How to hit a bandeja: the padel overhead that keeps the net

What the bandeja is for

In padel the pair at the net wins most of the points, so the pair at the back spends its time trying to take the net away with the lob (the globo). When that lob goes over your head and you can reach it before it bounces, but not well enough to finish it, you play a bandeja. The name is Spanish for tray: the racket carries the ball like a waiter carries one.

It is a defensive overhead played from an attacking position. A good one lands a metre or two short of the back glass, often in the corner, and comes out low and slow. The opponents have to dig it out, usually with another lob or a soft ball, and by then you are back at two to three metres from the net. A bandeja that bounces off the back glass at chest height is a present to the other side.

Smash only when the lob is short, you are in front of the ball and you are balanced. Anything you would have to jump backwards for, anything landing behind your service line, is a bandeja. The smash guide covers the cases where going for it makes sense.

What a good bandeja looks like

1. Preparation. Turn sideways as soon as you read the lob. The racket goes up to head height with the face slightly open, the non-hitting arm points at the ball, and you move back with side steps or crossover steps, never backpedalling square to the net.
2. Contact. In front of the body and a little to the side, between shoulder and head height. For most players that means beside the head, roughly ear height. It is lower than a smash, which is taken at full reach.
3. Swing. Forward and slightly down, cutting across the back and side of the ball for slice. The elbow leads, the arm drives the stroke, and the wrist stays firm.
4. Finish. The racket travels across the body toward the opposite hip. The shoulders stay mostly sideways until after contact.
5. Recovery. Walk forward straight away. The bandeja is half the move; the other half is getting back to the net while the ball is still travelling.

Grip: continental

Use the continental grip, the same one you volley with. Hold the racket as if you were about to hammer a nail with the edge of the frame; for a right-hander the base knuckle of the index finger sits on the second bevel, the upper right slanted face of the handle. It lets the face open for slice, and it means there is no grip change between the bandeja and the volley that usually follows it.

Club players who hit the bandeja with a forehand (eastern) grip end up with a flat face, and a flat face sends the ball long and hard into the glass. Keep the grip pressure low, around four out of ten. A strangled handle kills the feel for pace.

How to hit a bandeja, step by step

1. Read the lob and turn. The first movement is the shoulders, not the feet. A right-hander turns so the left shoulder points toward the net.
2. Move back sideways. Side steps if the lob is close, crossover steps if it is deep. Aim to finish slightly behind the ball so it drops into contact in front of you.
3. Set the tray. Racket up behind the head, elbow around shoulder height, face slightly open. Non-hitting arm up and pointing at the ball. Get here early.
4. Let the ball drop. Wait for it to come down to between shoulder and head height, a little in front of the front foot. Do not reach up for it like a smash.
5. Swing forward and down across the ball. Elbow first, then the racket, travelling from high and behind to low and in front, brushing the back and outside of the ball. Think two thirds of your power at most.
6. Transfer the weight. From the back foot to the front foot through contact. The back foot can come round after the ball has gone.
7. Finish and walk in. Racket across toward the opposite hip, then back to ready position and forward to the net.

Cue: carry the tray, don't throw it. The ball should leave with slice and less pace than you think it needs.

Where to aim a bandeja

• Deep cross-court to the corner. The default. The ball bounces a metre or two from the back glass, meets the back and often the side glass, and comes out low in the corner.
• Toward the side glass. A bandeja that bounces and then meets the side glass loses pace and stays low.
• Down the middle. The safe option when the lob was good and you are stretched. The net is lowest there and the two opponents have to decide who takes it.
• Never the glass on the full. A ball that hits the opponents' glass before bouncing is your point lost. Aim to clear the net by about a metre with the ball already dropping.

Common bandeja mistakes and how to fix them

• Hitting it too hard. The ball comes off the back glass at a comfortable height and the opponents attack. Fix: aim to bounce the ball short of the glass, not into it, and let the slice do the work. Hit ten in a row at half pace before you add any speed.
• Contact above the head. That is a smash with a different name, and it tends to go long. Fix: let the ball drop to ear height. If you cannot let it drop because it is going over you, play it off the back glass instead.
• Backpedalling facing the net. You arrive off balance and hit with the arm only. Fix: turn first, then move. Sideways footwork is quicker going back and keeps the shoulders loaded.
• Late racket preparation. The racket comes up as the ball arrives and the swing becomes a slap. Fix: the racket goes up with the turn, in one movement.
• Opening the chest early. The ball flies wide or into the net. Fix: keep the non-hitting arm up until just before contact, then tuck it in toward the body.
• Flat racket face. Too much pace and no control. Fix: continental grip and a slightly open face; brush across the ball rather than through it.
• Admiring the shot. A good bandeja is wasted if you stay at the service line. Fix: take two steps forward the moment the ball leaves the racket.
• Hitting a bandeja off every lob. A lob well behind you is not a bandeja. Fix: let it bounce and play it off the glass (see how to play off the back glass) or answer with a lob of your own.

Bandeja drills without a court

The bandeja is a shape more than a hit, which makes it one of the best padel strokes to groove at home. The full home session is in padel training at home, and the method behind it in shadow swing drills. For the bandeja specifically:

• Shadow bandeja with the retreat, 15 reps. Ready position, split step, turn, three side steps back, set the tray, swing, three steps forward. One cue per rep: elbow leads.
• Tray hold, 10 reps. Turn and hold the prepared position for three seconds, racket up, non-hitting arm pointing. If you wobble here, you will wobble on court.
• Self-fed wall bandeja. With a foam ball and a high enough ceiling, toss the ball up and slightly in front, let it drop to ear height and play a soft slice bandeja into a wall four or five metres away, aiming at a strip of tape about a metre and a half up.

The honest limit: at home there is no lob to read and no glass to judge, so the drills train the turn, the tray and the shape of the swing. The depth and the timing come from court time.

Bandeja drills on court

• Target corner. A partner or coach feeds lobs from the back. Put a towel or four cones in the opponents' cross-court corner, about a metre and a half square, a metre from the back glass. Ten bandejas, count the ones that bounce in the zone. Club players who land four out of ten are doing well.
• Depth ladder. Five bandejas to the service line, five halfway to the glass, five deep. It teaches you to change length with pace and slice, not with a bigger swing.
• Bandeja and close. Lob feed, bandeja, then the feeder immediately plays a low ball to your feet and you volley it from the net. It trains the recovery that makes the shot worth playing.
• Lob against bandeja. One pair may only lob, the other may only bandeja or volley. Play to eleven. The bandeja pair loses the point if they smash, which cures the habit quickly.

Related guides

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