Padel Forehand Technique: The Short Swing That Wins the Point

Your Tennis Forehand Is the Wrong Shot for This Court

Most players who pick up padel after years of tennis assume the forehand transfers directly. It does not. A tennis forehand is built around a long backswing and full extension because the court is open and the ball has room to breathe. A padel forehand lives inside four enclosed walls, against a lower net, with a ball that comes back off the glass sooner than you expect. The long, loaded swing that generates pace on a tennis court is the same swing that gets you jammed, mistimed, or flat-out beaten by the next shot in padel.

The counterintuitive part is this: cutting the swing down does not cost you power. On a solid-faced padel racket, most of the pace already comes from the carbon weave and the core, not from how far back you take the racket. A shorter, earlier, more compact forehand hits cleaner, recovers faster, and gives your opponents less time to read where the ball is going.

The Setup: Split Step, Turn, Short Take-Back

Everything starts with the split step. The moment your opponent makes contact, you should be landing on the balls of your feet, ready to push off in either direction. Skip this and every forehand after it starts a half-beat late.

From the split step, the first real movement is not the racket, it is your shoulders. Turn your hips and shoulders sideways to the net as soon as you read the ball is coming to your forehand side. The racket follows the turn automatically into a short take-back, roughly shoulder height, nowhere near the exaggerated loop of a tennis stroke. Coaches at LTA Padel describe this as preparing the racket the instant you see the ball is coming your way, not waiting until it bounces.

Stand mostly sideways, with your non-dominant shoulder pointing toward the net. A fully open, chest-on stance is the easiest way to end up arm-only on contact, because your body has nothing left to rotate into the shot.

Contact Point and Follow-Through

Contact happens out in front of your body, roughly level with your front hip, not beside you and not behind you. Hit it late and the ball sails wide or long because the racket face has already started closing. Hit it too early and you lose the stability of your front leg.

The swing itself is a push through the back of the ball, with the strings staying on line toward your target for as long as possible, rather than a big circular tennis-style arc. The Padel School frames it as driving through the ball with a short, controlled follow-through instead of swinging for maximum extension. The follow-through itself stays compact, finishing somewhere around shoulder height, not wrapped all the way around your body.

The diagram below shows the difference at a glance: a tennis forehand's full loop against a padel forehand's short, flat pass through the ball.

The Wrong-Swing Trap: Three Mistakes That Cost You the Point

These three mistakes show up more than any others, and they usually travel together.

Mistake	Why it happens	The fix
Swinging too hard	The forehand is the shot players feel most comfortable with, so it is the one they overhit.	Swing at roughly 60 percent effort and let the racket's own carbon and core do the rest of the work.
Standing too square	Facing the net instead of turning sideways removes the hip and shoulder rotation that drives the shot.	Turn the moment you read the ball, not when it bounces. The racket follows the turn, not the other way round.
Chopping the slice	Hacking down on the ball instead of brushing through it kills control and sends the ball long or into the net.	Keep brushing through the back of the ball on a slice, the same line as a flat forehand, just with a flatter racket angle.

None of these are talent problems. They are habits imported from other sports or from simply not having been shown the short version of the shot.

Flat, Slice, and Topspin: Which Forehand When

Most rallies are won with the flat forehand: a short, direct swing through the back of the ball, hit in front of the body, used whenever you have time and a comfortable ball. It is your default.

The slice forehand flattens the racket face slightly and brushes low to high, used mainly to approach the net or to control a difficult, low ball without having to generate much pace of your own. The topspin forehand brushes up the back of the ball with a steeper racket path, giving the shot a higher, safer arc over the net and a sharper drop once it clears, useful when you need extra net clearance or want to push an opponent back from the net.

None of these are separate techniques. They share the same turn, the same short take-back, and the same contact point. Only the racket face angle and the direction of the brush change.

A 10-Minute Drill to Groove the Short Swing

This is the simplest way to retrain a long swing into a short one without a coach standing over you.

1. Mark a line. Place a piece of tape or a towel on the back fence at hip height.
2. Feed easy balls. Have a partner, or a wall rebound, feed you 10 straightforward forehands.
3. Hit without touching the line. Your racket's take-back should never reach the marker. If it does, the swing is too long.
4. Add movement. Once 10 in a row stay short, repeat the drill while taking one small step into the ball before each swing.

What Your Forehand Asks of Your Racket

A compact forehand does not ask your racket for raw power, since the short swing already relies on the frame and core to supply that. It asks for two other things: a forgiving sweet spot for the contact points you will occasionally miss while you retrain the swing, and a grip you can trust without re-checking it mid-rally.

If you are still building consistency on the forehand, TŸR's 3K carbon and Soft EVA core give you a wider forgiving zone and a touch of extra dwell time on off-centre hits, which matters while the short swing is still becoming automatic. Once the shorter swing is grooved and you are generating your own pace consistently, Cøre 12K's stiffer carbon rewards the players who can already find the centre of the face on demand. Neither racket changes the technique in this article. It only changes how forgiving your mistakes are while you learn it.

The grip itself does not change between forehand and backhand. If you have not locked in the continental grip yet, read our guide to holding a padel racket first, since a wandering grip is the single most common reason a forehand feels inconsistent from one rally to the next.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the padel forehand the same as a tennis forehand?
No. The grip, the swing length, and the contact window are all different. Padel uses a continental grip and a short, compact swing, while a typical tennis forehand uses a bigger grip change and a longer backswing built for an open court.

Why does my forehand keep going long?
Most long forehands come from a late contact point or from swinging too hard rather than letting the racket do the work. Check that you are meeting the ball in front of your hip, not beside it.

Should I use topspin on every forehand?
No. Save topspin for when you need extra net clearance or want to push an opponent off the net. Most rally balls are better served by a flat, controlled forehand.

How do I stop mishitting off the frame?
A late or rushed turn is the usual cause. Start your shoulder turn the moment you read the ball, not when it arrives, and check whether your racket's sweet spot size matches your current consistency, covered in our sweet spot guide.

The Ace One Padel Verdict

A big forehand is not a strength in padel, it is a liability wearing a strength's clothes. The walls give the ball back to you. A low net and an enclosed court punish the long, loaded swing that tennis rewards. The forehand that actually wins points here is the one that looks almost too simple: turn early, take the racket back only a short distance, meet the ball in front of you, and let the carbon do the rest.

Short swing. Early turn. Same grip as your backhand. That is the whole forehand.