About The Bandeja Lab

The bandeja is the shot that decides whether you keep the net. The lab is where you work out why. One padel position a day, with the thinking written out, no login, no app, no video you have to sit through, a court diagram, three or four options, and then the reasoning. Around it: Rapid Fire for speed, the Level Test for honesty, Settle It for the arguments, the Glossary for the words and the Racket Finder for the shop.

Where the positions come from

Every puzzle starts as a situation that actually decides club matches: the deep lob you had to run down, the ball at your feet at the net, your partner stranded on the side wall. They are drawn with the same tool we use to make our coaching diagrams, which is why the court, the glass and the players are all drawn in code rather than photographed.

How the answers are decided

Each puzzle has one answer that is right the large majority of the time, and options that are wrong for reasons worth understanding. Where a shot is genuinely a matter of style or level, we say so in the coaching notes rather than pretending there is one truth. Rules statements follow the International Padel Federation rules of play; tactical advice follows what is taught almost universally by coaches, and where opinion is split we tell you that too.

Levels

Every puzzle is filed under one level but answered for all three, because the same position asks a different question of a beginner and of somebody who has played for ten years. A beginner needs to know what to hit. A club player needs to know why. An advanced player wants to know when the rule breaks.

Put today's puzzle on your site

Clubs, coaches and padel blogs can embed the daily puzzle. It plays in place, rolls over at midnight on its own, and links back here. Paste this where you want it:

<iframe src="https://thebandejalab.com/embed/" title="The Bandeja Lab: today's padel puzzle" width="100%" height="820" style="border:0;max-width:960px" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Coaches: this week's seven puzzles as a printable sheet, with the answer key on the last page.

Corrections

If you think a puzzle is wrong, we want to hear it: padel is a young enough sport that plenty is still argued about.