Though Padel's Glossary is very similar to tennis, there are some specific words which attain this sport.
Common words with tennis
Backhand – hitting the ball with the back of the racquet hand facing the ball at the moment of contact.
Drop shot – a play in which the player hits the ball lightly enough to just go over the net; designed to catch a player who is away from the net off guard.
Forehand or Drive – the player hits the tennis ball with a stroke that comes from behind their body with the front of their racquet hand facing the ball.
Lob – a stroke in padel where the ball is hit high above the net. In Padel, lobs are played deffensively, when opponents are at the net, in order to force them to chase down the ball.
Smash - a situation when the player is hitting the ball over his/her head, with an extra amount of strength, in order to make the ball leave the court after bouncing or come back to his own part of the court.
Volley – a forehand or backhand shot executed before the ball bounces in the court.
Spins
Topspin – spin of a ball where the top of the ball rotates toward the direction of travel; the spin goes forward over the top of the ball, causing the ball to dip and bounce at a higher angle to the court. When the ball hits the wall with this spin, it bounces higher and with less speed.
It's also known "lift" in Spain.
Backspin – (also known as slice or underspin), is a shot such that the ball rotates backwards after it is hit. The trajectory of the shot involves an upward force that lifts the ball.
Flat – a shot without spin.
Since topspin performed with a backhand is very rare and hard to perform in Padel, players tend to use spin for the topspin made with the forehand (or drive).
Specific Padel words
Bandeja( Ban-dae-ha:) - Fig." to do the tray". A kind of smash shot, used mainly to win the net and define the point from there. The main difference with the usual smash is the bandeja shot is made with less power, more spin and consequently has more safety. It is mainly pointed to the side wall and corner, in order to have more time to recover our attack position and make things difficult to our opponent. The ball is not hit overhead but by the side.
Counterwall - A deffensive hit performed with the player facing the wall. The ball is hit from below, it bounces on the wall and finally goes over the net making a lob.
Dormilona ( Door-mee-lon-ae ) - fig." to do the sleepyhead" Action consisting in a smooth shot in the ball when returns to our side of the pitch, after hitting our back wall when our opponent has executed a smash. When this happens, the ball is coming like floating next to the net, and we take advantage of this fact by rapping the ball at its back side with a smooth slice on it, which will make it returning to our side in a spectacular and soflty way after rebound in the court, with no option of replying for our opponent.
Viper - A kind of smash inbetween a power smash and a bandeja. Performed overhead, it combines a certain amount of strength with bandeja's spin.
Now, let's get down to the hardests expressions when it comes to the ball leaving the court.
Common words with tennis
Backhand – hitting the ball with the back of the racquet hand facing the ball at the moment of contact.
Drop shot – a play in which the player hits the ball lightly enough to just go over the net; designed to catch a player who is away from the net off guard.
Forehand or Drive – the player hits the tennis ball with a stroke that comes from behind their body with the front of their racquet hand facing the ball.
Lob – a stroke in padel where the ball is hit high above the net. In Padel, lobs are played deffensively, when opponents are at the net, in order to force them to chase down the ball.
Smash - a situation when the player is hitting the ball over his/her head, with an extra amount of strength, in order to make the ball leave the court after bouncing or come back to his own part of the court.
Volley – a forehand or backhand shot executed before the ball bounces in the court.
Spins
Topspin – spin of a ball where the top of the ball rotates toward the direction of travel; the spin goes forward over the top of the ball, causing the ball to dip and bounce at a higher angle to the court. When the ball hits the wall with this spin, it bounces higher and with less speed.
It's also known "lift" in Spain.
Backspin – (also known as slice or underspin), is a shot such that the ball rotates backwards after it is hit. The trajectory of the shot involves an upward force that lifts the ball.
Flat – a shot without spin.
Since topspin performed with a backhand is very rare and hard to perform in Padel, players tend to use spin for the topspin made with the forehand (or drive).
Specific Padel words
Bandeja( Ban-dae-ha:) - Fig." to do the tray". A kind of smash shot, used mainly to win the net and define the point from there. The main difference with the usual smash is the bandeja shot is made with less power, more spin and consequently has more safety. It is mainly pointed to the side wall and corner, in order to have more time to recover our attack position and make things difficult to our opponent. The ball is not hit overhead but by the side.
Counterwall - A deffensive hit performed with the player facing the wall. The ball is hit from below, it bounces on the wall and finally goes over the net making a lob.
Dormilona ( Door-mee-lon-ae ) - fig." to do the sleepyhead" Action consisting in a smooth shot in the ball when returns to our side of the pitch, after hitting our back wall when our opponent has executed a smash. When this happens, the ball is coming like floating next to the net, and we take advantage of this fact by rapping the ball at its back side with a smooth slice on it, which will make it returning to our side in a spectacular and soflty way after rebound in the court, with no option of replying for our opponent.
Viper - A kind of smash inbetween a power smash and a bandeja. Performed overhead, it combines a certain amount of strength with bandeja's spin.
Now, let's get down to the hardests expressions when it comes to the ball leaving the court.
Padel's fences measure 3 meters at both sides and 4 meters at the extreme of the court.
One of the purposes of smashing is to make the ball leave the court.
One of the purposes of smashing is to make the ball leave the court.
Depending on the height, we can call it "take the ball off the court by 3 meters or by 4 meters".
Shortly, this expression is shortened to "take it out over 3" or "leave over 3".
