I’m an intermediate player (\~3.0), been playing a lot of tournaments and mixed matches lately.
In the last month I’ve played with probably 40–50 different women, and almost none of them attack the net.
Even in situations where we hit a good shot and should move forward, they stay back.
Sometimes I’ll politely say during the match “let’s come up” or “we can take the net here”, but most of the time it doesn’t change anything.
Out of all those matches, I think only one woman consistently moved up and played aggressively at the net.
I’m not saying this to criticize, I’m actually trying to understand if there’s a reason for it.
Is it a coaching thing? Confidence thing? Different strategy in women’s play? Height thing?
Would love to hear from female players, especially around the 2.0–3.5 level.
You have been playing with low level players probably.
I got my ass kicked so badly by two women players who were like semi pros. Really aggressive to take the net and what they lacked with power they got back by their accurate and very tight angled shots.
What women are never as good as men is their smashes, but I think that's just physical attributes.
My wife has a perfect 3M kicksmash. So be careful with that.
She played highest league in tennis, and also there had an exceptionell kick serve.
So be carefull with such generic Statements.
We play M2 in Portugal/Spain as MX
I think it's just your personal experience bias, I do not have the same experience from people I have played with. Trying to tell some stranger you haven't played with before to come up to the net during a match is definitely not going to work. Have you discussed it after the match? That might be more useful.
I say it thoughtfully and they usually take it well and say something like "you're right, I need to be better at that". I've also tried saying it during water breaks along with other strategy thoughts.
Padel coach here. I don’t think it’s a women only issue. I can add a lot of factors that influence decision making and positioning in padel. A lot of people who come from tennis seem to think it’s good to play from the baseline and trade power shots. Keep in mind this might work up until improvers level.
Age is another reason. Older players don’t feel like moving back and forth and do what they’re comfortable with.
Lack of net training is another issue. Some people are scared of being passed so they stay back.
Two women, new to the game, told me they were scared to be hit by a ball during mixed games
Every of my partner, men or women comes to the net. If they dont do that playing makes no sense.
Plain easy simple
Your games are too low level if your Problem is "people play from the back"
Obviously this is biased by your experience many women are advanced players and of course they do take the net.
I will agree though that they are slower to start doing it as beginners, I suspect because of low confidence, many women that compete with men come from tennis first, some fear being struck by the ball and maybe smaller reach making it more difficult
You played with 50 women in 30 days? That's incredibly unlikely invited you play 10-15 matches a day on average?
Women and men come to the net equally in my experience
