Are you missing your return often?

These mistakes that we see often are usually made by the recreational or beginning players on the padel pitch and most of the mistakes have to do with the side glass.

As explained in the padel return video, you want to make a choice as early as possible when returning a service. One of the major mistakes we see a lot is hesitation. Players are watching the ball way to long before doing any preparations or movement at all. They should be in the ready position (sideways and stable position) and act quick whenever the ball leaves the racket of the opponent.

Another mistake people make is that they step towards the padel glass when the ball bounces of the glass. If you decide to let it bounce off the glass, you should allow it to come to you. To do this, you should step away from the glass to give yourself time and space to read the direction of the ball. Or you can take a step forward in order to hit the ball before it hits the glass side wall. Any hesitation will make it harder to hit a proper return, make sure you know this when going into a game of padel.

The third most common error is making a wrong decision before or after the glass. If the ball is coming into the first glass square, you should always want to take a step back and allow the ball to come off and towards you. If the ball is going towards the back of the side glass you should always try to hit the ball before it hits the glass side wall.

Bonus tip: it’s better to hit a consistent return than a good return.