How To Win More Points As A Beginner Padel Player

When I first started playing padel I would lose many points due to unforced errors. I still do, though less than before. It wasn’t until my much more experienced padel partner pulled me aside and gave me a single piece of advice that instantly improved my play.

How to win more points in padel as a beginner? The easiest way for a beginner padel player to win more points when playing against other beginners is to keep the ball in play. When you try to play a winner tight to the sidewall you are more likely to make an error and lose the point. Play more to the center and let your opponent make the error.

There are a couple of tactics that you can use as a beginner padel player that will quickly increase the number of points that you will win. Let’s take a closer look at those and see how many you can apply to your own game next time you get onto the padel court.

Shifting Objectives

Back when I first started playing padel, my competitive nature came to the fore. I tried to win the point every single time I hit the ball.

I had played tennis, squash and table tennis (ping-pong) when I was younger so I had a degree of ball sense. My reasoning was that I had enough experience to play padel well the first time I touched a racket. That reasoning was incorrect.

For starters, a padel racket has a handle that is much shorter than the rackets that I was accustomed to (tennis and squash). That meant that I had to get used to playing the ball a lot closer to my body.

During this time of adjustment as well as learning the basic skills of playing padel, my standard of play was pretty dismal. Invariably when I would attempt to play a winner, my shot would be wide, long or into the net – in short, an unforced error.

The turning point came when I changed my on-court objective. These days my main objective on-court is to become a better padel player each time. To oversimplify things, I realized that the path to becoming a better padel player was firstly, to hit the ball more and secondly, to keep hitting the ball that it stayed in play.

When I was a beginner padel player, the majority of my opponents were also beginners. That meant by just keeping the ball in play, it increased the number of points that I won based on the unforced errors of my opponents.

The Problem Of The 10% Shot

This was made super clear to me by my more experienced padel partner after I had been playing for around six months. At the time I had no idea that I was playing so many 10% shots.

The biggest problem with a 10% shot is that you have a 90% chance of making an unforced error and losing the point. If you play a rally where all of your shots have a 90% chance of being out, the odds of you winning the point keep reducing the longer the rally continues.

For me, my 10% shot was playing tightly down the sidewall. I remember being good at those type of shots back when I played squash. However, in squash, the ball would be allowed to scrape along the sidewall. While that worked for me in squash, the rules of padel work differently and the ball would be called out the moment it touched the side mesh on the way over the net.

Creating Confusion In The Center

Once I was made aware of the folly of going for 10% shots every time in order to try and win a point, it became a question of finding alternatives.

The logical alternative to try when playing down the sideline doesn’t work is crosscourt play. Doing so opens the opportunity of placing a shot down the centerline of the court.

Not only is this super safe shot to play, but it can also create confusion for your opponents. What often happens in beginner padel games is that playing partners fail to communicate. This means that both players assume that their partner will return the “easy” ball. The result is your opponents looking at each other while the ball passes gently between them, winning the point.

Cutting Out Errors Wins Games In Two Ways

When you reduce your chances of making unforced errors, you place the onus of trying to win the point on your opponent. With that comes the greater likelihood that your opponents will make unforced errors. This is especially true if they are beginners like you are.

Once you have started to burden your opponent with making unforced errors, you will notice something interesting. Unforced errors tend to develop a kind of momentum.

When your opponents start making unforced errors, they will often tense their shoulders and try to force even more next to impossible shots. That, in turn, leads to even more unforced errors.

Armed with that knowledge, you can see the benefit of simply keeping the ball in play during beginner level games of padel.

The Law Of Reflection

I had only ever given thought to the Law Of Reflection when playing Billiards and Snooker. However, watching the professionals playing in the World Padel Tour reminded me of what I had forgotten.

As beginners, when we start to play the ball deeper and longer so that it reaches the back wall after the bounce it is almost always a straight shot. That makes the angle of reflection completely predictable, the ball will bounce straight back out again which is easier to return.

As you gain confidence with your cross-court shots you will be able to get them deep enough that they connect the back wall after bouncing. This will create an angle of reflection that takes the ball toward the sidewall, which will be more difficult to return.

Using this tactic you can take a safe cross-court shot that clears the net around the center of the court and create the kinds of difficulties for your opponent that can make an error more likely.

Patience As A Weapon

This is another lesson that I learned from watching tournaments on the World Padel Tour.

In tennis, there is a lot of court area to cover. That means many gaps that can be exploited to win a point quickly.

Conversely, a padel court is both smaller and there are two players to cover so much more of that smaller space. This means that if you try to win a padel point quickly all that will happen is that you will try and force the ball through a tiny gap that does not really exist and in the process, lose the point.

A far wiser strategy will be to build the point by patiently keeping the ball in play until you are able to force one of your opponents out of position and capitalize on the empty space they have left.

The Tactical Lob

The tactical lob is very effective not only in beginner level padel but in World Padel Tour matches as well.

One of the easier shots to play in padel is when the ball comes onto your racket with a little bit of pace. That way you can use the force of the ball as it hits your racket to return the ball in the direction from where it came.

A lob is much more difficult for a beginner to deal with as the ball is descending near vertically.

Playing a lob is also one of the safest shots you can play. The height of the ball means that there is no chance of hitting the ball into the net. The ball also doesn’t need to land near to the side or back walls to be effective.

Lastly, if you or your partner have been played out of position, you can play a lob and use the extra time that the ball is in the air to get yourselves back in position.

Which of these safer but yet effective shots have you started using on the padel court? Comment below and let us know.