The serve is always a subject of debate in padel. Much easier for players than the tennis serve – which requires years of practice – the commitment in padel is ultimately more problematic for referees, at least at the professional level. And while foot faults can sometimes be difficult to judge, the real problem concerns the height at which the ball is hit.

A difficult rule to apply

Indeed, international regulations stipulate that the impact between the racket and the ball must be below waist level. On paper, the rule is not really complicated, but in reality, it is much less simple than it seems.

Indeed, with the clothing, the speed, the sometimes unfavorable lighting, the distance between the chair and the court... it is never easy for the referee to see if the ball was hit below the waist of the server or not . Especially since the players, who want to complicate their opponents' returns as much as possible, seek to hit the ball as high as possible, even if it sometimes means exaggerating a little...

Video – Bela invents the “shoulder height serve”

What to do to avoid problems?

In recent years, there have been many controversies regarding the service, with time lost to watch the action on video, refereeing errors, players getting annoyed, etc.

A service a bit high for Lucho Capra?

At present, there does not seem to be a miracle solution, but some ideas are nevertheless emerging.

One of them would be to switch to a single serve. Instead of the two service balls that players currently have, we would switch to just one. A foot fault or a serve that is too high and it's a point lost straight away. This could perhaps discourage a little those who tend to want to play with the rules during the first serve... Furthermore, this would make the game a little more fluid, even faults on the first serve are obviously much less frequent in padel than in tennis.

Another possibility, which is not incompatible with the first, would be to have a technological tool allowing you to know exactly when the service is good and when it is bad. A bit like the let sensor used in tennis, with imagine a beep that would sound when the server hits the ball too high. However, it is difficult to know whether a solution like this is really possible in the short term, due to the technology it requires. We have also seen in recent months that the Foxtenn system is not yet completely ready…

FoxTenn sometimes criticized by players, the return of traditional replay?

While waiting for a future where it will certainly be possible to judge everything in a fraction of a second with precision thanks to technology, we wonder what the authorities that regulate our sport can do to reduce problem situations on serve. Ideas ?

Xan is a fan of padel. But also of rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel players, he finds atypical posts or deals with current topics. He also gives you some advice to develop your physique for padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the padel court!

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