Your first padel session

For your first padel session: arrive 10 minutes early in trainers or padel-specific shoes, bring water and a borrowed or rental racket, and play casually for 60 minutes. The serve is underarm only and must be hit at or below your hip. Lobs and walls keep rallies alive far longer than tennis. Focus on consistency over winners, stay roughly a metre behind the service line when defending, and step forward to the net when you can. Most clubs let you book a court for 60 to 90 minutes per session.

This is the Padeli editorial walkthrough for absolute beginners booking their first padel court. The aim is to take you from “I have a booking” to “I can hold my own in a friendly game” in one read.

What to expect in the first 60 minutes

Most clubs sell padel court time in 60 or 90 minute blocks. Arrive 10 minutes before your slot. The receptionist will point you to a changing area, then to the court. Padel courts are enclosed by glass and mesh, so you walk in through a small gate at the side or back.

Use the first 10 minutes to knock up. Hit a few ground strokes back and forth, get a feel for how the ball comes off the back glass, and try a couple of practice serves. The ball is slightly softer than a tennis ball and the court is shorter, so your tennis instincts will overhit until you adjust.

The remaining 50 minutes is for play. A typical beginner first session is one or two casual sets played to a relaxed standard - count to four games per set rather than the full six, and run the same partner for the whole session.

Resist the urge to keep score formally for the first few games while you find your rhythm.

What to bring - the kit checklist

You can play your first session in clothes you already own. Most clubs hire rackets for a small fee, so you do not need to buy one before you have tried the sport.

• Footwear. Court trainers or trainers with non-marking soles. Avoid running shoes - their soles wear quickly on the gritty padel surface and offer little lateral support.
• Clothes. Tennis or any sportswear with some stretch. Shorts, t-shirt, leggings - it all works. Most clubs do not enforce dress codes for casual play.
• Racket. Borrow from the club or a friend for your first session. Buying a padel racket before you know if you enjoy the sport is rarely worth it. Our beginner padel rackets guide covers the buy decision once you are sure.
• Balls. Most clubs supply balls. If yours does not, a tube of three padel balls (not tennis balls) costs four to six pounds at any sports shop. The two are not interchangeable - padel balls are slightly softer and lower-pressure. See padel balls vs tennis balls for the full comparison.
• Water. Bring a bottle. Padel is more rally-intensive than tennis at the same effort level, and 60 minutes of beginner play in a warm club is thirsty work.
• Towel. Optional but useful for grip in summer or in humid clubs.

Court etiquette for newcomers

Padel etiquette is friendly and forgiving at club level, but a few habits separate good first-time players from the rest. Get these right and your partner and opponents will be patient with everything else.

Call your own faults honestly. Padel clubs are mostly self-officiated. If your serve catches the line or you hit the ball above your hip, call it out. Players who fudge calls are spotted within the first few games.

Wait for the rally to finish before retrieving the ball. Do not walk on to a neighbouring court mid-rally. Wait at the gate, signal, and walk on only when the players have stopped playing the point.

Keep your warmups inside your booked court. Hitting the wall from outside the court, swinging into the next lane, or hogging the net during warm-up are the three habits clubs flag most.

Leave the court clean. Take your water bottles and any ball packaging with you when you exit. Most clubs run tight back-to-back bookings and rely on players to leave the court ready for the next group.

How scoring works - the short version

Padel scoring is identical to tennis - 15, 30, 40, game - so if you have ever played or watched tennis you already know the basics. Two main differences matter at deuce. The full padel scoring guide covers every variant; the version you need on day one is below.

• Win a point: 0 to 15, 15 to 30, 30 to 40, then game.
• At 40-40 (deuce), the next point won is announced as “advantage”. Win the following point and you take the game. Lose it and the score returns to deuce.
• First pair to six games (with a two-game margin) wins the set. Standard matches are best of three sets.
• The serving pair serves one whole game, then the other pair serves the next. Within a service game, the server alternates the side they serve from after every point.

Many pro and recreational events use “golden point” - a single sudden-death point at deuce instead of advantage. Both formats are legal under FIP rules. For a casual first session, advantage scoring is the more forgiving option.

The five rules you need on day one

The full rulebook runs to forty-odd clauses. Five matter on day one. The complete walkthrough sits in our padel rules guide.

• The serve is underarm only. Bounce the ball behind the service line first, then strike it at or below the level of your hip (the iliac crest). Land it diagonally in the opposite service box.
• You get two service attempts per point. A let on the net cord is replayed and does not consume an attempt.
• The walls are in play. A ball that bounces in your court and then hits your back glass or side glass stays in play. You can return it off your own wall back to the opponents.
• You cannot hit the ball before it bounces in your own court. The only exception is a volley taken in the air - and that has to clear the net cleanly without touching glass on your own side first.
• A point ends when the ball bounces twice, hits the net, or lands outside the court. Lobs that clear the opponents’ court and bounce on the floor outside count as out only if they cleared the back glass without bouncing inside first.

After the session - what comes next

If you enjoyed it - which most beginners do within the first 15 minutes - book a second session within two weeks. The biggest gains come from quick repetition rather than from a long break between sessions.

Two specific next steps make the second session better. First, watch a few pro Premier Padel highlights on YouTube to see how positioning and patient point-building unfold. Second, read our padel positioning guide. The single biggest level jump for beginners is moving together as a pair - not hitting the ball harder.

When you are ready to commit, our beginner rackets guide covers the buying decision, and the padel levels guide walks through the Playtomic, MATCHi, LTA and FIP rating systems so you can find players at your standard.

Download the printable first session checklist

We have boiled the kit list, etiquette, scoring and rules into a single-page A4 printable checklist. Take it with you to the club or stick it on the fridge before your first booking.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to book? Browse our padel clubs directory to find a beginner-friendly court near you.