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Your partner shouts as they smash. Is that a hindrance?
Deliberate hindrance loses the point. Accidental hindrance is a let. Calls to your own partner are neither.
Their net player shouts loudly at the moment your partner is about to hit an overhead, and your partner misses. Anything you can do?
Deliberate hindrance loses the point. Accidental hindrance is a let. Calls to your own partner are neither.
Why
The rules separate two kinds of hindrance. Something accidental that puts an opponent off, a dropped racket, a shout of surprise, is a let and the point is replayed. Something deliberate, done to distract an opponent as they play, is a point to the hindered pair. Ordinary padel noise is fine: calling "mine", "yours", "leave it" to your own partner is part of the game and is never a hindrance. Shouting during an opponent's overhead is not.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Talk to your partner as much as you like before they hit. Stay quiet while the opponent is hitting.
Intermediate
If the other pair does this, do not retaliate. Say "that is a hindrance, our point", and if they dispute it, agree to replay once and then play the rest of the match by the book.
Advanced
Be careful with calls like "out!" while a ball is still in the air on the opponents' side. If it puts them off and the ball is in, you are the one who hindered them.
Common questions
Their net player shouts loudly at the moment your partner is about to hit an overhead, and your partner misses. Anything you can do?
Yes: deliberate distraction loses the point. Deliberate hindrance loses the point. Accidental hindrance is a let. Calls to your own partner are neither. The rules separate two kinds of hindrance. Something accidental that puts an opponent off, a dropped racket, a shout of surprise, is a let and the point is replayed. Something deliberate, done to distract an opponent as they play, is a point to the hindered pair. Ordinary padel noise is fine: calling "mine", "yours", "leave it" to your own partner is part of the game and is never a hindrance. Shouting during an opponent's overhead is not.
Why not only a let. The point is replayed?
A let is for accidental hindrance. A deliberate act to distract is a point lost by the offender.
What should a beginner do here?
Talk to your partner as much as you like before they hit. Stay quiet while the opponent is hitting.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Be careful with calls like "out!" while a ball is still in the air on the opponents' side. If it puts them off and the ball is in, you are the one who hindered them.
What do the rules say?
A deliberate action that hinders an opponent loses the point. An unintentional hindrance results in a let.
Puzzles like this one
Can 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.
beginnerThe ball bounced then hit your own back glass. Still in play?
One bounce on the floor, then any number of walls. Only a second floor bounce ends the point.
advancedThe smash sent the ball out through the side opening. Chase it?
If the court has an opening, you may leave through it and play the ball back, before it bounces a second time.