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Padbol rules explained: feet, walls, the touch rule and padel scoring
Padbol is football played on a small glass-walled court with a tennis net: you control the ball with your feet, head and chest, pass it once or twice to your partner and send it over. The score is counted exactly like padel. This guide covers the court, the touch rule, the attack zone, the serve and the scoring, from zero.
What is Padbol?
Padbol was created in La Plata, Argentina, in 2008 by Gustavo Miguens, who wanted to play football on a padel court. Today the sport is governed by FIPA (the International Federation of Padbol Associates), with member associations in more than thirty countries and a World Cup that has been held since 2013. In the United States and South Africa you will also see it marketed as “Padball”; the rules are the same.
The court and the ball
- Court: 10 m long and 6 m wide, enclosed by glass back walls and glass panels on the side walls, with artificial turf. It is a padel court in miniature.
- Net: low, around 90–100 cm at the centre.
- Attack zone: a red strip on each side of the net, about two metres deep. It is the only place from which you may play the ball out of the air.
- Service boxes: each half is split by a centre line into two boxes between the attack line and the back wall; the serve must land diagonally in one of them.
- Ball: a football-style ball slightly smaller than a size 5 — about 670 mm around and 380–400 g — with a lower bounce than a match football.
Feet, head, chest: never hands
Any part of the body is allowed except the hands and arms. A ball that touches a hand or arm, deliberately or not, is a fault and the point goes to the opponents. Padbol is always played as doubles, two against two.
The touch rule: two to three touches per team
This is the rule that makes Padbol its own sport. Before the ball crosses the net, the team must touch it at least twice and at most three times, and the touches must alternate between the two partners — the same player may not touch the ball twice in a row. A typical point is control, pass, return.
- One touch is allowed only when the ball has just rebounded off your own wall: you may play it straight back.
- Bouncing the ball off your own wall to your partner does not count as a touch; the wall is a legal passer.
- A fourth touch, or two consecutive touches by the same player, is a fault.
- You may not contest the ball at the net while the opponents are still on their first touch.
Walls in play
As in padel, the walls are part of the game. Once the ball has bounced on your side it may hit your back wall or side glass any number of times and remains in play; you play it after the rebound. The ball must bounce on the ground first, though: a ball that hits the opponents’ wall before touching their floor is out and the point is lost.
The attack zone and volleys
Playing the ball out of the air — a volley or a header — is legal only when the player has at least one foot in the attack zone at the moment of contact, or jumps and lands inside it. From the back of the court the ball must bounce before you touch it. This keeps the game a passing game rather than a smashing contest.
The serve
- Drop the ball, let it bounce, then kick it underhand diagonally into the opposite service box, beyond the attack line.
- A serve that lands in the attack zone, in the net or outside the box is a fault. As in tennis and padel there are two attempts; a second fault loses the point.
- The server changes box after every point, and the serve rotates through the four players game by game.
Scoring: exactly like padel
Points are counted 15, 30, 40, game. At 40-40 (deuce) a team needs two points in a row to win the game, or a single golden point if the players have agreed to play it. Six games win a set with a margin of two; at 6-6 a tie-break to seven points decides the set. Matches are played as the best of three sets. If you already keep score in padel or tennis, you keep score in Padbol.
What ends a point
- The ball bounces twice on one side, or goes out, or into the net.
- Hand or arm contact.
- A fourth touch, or the same player touching twice in a row.
- A volley or header played from outside the attack zone.
- A ball that hits the opponents’ wall before bouncing.
- A ball on the line is in. A stray ball from another court is a let and the point is replayed; a ball that hits an opponent in the air before bouncing is a point for the kicker.
In the app
Choose Padbol when you start a new match in ScoreSay: the scoring is set to the padel rules (15-30-40, advantage or golden point, six-game sets, tie-break), the announcer calls every point out loud, and you enter points from your watch or a Bluetooth remote without touching the phone. The Academy section adds a ten-module Padbol course on the touch rule, wall play and positioning. For the scoring details shared with padel, see padel scoring rules.