The 10 mistakes every beginner padel player makes

Every padel player has watched a beginner walk on court and make the same ten mistakes, in roughly the same order — usually because they made all ten themselves. None of them are embarrassing; most are perfectly sensible instincts imported from other sports that happen to be wrong here. But each one has a straightforward fix, and together they’re the difference between six months of frustration and six weeks of rapid improvement.

1. The frying-pan grip

The number one, by a distance. New players hold the racket like they’re about to flip pancakes — palm behind the face — because it feels solid for hitting forehands. The trouble is that padel’s low, skidding balls need a slightly open racket face, and the pan grip closes it. The fix is the continental grip: hold the racket as if shaking hands with it, or hammering a nail. It feels weaker for a session or two, then everything gets easier — volleys, defence off the glass, and eventually the bandeja all depend on it. Check it every time you pick the racket up; it’s the cheapest improvement in the sport.

2. Swinging like a tennis player

Padel punishes backswings. The court is small, the ball comes back quickly — especially off the walls — and a big loop that works from a tennis baseline arrives late here. Good padel shots are compact: short preparation, firm contact, finish forward. A useful drill is to imagine playing everything inside a phone box. Half your swing and you’ll mishit less, get passed less, and discover you’ve lost almost no power — positioning wins amateur points, not pace.

3. Fighting the glass instead of using it

Watch any beginner and you’ll see them lunging to take every ball before it reaches the back wall, playing cramped, rushed shots off their shoelaces. The wall is not your enemy — it’s a second chance. Letting the ball go past you, turning, and playing it as it comes off the glass gives you more time, a better height, and a calmer shot. It feels deeply unnatural for about a week. Our back-glass drills exist precisely to shortcut that week; ten minutes of letting balls bounce off the wall and simply catching them teaches your eyes the rebound faster than any explanation.

4. Camping in no-man’s-land

The strip of court between the service line and the net is where points go to die. Stand there and everything arrives at your feet — too far back to volley properly, too far forward to play off the bounce. The rule: be at the net (two to three metres back from it, racket up) or be at the back (able to use the glass). Pass through the middle; never live there.

5. Moving alone instead of as a pair

Padel is a doubles sport that beginners insist on playing as two singles players who happen to share a side. When one of you goes forward and the other hangs back, the diagonal gap between you is exactly where decent opponents will hit every ball. Imagine a three-metre rope tying you to your partner: up together after a good shot, back together under pressure. If your partner gets lobbed, you both retreat — covering for each other is the game.

6. Smashing everything

The most expensive habit on this list. On an open tennis court, a smash ends the point; on an enclosed padel court, a smash that isn’t a winner rebounds off the back glass and comes back — sometimes as an easy ball for your opponents, sometimes over your own head while you’re still admiring the shot. Until you can genuinely put smashes away (which takes longer than anyone expects), treat the overhead as a positional shot: a controlled bandeja or a deep, safe put-back keeps you at the net, which is where points are actually won.

7. Ignoring the lob

Beginners find lobbing boring, which is why they lose to older players who lob constantly. A deep lob over the net pair’s heads forces them off the net, hands your team the attacking position, and requires no power at all — just height and depth. When in doubt, especially under pressure, lob it high and deep. It is unglamorous and it wins matches, and it’s also the shot that teaches you patience, padel’s most underrated skill.

8. Serving for aces

The underarm serve looks harmless, so beginners try to make it dangerous — slicing it hard, aiming for lines, double-faulting in a sport where double faults are borderline shameful. The serve’s real job is to start the point on your terms: land it deep, angle it toward the side glass on your opponent’s backhand, and use the time it buys to get to the net. Placement over pace, every time.

9. Buying the wrong racket (or too much racket)

Shops love selling beginners hard, diamond-shaped “attack” rackets, which are exactly the wrong tool: small sweet spots, head-heavy balance, and a direct route to elbow trouble. Your first racket should be round-shaped and soft, and it does not need to cost more than £60–£100 — the first racket guide and our racket shapes explainer cover why in detail. The £300 carbon racket will still be there in a year, when you’d actually notice the difference.

10. Skipping lessons entirely

Padel’s great trick is being easy to start, which convinces people it isn’t worth coaching. But the gap between “can rally” and “plays properly” is precisely the habits on this list, and a coach spots them in minutes. One or two group sessions early — £15–£25 a head at most UK venues — will save you months of practising your mistakes until they’re permanent. It’s the best value purchase in the sport, racket included.

The pattern behind all ten

Read the list back and there’s a theme: almost every beginner mistake is an attempt to win points faster — harder swings, earlier balls, bigger smashes, cleverer serves. Padel keeps declining the invitation. The players who improve fastest are the ones who accept, early, that this is a game of position, patience and percentages — and that the flashy stuff arrives on its own, later, once the boring stuff is automatic.

Fix the grip first. The rest follows.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most common mistake in padel?

Holding the racket with a forehand "frying-pan" grip instead of the continental grip. It feels natural but closes the racket face, and it quietly undermines every other shot you try to learn.

Why do tennis players struggle at padel?

Mostly through over-swinging and ignoring the walls. Big tennis backswings arrive late on padel courts, and the instinct to take every ball early means tennis converts rarely let the glass do the work.

Should beginners smash in padel?

Rarely. On an enclosed court a smash that does not end the point comes back off the glass, often leaving you out of position. Until you can control where the rebound goes, a lob or a firm volley is usually the higher-percentage choice.

How do I get better at padel fast?

Fix your grip, halve your backswing, and learn to play off the back glass — then add one or two group coaching sessions early on. Those four things fix most of what holds beginners back.