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A year ago I swapped Sunday football for padel. Here's an honest rundown of the beginner mistakes I made in my first month — and how to skip them.
A year ago I traded my Sunday football match for padel, and I still haven't looked back. My rating is 1.5, I'm very much still a beginner, and I shank easy balls on a regular basis. But in that year I think I stepped on every rake a newcomer can step on. This article is my honest diary: the mistakes nobody warned me about, plus the things I wish someone had told me in my first week.
The biggest beginner trap is thinking padel is just "tennis on a small court." I thought exactly that. The court is 20 by 10 metres, fully enclosed by glass and wire mesh, and it's always played four people — two against two. The walls aren't an obstacle; they're part of the game. The ball comes off them, and you're meant to play it.
Because of that, the whole logic is different. In tennis the harder, faster hitter usually wins. In padel the patient, accurate player wins. Points are far more often won by an opponent's error than by a clean winner. Making that switch in your head is the hardest part for a beginner, and almost every mistake below comes from failing to make it.
Padel is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world right now, and Tashkent keeps adding courts. The good news: the barrier to entry is low. The bad news: without grasping a few basics, you'll spin your wheels longer than you need to.
For my first month I smacked the ball like I was taking a penalty kick. In tennis or football, power wins. In padel it almost always punishes you: the ball flies into the back glass, bounces back nicely to your opponent at the net, and there goes the point.
What I learned:
When I forced myself to hit at 60% and think about placement, my percentage of rallies won jumped within a couple of weeks.
I held the racket like a tennis forehand — "palm behind the handle." That's comfortable for one shot, but in padel you constantly play forehand, backhand, overhead, and off the wall. The all-purpose answer is the continental grip (also called the "hammer grip" or "shaking hands with the handle").
Hold the racket as if you were shaking its hand, or gripping a hammer. With this grip you don't have to twist your wrist between forehand and backhand — and that's half a court's worth of saved balls. I lost about two weeks before someone on court showed me in thirty seconds. Sometimes one tip from a coach saves you a month of self-teaching — more on that below.
My football-and-tennis instinct kept me back near the rear wall. But in padel, points are won at the net. The worst place to stand is the middle of the court — the dreaded "no-man's-land" — where you can't reach the net and can't comfortably play the ball off the back glass either.
The positioning rules I took away:
A specific beginner headache: the ball flies between you and your partner, and you both lunge for it or both freeze. The general rule is that the forehand player takes the middle (for two right-handers, that's the player on the left). But more important than the rule is agreeing before the point.
The strangest and best thing about padel is that you can — and should — play the ball after it bounces off the back glass wall. For my first weeks I watched those balls go by as if they were out. They're not out: let the ball hit the glass, rebound towards you, and play it calmly.
What helped me stop fearing the glass:
Once I learned to play "off the glass," the court suddenly felt bigger and the panic faded.
Padel is a team game, like football. Yet for my first month I played as if my partner wasn't there. The result was predictable: we both charged the same ball and collided, or we both froze and let an easy one drop.
The minimal vocabulary that kills half the chaos:
Call loud and early. Better to call one time too many than to crack heads. By the way, if you don't have a regular partner yet, that's very fixable in Tashkent — more below.
I proudly bought a "pro" racket — stiff, heavy, with a diamond (teardrop) shape. Two sessions later my elbow ached and my control was no better than before. The classic beginner mistake.
What I should have known straight away:
Don't repeat my mistake — I broke down how to choose properly in a dedicated guide: how to choose your first padel racket. In short: start light, round, and soft.
I used to walk onto a football pitch cold and get away with it. Not in padel: sharp turns, sprints to the net, and overheads soon gave me an aching elbow and wrist. "Padel elbow" is a real thing, and in beginners it comes from poor technique and a heavy racket.
My short pre-game warm-up (5–7 minutes):
And don't skip the cool-down or the water. Injuries early on are the most common way people quit padel.
I wanted to finish rallies in style, so I kept going for risky put-aways. The result was a mountain of my own errors. For beginners, points are won not by winners but by simply keeping the ball in play longer than your opponent.
The key weapon of patience is the lob, a high ball over your opponents toward the back wall. A good lob:
I underrated the lob for a long time — wrongly. It's probably the most underrated shot among beginners.
My logic was: stand right against the wall and I'll reach everything. The reality is the opposite. If you stand flush against it, the ball rebounds off the glass straight into your body with no room to swing. You need to give yourself space: stand a step or two off the wall so you can take the ball at a comfortable point after the bounce.
And about footwork. Padel is 80% legwork. The two things that helped me most:
When your opponent lobs you while you're at the net, smashing it with everything you have is almost always a mistake (see Mistake 1). The pro answer is the bandeja: a controlled, sliced overhead that doesn't win the point outright but holds your position at the net and refuses to give up the initiative.
It's the first "grown-up" shot a beginner should learn after the basics. I covered it separately: what the bandeja is and how to hit it. Don't try to master it in your first week — but keep it in mind as your next goal.
My first lesson pleasantly surprised me: within twenty minutes I was making contact and playing simple rallies. Padel really is friendly to beginners — that's its superpower.
What to bring:
A good coach will give you the grip, the basic position, and a shot or two in an hour — saving you weeks of self-inflicted frustration. You can book a first lesson in Tashkent through our coaches, and see where people play around the city on the Tashkent courts page.
Honestly: the first two weeks were frustrating. In the third week something clicked, I won my first set — and that's the exact moment padel hooked me for good. A year in, at rating 1.5, I'm still a beginner, but I genuinely enjoy it and rarely hand over easy points.
A rough feel for the timeline:
The pace depends on how often you play and whether you take lessons. A regular partner slightly above your level speeds up progress more than anything — and finding partners in Tashkent is exactly how you meet them.
If I could go back a year, I'd tell myself something short: relax and enjoy it. And five more things:
Padel is about patience, brains, and good company. The best part starts a little later than it seems on your first session. Hang on until week three — and you'll be as hooked as I am.
No — padel is one of the most beginner-friendly racket sports. You'll make contact and play simple rallies in your very first lesson; the difficulty lives in the tactics, not the basics.
At least one or two at the start are highly recommended. A coach will set your grip and positioning in an hour and save you weeks of solo trial and error — you can book through our coaches.
The basics are noticeably easier and faster to learn than tennis because the court is smaller and the walls help you. But the skill ceiling is just as high — tactics and net play take time.
Court shoes with good grip, comfortable clothing, and water. It's best to rent a racket at the court rather than buy one in advance.
Sustaining rallies and standing in sensible positions usually takes 1–3 months of regular play. A steady partner and a few lessons shorten that timeline.
Not right away. Play your first sessions with a rental, and once you know you're hooked, choose a light, round, soft racket using our first-racket guide.
An honest diary for absolute beginners: first lessons, the mistakes nobody warns you about, choosing your first racket and your first steps on court. Thinking about your first game? Start here.
Schedules, payment, check-in and canceling politely — a step-by-step guide to booking a padel court in Tashkent so your first game goes smoothly.
