Exploring offensive players’ collective movements and positioning dynamics in high-performance padel matches using tracking technology

Racket sports such as padel are characterised by a variety of specific displacements and behaviours on the court with the aim to cover spaces and take an offensive advantage during the point. The aim of this study was to analyse players’ location in offensive position when opponent hits the ball in different defensive zones. The sample included nine matches from a total of three top national indoor padel tournaments. Twenty-four male padel players performed the matches. Players and ball position was registered using a computerised motion tracking video system. Results showed a significant relation between offensive players’ movements (forward, backward or sideways) according to the position of the ball in defensive zones. Heat map and statistics analysis showed that regarding players’ width positioning, when the ball is in one corner of the defensive zone, both offensive players move to that side of the court. However, regarding players’ depth positioning, if one offensive player moves close to the net, his partner moves some metres back. Such knowledge may constitute a very important factor affecting tactic and task design for padel players and coaches and could be used as an important reference for others ball-over-net sports such as doubles tennis, doubles badminton, beach tennis or volleyball.