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Your partner stands in the middle of the net as you serve. What is the idea?
The I-formation hides the partner's side until the return is hit. A tennis import, rare in padel: a novelty for a point or two, not a plan.
Before your serve, your partner crouches near the centre of the net rather than on their usual half. What does this formation aim to do?
The I-formation hides the partner's side until the return is hit. A tennis import, rare in padel: a novelty for a point or two, not a plan.
Why
Standing in the centre of the net at the serve conceals which half the partner will cover. Once the return is struck, the partner breaks one way and the server covers the other. The returner cannot pre-aim at a gap, because every gap looks covered, so they tend to lob, and a lob against a pair moving in on it is a smash. The cost is that the partner must commit at the right instant and the server must read which way to go; a mistimed break opens a whole half of the court. In padel it is a novelty rather than a system, the underarm serve gives the returner time to see the break, so it is used for a point or two to unsettle a returner who has settled, and then put away.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Watch pairs do it in club tournaments before you try it. The principle, do not give the returner a target, is worth understanding even if you play standard.
Intermediate
Use it on a big point when the returner has been beating your standard shape. Break to the side you agreed beforehand; do not improvise the direction.
Advanced
Pair it with a serve to the body. A returner cramped for room cannot drive past a partner they cannot see the side of, and the lob is the ball you want.
Common questions
Before your serve, your partner crouches near the centre of the net rather than on their usual half. What does this formation aim to do?
Hide which side the partner will cover until the return is hit. The I-formation hides the partner's side until the return is hit. A tennis import, rare in padel: a novelty for a point or two, not a plan. Standing in the centre of the net at the serve conceals which half the partner will cover. Once the return is struck, the partner breaks one way and the server covers the other. The returner cannot pre-aim at a gap, because every gap looks covered, so they tend to lob, and a lob against a pair moving in on it is a smash. The cost is that the partner must commit at the right instant and the server must read which way to go; a mistimed break opens a whole half of the court. In padel it is a novelty rather than a system, the underarm serve gives the returner time to see the break, so it is used for a point or two to unsettle a returner who has settled, and then put away.
Why not cut off the return before it bounces?
The partner is not there to block anything; a return is a normal ball and can be volleyed from any position. They are there to hide which half they will cover.
What should a beginner do here?
Watch pairs do it in club tournaments before you try it. The principle, do not give the returner a target, is worth understanding even if you play standard.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Pair it with a serve to the body. A returner cramped for room cannot drive past a partner they cannot see the side of, and the lob is the ball you want.
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.