Good to defend at padel, it is far from obvious. There are many game situations where players are not sure whether to lob or play low enough. This article aims to help you build your best defense with the different types of balls to defend and how best to re-throw them.

Depending on the difficulty with which the ball is coming to you

  • When low balls come to you or you think they are uncomfortable, you can escape by raising a low ball. In this situation, the lob is not to use because the risk of making a lob too short is too important.
  • When the balls arrive to you more comfortably. For example, when a ball bounces against the glass and comes out halfway up. Here, the use of the lob is timely. To achieve it well and avoid making a lob too short, it is necessary to bend down, with a short preparation, put the racket under the ball, and finish the gesture with the racket looking at the sky.

Depending on where you are on the field

  • If you have to hit the ball very close to the window, you are in a danger zone. So, it will take a single shot, with little risk of giving an easy ball to your opponents. The shot to be made is a low shot, the opponents will have trouble finishing the point on such a ball.
  • On the contrary, if you must hit a ball on the bottom line (with or without a rebound on the glass), it is easy balls so you can easily make a lob to neutralize the opponents and eventually resume the net.

A frequent mistake of the defense game

One of the usual mistakes in defense is not to take advantage of the last meter at the bottom of the court. It is very common to make a random move in this area of ​​the field.

It is then recommended to make small side steps to better position oneself and thus put this space to advantage and not having to wait for the ball to arrive on it. With this better placement, the ball you are going to deliver will be of better quality and you will give less easy points to your opponents.

Alexis Dutour

Alexis Dutour is passionate about padel. With his training in communication and marketing, he puts his skills at the service of padel to offer us articles that are always very interesting.

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