Padel Injury Prevention: Protecting Your Body

Padel is a low-injury sport relative to many other racket sports, but its explosive lateral movements and repetitive overhead shots do create specific injury patterns. Understanding and preventing the most common injuries lets you play more consistently and for longer.

Ankle sprains are the most common acute padel injury, arising from sudden changes of direction on the artificial turf surface. Prevention: proper padel shoes with herringbone soles (not running shoes), ankle strengthening exercises, and proprioception training (single-leg balance work).

Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) is the most common overuse injury in padel. It typically develops from repeated impact on off-centre hits, an overgrip that's too thin or worn out, or a racket that's too heavy or stiff. Prevention: keep your overgrip fresh, ensure your racket weight is appropriate for your level, and strengthen the forearm extensors (wrist curls, reverse curls, eccentric exercises).

Shoulder and rotator cuff strain develops from repetitive overhead shots (bandeja, smash, smash positioning for jump smashes). Prevention: rotator cuff strengthening exercises (internal and external rotation with resistance bands), a proper overhead shot technique (don't force the elbow above the shoulder), and warming up overhead shots before play.

Lower back pain is an underreported padel issue — the repeated bending, twisting, and explosive movements load the lumbar spine significantly. Core strengthening, hip flexibility work, and ensuring you use leg drive (rather than just back) on heavy groundstrokes all help.