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You are the slower player. How does that change your serve?
Slower server: serve wider and slower with more slice. The ball takes longer to arrive and so does the return.
You serve, but you are slower than your partner and often get caught mid-court by the return. What adjustment helps?
Slower server: serve wider and slower with more slice. The ball takes longer to arrive and so does the return.
Why
A server who is slow to the net gets caught in no man's land by fast returns. The fix is in the serve, not the legs: aim wider and use more slice, so the ball takes longer to arrive and the return, from a stretched position off the glass, comes back slower and higher. Standing further back would cost the step it buys. The extra half-second is enough for the server to reach a good volleying position. The pair can also adjust: the net partner takes more of the middle, and the server's first volley is aimed deep rather than ambitious. Padel rewards pairs that design their patterns around what they actually can do.
What this means at your level
Beginner
If you keep getting caught halfway, serve slower and wider, and hit the first volley from wherever you are. The return will come back slower too.
Intermediate
Tell your partner to take anything through the middle on your serve. You need the extra step; they have it.
Advanced
The deep, slow wide serve also produces more return lobs, and a lob gives you all the time you want. Design the serve to produce the return you can handle.
Common questions
You serve, but you are slower than your partner and often get caught mid-court by the return. What adjustment helps?
Serve wider and slower, with more slice. Slower server: serve wider and slower with more slice. The ball takes longer to arrive and so does the return. A server who is slow to the net gets caught in no man's land by fast returns. The fix is in the serve, not the legs: aim wider and use more slice, so the ball takes longer to arrive and the return, from a stretched position off the glass, comes back slower and higher. Standing further back would cost the step it buys. The extra half-second is enough for the server to reach a good volleying position. The pair can also adjust: the net partner takes more of the middle, and the server's first volley is aimed deep rather than ambitious. Padel rewards pairs that design their patterns around what they actually can do.
Why not serve harder to get a quicker point?
A quicker point is what catches you mid-court. Slow the serve down, not up.
What should a beginner do here?
If you keep getting caught halfway, serve slower and wider, and hit the first volley from wherever you are. The return will come back slower too.
How does this change for an advanced player?
The deep, slow wide serve also produces more return lobs, and a lob gives you all the time you want. Design the serve to produce the return you can handle.
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.