Getting Started with Padel: The Complete UK Beginner's Guide

Padel is growing faster than any other sport in the UK. Courts are appearing at tennis clubs, leisure centres, and purpose-built padel venues from Aberdeen to Cornwall, and on any given weekend morning you will find groups of complete beginners having the time of their lives — most of them having picked up a paddle for the first time that same day. If you have been curious about the sport but are not sure where to begin, this guide walks you through everything you need for your first session and your first few months on court.

Before getting into the practical details, it helps to understand what padel actually is and why it has become so popular so quickly. The short version: it is a doubles racket sport played on an enclosed glass-and-mesh court about a third the size of a tennis court, and the walls are very much in play. It is fast, social, and — crucially for beginners — far easier to pick up than tennis or squash.

Your first padel session: what to expect

Most UK padel clubs offer structured beginner sessions, sometimes called introductory sessions or taster sessions, typically lasting 60 to 90 minutes. These are run in small groups of four to eight players and are usually led by a qualified LTA-licensed padel coach. The format is deliberately social — you will be playing with other beginners, nobody is expecting polished technique, and the coach's job is to make sure everyone is rallying and enjoying themselves as quickly as possible.

When you arrive at the club, head to the reception or the padel-specific desk if there is one. You will sign a brief waiver if it is your first visit, hire a paddle if you have not brought your own, and be shown to your court. Most padel courts are outdoors but covered, or fully enclosed indoors — either way, the playing surface is artificial grass with sand infill, similar to a 3G football surface, which gives the court its characteristic slightly cushioned feel underfoot.

The session usually begins with a short warm-up on court: gentle rallying across the net with your partner, getting used to the paddle's weight and the way the ball bounces off the glass walls. This is where most first-timers have their first moment of surprise — the walls are not a complication, they are what makes the game enjoyable. A ball that in tennis would sail out of bounds simply rebounds off the back glass, and suddenly you have another shot. The enclosed nature of the court is what creates the long, exciting rallies that padel is known for.

After the warm-up, a good coach will introduce the serve, talk through the basic rules, and then get you into point play as quickly as possible. By the halfway point of a 90-minute session, most groups are playing out full games, complete with scoring. The atmosphere at beginner sessions is almost always warm and encouraging — padel attracts people who want a social sport, and that culture tends to show from the very first session.

Equipment you need (and what you don't)

The most important piece of equipment for padel is a pair of non-marking court shoes. This matters more than most beginners expect. Running shoes — even expensive ones — are not suitable: they lack the lateral support needed for the side-to-side movements in padel, and their soles can mark the artificial grass surface. What you want is any shoe designed for indoor court sports or clay-court tennis. If you already own a pair of tennis shoes, bring those. If not, any trainer labelled for indoor sports or with a herringbone-pattern sole will do fine for your first few sessions while you decide whether padel is for you.

What you do not need to bring is a padel paddle (also sometimes called a padel racket, though strictly speaking padel paddles are perforated solid bats, not strung). Every padel club in the UK hires out paddles, typically for £2 to £5 per session. The hire paddles at most clubs are perfectly adequate for beginners — solid, mid-weight, and forgiving — so there is no reason to spend money on your own paddle before you have played a few times.

Once you are certain you want to play regularly, buying your own paddle makes sense both economically and in terms of feel. A good entry-level paddle costs around £40 to £70; mid-range options that will serve most club players well sit between £80 and £150. Our guide to the best padel rackets for beginners covers the specific models worth considering at each price point, with UK pricing and links to amazon.co.uk.

Padel balls are always provided by the club and are not something you need to buy or bring. They look almost identical to tennis balls but are slightly lower-pressured, giving a slower, more controlled bounce that suits the smaller court. Clothing is straightforward: comfortable sports kit, nothing specific to padel. Some players wear padel-specific clothing and shoes once they are playing regularly, but that is entirely optional.

To be explicit about what not to bring: a strung tennis racket will not work (the rules require a solid paddle), running shoes are genuinely unsuitable, and there is no need to bring a ball machine, ball hopper, or any other tennis-club paraphernalia. Padel is deliberately lightweight on kit requirements — it is part of what makes the sport so accessible.

Understanding the court and the game

A standard padel court measures 20 metres long by 10 metres wide (approximately 66 feet by 33 feet), which is roughly a third the size of a tennis court. The court is enclosed on all sides: the back walls and the lower portion of the side walls are made of toughened glass, while the upper portion of the side walls is metal mesh. The floor is artificial grass with sand infill, and the net runs across the centre at 88 centimetres high at the posts, dipping slightly to 88 centimetres in the middle as well — flatter than a tennis net.

Padel is always played as doubles — two players on each side of the net. This is not optional; singles padel exists but is almost never played socially or competitively in the UK. The doubles format is part of what makes the sport so social: you always have a partner, communication matters, and the game naturally creates conversation and camaraderie.

Each pair positions themselves according to where the point is in play. When your team is serving or rallying from the baseline, you stand near the back of the court. When you have forced your opponents onto the defensive, you advance toward the net — which, as we will cover in the tactics section, is where points are won in padel. Your partner mirrors your positioning, moving as a unit rather than independently.

The glass walls are the feature that most surprises first-timers and most delights them once they understand it. The ball can be played off the back glass and side glass at any time after it has bounced once on the floor. This means a ball that would be a clean winner in tennis — hit past you toward the back corner — becomes a retrievable situation in padel if you let it come off the glass and play your shot on the rebound. Wall play is the single skill that most separates an intermediate padel player from a beginner, but even in your first session you will start to develop an instinct for when the glass is your friend.

How padel scoring works

Padel uses the same scoring system as tennis, which means if you have watched or played tennis before, you already understand the basics. If not, here is a straightforward summary.

Within a single game, points progress as 15, 30, 40, game. If both sides reach 40, that situation is called deuce, and one side must then win two consecutive points to take the game — the first point at deuce gives that side advantage, and if they win the next point, the game is theirs. If the other side wins the next point, it returns to deuce and the process repeats.

Games accumulate into sets, and you need to win six games to take a set — but you must win by at least two games. So if the score reaches 5–5, play continues to 6–5 and then either 7–5 (set won) or 6–6, at which point a tiebreak is played. The tiebreak is a first-to-seven-points shootout (with a two-point lead required to win), and whoever wins it takes the set 7–6.

A padel match is typically best of three sets, meaning the first side to win two sets wins the match. At club social level, you will often play shorter formats — a single set, or a fixed number of games — to keep things moving and allow players to rotate.

One important rule that catches beginners out: in traditional padel scoring, only the serving side can score a point. If the receiving side wins a rally, they do not score — instead, they win the right to serve (and therefore the right to score on subsequent rallies). This is borrowed from squash rather than tennis and means that a side can serve for a long time without winning the game if they keep dropping rallies. For a full breakdown of the rules of padel, including less obvious rules around wall play and the serve, our dedicated rules guide covers everything in detail.

The serve: padel's most important basic

The padel serve is underarm, and that single fact removes most of the anxiety that beginners from a tennis background bring to the sport. There is no overhead serve, no ball toss to coordinate, no requirement for pace or spin. The serve in padel is a functional, low-risk stroke, and most beginners can produce a legal, effective serve within ten minutes of being shown the technique.

Here are the rules that govern it. The ball must be bounced on the floor within the service box (the area behind the service line on your side of the court) before you strike it. You must strike the ball below waist height — specifically, at or below the level of your hip. After bouncing, the ball must cross the net and land in the diagonal service box on the other side: if you are serving from the right side of the court (the deuce side), your serve must land in the opponent's left service box, and vice versa. The ball may then hit the side wall after landing, which is legal and often happens without consequence.

The most common beginner mistakes on the serve are dropping the ball too close to the body (making a clean strike difficult), swinging too hard (pace is not the point; placement and reliability are), and failing to aim diagonally (instinctively serving straight ahead, which is a fault). The second mistake matters most in the long run: an aggressive serve in padel is far less useful than a consistent, accurate one that starts the rally on your terms.

A practical tip: practise your serve alone or with a partner before a match by dropping and striking ten balls in a row without worrying about where they land, just to establish the muscle memory of the motion. Then refine the direction. Serve consistency is worth far more than pace at beginner and intermediate level.

Two serves are allowed, exactly as in tennis. A let (where the ball clips the net cord but still lands in the correct box) is replayed. If the ball fails to land in the diagonal service box on both attempts, the serving side loses the point.

Basic tactics for complete beginners

Padel tactics at the beginner level can be distilled into a small number of principles that, if applied consistently, will make you a noticeably better player within a few sessions. There is no need to study complicated patterns at this stage — the following is enough to win games against other beginners and hold your own at social club level.

Keep the ball in the diagonal. Padel, like tennis, is primarily played cross-court rather than down the line. Hitting diagonally gives you the most margin for error — the net is lower in the middle than at the sides, and the court is longer diagonally than it is straight. Beginners who try to hit down the line frequently miss. Beginners who keep the ball in the diagonal stay in rallies longer and force their opponents into errors.

Get to the net. This is the most important tactical principle in padel, and it separates the sport most fundamentally from baseline-oriented tennis. In padel, the net position is dominant. Players at the net can angle balls away from their opponents, play attacking volleys, and generate winners from positions that would be unreachable from the baseline. When you have hit a decent ball that has your opponents on the back foot, move forward. The goal is to reach the net before they can reset.

Return low. When you are at the baseline defending against opponents at the net, your objective is to keep the ball as low as possible — ideally below the height of the net when it crosses. A high ball to opponents at the net is an invitation for an attacking overhead or bandeja shot that will win the point immediately. A low ball forces them to lift it and gives you time to recover or advance.

Use the back wall on defence. When your opponents hit a ball that gets past you toward the back glass, do not panic and do not rush. Let the ball bounce on the floor and then come off the glass, and play your shot off the rebound. This takes a few sessions to feel natural but dramatically extends your ability to retrieve what would otherwise be losing positions. The back wall is your ally, not your enemy.

These four principles — cross-court, net position, low returns, and back-wall defence — will carry you a long way. More advanced tactical ideas, including the lob, the bandeja, and the vibora, become relevant once you are playing regularly and want to refine your game further.

Finding your first club and booking

The UK now has more than 2,400 padel courts, and the number is growing rapidly every month. Finding somewhere to play near you is straightforward through a combination of platforms and directories.

Playtomic is the dominant booking platform for padel in the UK and most of Europe. You can download the app or use the website, search by location, and see available slots at every affiliated club in real time. Most UK clubs use Playtomic for bookings, and it shows you court hire prices, session types, and availability without needing to call anyone. Many beginner sessions and group clinics are bookable through Playtomic as well as individual court hire.

The LTA's padel court finder at lta.org.uk lists all LTA-affiliated venues with padel courts, which gives you a reliable sense of which clubs have qualified coaching and structured programmes. Not every padel venue in the UK is LTA-affiliated, but those that are tend to offer the structured beginner sessions that are most useful if you are new to the sport.

Our UK padel court directory covers the major cities with detailed venue information, including which clubs offer beginner programmes, court hire prices, and links to booking pages. It is worth checking if you want a curated view rather than scrolling through a generic map.

When choosing a club as a beginner, look for a few specific things. A club that runs group beginner sessions with a coach is far more useful than one that only offers court hire — you will learn more in one coached session than in three or four unsupervised games. Check whether the club has a social play programme, which is usually a structured session where players of mixed ability show up and rotate partners. These sessions are where most regular padel friendships are made and are a fast route into a playing network.

In terms of cost, court hire for four players typically costs £12 to £25 per hour, split four ways making it £3 to £6 per person. Group coaching sessions for beginners run from £10 to £20 per person including paddle hire. Private lessons with an LTA padel coach are available at most clubs for £40 to £70 per hour and are particularly useful for players who want to correct specific technique issues quickly.

How to improve quickly

The honest answer to improving at padel is to play regularly and to play with people who are slightly better than you. That said, there are specific things you can do to accelerate your development.

Attend group sessions consistently. Playing once a week in a structured group session — even at beginner level — is more effective than playing three times a week in unstructured social games. A coach will give you corrections that you simply cannot give yourself, and the structured format forces you to practise the parts of the game that are unfamiliar.

Book a block of lessons. Most LTA padel coaches offer block bookings of four to six lessons at a slight discount, and working through a structured programme covers serve, positioning, wall play, and basic tactics in a logical sequence. The LTA's coach finder at lta.org.uk allows you to search for qualified padel coaches by location. Padel England also maintains a list of registered coaches and programmes.

Play with better players whenever you can. Most padel clubs run intermediate social sessions that are technically open to all, and if you have played five or six times, you will be welcome at these sessions even if you are still developing. Playing with stronger players exposes you to shots and pace you will not see in beginner sessions, and it forces you to raise your game. Be upfront about your level when booking — most experienced players are happy to play with beginners in a social context.

Watch the sport. The World Padel Tour streams matches on YouTube and the WPT's own platform, and watching professional doubles — even for twenty minutes — teaches you a huge amount about positioning, when to advance to the net, and how wall play operates at high speed. The patterns of movement become much clearer watching professionals than they do reading descriptions of them.

A realistic timeline for improvement looks roughly like this. After four to six sessions, most players have a reliable serve, understand the scoring, and can sustain a reasonable rally. After two to three months of weekly play, positioning and basic wall play start to feel instinctive. After six months, most players are operating comfortably at club social level and can hold their own in mixed-ability sessions. The rate of improvement is faster than most racket sports at the beginner stage, which is one of the reasons people find padel so immediately satisfying.

Next steps

Getting started with padel is genuinely straightforward: find a club with beginner sessions, wear the right shoes, hire a paddle, and show up. The sport does the rest. The enclosed court, the forgiving walls, and the doubles format create a social experience that most beginners find addictive from their very first session.

Once you have a few sessions under your belt, there are several areas worth exploring to continue your development. Understanding the full rules of padel in detail — including the nuances of wall play, the let rule, and how points are awarded — will make you a more confident player and help you resolve disputes on court. When you are ready to buy your own paddle, our guide to the best padel rackets for beginners and intermediates covers the options available on amazon.co.uk at every budget, with notes on what to look for in a first paddle versus a step-up model. And when you want to explore new venues or travel for padel, our UK padel court directory lists clubs across the country with booking information and coaching availability.

The sport is growing fast, the community is welcoming, and the courts are filling up every weekend. The best time to start was six months ago. The second best time is this week.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I need to bring to my first padel session?

For your first session, all you need is a pair of non-marking court shoes — any indoor or clay court tennis shoe will do. Padel clubs hire out paddles for a small fee (usually £2–£5), so you do not need to buy one before you try the sport. Padel balls are always provided by the club. Bring a water bottle and comfortable sports clothing.

How much does it cost to start playing padel in the UK?

A beginner group session typically costs between £10 and £20, including paddle hire. Once you decide to play regularly, you may want to buy your own paddle — entry-level options start at around £40, with mid-range paddles running from £80 to £150. Court hire for casual play costs £12–£25 per hour depending on the venue and time of day.

How quickly can a complete beginner learn padel?

Most beginners can enjoy a proper rally in their first session. The underarm serve, solid paddle, and enclosed court all reduce the skill barrier compared to tennis. Within four to six sessions, most players understand positioning, the scoring system, and basic wall play. Improving to a confident club-level player typically takes three to six months of regular play.

Do I need any experience of tennis or squash to play padel?

No prior racket sport experience is needed. Padel is designed to be accessible from day one. That said, tennis players often find the scoring system familiar and may adapt quickly — though habits like the overhead serve and topspin baseline rallies do not transfer directly, since padel technique is quite different.

How do I find a padel court near me in the UK?

The easiest way is through Playtomic, which lists thousands of UK padel courts with real-time booking. You can also search the LTA's padel court finder or check our UK padel court directory, which covers the major cities. There are now more than 2,400 padel courts across the UK, at purpose-built padel centres and tennis clubs that have added courts.