How to play off the back glass in padel (salida de pared)

Why let the ball come off the glass

A deep ball hit toward your back glass gives you a choice: play it before it reaches the glass, or let it rebound. Letting it come off the glass is usually the better option, because the glass slows the ball and brings it back toward you, which gives you more time and a more comfortable contact height. The ball you were going to scrape off your shoelaces becomes one you can play at waist height.

The catch is that the ball changes direction, and you have to be in the right place when it does. That is a footwork problem more than a stroke problem.

What a good salida de pared looks like

1. Read. Judge the pace and height of the incoming ball. A fast, high ball comes a long way off the glass; a slow, low one barely comes out.
2. Turn. Shoulders and feet sideways, facing the side glass, as soon as you know the ball is going to the glass.
3. Move back with the ball. Go toward the glass as the ball does, keeping a distance of about a metre and a half from it.
4. Move forward with the rebound. As the ball comes off the glass, follow it forward so it stays at your side.
5. Hit on the way down. Let the ball drop after its peak, to around waist height, and play it in front of you with a compact swing.

Turn early and move with the ball

The single most useful habit off the back glass is the early turn. If you face the net, the ball comes out of the glass behind you and you have to spin around. If you are already sideways, the ball comes past your hitting side and you only have to step.

• Side steps back. Keep the shoulders turned and move toward the glass with side steps, following the ball.
• Distance. Stay about a metre and a half from the glass, more for fast balls. Too close and you get jammed; too far and the ball dies before it reaches you.
• Follow the rebound. As the ball comes off the glass, move forward with it. Club players plant their feet and wait, then find the ball has gone past them.
• Low base. Knees bent, weight on the front of the feet, so you can adjust in both directions.

Cue: side-on before the bounce. By the time the ball hits the glass, you should already be facing the side wall.

Forehand and backhand off the back glass

Forehand. Turn with the right side toward the back glass (right-hander), racket back early and short. Follow the ball forward, and hit when it is at waist height and level with your front foot. The swing is compact, closer to a long volley than a tennis forehand.

Backhand. Turn the other way, with the left side toward the glass. Use the non-hitting hand on the throat of the racket to take it back, and release it just before contact.

On both sides, the racket should be ready before the ball comes off the glass. A late take-back means a rushed swing and a ball that goes up.

The double-wall ball (doble pared)

A ball that hits the back glass and then the side glass (or the side and then the back) comes out at a different angle, toward the middle of the court, and usually slower. The mistake is to follow the first rebound and then find the ball coming out somewhere else.

• Wait longer. The second wall takes pace off the ball. Stay back and let it come to you.
• Give it space. Stand further from the corner than you think. The ball comes out toward the middle.
• Play it simple. A lob or a soft ball down the middle is usually the right answer from a double-wall ball.

The bajada: attacking a high rebound

When a smash or a fast lob comes high off the back glass, you can attack it instead of defending: the bajada de pared. Turn, follow the ball forward as it comes off the glass, and hit it at head height or above, flat or with a little slice, before it drops. It is a shot for high, slow rebounds with space in front of you. From a low or fast rebound, stay defensive.

When to let it pass, and when not to

• Let it pass when the ball is fast and deep and will come a good distance off the glass. That is most balls hit at the back of the court.
• Play it before the glass when the ball is slow and will die on the glass. A soft ball that drops close to the glass will barely come out.
• Contrapared as a last resort. If the ball has beaten you, you can hit it against your own back glass so that it goes over the net. It is legal and it keeps you in the point, but it is a scrambling shot.

Where to send the ball off the glass

• The lob. The most common and usually the best choice: deep, over the opponents' backhand side. See how to lob in padel.
• The chiquita. A soft, low ball at the feet of the net players. It keeps them at the net but makes them volley up.
• Down the middle. A controlled drive through the middle, when the opponents are wide.

Common back glass mistakes and how to fix them

• Standing too close to the glass. The ball comes out at you and you are jammed. Fix: keep a metre and a half from the glass.
• Turning late. The ball goes past you. Fix: turn as soon as you read the ball, before the bounce.
• Planting the feet. You wait at a spot and the ball does not arrive. Fix: move forward with the rebound.
• Hitting too early. Contact at the top of the bounce gives no control. Fix: let the ball drop to waist height.
• Trying to win the point. A hard drive off the glass goes into the net players' volley. Fix: lob or chiquita first.
• Misreading the double wall. Fix: stay further from the corner and wait for the second rebound.

Back glass drills without a court

This is the one padel skill that home practice can only partly reach. Reading the glass needs a court. What you can train at home is the part after the read: the early turn, the footwork back and forward, and a compact stroke. The full home routine is in padel training at home; the method is in shadow swing drills.

• Turn and retreat, 10 each side. Ready position, split step, turn, three side steps back, stop, three steps forward, shadow the stroke.
• Imaginary rebound, 10 each side. Turn and move back, then imagine the ball coming out of the glass and follow it forward, hitting at waist height.
• Lob from the glass, 10. Same retreat, then a shadow lob: bend, open the face, lift with the legs.

ShadowSwing does not see the ball or the glass, so it cannot help you read the rebound. It helps with the swing that comes after the turn. Pick Forehand or Backhand in Shot Analysis, hold still until the ding, play one stroke and orbit the 3D replay to check the take-back is compact and contact was in front of you.

Back glass drills on court

• Feed to the glass. Feeder at the net hits balls into your back glass. Turn, follow the ball, play it back deep. Twenty on the forehand, twenty on the backhand.
• Double wall. Feeder plays balls into the corner. You play every one as a lob.
• Let it or play it. Feeder mixes fast deep balls and slow balls near the glass. You decide: let it pass or play it before the glass.
• Glass and go. Off the glass, lob, then move forward to the net with your partner. The point is only won from the net.

Related guides

• How to lob in padel
• How to volley in padel
• How to hit a bandeja
• Padel smash: flat, por tres and por cuatro
• Padel training at home: drills without a court