Home › Puzzle › You lobbed cross-court and you are moving in. What line do you take?
You lobbed cross-court and you are moving in. What line do you take?
Close towards the ball, not straight up the court. The pair shifts as a unit onto the diagonal you created.
Your lob went cross-court and you are moving forward to the net. Do you run straight up your side, or somewhere else?
Close towards the ball, not straight up the court. The pair shifts as a unit onto the diagonal you created.
Why
A pair moving forward should always be angled towards the ball, because the shortest and easiest reply for the player under pressure is the one straight in front of them. If your lob went to their backhand corner, the ball they can hit soonest is the line, so that is the line you close. Your partner shifts with you, and between you the court that is left open is the long cross-court, which is the slowest ball on the court and the easiest to intercept.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Go forward with your partner and stop about two metres from the net. The angles come later.
Intermediate
Aim your run at a point about a metre inside your tramline on the side the ball is on, then split-step as they strike.
Advanced
Against a player who has a genuine cross-court bandeja, close less and hold more centrally: the whole adjustment is a read of what they can actually hit from that position.
Common questions
Your lob went cross-court and you are moving forward to the net. Do you run straight up your side, or somewhere else?
Diagonally, towards the side you lobbed to. Close towards the ball, not straight up the court. The pair shifts as a unit onto the diagonal you created. A pair moving forward should always be angled towards the ball, because the shortest and easiest reply for the player under pressure is the one straight in front of them. If your lob went to their backhand corner, the ball they can hit soonest is the line, so that is the line you close. Your partner shifts with you, and between you the court that is left open is the long cross-court, which is the slowest ball on the court and the easiest to intercept.
Why not into the middle, both of you?
Two players in the middle is one player twice. You leave both tramlines open and any decent bandeja finds them.
What should a beginner do here?
Go forward with your partner and stop about two metres from the net. The angles come later.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Against a player who has a genuine cross-court bandeja, close less and hold more centrally: the whole adjustment is a read of what they can actually hit from that position.
Puzzles like this one
Both of them are at the net. What is the highest-percentage ball?
Only the lob moves a net pair backwards. Everything else invites them forward.
intermediateYour partner got pulled wide. Where do you stand?
The pair moves like one body. When your partner is pulled wide, you take the middle.
beginnerYou have served. Where do you go?
In padel you serve in order to get to the net. Serve, then go.