The best shots in padel, ranked by what actually wins points.

Every "best padel shots" article on the internet ranks by spectacle: the por-tres smash, the bajada, the golden-point winner off the back glass. Fun to watch. Almost useless as a guide to what to practise.

Here's a different ranking — by what the match-analysis research says actually decides points. One principle organises everything: the pair at the net wins 74–82% of short rallies (Escudero-Tena et al., 2024). So a shot's real value is what it does to territory — who holds the net after it's hit. Rank shots that way and the list looks very different.

1. The deep lob — the most valuable shot in club padel

Why it's first: it's the sport's territory-flipping weapon. When a defending pair tries to change position, they do it with a lob 85% of the time — and a well-executed deep lob succeeds in winning the net roughly 70% of the time (Muñoz et al., 2020).

No other shot in padel converts a losing position into a winning one with anything like that reliability. And no other shot is as undervalued at club level, where lobbing still carries a faint smell of cowardice. The pros know better: the lob is how you take the net, and the net is how you take the match.

Club refinement: depth beats disguise. A lob that lands three metres from the glass flips the court; a lob that sits up mid-court is a smash invitation. Practise depth until it's boring.

2. The bandeja — the shot that keeps what you won

Why it's second: overheads are ~55% of all professional winners, but the bandeja's real job isn't winning points — it's not losing the net. When opponents lob you, the bandeja lets you play the ball from above shoulder height while staying in position. Without it, every decent lob evicts you from the territory you just fought for.

This is the shot that most separates "plays padel" from "understands padel". It's also the definitive example of why ranking shots by highlight value fails: a bandeja almost never makes a highlight reel, and it's arguably the most important technical investment an improving player can make.

3. The volley — where club matches are actually decided

Why it's third: because it's both weapon and leak. Winning pairs at sub-elite level make significantly fewer volley errors than losing pairs (11.0 vs 14.6 per match — Ungureanu et al., 2022). The volley is the shot you hit most when it matters most — at the net, in the fight for the point.

The evidence-based rule: never volley from below net height when you have a reset available. The low, stretched volley is the most common self-inflicted wound in club padel — it feels aggressive and loses points. Volley for placement and position; let the ball bounce when you're reaching; keep the net.

4. The smash — the finisher (that you have to earn)

Why it's only fourth: yes, smashes win points — overheads dominate the pro winner statistics. But at club level the smash carries the worst risk-to-reward profile of any shot: attempted from bad positions, at bad heights, with scoreboard-changing errors as the price. The club data's message is blunt: finishing power matters after error economy and position, not before.

When you do smash, the choice matrix is position-based (there's even published decision-tree research on overhead selection): flat kill when you're close and the ball is high; vibora or bandeja when you're deeper; and when in doubt — bandeja, keep the net, wait for a better ball.

5. The serve — the most underrated shot in the sport

Why it makes the list at all: the serving pair wins 59.3% of points, and it's not because of aces (Escudero-Tena et al., 2024). The underarm serve looks trivial, but it's the engine of net control: servers hold the net after 65.9% of serves, and that positional head-start decays as rallies lengthen — the serve advantage falls from 71% in short rallies to 47% by shot thirteen.

Meanwhile club players miss 22.6% of serves — while the elite reference in the same research lands over 92% of first serves. A consistent, deep, wide serve that gets you to the net cleanly is worth more than any weapon on this list costing you double faults.

The honest footnote

One limitation worth naming: most of this research coded professional and sub-elite matches, and pro patterns don't transfer perfectly to a Thursday-night level 2.5 game — club rallies are shorter, errors commoner, and the smash rarer. That's precisely why we built PADEXA's analysis around club-level evidence and your own footage rather than pro benchmarks: the best shot in padel is whichever one your match data says you're losing points without.

Film your match, and PADEXA will show you — every rally watched, the one fix that matters, proven with your own clips. First match free at padexa.ai.

Sources

• Escudero-Tena, A. et al. (2024). Rally dynamics, serve advantage and finishing zones in professional padel. Applied Sciences, 14(15).
• Muñoz, D. et al. (2020). Lob effectiveness and court position changes in padel. IJERPH, 17(11).
• Escudero-Tena, A. et al. (2022). Winners and errors in professional padel. Applied Sciences, 12(16).
• Ungureanu, A.N., Lupo, C. & Brustio, P.R. (2022). Padel match analysis: notational and time-motion analysis during official Italian sub-elite competitions. IJERPH, 19(14).
• Overhead shot-selection decision-tree analysis (2025). Applied Sciences, 15(4).