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Your smash came back. Where should you be?
A smash that comes back is a transition shot. Land moving forward and be at the net for the block.
You smashed from mid-court, it was blocked back, and the ball is coming towards the middle. Where are your feet?
A smash that comes back is a transition shot. Land moving forward and be at the net for the block.
Why
Most smashes below professional level are answered, not ended, and the point is decided by who is standing where when the reply arrives. Because a block off a smash has no pace, it lands short and central, which means the player who moved forward after smashing gets an easy volley, and the player who stood admiring their shot gets a ball at their feet. Treat every smash as the first half of a two-shot pattern and land with your weight already going in.
What this means at your level
Beginner
After any overhead, take two steps forward. Make it automatic before you worry about where the ball went.
Intermediate
Land on your front foot, not on both. Landing square is what stops you moving forward afterwards.
Advanced
Your partner should be shading to the middle while you close, so the two of you arrive covering the only lane the block can use. It is a pair movement, not a personal one.
Common questions
You smashed from mid-court, it was blocked back, and the ball is coming towards the middle. Where are your feet?
Back at the net, forward of where you smashed. A smash that comes back is a transition shot. Land moving forward and be at the net for the block. Most smashes below professional level are answered, not ended, and the point is decided by who is standing where when the reply arrives. Because a block off a smash has no pace, it lands short and central, which means the player who moved forward after smashing gets an easy volley, and the player who stood admiring their shot gets a ball at their feet. Treat every smash as the first half of a two-shot pattern and land with your weight already going in.
Why not dropping back to defend the next lob?
Retreating after your own attack hands back everything the smash bought you and puts your partner alone at the net.
What should a beginner do here?
After any overhead, take two steps forward. Make it automatic before you worry about where the ball went.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Your partner should be shading to the middle while you close, so the two of you arrive covering the only lane the block can use. It is a pair movement, not a personal one.
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.