Padel FAQ

The bandeja, víbora and smash are read as overheads: turn side-on and track the ball up, a controlled preparation, contact out in front above the shoulder, a low finish toward the target, then recover forward to hold the net.

Groundstrokes, wall shots, lobs and the serve share a different outline that starts with reading the ball and the glass: decide whether to play it in the air or off the wall, prepare early, meet it out of the corner on balance, then recover position with your partner. The volley is read as a short punch at the net.

Choose "Groundstroke / Wall" for any ball you play after it comes off the glass, and the matching overhead for a bandeja, víbora or smash. Your choice sets the phase outline, whether your turn is graded (on the three overheads only) and which drills suit the shot. It is not what selects fault checks: Motion Lab's padel checks are designed to sort a groundstroke, volley or bandeja-style overhead from the movement around contact and are switched off until that sorting is calibrated on real clips, and the optional AI second opinion goes by the stroke it reads in your movement, falling back on your choice only when it cannot read one.

Pointing the camera straight at the glass invites reflections, and reflections can be picked up as false detections. Turn it slightly so glare falls away from the lens and both you and the wall stay visible.

Give yourself room. On a ball off the back glass you move back, turn and come forward to meet it, so a tight frame loses either the preparation or the contact.

Check that no part of the glass frame or the fence hides your body at the moment of contact — a clip that hides it cannot show the part of the shot that matters. The technique side is covered under wall play and glass reading.

That shapes what you are told to practice. A bandeja is not supposed to be fast, so it is never handed a drill for adding speed; on the smash, a full turn and pace are part of the goal.

Checks written for overheads alone, such as staying square to the net instead of turning side-on or moving your head off the ball before contact, are switched off until they are calibrated on real clips. For now an overhead is read through your turn, which is graded on all three, along with your balance and head stability.

Film overheads side-on in landscape and step back until your full reach fits in the frame. Guided recording keeps all three in landscape and leaves the most headroom for the smash, which reaches highest. A portrait clip is still analyzed, with a note suggesting landscape, but a video in which you appear on your side — usually a rotation mix-up — is not analyzed until it is turned upright.

The víbora's side-spin and the bandeja's slice are not measured — side-on simply shows the swing path most clearly.

Terms: bandeja, víbora, smash.

The padel card in Motion Lab lists shoulder turn, overhead arm path, contact point, footwork timing and wrist control proxy. The wrist and arm-path reads are proxies built from your body landmarks, not a tracked racket.

Checks written for one kind of stroke, such as an arm-only groundstroke, a bandeja hit square to the ball or a big volley backswing, are switched off until they are calibrated on real clips. Until then, the report leads with general body reads, such as your knee bend, balance and head stability, plus your turn on overheads.

It is set up for how padel is played. Finishing a stroke toward the wall is intentional, so it is not marked as over-rotation. Recovery is framed as regaining position with your partner — or, after an overhead, getting forward to hold the net.

What it does not claim: measured wall rebound, ball path and racket-face angle. The per-sport limits are on how video analysis works.

• Shots: padel covers Bandeja, Víbora, Smash, Volley, Groundstroke / Wall, Lob and Serve; tennis covers Forehand, Backhand, Serve, Volley and Return.
• Phases: a padel groundstroke starts with a wall read — air or glass — which a tennis groundstroke never has.
• Serve: the padel serve is underhand and read with the groundstroke family; the tennis serve is an overhead with its own toss-and-extension outline.
• Grading: turn is graded only on the three padel overheads, while tennis grades it on every stroke but the volley. Finishing toward the wall is normal in padel and is not marked as over-rotation, and the bandeja and víbora are judged as placement shots, not for speed.
• Fault checks: tennis runs its stroke checks today; padel's stroke-specific checks stay off until they are calibrated on real clips, so a padel report leads with general body reads.
• Confidence: tennis and padel reads are both capped below golf's, padel a little lower than tennis. Both are directional reads, not lab measurement.

If you play both, choose the sport each time you open Motion Lab; your history keeps them apart.

1. Move the camera until nothing crosses your body at contact — a post or the fence mesh is the usual culprit.
2. If you film through the glass, angle the phone so reflections do not sit over your body; reflections can cause false detections.
3. Padel is a doubles game, so frame the shot so your partner does not overlap you. The analysis follows the most prominent, central person, and extra people can pull tracking onto the wrong body.
4. Read the quality result: it names what limited the clip, such as the body being only partly visible or more than one person in frame.

If Motion Lab cannot find you at all, see athlete not detected.

The groundstroke read does include a wall-read phase — the moment you decide between air and glass — but its timing is placed from your own movement in the clip, not from seeing the rebound.

Use the two together. Replay the clip to judge the bounce yourself, and use the analysis for the movement you can change: turning and setting early after the read, giving the rebound space, and meeting the ball on balance out of the corner. Wall rebound timing explains the idea.