handed, your left foot points roughly toward the receiver's box, with your right foot back. Start with your weight on the back foot and shift forward through the strike. That weight transfer doesn't give you power — it gives you rhythm, and rhythm is what makes the serve repeatable.

Keep your hips slightly turned toward the net, but don't fully close off — you need to be able to track the receiver with your eyes. Your feet stay on the ground throughout the serve; padel doesn't allow you to jump into it the way tennis does. If you plan to follow your serve to the net, prepare your first step on the back foot. A clean serve gets you two steps inside the service line before the return arrives.

In padel you don't toss the ball — you drop it. There's no vertical toss like in tennis. You release the ball toward the ground, let it bounce, and strike it after the bounce. The ideal bounce height is right around your waist; any higher and you risk contacting above waist level (a fault), any lower and you have to bend awkwardly to get under it.

Drop the ball in the same spot every time. For most players that's about half a meter in front of the lead foot, slightly inside the court. Same drop spot every serve locks in body rhythm and makes the routine repeatable. If you're hitting the ball as it descends from the top of its bounce, contact should happen just past the peak — the ball is falling into your strike, not rising into it.

The rule is firm: contact must be below waist height. The reference is roughly your belt line, not your navel. After the bounce, don't strike at the apex — wait for the ball to drop back below your waist. Bending your knees and lowering your stance helps. If you stand straight up and swing, you'll hit above the legal line and lose the point on a foot fault call.

Move the racket low to high, slightly forward and inward toward the target. Instead of hitting flat, brush the bottom of the ball up toward the top — that motion gives the ball a touch of underspin (slice). Slice is the preferred padel serve because the ball stays low after the bounce, forcing the receiver to dig up from below. Flat serves can look fast but are easier to read and counter.

The only job of your second serve is to land in the box and not give the receiver an attackable ball. Don't try to add slice, dip it low into the corner, or jam them against the glass — those are first-serve luxuries. On second serves, take the speed down to about 80%, push the control closer to 100%, and aim for the middle of the box, ideally toward the receiver's backhand.

The most reliable second-serve target is the backhand, because most amateur players have a weaker backhand return. A flat, deep ball is also fine — depth keeps the receiver pinned to the baseline and stops them from stepping in. If you're double-faulting often, the problem usually isn't your second-serve technique. It's the risk you're taking on the first serve. Dial the first serve back a little; don't try to win the point before the second one even comes up.