5 Basic Padel Strategies Every Beginner Should Know

Here is the good news about padel strategy: at beginner level, you do not need a big serve, a killer smash, or years of racket sports behind you. You need five simple ideas, applied consistently. Two players who understand positioning will beat two stronger athletes who do not, almost every time. That is what makes padel so addictive, and it is why the sport has exploded across Curaçao.

If you are brand new to the game, start with our padel for beginners guide and make sure you understand how scoring works. Then come back here, because these five strategies separate players who flail for months from players who win points in their first week.

1. Win the net and keep it

If you remember only one thing from this article, make it this: the pair at the net wins most of the points. From the net you can volley downward, cut off angles, and force your opponents to attempt low-percentage shots. From the back of the court you are always reacting, always defending.

The entire chess game of padel comes down to one question: who is at the net, and how do I get or stay there?

Practical cues:

When you serve, follow it in. The serving pair starts every point with a free ticket to the net. Serve, take two or three quick steps forward, split step as your opponent hits, and set up two to three meters from the net. Repeat on every service point until it is automatic.
Do not rush the net off a bad shot. Approaching behind a low, weak ball means eating a lob or getting passed. Move forward behind a deep, high, or well-placed shot.
At the net, stay active. Knees bent, racket up in front of your chest, small steps.

A simple drill: play practice points where the serving pair must win the point at the net or it does not count.

2. The lob is your best weapon

Beginners obsess over hitting hard. Experienced players obsess over the lob, because it answers strategy number one: if the net wins points and your opponents are standing on it, the lob is how you evict them.

A good lob does two things at once: it pushes the net pair back to the glass, and it buys you and your partner time to walk calmly forward and take the net yourselves. No power required.

Cues for a better lob:

Aim deep, not high. The goal is to land the ball in the back third of the court, ideally over the backhand shoulder of the weaker overhead player. A short lob is a gift-wrapped smash.
Disguise it. Prepare like you are hitting a normal low drive, then open the racket face late. If your body announces “lob” early, the net pair simply backs up.
Lob more than feels natural. At beginner level, lobbing half your shots from the back court is a completely reasonable ratio.

One Curaçao-specific note: the island’s trade winds are real, and on open-air courts they will carry your lob. Hit a couple of test lobs in each direction before a match to calibrate. On covered courts, like the five covered courts at Padel X Curaçao, wind is barely a factor, which makes them a great place to groove the shot.

3. Let the ball come off the back walls

This is the hardest habit for tennis players to build and the most liberating once you have it. In padel, a ball that beats you is often not gone. It hits the glass behind you and comes back into play, usually slower and at a friendlier height than it arrived.

Beginners panic and lunge at fast balls before the wall. Stop. Step aside, let the ball pass, turn with it, and play it after the rebound. You get more time, a slower ball, and an easier contact point.

How to make friends with the glass:

Turn your body early. As soon as you read that the ball is going to reach the back wall, turn sideways and track it with your eyes. Never play a wall ball facing the net flat-footed.
Give the ball room. Most beginners stand too close to the rebound. Take an extra step away from the glass so the ball can come back out to you.
Start with the drop drill. Stand a meter from the back glass, drop a ball so it bounces into the wall, and hit the rebound gently over the net. Ten minutes of this before a match does more for your game than an hour of rallying.

Deep balls that would be clean winners in tennis are routine defensive shots in padel. Once you trust the wall, half your panic disappears.

4. Talk to your partner and move as a pair

Padel is a doubles sport in the truest sense. The court is small, the middle is a shared responsibility, and silence loses points. The classic beginner point ends with both players watching a ball land untouched between them, each assuming the other had it.

Fix it with three habits:

Call every middle ball. “Mine” or “yours”, early and loud. A simple default: the player who can take the ball on their stronger side takes the middle. Decide before the match, not during the point.
Call the lob. When an opponent’s lob goes over your partner’s head, shout it immediately and switch sides if needed. The player crossing behind covers; the other slides across to balance the court.
Move like you are tied together. Imagine a three-meter rope between you and your partner. Both at the net, or both at the back. When one of you goes forward and the other stays, you open a diagonal corridor that even beginners will find.

Between points, keep talking: one sentence of tactics, one of encouragement. With strangers at an open play session, communication is also a courtesy. Our guide to padel court etiquette covers the social side of sharing a court with new partners.

5. Consistency beats winners

Watch any beginner match and count how points end. The overwhelming majority finish with an error: a ball into the net, a smash into the glass, an overambitious angle. Very few end with a genuine winner. The conclusion is blunt: at this level, the pair that keeps the ball in play wins.

That leads to a simple game plan:

Aim for the middle. The net is lowest in the center, the margins are biggest, and a ball down the middle creates exactly the communication problems described in strategy four for your opponents.
Play at 70 percent power. A shot you can repeat all afternoon is worth more than a spectacular one you land twice per set.
Set a rally goal. In warm-ups, count how many shots you and your partner can keep going, and push for a longer streak each session. In matches, think “one more ball back”: make your opponents hit an extra shot and let them donate the errors.

Patience is physical too. Curaçao’s daytime heat of 30 to 33 degrees Celsius (86 to 91 Fahrenheit) punishes wild, sprint-heavy padel. Compact, consistent play keeps you fresh into a third set, and evening sessions at 26 to 28 degrees Celsius (79 to 82 Fahrenheit) are kinder for long rallies.

Where to practice these strategies in Curaçao

Knowing the strategies is step one. Grooving them takes repetition.

For focused technical work, the singles court at Padel X Curaçao is a hidden gem. It is the only singles court on the island, and the narrower space is ideal for two players drilling lobs, wall rebounds, and volleys without needing a foursome. For quieter sessions, Van Engelen Padel offers two covered courts at the island’s most intimate club, a calm setting for repeating a drill twenty times without an audience.

Book morning or early-afternoon slots for drills, when courts are easier to get than in the popular evening window, and save point play for the social evening sessions.

For a full overview of every club and court type on the island, see our complete guide to padel in Curaçao. Then get out there, take the net, throw up some lobs, and enjoy the moment an opponent’s “winner” comes floating back off the glass into your strike zone. That is when padel really starts.