Padel is an emerging sport in many countries in the world, and as a result of that there are millions of people just becoming familiar with the sport for the first time. Many people describe padel as a combination of other sports such as tennis and squash, but it also has its own special characteristics that make it unique! In this post, we’ll be discussing one of them!
If you’ve heard about padel before, you may have heard people talking about out-of-court play. But what is this exactly? Is it always permitted during padel matches? How can we get the ball outside the court and how can it be used to our advantage? That’s the information I’ll be aiming to provide you with!
So, can you play outside the court in padel?
Yes, play is allowed to take place outside the court in certain padel matches. If a player hits a shot that bounces on the opponent’s side of the court before bouncing over the fence/glass wall, players can exit the court via the openings in the side wall in order to return the ball before it bounces a second time.
The main challenge of playing outside the court in padel is getting in position quickly enough. If the ball does bounce over the wall and go out of the court, the re player may have to sprint to the net and then out of the access gate at a very fast pace in order to reach the ball and hit it before it bounces for a second time. In a later section of this post I’ll be talking about the kinds of shots we can play from outside the court, as well as the areas we should be targeting in order to make it hard for our opponents.
What Is Required To Enable Out Of Court Play?
I mentioned earlier that out-of-court play is only allowed in certain padel matches, and this may have led some of you to wonder what the requirements are in order for out-of-court play to be enabled. Well, allow me to explain!
For out-of-court play to be allowed during a padel match, the court as well as the area outside it must meet certain standards. For example, both side walls must have an access point installed within them that allows players on both sides of the net to enter/exit the court safely. If you want to read about the necessary sizes of these access points, refer to my post about the dimensions of a padel court by clicking here!
In addition to having the correct size/number of access points, there must not be any obstacles next to the access points outside the court. The area outside the court that must remain clear is 2 metres wide, 8 metres long and a minimum of 3 metres high. This effectively creates a large safe zone on the outside of each side of the court that the players can run around in if they need to leave the court to hit he ball. It’s also worth bearing in mind that this is a rough guide to the minimum size of the safe zone. Often, it’s much better that you leave a much bigger area free of obstacles, so that players have even more room to run around. Although, many amateur padel clubs will not have this much space available.
The safe zone on each side of the court looks something like the area displayed in the diagram below!
How To Hit The Ball Out Of The Court In Padel
If you’ve never watched a game of padel before, you may be unaware of how the players hit the ball out of the court! That’s why I thought I’d use this section to explain it to you.
If you’ve read the first part of this post, you should know that you can’t simply hit the ball straight out of the court and hope to win the point. To win the point, you need to hit the ball so that it bounces on your opponent’s side of the court first BEFORE it bounces outside the court. So, taking this into account, the best way to hit the ball outside the court is by playing a smash shot that hits the ground on the opponent’s side of the court, then hits the back wall before bouncing out of the court over the side wall. If you watch professional padel matches, you’ll usually see at least one attempt at this kind of smash during every point!
Many newcomers to the game think that the key to hitting a smash shot out of the court is just hitting the ball hard. However, once you’ve actually tried to do this, you learn that that’s actually not the case. The key to hitting a smash shot out of the court is getting the ball to ‘kick’ upwards once it hits the floor and the back wall. To do this, you’ll need to apply as much topspin to the ball as possible once you strike it.
If you’re wondering how to apply topspin to the ball during the smash, then I have a few tips that may help you achieve it:
- Get in position to play the ball – As soon as you see the ball go up in the air, you should be trying to judge whereabouts to stand in order to return the ball. For the smash, you should be aiming to stand slightly behind where the ball is going to drop, and then turn your body slightly so that you’re in a side-on position
- Drive your body upwards to meet the ball – Once you’re in the correct position on the court, make sure that your feet aren’t too far apart. If your feet are about shoulder width apart this will give you a great balanced base from which you can begin the motion of the shot. As the ball reaches its highest point, bend your knees slightly in preparation, and then push upwards as the ball begins to drop. It is crucial to time this movement well if you want to make a good connection with the ball and get plenty of momentum into the shot
- Make good contact with the ball – To get top spin on the ball, the most important thing to do is hit it in the right way. When we strike it, we should be trying to hit upwards and over the top of the ball, so that it begins to rotate forwards. This causes it to dip sharply and kick and bounce once it hits the court. Right handed players should try to hit the top-right side of the ball whilst pushing the racket over the top surface of the ball. Left handed players should be aiming to hit the top-left surface of the ball.
The other key thing you need to know in order to hit the ball out of the court in padel is the area on the ground that you should be aiming to get the ball to bounce. Firstly, let’s focus on the length of your shot, or the depth at which the ball bounces. Basically, if you bounce the ball too far away from or too close to the opponent’s back wall this will lead to the ball not gaining enough height to get out of the court. Instead, in my opinion you should be targeting the area up to a metre in front of the service line with plenty of top spin on the ball.
Now let’s look at the required line of the shot! If you try to hit the smash and it bounces too close to the side wall it is much more likely to make contact with the side wall before or after it bounces. When playing the smash, we don’t want the ball to make contact with the side wall at all! We want it to bounce over. However, if you hit the ball too far away from the side wall, then you won’t have the right angle on the shot to get the ball out of the court. Again, we need to position the shot perfectly to ensure it goes out.
I like to aim to get the ball to hit the back wall about 2 metres away from the side wall. This way, the ball has enough room to bounce high enough and clear the side of the court, but it’s not too far away that it won’t make it!
How To Play Outside The Court
So, now you know an excellent way to hit the ball out of the court, we should probably take a brief look at a couple of things you should be trying to do when you have an opportunity to hit the ball whilst outside the court!
Target The Net
If you can exit the court and get in position quickly enough, and you have the correct angle to play the shot, it’s a great idea to hit the ball directly into your opponent’s side of the net. The ball doesn’t have to bounce before it hits the net, you can simply hit it straight into it on the full. If you can execute this shot, the ball will hit the net and drop to the ground very quickly, making it a challenge for your opponent to reach the ball and return it to your side of the court before it bounces twice. Additionally, because the ball is so close to the net at this point, it becomes very hard for them to get the right angle on the shot to return the ball.
Hit The Ball Cross-Court
If you get a good opportunity to hit the ball from outside the court, but you don’t have the right angle available to hit the ball into the opponent’s side of the net, a good option is to hit the ball hard and low across the court. If you hit the ball hard enough and low enough, there’s an excellent chance that your opponents won’t be able to get to the ball quickly enough to return it. If your opponents have positioned themselves well and are in place to intercept the ball, a low shot will be hard for them to get underneath and return accurately.
Lob The Ball Back Into Play
One of the simplest shots to play when you find yourself outside of the court is a lob back over the side wall onto your opponent’s side of the court. This is primarily a defensive shot, and should be hit towards the back of your opponent’s side of the court if possible. By playing this shot, you can slow down the point slightly and give yourself a good opportunity to get back in position inside the court. Once you get back in position, you can begin trying to win control of the point once more.
Conclusion
I hope that you found this post useful and that it’s given you a much better idea of when out of court play is allowed. Having a good ‘out of court’ game is vital if you want to become an elite padel player, so I also hope that this post has begun to give you some insight into the sorts of options you have when playing the ball outside the court. Additionally, I’d also definitely recommend working on your top spin smash so that you can force your opponents out of the court more often!
I’ll have more posts coming up on out-of-court play soon – so keep an eye on the site for those!