You learn padel faster by following one point than by reading a list of rules.
So here's one point. Four players, one rally, from the coin toss to the winner. Each rule turns up at the moment you'd meet it on court. Read it once and you'll know enough to play tonight. When you need to settle an argument, the full list lives on my padel rules page.
Everything below comes from the FIP Rules of Padel, as hosted by the LTA, and the LTA's own rules guide.
The setup
Padel is played as doubles. You and your partner, Sam, are on one side of the net. Two mates are on the other.
The court is closed in by glass walls, a metal cage (the mesh) and a door on each side. Remember the difference between glass and mesh. On the serve, it decides whether the point even starts.
Before the first ball: the coin toss
Someone flips a coin. The pair who win it pick one thing: serve or receive first, or which end to start at. The other pair get the other choice. The winners can also hand the first pick over.
You win and choose to serve. They pick their end.
Now the receiving pair decide who takes which side. That stays fixed for the whole set, so it's worth a minute's thought. Everyone swaps ends after the first game, then after every odd game: the third, the fifth, and so on.
1. The serve
The first point of every game is served from the right-hand side.
You stand behind the service line, between the centre line and the side wall. Don't step on the line. Bounce the ball in your own service box, let it come up, and hit it underarm at or below your waist, with at least one foot on the ground. It has to cross the net diagonally and bounce in the box diagonally opposite you.
Your first serve clips the top of the net and drops into the correct box. That's a let. Nothing lost, you take the first serve again.
The next one lands long. Fault. You still have a second serve.
Your second serve goes in, bounces, and kicks into the back glass. Good serve, and the point is live. If it had bounced and hit the mesh instead, that's a fault, and two faults hand over the point. A serve that clips the line is fine: the lines count as in.
2. The return
The receiver has one rule they can't dodge. They must let the serve bounce. No volleying the return, even if they've stepped outside the box. One bounce, then hit it before a second.
They send back a low return, cross-court. It clears the net and bounces in your half. Their shot is good because it touched your floor before it touched your glass or mesh.
3. The glass
The return skips past you. On a tennis court, that's the point gone. Here you wait.
It bounces once, hits your back glass and comes back out towards you. Still live. Once a ball has bounced on your side, it can come off the glass or the mesh before you play it. Your only deadline is the second bounce.
You let it drop off the glass and push it back cross-court. Rally on.
For a lot of people this is the moment padel gets its hooks in. The wall gives you a second go, and the point carries on.
4. The volley, and your own wall
Once the return is back over, volleys are fair game for everyone. You and Sam move up to the net together.
The other pair don't like that, so they lob you. It sails over Sam, bounces, clips the side glass, then the back glass. Still only one bounce, so still live. You chase it into the corner.
You're too deep to swing properly. So you hit the ball backwards into your own back glass, and it rebounds up and over the net. That's legal. You can play the ball off your own walls to get it back. It just has to land in their court before it touches their glass or mesh.
5. The trap
Their reply comes back short and high. Your eyes light up.
This one catches out plenty of new players. You crack it flat and hard, and it hits their back glass on the full. Out. Their point. Your shot has to bounce on their floor first. Their glass only helps you after that bounce.
Two more ways to throw it away while you're excited:
- Touch the net with your racket, your body or anything you're wearing while the ball is in play, and you lose the point.
- You and Sam both hit the ball on the same return. One player per shot.
So you don't hit it flat. You smash it down into their court.
6. The winner
The smash bounces once in their half and flies out over the back glass.
That's a good shot. A ball that bounces in and then leaves the court counts as in. Their only hope is to sprint out through a door and play it back. The LTA rules allow that, but the FIP rules only allow it on courts with enough space around them, so it depends where you play.
Nobody moves. 15-0.
What happens next
You switch to the left side and serve the next point to the other receiver. You keep serving, swapping sides each point, until the game is over. Then the serve passes to the other pair, and on round all four players. Who serves first for each pair is chosen at the start of the set and stays that way.
Scoring is tennis scoring: 15, 30, 40, game. At 40-40 it's deuce, and you need two points in a row to take the game. Some groups play the golden point instead, where the next point at deuce wins and the receivers choose which side takes it. My padel vs tennis guide covers where the two sports split.
First to six games with a two-game lead wins the set. At 6-6, play a tie-break: first to seven points, clear by two, swapping ends every six points. Matches are usually best of three sets.
Every moment that point could have ended
Look back over the rally. It could have stopped at any of these:
- Two faults on the serve.
- A serve that bounced into the mesh.
- The receiver volleying the serve.
- The ball bouncing twice on one side.
- A shot hitting the other side's glass or mesh before their floor.
- Someone touching the net, or both partners hitting the ball.
- The ball hitting a player. If their shot hits you or anything you're wearing before you play it, it's their point.
For the full ruling on every surface, from the side glass to the posts, read can the ball hit the fence in padel.
After the point
Every group has the line argument. Was it in, was it out, who saw it. For the record, the only lines on a padel court mark the service boxes, and the FIP rules count them as good. That argument is the joke on our Focus tee, with WAS IT IN WAS IT OUT laid out like an eye chart.
Our heavyweight tees are 100% cotton at 305 g/m2 with an oversized fit. They're £48 each, or any two for £90 at checkout. The full range is in tees. They're made for the bit around the game: getting there, the wait for your court, the drink after.
For the cold walk back to the car, The Essentials is Padelism in four pieces: the Mk1 Box Hoodie, the Sunday Padel Club Sweatshirt, the Heavyweight Fleece Joggers and the Padel & Pints tee. UK delivery is free on orders of £75 and over, so the hoodie ships free on its own.
New to all of this? My beginner's guide to padel covers booking, kit and your first session.
FAQ
When do you change ends in padel? After the first game, then after every odd game in the set: the third, the fifth and so on. In a tie-break you change ends every six points.
Can you volley the return of serve in padel? No. The receiver must let the serve bounce in their box first. After the return, both pairs can volley.
Who serves first in padel? A coin toss decides. The winners choose to serve or receive, or pick an end, and the other pair take the remaining choice.
Is a ball on the line in or out in padel? In. The lines only mark the service boxes, so this comes up on the serve, and the FIP rules count them as good.
What happens if the ball hits me in padel? If an opponent's shot hits you, or anything you're wearing, before you play it, you lose the point.
