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Where do you stand to receive serve?
Behind the service line, a step towards your side wall. Room for the bounce, room for the glass.
You are about to receive. Before the server has even bounced the ball, where should your feet be?
Behind the service line, a step towards your side wall. Room for the bounce, room for the glass.
Why
Because the serve must bounce before you can touch it, your only job standing there is to be somewhere the bounce is comfortable. Deep and slightly wide does two things: it puts the rising ball in front of you rather than past you, and it keeps you outside the line of a serve aimed into the side glass. From there you can step forwards into the ball, which is exactly what a good return lob needs.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Stand a metre behind the service line and about a metre and a half from your side wall. Adjust after two serves. You will feel it immediately if you are too deep or too square.
Intermediate
Move your start position by opponent. Against a server who always goes wide into the glass, stand a step wider and a step deeper so the wall never gets behind you.
Advanced
Shift late, not early. Set up neutral and take your real position as they bounce the ball, so you are not advertising which serve you are inviting.
Common questions
You are about to receive. Before the server has even bounced the ball, where should your feet be?
Deep and slightly wide, near the corner. Behind the service line, a step towards your side wall. Room for the bounce, room for the glass. Because the serve must bounce before you can touch it, your only job standing there is to be somewhere the bounce is comfortable. Deep and slightly wide does two things: it puts the rising ball in front of you rather than past you, and it keeps you outside the line of a serve aimed into the side glass. From there you can step forwards into the ball, which is exactly what a good return lob needs.
Why not tight against the back glass?
Too deep. A short serve drags you forwards off balance, and you have given away the two metres you need to step into the return.
What should a beginner do here?
Stand a metre behind the service line and about a metre and a half from your side wall. Adjust after two serves. You will feel it immediately if you are too deep or too square.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Shift late, not early. Set up neutral and take your real position as they bounce the ball, so you are not advertising which serve you are inviting.
What do the rules say?
The receiver must let the serve bounce, so return position is decided entirely by where the bounce will be comfortable, never by how fast you can reach the ball.
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.