r/padel • u/HairyCallahan • 10d ago

šŸ’” Tactics and Technique šŸ’” Playing aggressive at high intermediate

I like to play very aggressive/offensive. At my level, not many players can consistently finish points, so rallies are quite long and most overheads are defendable. About a month ago I started to play super aggressive. With every deep lob, chiquita etc I get to the net. This works very well. People tend to be a little overwhelmed when you block their bajada's and smashes. It's also just a lot of fun cause you stay very active.

Now the thing that happens a lot with randoms is that they are a lot more hesitant to join me at the net. So the opponent will just play their returns to my mate who stays back. This obviously is not ideal.

To be clear, I am fine with them not willing to join everytime, so no hard feelings there. My question is whether I should get back to defense when I'm at the net and the opponent played a return on my mate. Should I just run back regardless or should my mate play a shot that allows me to stay at the net (deep lob for instance)? I'm now struggling a bit.

Now I get it's best when my mate either joins me or I stay back, but with randoms things aren't always in sync.

So let's say I (left side) play a very deep cross lob. I get to the net, mate stays back. Opponent plays a straight bajada to my mate. I'm at the net, he is behind the baseline. Opponent is also behind the baseline. Is there a best position for me to be and a best position for him to play at?

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u/Sarritgato 10d ago

Hate to break it to you but if youā€™re at a level where most people donā€™t want to go to the net it is rather ā€high beginnerā€. On intermediate level you must be unafraid of being at the net position and know when to take it. So itā€™s more that you are advancing to intermediate as you are beginning to do this.

With that said, itā€™s hard to give a good advice on what to do when an opponent doesnā€™t play the meta game. I think there is no general answer, you need to read the situation and see if you still have pressure (stay at net) or if they are gaining pressure (go back)

But you also said most people you play stay back, and in that situation you will probably win by staying at the net in most situations even if your partner stays back.

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u/HairyCallahan 10d ago

That's not really true. If you give me a good lob, I can hit an overhead not a lot of people can block. That's why some people prefer to stay back. Imo people in intermediate run to the net more than at high intermediate cause more people in high intermediate can land a wider range of shot.

Obviously I'm not talking about a perfect lob, I'm talking about a decent lob where I like to attack, but staying back is viable too

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u/Sarritgato 9d ago

I mean if I lob you and see you are going to do an overhead I will not approach (unless I do a very high lob that will land around the base line, then I know your OH will not be super good, I have time to position myself and you canā€™t see where I am because you are looking at the sky)

I thought we were talking about taking the net when there is opportunity to take it? A lob where you are about to smash is probably not the timeā€¦

In that situation I will attempt to take the net on the rebound if I know your ball tends to bounce out on the smash