It has happened to all of us at some point: someone goes over the net with the shovel, or hits the ball in the opponent's court, and we can't agree on whether this action is legal or not.
Don't worry, in today's article we solve the doubts about these common situations in the game:
Can you pass the paddle tennis racket to the other field?
The answer is yes, we can pass the net with the shovel, but as long as we meet a series of conditions:
In "RULE 13. LOST POINT" of the Game Regulations of the International Padel Federation, the following is established:
In no case is it prevented from passing the racket, arm or head to the other field when making a volley or a shot, for example, provided that
- Let's not touch the net with our shovel, body or clothing, including the posts, or any element of the rival field such as the mesh.
- Let's not interfere with the rival since it would be his turn to return.
- As long as we hit the ball in our court and the inertia of the blow makes us pass it.
This last point has certain nuances. As a general rule, we cannot hit the ball in the opponent's court, but does that mean that this rule is met in all cases?
Can we invade the opponent's half and hit the ball in the opponent's half?
The answer to this question depends on the game situation we are in:
- Our rival makes a strong blow, SMASH that bounces in our field, bounces off the glass and passes the net returning to the rival's field. In this case, YES we could go over the net with our paddle to hit the ball, either to take it out by 4, make a sleepyhead or any other blow, but bearing in mind that we cannot touch the net or its posts with our body, our clothes or with the shovel, otherwise the point would be considered lost.
- Our rival makes a dropshot with great effect, making the ball, once it bounces in our field, go over the net and return to his field. Here, as in the previous option, YESI would be allowed to pass the racket to the opposite field to touch the ball, but without touching the net or posts as we said before.
- My opponent hits the wall, but his ball falls short and we don't know if it will enter our court or not, so I go ahead and hit the ball in his court to get it out for 4 . Here NO we could hit the ball in his court because we could not invade his court as stated in RULE 13 LOST POINT in section D already that we would hit the ball before it has gone over the net.
- During the match, my opponent hits a normal shot and I hit my volley into his court.
As in the previous case, we would be hitting the ball before it went over the net and the point would be lost.
As in the previous case, we would be hitting the ball before it went over the net and the point would be lost.
As a final summary, we can pass the paddle to the opponent's field to hit the ball as long as the ball has bounced in our field first, while, on the contrary, if the ball has not passed the net towards our field We will NOT be able to pass the shovel to hit.
Hopefully we have answered your questions!!
