A padel match is basically a constant battle between two teams for control of the court. Whichever duo can get themselves into superior positions on the court will find it much easier to dominate rallies, and this means they’ll probably end up coming out on top! One of the best ways to dominate padel rallies is to move up the court and dictate the point while positioning yourself close to the net. If you’re an inexperienced padel player, you’ll need to make sure that you’re fully aware of the rules regarding playing near the net – as some may be a little surprising!
I had a friend playing padel with me for the first time a few weeks ago, and he’s quite an experienced tennis player. During the course of the match, one of the things he asked me was if you were allowed to touch the net during padel matches – because this is prohibited during tennis matches! It immediately occurred to me that this may be a question worth answering on this blog – and that’s the reason for this post!
So, can you touch the net in padel?
No, a player cannot make contact with the net during a game of padel. If any player, their racket(s) or any other equipment/clothing that they are carrying or wearing makes contact with the net, the net posts or the cable that holds the net in place, that team will lose the current point.
So, if you’re playing a shot and during the process of playing that shot your foot accidentally touches the net, you will lose the point. If you’re taking a hard swing at the ball and during your follow through, your arm happens to make contact with the net cord, this will also lose you the point. If you’re attempting to exit the court through the doors in the side wall in order to return the ball during a point, and you happen to brush the net post on the way past, this will result in you losing the point. To put it simply, whether accidental or not, any contact with any part of the net by your racket or any part of your body/clothing will result in a lost point!
Why Aren’t You Allowed To Touch The Net In Padel?
The rules restricting players from touching the net was originally put in place to stop players literally grabbing the net and moving it in order to block an opponent’s shot. To explain what I mean, take a second to imagine that the rule wasn’t in place. This would mean that players were allowed to touch the net whenever they want. Therefore, this could potentially allow a player to pull the net upwards, high into the air to block the ball as their opponent was hitting it back towards them. This would obviously be terrible for the game, and that is exactly why the rule was created.
So, I guess the next question you may have is, why do the padel rules punish any contact with the net, no matter how small the contact is? Why don’t they just punish someone grabbing and moving the net seeing as that is the thing that could have an impact on the game? Well, the answer is quite simple. The individuals responsible for setting the padel rules chose to outlaw any contact with the net in order to get rid of situations where there may have been uncertainty as to whether a player intentionally moved the net to block a ball.
For example, imagine a player accidentally stumbled into the net at the exact time their opponent was returning the ball, and this impact on the net caused it to vibrate slightly and block the ball. The contact with the net was only slight, and it was accidental, but the shot was blocked as a result. In this situation, the umpire would have to determine whether to award the point to the other team, or to replay the point due to the accidental nature of the contact. Basically, the umpire would have to make a ‘subjective’ decision, one that could not possibly be applied fairly every time something similar occurred.
So, to avoid umpires having to make decisions on whether a contact with the net was large enough, or whether the contact was intentional, the padel rules simply ban any contact with the net at all. This way, there is no ambiguity about the rules and no clever ways for players to exploit them!
Conclusion
I hope this short fact-filled post answered everything that you wanted to know about touching the net in padel. In summary – don’t do it! Any touch on the net will result in the point being lost if the contact is spotted by the umpires/the opposing team. When you’re playing against tough opponents, the last thing you want to be doing is giving them free points by doing things like touching the net, so make sure you know exactly where it is at all times!