Learn the padel forehand: short backswing, contact in front of the body, cross-court target – with milestones, a fault list and safety tips.
The padel forehand, often called the "drive" in play, is a compact groundstroke on your hitting-hand side. You take a short backswing, meet the ball in front of the body and follow through to the target – usually diagonally (cross-court). Compared with tennis you have less room and less time: the walls send the ball back quickly.
The honest answer: the forehand is one of the shots you play most – and still a perennial source of errors. In an analysis of 8363 shots by 24 male high-performance players at national tournaments, serves, volleys, groundstrokes and back-wall shots together made up 67.6 % of all shots [1]. Almost two-thirds of impact points were in front, and the diagonal was the most common direction [1].
For you that means: a reliable, short forehand is the basis for everything else. How long it takes depends on your ball feel – expect several weeks of regular play until it holds up under pressure (rule of thumb, not a study).
From the ready position take a small step with the outside foot and turn the shoulders sideways. The racket goes briefly behind the hip, not far over the head. The short backswing is the key in padel because the ball often comes back quickly off the wall.
Milestone: you turn in calmly without the racket going above shoulder height.
Meet the ball at about hip height and in front of the front foot. A study of 48 male recreational players compared where trained and less trained players meet the ball: on groundstrokes, wall strokes and lobs, the trained players met the ball, depending on stroke type, 7 to 32 cm further forward (measured relative to the body's centre of gravity) than novices [2]. That is roughly a hand width up to a forearm.
Milestone: you hit 8 of 10 balls in front of the body – check with a side-on phone video.
Play the ball diagonally over the net. The diagonal is safe because the net is only 0.88 m high in the centre and the path gets longer [3]. Your goal: 10 balls in a row cross-court. Only then do you add pace.
Milestone: 10 balls in a row cross-court without net or wall errors.
Have balls fed so that you have to take two steps. Keep the short movement even when you are short of time. That is the real test: in real play you are rarely set cleanly.
Milestone: 7 of 10 balls from movement in court without the swing getting longer.
This guide explains and motivates; it does not replace supervised training.
Train the forehand with variation. In a study of 34 experienced players, four weeks of variable practice at the double wall improved the number of successful forehands more than the control group's training of the same volume (effect size 0.44 versus 0.03) [7]. The players used wrist weights there – do not copy that without a coach. You can reach the same principle without extra weight by constantly changing height, pace and position of the feed.
A practice check (no study): spend two minutes per session on footwork before the forehand alone. Whoever reaches the ball only at the last moment automatically hits too late and too close to the body. Two small adjustment steps before contact are usually more effective than more arm power.
The forehand is the groundstroke on your hitting-hand side. You take a short backswing, meet the ball in front of the body and usually play it diagonally. It is played with the continental grip, without regripping. It is one of the most frequent shots in padel.
With a short backswing and contact in front of the body. A big backswing puts you short of time. Practise slowly first, keep a loose grip and add pace only when 10 balls in a row sit cross-court.
As a beginner mostly cross-court: the diagonal is longer, safer and keeps the ball away from the net player. Among high-performance players the diagonal also dominated [1]. Use down the line later and deliberately, when the opponent adjusts.
That cannot be answered honestly in numbers – there is no padel study on it. Rule of thumb: rather 2 to 3 short, focused sessions per week with changing conditions than one long block. That fits the results from variable practice [7].
Padel Backhand (Revés): Play It Securely Instead of Avoiding It