Padel rules for beginners, explained simply

You can learn enough padel rules to play your first match in about five minutes. The full rulebook is longer, but almost none of it comes up in a friendly game. Here’s the short version, in the order it will matter to you on court.

The serve

Serving is the part most beginners worry about and the part padel makes easiest.

You must serve underarm. Bounce the ball on the floor once behind the service line, then hit it at or below waist height. You serve diagonally into the service box across the net, and you get two attempts.

Two details catch people out. Your feet must stay behind the service line until you’ve hit the ball. And the serve must bounce in the box before it touches the side glass, so aiming straight at the wall doesn’t work.

The walls are in play

This is the rule that makes padel its own game.

After the ball bounces once on the floor on your side, it can hit any wall and you can still return it. A ball that comes off the back glass and sits up nicely is one of the most common shots in the game.

What you can’t do:

• Let the ball bounce twice on the floor.
• Hit the ball into the wall or fence on your own side before it crosses the net.
• Touch the net or reach over it to hit the ball.

A ball that hits the fencing on your opponent’s side after bouncing on their floor is still in play. A ball that hits the fencing directly, without bouncing first, is out.

Scoring

Identical to tennis, so if you know one you know the other.

Points won	Called
0	Love
1	15
2	30
3	40
4	Game

At 40 to 40 it’s deuce, and a team has to win two points in a row from there. Six games wins a set, and you need to be two games clear. Matches are normally best of three sets.

In casual play, most clubs shorten this. At deuce we usually just play a single deciding point, which keeps social sessions moving.

Where you can stand

Anywhere on your side, and you can leave the court through the side openings to play a ball that has gone out, if you can get to it.

There is one thing worth knowing about sides. When your pair is receiving, you each stay on the side you started the set on: whoever returns in the right-hand box returns there for the whole set. When your pair is serving, that doesn’t apply, because the server alternates boxes point by point like in tennis. Pairs usually settle into one player on the forehand side and one on the backhand anyway.

You can also volley freely. There’s no zone you’re forbidden to volley from, so coming forward to the net isn’t just allowed, it’s the main tactic in the game.

The one rule about the ceiling

Indoor courts have a roof, and hitting it is out. It sounds obvious until someone lifts a defensive shot too high on their first night.

What you don’t need to learn yet

Beginners often try to memorize things that won’t come up for months: the exact rules for smashing the ball out of the court, tie break formats, tournament regulations. Skip all of it. Play a few sessions first.

If you want the rules explained on court instead of on a page, that’s what our coaches do, and it takes one session. Our free Learn Padel guides cover the same ground, one skill at a time.

New to the sport entirely? Start with what padel actually is, then come back to this.