Use and Efficacy of the Lob to Achieve the Offensive Position in Women´s Professional Padel. Analysis of the 2018 WPT Finals

Abstract

Studies that analyze the actions carried out by paddle tennis players during the point are scarce. The present investigation characterizes every action in which a stroke by a pair in a defensive position sends the ball over the position of a pair in an offensive position. It is a descriptive and observational study of quantitative methodology. The sample consisted of 1324 actions, statistical analysis units, from the women’s circuit in the 2018 World Padel Tour (WPT) season. For this study, various situational, dependent, and independent variables were analyzed. The results showed the number of times the categories of each variable occurred, as well as the significant relationships between the independent variable kind of hit and the dependent variables “actions that facilitate the possible change of position” (AFPCP) and “incidences in the game” (IG). The conclusion is that the lob is the most effective kind of hit (CSR = 4.9) to achieve the offensive position (CSR = 11.4), even if the point does not finish (CSR = 5.8), leading to more position exchanges during the same point in the AFPCP. These findings are of great interest since they give information about how and why certain behaviors produce a certain result.

Analysis of Serve and Serve-Return Strategies in Elite Male and Female Padel

“…These different results in padel suggest that the influence of service extends some way into the rally in padel because the predominance of the "serve and volley" strategy allows the serving pair to move close to the net first and adopt an offensive position [9,39]. Despite serve advantage being lost when the return players use technical actions that facilitate a change of position, such as lobs, this transition from offensive to defensive position only appears in 37% of points [40]. On the other hand, the results showed first serve effectiveness as being close to 90%.…”

Analysis of Performance Parameters of the Smash in Male and Female Professional Padel

“…Previous studies in professional padel have shown that players who are in defensive positions predominantly use the lob stroke to recover the net [ 7 , 26 , 35 ]. However, the attacking players try to maintain the offensive position [ 22 ], due to the greater probabilities of winning the point when they are in situations close to the net [ 16 , 17 , 22 ].…”

“…Currently it is practiced in more than 40 countries and it has an international tournament circuit in which the best padel players in the world participate [ 4 ]. This greater professionalization of padel has also produced an increase in scientific publications [ 5 ], especially those related to the performance analysis of the sport [ 6 , 7 ]. In this respect, most research has focused on three fundamental aspects: temporal parameters [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], players’ movements and distance covered on the court [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ] and game actions [ 16 , 17 ].…”

“…There is a continuous dichotomy during the development of the point, where players who are at the net try to keep this advantageous position, while the backcourt players try to recover it [ 21 , 25 ]. Players in the defensive position also perform different types of technical actions such as the lob or passing shot, varying both the height and direction of the strokes, with the aim of displacing the attacking pair so that they hit from more forced positions [ 7 , 26 ]. Therefore, the lobs will cause attacking players to hit the ball going above their heads.…”

“…Following the review conducted, there is research related to a performance analysis in padel, but mainly in male players. Research focused only on a female padel player is scarce [ 7 ]. In relation to match analysis, rally length or shots per rally are higher in female than male matches [ 17 ].…”