How to play padel: a beginner's guide

You don't need to have played tennis, or any other sport, to enjoy padel. The LTA's advice is simple: grab a racket and a doubles partner and get on court. Here's everything else a beginner needs to know. Source: LTA Padel: How to get started playing padel.

1. What you need

• Three friends. Padel is mostly played as doubles, so four players is the norm. Two can play singles if you can't get a four together. Source: LTA Padel: Padel FAQs.
• Rackets and balls. Most venues hire out rackets and have balls available, so you don't need to buy anything for your first game. Source: LTA Padel: How to get started playing padel.
• Shoes with grip and side support. There's no dress code, but the LTA says footwear with reliable grip and lateral support matters, and suggests avoiding running shoes because they're designed for forward movement. Court trainers are fine to start with. Source: LTA Padel: How to get started playing padel. More in our padel shoes guide.

2. Find and book a court

Courts are mostly at tennis clubs, leisure centres and parks, and the LTA has a court finder map. Source: LTA Padel: How to get started playing padel. Many venues take bookings through apps such as Playtomic, MATCHi, ClubSpark and Padel Mates. You usually pay for the whole court, not per player, and many clubs sell 90-minute slots. Source: Padel Index: Padel court prices in the UK.

Our where to play padel in the UK guide covers the big cities, and how much padel costs explains typical prices.

3. Learn the basic rules

Serve underarm after a bounce, diagonally into the opposite box. In a rally, the ball must bounce in your opponents' court before it hits their walls. You can let it come off your own glass after one bounce before you play it. Scoring is the same as tennis. Source: LTA Padel: How to get started playing padel. Our padel rules and scoring guide has the full detail, including golden point.

4. The shots to learn first

The LTA's beginner video series, Padel Made Easy, covers the forehand, the volley, playing the ball off the back glass, the double glass and the bandeja. Source: LTA Padel: How to get started playing padel.

• Back glass: letting the ball bounce and come off the back wall before you hit it. It feels strange at first, but it's the shot that buys you time.
• Bandeja: a slow, controlled overhead where you cut across the ball to keep the bounce low. Source: LTA Padel: Pickleball vs padel.
• Chiquita: a soft, slow shot that lands low on your opponents' side, useful when they're pressing forward at the net. Source: LTA Padel: Pickleball vs padel.

5. Get a lesson, find your level

Many venues offer coaching, and the LTA court finder shows how to contact a venue near you about lessons. Source: LTA Padel: How to get started playing padel. Players are often described as beginner, intermediate or advanced, and clubs and booking apps may use their own rating systems to match players of similar ability. These are separate from official LTA Padel rankings, which come from LTA-sanctioned competitions. Source: LTA Padel: How to get started playing padel.

Why beginners pick it up quickly

The smaller court, underarm serve and lower-pressure ball make rallies easier to start and keep going than in tennis, the LTA says. Source: LTA: Padel vs tennis. Want to know how the sport began? Read what is padel?