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The ball bounces on your side, then hits your leg. Still a point lost?
Bounced or not, a ball that touches your body before you play it is a point lost.
Their volley bounces once on your floor, you misjudge it, and it hits your thigh before you can play it. Whose point?
Bounced or not, a ball that touches your body before you play it is a point lost.
Why
Players sometimes believe the body rule only applies to balls hit at them out of the air. It does not. A ball that has bounced on your side is in play until you strike it with the racket or it bounces again; if it touches your leg, your shirt or your free hand first, the point is over and it is theirs. This is why defenders get low and turn side-on off the glass rather than standing square: a ball coming off the wall at an unexpected angle finds a square body far more often than a side-on one.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Off the glass, turn sideways and keep the racket between you and the ball. A ball that hits your body is a point gone, even after the bounce.
Intermediate
Balls off the mesh and the corners are the ones that find bodies. Give them room and watch them all the way onto the strings.
Advanced
Opponents who volley at your feet off the wall are fishing for exactly this. Take the ball earlier, before the rebound, when the volley is soft enough to allow it.
Common questions
Their volley bounces once on your floor, you misjudge it, and it hits your thigh before you can play it. Whose point?
Theirs: the ball touched you before you played it. Bounced or not, a ball that touches your body before you play it is a point lost. Players sometimes believe the body rule only applies to balls hit at them out of the air. It does not. A ball that has bounced on your side is in play until you strike it with the racket or it bounces again; if it touches your leg, your shirt or your free hand first, the point is over and it is theirs. This is why defenders get low and turn side-on off the glass rather than standing square: a ball coming off the wall at an unexpected angle finds a square body far more often than a side-on one.
Why not play on, after the bounce the ball is yours to play?
It is yours to play with the racket. Touching it with anything else, bounced or not, loses the point.
What should a beginner do here?
Off the glass, turn sideways and keep the racket between you and the ball. A ball that hits your body is a point gone, even after the bounce.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Opponents who volley at your feet off the wall are fishing for exactly this. Take the ball earlier, before the rebound, when the volley is soft enough to allow it.
What do the rules say?
The point is lost if the ball touches a player or anything they wear or carry, other than the racket in the hand, whether or not the ball has bounced.
Puzzles like this one
The ball is at your feet at the net. What now?
A ball below the net cannot be attacked. Block it deep and wait for one above the tape.
beginnerThe ball is coming off the back glass. When do you hit it?
Move back with the ball, let it pass you, hit it in front of your body.
beginnerCan you volley the return of serve?
The return of serve must bounce. It is the one ball in padel you are not allowed to volley.