How to Serve in Padel: The Underarm Serve, Explained

The padel serve is the one shot every player uses and almost no one practises. It is always underarm. You bounce the ball once behind the service line, strike it at or below waist height, and send it diagonally into the box across the net. No toss, no overhead, no power for its own sake. The serve does not win the point on its own. A careless one gives the point away, and a considered one hands your side the first move.

The short version: To serve in padel you bounce the ball once, then strike it underarm at or below the waist, standing behind the service line, and land it in the diagonally opposite service box. You get two attempts. It is a placement shot, not a power shot: spin and position matter more than pace.

How do you serve in padel?

You serve underarm. Stand behind the service line on the correct side of the centre line, bounce the ball once on the ground, and hit it at or below the level of your waist so it lands in the service box diagonally opposite. The ball must clear the net and stay within the lines. As in tennis, a first-serve fault gives you a second attempt.

A few details separate a legal serve from a fault. Contact has to happen at or below waist height, which is why padel has no big overhead delivery. At least one foot stays behind the service line at the moment you strike, and you serve into the box on the diagonal, changing sides after every point. Serve alternates between partners game by game, so you serve, then your partner serves the next time it is your team's turn.

If you are new to the game and want the wider frame, our guide to padel rules, explained simply covers scoring, the walls and the let. This article stays with the serve.

What changed in the 2026 padel serve rules?

The International Padel Federation updated its serve rules on 1 January 2026, and two changes are worth knowing. First, the foot rule was relaxed: now only one foot needs to be behind the service line at the moment of contact, rather than both. Second, and more consequential, the ball may not cross the service line or the centre line, or their imaginary extensions, before you strike it.

In plain terms, the bounce and the whole path of the ball before contact now have to stay inside your own service area. Players used to drift the ball forward, a little past the line "in the air," to steal a step toward the net. That is a fault under the new wording. The position of your body has not changed, but the trajectory of the ball before the strike is now what gets judged. For most club players the practical effect is small, since most already serve legally, and the tidier serve lets you drive forward with more momentum toward the net.

The serve, step by step

A padel player in a balanced stance ready to serve at Azoria in Uluwatu, Bali

The mechanics are simple, which is exactly why they reward attention. Four things, in order.

1. Grip

Hold the racket in a continental grip, the same one you use for a volley or a bandeja. Set the base knuckle of your index finger on the top bevel of the handle. It gives you a flat face for control and enough wrist freedom to add slice later.

2. Stance

Stand side-on, your non-dominant shoulder toward the net, feet about shoulder-width apart and knees soft. Your front foot points toward the box you are aiming at. Balanced, quiet, ready to move.

3. The bounce and the strike

Drop the ball just in front of you and let it bounce once. Do not throw it down. Under the 2026 rules, keep that bounce comfortably inside your service box, well clear of the lines. Then swing like a short pendulum: the racket travels from behind your hip to a contact point around belt height, in front of your body. Smooth, compact, unhurried. Hit through the ball for a flat serve, brush across it for slice.

4. Move

The serve is a first step, not a full stop. The instant you make contact, take two or three quick steps toward the net. In doubles the serving pair starts at a disadvantage, back at the line while the returners hold the net, so every serve is followed forward. Standing still after you serve hands the net away.

Placement beats power

Two padel players in a doubles point where the serve is played diagonally, at Azoria in Uluwatu, Bali

A serve at sixty an hour into the right spot beats a serve at ninety into nowhere. Because the delivery is underarm, you cannot bully anyone with pace, so the value is in where you put it and what the ball does after it bounces. Aim for the corners and the glass, vary the target, and let the walls do the work.

Four placements are worth owning:

Deep to the back glass. A serve that carries off the back wall forces an awkward return and is the safe, high-percentage choice at club level.

Wide to the side wall. A slice that kicks off the side glass pulls the returner off court and makes them read two bounces at once, the floor and the wall.

Into the body. Aimed at the returner's hip, the body serve removes their angles and cramps the swing.

Short into the box. Dropped just over the net, it drags the returner forward and out of position. Higher risk, and a useful surprise.

Mix the four. A predictable server is an easy returner's favourite. The strategy and positioning that follows the serve, who covers the middle, when to lob, is where the point is actually won.

Three serves to learn, in order

A padel racket and ball held in hand before an underarm serve at Azoria Padel Club in Uluwatu

You do not need ten serves. You need three, learned in this order.

The flat serve. A neutral face, straight through the ball, clean and repeatable. Learn this first and use it under pressure.
The slice serve. Brush across the ball so it curves in the air and skids low off the glass. This is the everyday serve above beginner level, because the low, spinning bounce is hard to attack.
The body serve. Not a fourth technique so much as a target, but worth naming: the same flat or slice ball aimed straight at the returner to jam the return.

Add them one at a time. A reliable flat serve and a decent slice will take you a long way before anything fancier matters. For the shots that come after, the bandeja, the vibora and playing off the walls are the next things to learn.

The serve, at Azoria Padel Club

The serve is the easiest part of padel to neglect and one of the quickest to improve, which makes it a good use of a quiet morning. At Azoria Padel Club, five courts sit on the clifftop at Uluwatu, one of them central, open from seven in the morning until eleven at night. A basket of balls and twenty minutes, a slice bounce learned against the side glass, a body serve tried until it lands: this is what a warm-up hour is for, before the match and the long drink after.

If you would rather be shown than told, the coaches at the Azoria Padel Academy take the serve apart properly, from grip to placement, and our note on how to improve your padel in a week puts it in a plan. New to all of it, and wondering where to start on the Bukit, our guide to where to play padel in Uluwatu is the place to begin.

Frequently asked questions

Is the padel serve underarm or overhand?
Underarm, always. You bounce the ball once and strike it at or below waist height. There is no overhead serve in padel, which is one of the things that makes it quicker to pick up than tennis.

How many serves do you get in padel?
Two. If your first serve is a fault, you take a second. Two faults in a row is a double fault and the point goes to the returning side, exactly as in tennis.

What changed about the padel serve in 2026?
From 1 January 2026 the International Padel Federation relaxed the foot rule so only one foot must be behind the service line at contact, and it now requires that the ball not cross the service or centre line, or their imaginary extensions, before you strike it.

Can you serve to the side glass in padel?
Yes. The ball must first bounce in the correct service box, but a serve sliced so it then kicks off the side glass is one of the most effective deliveries, because the wall bounce is hard to read.

Do you have to let the serve bounce before returning it?
Yes. The return must be taken after the ball has bounced once. You cannot volley a serve out of the air, which is the one moment in padel where a volley is not allowed.

Bounce, strike below the waist, and go forward. Everything else in the point follows from that first quiet, deliberate half-second.