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The server keeps landing the serve in the same spot. Do you move?
Adjust your return position to the server's pattern. Wide serves: start wider. Then re-adjust when they change.
The server has landed five serves in a row deep and wide, into the glass. What should your starting position do?
Adjust your return position to the server's pattern. Wide serves: start wider. Then re-adjust when they change.
Why
The return position is not fixed. A server who lands the same wide serve repeatedly is telling you where to stand: a step wider and a touch deeper puts you beside the ball as it comes off the glass rather than chasing it. The server will notice and switch to the body serve: at which point you move back toward the middle and the conversation continues. Returners who never move are easy to serve to; returners who adjust make the server think, and a thinking server serves worse than one on autopilot.
What this means at your level
Beginner
If the serve keeps going to the same place, stand nearer to that place. It is allowed.
Intermediate
Adjust after two identical serves, not five. The earlier you move, the sooner they have to change.
Advanced
Move late, as they bounce the ball, so they cannot serve to your new position. Your starting spot is a decoy; your actual position is set at the last moment.
Common questions
The server has landed five serves in a row deep and wide, into the glass. What should your starting position do?
Start wider and a touch deeper. Adjust your return position to the server's pattern. Wide serves: start wider. Then re-adjust when they change. The return position is not fixed. A server who lands the same wide serve repeatedly is telling you where to stand: a step wider and a touch deeper puts you beside the ball as it comes off the glass rather than chasing it. The server will notice and switch to the body serve: at which point you move back toward the middle and the conversation continues. Returners who never move are easy to serve to; returners who adjust make the server think, and a thinking server serves worse than one on autopilot.
Why not stay put: moving shows them it is working?
Standing still while a server hits the same winning serve is the weakness. Adjust.
What should a beginner do here?
If the serve keeps going to the same place, stand nearer to that place. It is allowed.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Move late, as they bounce the ball, so they cannot serve to your new position. Your starting spot is a decoy; your actual position is set at the last moment.
Puzzles like this one
Your 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.
intermediateWhat do you do with the return of serve?
The return lob is how the receiving pair steals the net. Aim over the player who is still moving.