Technical Fundamentals of Padel: Grip and Wrist Action

Let's compare padel technique with tennis technique once again to highlight the different use of the wrist. The significantly longer tennis racket already produces an altered racket face swing movement with minimal wrist involvement. For example, the flicking of the wrist in the tennis forehand creates the desired topspin movement, which gives the ball forward spin through the swing from bottom to top.

In padel, however, the racket is so short that the swing through the wrist movement hardly changes the rotation of the racket face, so the use of the wrist here is almost fruitless, as it is in tennis. It takes a great deal of skill (and good tennis technique) to pull a padel ball over the net with topspin. Even if that succeeds, topspin is an inferior shot in padel. Because it flies high over the net, bounces high, and then sails in a well-controllable direction towards the glass. In padel, the slice is the better alternative in almost every situation. The slice has a straight downward flight path, and bounces extremely low, which causes real problems for the opponent right near the glass.

In padel, the rule is rather to execute the shots in long movements of the extended arm with a fixed wrist. This applies to both groundstrokes and volleys. In addition, the use of the wrist, while providing more speed, also makes less control possible. And that is exactly what we need in padel for almost every shot.