Padel is growing in popularity around the world and at PadelPadelPadel we can see why. This highly addictive sport is fast-paced and fun to play. You can be involved in a high-intensity volley one minute and then trying to defend a point against one of the walls the next. Padel is the perfect transitional game from tennis, as the skills that you use for tennis can easily be applied to a padel court and if you can’t play tennis anymore, this game is ideal for keeping your thirst for racquet sports alive.
Padel is a unique sport because of its court. Unlike a tennis court, a padel court is more enclosed and you can score points by using the walls of the court. Padel courts are approximately a third smaller than a tennis court, which means that players have less room to play especially if you are playing in doubles. Knowing this, it will be difficult to play padel on a tennis court but this article will go into more details about the unique elements of padel.
The Padel Court
A padel court is designed a bit differently from a tennis court because of the presence of four walls surrounding the court. On average, a tennis court is approximately 23.77M (Length) x 10.97M (Width) in measurement. In comparison, a padel court is 20M (Length) x 10M (Width) which gives players less room if they are used to tennis. A typical game of padel is played in pairs too, so padel players who have transitioned from tennis will need to adapt their strategy to play in a reduced space.
The Four Walls Of A Padel Court
You can’t play padel on a tennis court because you need four walls to score points. Padel is distinct in this aspect because the four walls add another way of scoring points against your opponents, which you can’t do in tennis. The walls can consist of concrete, mesh or glass. Glass is the optimum material for a padel court because of its superior rebound qualities, which will allow you to hit the ball against the panel with the same velocity and a traditional shot.
The Surface Of A Padel Court
Tennis is often played on grass, clay or concrete. On a padel court, the surface tends to consist of tarmac, artificial grass or concrete. What padel misses out on that tennis courts offer is natural grass. As Padel relies on the bounce, grass reduces the bounce rate of the padel ball. This would in turn slow down the game. However, if you come from a lawn tennis background, you will need to adapt your serves to accommodate for the extra bounce.