What is padel? 11 key questions about this new sport

We’ve noticed that many articles about padel spend ages explaining what the game is. But the best way to understand padel is to see it in action. That will also make everything we explain later easier to follow. Watch this video, made for “Fabryka Energii” in Szczecin, which gives you a great introduction to padel in just 40 seconds.

Now that you have a rough idea of what padel looks like, let’s answer the 11 most common questions about the game.

Padel is a new sport enjoying a huge surge in popularity worldwide, and more recently in Poland too. It’s somewhere between tennis and squash, but padel has its own unique character. That’s what makes players fall in love with it from their very first rally.

Imagine playing tennis, but on a smaller playing area surrounded by glass walls, known as cristal. Actually, there’s no need to imagine it – just take a look below.

That’s padel! You play with a partner, just like in doubles (so there are four people on the pista in total). Its social nature is one reason padel is becoming so popular around the world, but we’ll come back to that.

For now, let’s return to the pista and those walls. The ball can bounce off the walls during a rally. Firstly, this makes the game easier: you can let a hard shot from your opponent hit the back wall, for example, then play it as it comes back more slowly. Secondly, it keeps rallies going longer, making the game more exciting. Thirdly, playing off the walls adds a tactical dimension. You’re constantly learning how to use them to beat your opponents or return their trickiest shots.

In short, padel is a little like playing squash with elements of tennis, but with a smaller, stringless racket called a pala and four people on the pista.

The rules are very simple, which is another reason for padel’s popularity. Stand behind the service line and start the point with a diagonal serve. But take note! You don’t serve as you would in tennis, tossing the ball high and hitting it overhead. That’s not allowed. You serve below waist height, with a swing similar to a forehand. First, bounce the ball on the ground, then hit it so it travels across the net and bounces on your opponents’ side. You need to land it in this box:

Once the ball bounces on your opponents’ side, the rally begins. And this is where the magic of padel happens. After bouncing on the ground, the ball can bounce off a wall. That opens up plenty of opportunities for disguise and different tactics, so you need to be ready for unexpected twists. Sometimes playing the ball off the wall can save you when you think the point is already lost.

When is the ball out? When it crosses to your opponents’ side and hits a wall without bouncing on the ground first. Otherwise, the rally continues. You can also lose the point by hitting into the net (fairly obvious!) or hitting the ball directly out of the pista.

Of course, we could explain everything in words (you’ll find a very detailed explanation of the rules of padel on this page), but watch the video below and it will all make sense.

Scoring is exactly the same as in tennis: 15, 30, 40 and game. Matches are best of three sets, and you win a set by taking six games with a lead of at least two games.

You serve alternately to the left and right service boxes. One player serves for the entire game. An opponent serves the next game, followed by your partner, then your opponent’s partner. The sequence then repeats.

Tennis-style scoring is the classic match format. But there are shorter alternatives too, such as sets played to 7 or 11 points. In “Padel Americano” or “Padel Mexicano” events (which we explain in detail later), each match consists of 21 points in total, so results can range from 11–10 to 21–0.

Padel is a sport for everyone. That’s its greatest strength. Whether you’re young or old, super fit or just getting started, looking for gentle exercise or a workout that leaves you exhausted, experienced in racket sports or a complete beginner – padel is for you.

“I’d estimate that more than half the people who play padel at our centre hadn’t really been involved in sport before,” says Barbara Maciocha, who represented Poland in padel at the European Games and coaches at “Fabryka Energii” in Szczecin. “Sure, they’d tried plenty of trendy sports, but running or the gym were too boring, tennis was too difficult, they didn’t like the smell of a squash court, and so on. Then one day they heard about padel, came along and… never looked back.”

The pista is smaller than a tennis court and has those walls we mentioned, which make the game easier. You play with a partner, so if you can’t reach the ball, they might be able to get it for you. Palas are short, easy to handle and designed in a way that makes it difficult to hit the ball extremely hard. The yellow balls look like tennis balls but have lower pressure and travel more slowly. You’re probably getting the picture: padel is very, very easy to learn.

“Usually, within their very first hour on the pista, people who have never played padel before are already having rallies. Quite long ones, too. You don’t get that in tennis, where you need a few coaching sessions first just to make contact with the ball. You can take padel lessons too, but they’re more about improving your skills than getting you started,” explains Barbara Maciocha.

The pista, equipment and nature of the game level the playing field, so men and women, older and younger players, children and parents can all play together and still have a great time. This inclusive side of padel is another reason for its growing popularity. But there’s more: padel also offers plenty of health benefits, which we’ll look at next.

Padel is a great aerobic workout that boosts your fitness and wellbeing while toning your arms, legs and glutes. It also develops a wide range of skills, improving coordination, reflexes and tactical thinking. You need to react and make decisions quickly, giving your brain a workout too.

Playing padel regularly can also be a great way to lose weight – an hour of intense play can burn up to 600 calories! If you want to get fitter but the gym or fitness classes sound like your idea of a nightmare, fast-paced, mentally engaging padel could be the sport for you.

There’s another aspect that often gets overlooked: padel is played by four people. Many formats use randomly assigned pairs, so you’re constantly meeting someone new. People swap numbers, arrange more matches and then meet up for dinner too. Padel can lead to new connections, friendships and even… romance (we know couples who met on the pista). A quick internet search or a question to an AI tool will turn up plenty of studies highlighting the positive impact of socialising on our health.

This is a problem most beginners face. Who will be my partner, and who will play on the other side of the net? There is a solution: two padel formats we recommend in this situation are Padel Americano and Mexicano.

You sign up individually rather than as a pair. The organiser draws the pairings. In Americano, you play each match with a different partner. In Padel Mexicano, the system matches players as closely as possible by level (so you may sometimes play several matches with the same partner).

Matches last around 10 minutes because they consist of 21 points. You might win 11–10, 15–6 or, in an extreme case, 21–0. Since everyone plays the same number of points, matches on all pistas finish at almost the same time. After each match, the system creates new pairings for the next round. Everyone keeps their own points total: if you win your first match 14–7 and lose your second 10–11, you have 24 points. The whole event lasts around 10–12 rounds, or roughly two hours.

Two hours of Padel Americano or Mexicano is enough to get a proper workout and… meet players of a similar standard whom you can arrange games with afterwards.

Where can you find Americano and Mexicano padel events? The largest database of padel tournaments is on LigaPadla.pl.

Technology can also help you find a partner. There are apps that let you connect with players of a similar level and arrange a game. The most popular is Playtomic.

Don’t be taken in by articles encouraging you to go on a huge shopping spree before stepping onto a pista. To try the sport, all you need is a pala and some balls. Let’s start with the pala. A pala looks like this:

If you’re wondering what the loop at the bottom is for, the answer is safety. You put it around your wrist to prevent the pala from flying out of your hand during play.

No. Most clubs let you hire a pala for around PLN 10 per hour. That’s the best way to get started. The downside is that not everyone likes handling something used by lots of other, usually sweaty, people. Also, some venues don’t replace their rental palas regularly, so they can be badly worn or even cracked, which affects how they play.

There are plenty of detailed guides to choosing a pala, but we’re assuming you’re just starting out. So here’s our golden rule: start with a beginner model.

These usually have a round head, making them the easiest to play with and the most forgiving. They’re made from fibreglass, which gives them a softer, more comfortable feel, although they won’t deliver the same power as performance carbon-fibre palas. That doesn’t matter much at first: your main aim is to get the ball back over the net, more or less in the direction you intended. Power can come later.

Beginner palas have another advantage: they’re cheaper. We don’t recommend very cheap own-brand models from sports superstores, as we’ve heard some very poor feedback about them. It’s better to spend a little more on a still-affordable pala from a reputable brand. For example, beginner Babolat palas can be found on sale from around PLN 300! For completeness, intermediate palas start at around PLN 600, while top-end models cost upwards of PLN 1,200.

Besides a pala, you’ll need balls. You might be tempted to buy cheaper tennis balls, but although they look similar, padel balls have lower internal pressure and travel more slowly, helping rallies last longer. They’re usually sold in tubes of three, starting at around PLN 25. Some venues also let you hire them for around PLN 10 an hour, but we think it’s worth buying your own straight away. Rental balls are often already flat: repeated use causes them to lose pressure, so they don’t bounce well.

That’s all you need to get started. Wear sports clothes – your gym, running or other racket-sport kit will do – and comfortable trainers. At beginner level, specialist kit isn’t a major concern, and this will save you money.

Once you get hooked on padel, though, we recommend buying shoes with a padel-specific sole. Don’t be swayed by salespeople or online shops offering tennis shoes with a herringbone sole. They aren’t bad shoes, you’ll probably be fine in them, and you might even save money because tennis shoes are cheaper. But… based on our years of experience (we were among the first to open padel pistas in Poland), the best choice is shoes designed specifically for padel.

Why? In tennis, you mostly move sideways; in padel, you move forwards and backwards more often. In padel, you hit smashes in almost every rally; in tennis, you’re doing well if you hit more than five in a whole match. Tennis is most commonly played on clay and hard courts, whereas padel is played on artificial grass.

You’re probably starting to see why: movement in padel is very different from movement in tennis, and your shoes need to suit it. Look for footwear designed entirely for padel. Leading brands such as Bullpadel and Babolat already make it. At our club, you’d struggle to find a tournament player who doesn’t wear dedicated padel shoes.

To sum up: buy some balls for your first session. Hire a pala or, if using one that other people have handled puts you off, buy a beginner model. That’s it – don’t spend money unnecessarily. If you enjoy padel and start playing regularly, add a pair of padel shoes. Good luck!

In 2024, Poland passed the 100-pista mark, and new venues are springing up everywhere – see our article “Where can I play padel?”.

Our website is the best place to look for pistas. We aim to add every one to our frequently updated database of padel pistas in Poland. You can search by town or region.

Our directory also provides detailed information about each venue, including whether it offers outdoor pistas or a pista cubierta, plus links to websites where you can book straight away.

In 2024, the average price for an hour of pista hire is around PLN 100. Unsurprisingly, Warszawa is the most expensive (up to PLN 180), while municipal sports and leisure centres are the cheapest. The beauty of padel is that, unless you’re playing with your spouse and children, you split the hire cost four ways. That works out at PLN 20–40 per person per hour.

Then there are the balls: PLN 25, also split between four people. If you don’t have a pala, you can hire one for around PLN 10 an hour.

All in all, if you’re one of four people sharing the pista and ball costs and you hire a pala, an hour of padel costs you less than PLN 50.

As for equipment, a new branded pala costs from PLN 250 for a beginner model to well over PLN 1,000 for tournament-level models. Unless you’re a very advanced player, we think it’s worth buying palas on sale. Models from a year or two ago don’t differ enough in technology to justify the extra cost at beginner or intermediate level.

Padel has a fascinating history dating back to the 1960s. It all began in 1969, when Mexican businessman Enrique Corcuera decided to experiment with the squash court at his home in Acapulco. Inspired by platform tennis – an unusual version of tennis played in an enclosed area – Corcuera created something he called “Paddle Corcuera”. By adding extra walls, he developed a new version of the game that quickly became popular.

Then, in 1974, Corcuera’s Spanish friend Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg had the idea of bringing the new sport to Spain. He built the first two padel pistas at a tennis club in Marbella. He also made a few changes of his own, such as replacing the fencing with steel mesh, which added another dimension to the game. This marked the beginning of padel’s growth in Spain. It became popular in elite circles, and clubs such as Club Puerta de Hierro in Madrid became places to rub shoulders with famous faces.

Today, padel is Spain’s second most popular sport after football. According to the Spanish padel federation, more than 3.5 million players use the country’s 14,000-plus pistas. Argentina has over 2 million padel players. The sport has also enjoyed an extraordinary rise in Sweden, where there are an estimated 600,000 players out of a total population of 10 million.

In 2023, more than 2,500 clubs and nearly 6,000 padel pistas opened worldwide – an average of 111 new pistas every week. There are now 13,000 venues with 43,000 pistas. These figures come from Playtomic’s “Global Padel Report 2024”. The most new pistas were built in Spain (over 1,000), France, the Benelux countries and Italy (over 500), while padel is also growing in popularity in the USA (nearly 300 new pistas) and the Middle East (almost 700).

Let’s start with the similarities. There’s a net in the middle, two halves and yellow balls that look like tennis balls. The scoring is identical too. But that’s where the similarities end.

Padel uses differently shaped equipment: palas are much shorter than tennis rackets and easier to manoeuvre. Padel balls have lower pressure and travel more slowly. The pista is surrounded by walls that the ball can bounce off. Padel is played in pairs (you can play tennis doubles too, but singles is much more popular). In padel, you serve underarm rather than overhead. The biggest difference is that padel is much easier to learn: you can enjoy rallies from your very first session.

Apart from the surrounding walls, almost everything is different. In padel, there are two halves, with your opponents across the net rather than a wall in front of you as in squash. The ball is large, yellow and more like a tennis ball. Palas are shorter and look more like oversized paddles, with no strings.

Squash is extremely physical: half an hour can leave someone of average fitness exhausted. Padel is far less physically demanding than squash, and its movement patterns are less likely to cause injury. Plus, there are four players, making it a sport for almost everyone, regardless of gender, age, fitness or experience in racket sports.

We hope we’ve satisfied your curiosity and you’re no longer wondering “What is padel?” but planning to book a pista with your friends. If you’re not sure whether there’s somewhere to play in your town, use our website to find out. Enjoy your game!

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