Coming to padel from another sport
What carries over from GAA, tennis, or squash, and the habit to drop. Choose the sport you already play.
Work with a coach
Work with a qualified padel coach at your club.
Nothing replaces a coach watching you play and correcting you.
Ask whether they hold a padel coaching qualification, for example through the Padel Federation of Ireland (opens in a new tab), FIP Academy (opens in a new tab) or, in Northern Ireland, LTA Padel (opens in a new tab).
Your sport
From GAA, hurling, or Gaelic football
You already bring reaction speed, soft hands, change of direction. Hurling extra edge: striking timing, reflex volleys. Watch for a big overhead swing habit. Football: reaching in the air or going alone.
Camogie players: the same applies to you.
Smaller sweet spot than a hurley, so shorten the swing. Floor first, then the walls. Move as a pair, not 15-a-side. On the serve: bounce behind the service line, between the imaginary centre line and the side wall, contact at or below waist height, diagonal. The net pair wins most club points. Hard hits come back off glass.
A long swing is late. The ball flies off the glass. Call mine or yours. Volleying the serve is illegal. Let it bounce and block it in. An overhead serve above the waist is a fault. Switching-sport habits, not a GAA coaching error.
Rally only, no winners, 10 minutes, then 10 serves in the box, 10 returns in. Then a Playtomic social or club Americano, once you agree the deuce rules.
Fit GAA players often look fine quickly at beginner socials. Athleticism shows. It can inflate how good you feel before racket skill and glass reads catch up. Bands 2 and 3 (Beginner, Improver) are plausible early for active players. Claiming Strong intermediate or Advanced because you train twice a week usually means the walls will humble you. Take the level test honestly.
10 rallies in a row with no backswing above shoulder. After every shot, match depth roughly with your partner, both back or both up. On five back-wall balls, let them bounce before you hit. Wall rally first.
Venues invite local GAA teams for low-impact sessions between championship matches. Same GAA codes apply across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
From tennis: unlearn power and wall-reads, not the hurley swing.
From tennis
- Keep the volley.
- On the serve, contact at or below the waist.
- Let the deep ball reach the glass.
- Then the rules, and a wall rally.
More from tennis
Padel is landing at Irish tennis clubs. Lawn tennis club (LTC) and tennis-club conversions span the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, including Belfast Boat Club and Windsor LTC. Competitive circuits and rankings run island-wide through PFI / the Irish Padel Tour.
Points, games and sets already match, so agree the deuce format first. The net is the dominant position. Court sense & positioning: reading angles and space transfers directly. Footwork & fitness: split-step, recovery, repeat sprints. Hand-eye & racket control: clean contact comes quickly. Beating complete beginners easily can hide technique and tactics gaps. Most tennis players hit a frustrating wall against intermediate padel players who understand the walls and positioning.
Contact on the serve is at or below waist height. Let it pass and play the wall, not early. A big swing rebounds off the back glass. Use a continental grip (your tennis volley grip) for most shots. Move as a pair to the net. The glass resets your winners. Defend, absorb, reset. Wait for the real chance.
No topspin bombs. A ball at the waist is legal. Aim where the back wall meets the side wall. In tennis a ball past you is dead. In padel, a second chance off the glass. Reading the rebound, especially with spin, is the biggest gap.
A padel racket has no strings. It is shorter and thicker: less spin, more control on touch, a short handle. Don't grip it like a tennis racket. No set number of months for the switch.
Place the serve into the corner. Forget the ace. On every deep ball, consciously let it pass and play it off the back glass instead of lunging. Read the beginner guides first. Then the improver set.
From squash or badminton
Squash gives you wall sense, quick hands and a feel for rebound angles. Badminton gives you reflexes, touch and doubles instinct. Padel asks you to let the ball bounce first, move as a pair, and use a more controlled swing than either sport usually rewards.
You already read a rebound at speed, use tight spaces, and keep the ball alive with touch. Quick hands help at the net. Small-court movement feels natural. The ball must bounce on the floor first before the wall comes into play. Playing the walls well is only half the story: timing and geometry differ.
Doubles awareness already feels familiar. Touch and deception: soft shots and disguised placement still matter. A lob or drop shot fits better than a flat smash-only game. Padel is a ball sport, not a shuttle sport. The pace is different, the racket feels different, and the rally often lasts longer because walls and positioning keep the point alive.
A wristy slicing swing can work in squash. Padel rewards a more versatile, controlled contact, so use a compact swing and mix pace rather than cutting everything. Raw power often just feeds the other team off the glass. Squash wall patterns do not map 1:1 onto padel. Let the ball bounce, then use the wall, and wait for a real opening.
A shuttle does not bounce. Give the padel ball time. In padel, a smash every time is rarely the smart play, so learn the bandeja, the controlled overhead you use instead of smashing. Move as a unit, tighter than loose badminton spacing. Soften the hand and take a little pace off the first few hits.
Bounce first, wall second. Play with your partner, not beside them. Use touch before power. Save the smash for a real chance. Serve with contact at or below waist height. Play five points with no smash. On one deep ball, let it pass, let it rebound, and play the wall cleanly.