How common is it to wear protective eyewear when playing padel?

We should probably all wear them, they just dont look very cool do they

I got hit a few times due to bounces off of my own racket and I had two close calls where the opponent smashed the ball straight towards my face. Ever since I am using protective eye wear as the initial hits caused an early stage retinal detachment. I look like robocop when I play with an arm sleeve, cap and glasses but can’t faqing careless as I enjoy my game and have piece of mind that there’s a level of protection for my eyes. Better than being sorry

As someone who has a detached retina previously and short sighted I do. I essentially only have one good eye left. I have also been hit in the eye when playing tennis and padel (goggles protected me). I have goggles with lenses in them. I don't care if I look stupid, nobody has ever said anything to me. They also work well for football, as playing in defence I couldn't see what was going on the other end of the pitch.

I am an ophthalmologist and I play padel. In my close circle, I have seen several injuries caused by the ball: two retinal tears, one macular retinal pigment epithelium rupture (with permanent vision loss), one retinal detachment, and two corneal abrasions. I now use eye protection in every match without exception. What I did was remove the lenses from a pair of safety glasses, so I play using only the frame, which protects my eyeball. I tried many types of lenses, but they all fog up.

So buy them and don't look at others.  We had in Poland Handball player Karol Bielecki who lost his eye due to accident during a match. He came back to National Team and played with googles because he had only one good eye left.  Better safe than sorry. 

I had the exact same injury a few weeks ago, managed to frame a ball in to my own eye (couldn’t have hit it any more flush), and have done some lasting damage and have been getting streaks of light in my peripheries ever since. 2 other people at my club have done the same in the last few weeks. Since the accident I ended up buying some Sungods cycling glasses with a clear lens as well as a polarised lens for sunny days which I change out when needed. They don’t look awful and, a darn sight better than the squash goggles some people might be familiar with

Never happened to me. If you feel more secure google squash goggles. I am sure you will find sth

I think glasses in padel are like insurance. You think you don't need them until something happens and you wish you had it. I am also guilty of not having one but plan to get one soon. Once, the fast ball from the opponent bounced from my racket even faster to my partner's racket, which was open and pointing to the ceiling. She got hit in her eye and lost her consciousness for a minute or two. We called emergency to transfer her to the hospital. Luckily, she is healthy again but I was scared.

A girl I play with had her retina detach while playing so she always wears them now and it’s a horror story I’m mindful of. But I still haven’t gotten my own pair. We should probably all wear them

It should be much more common than it is. There are a couple posts on here from people who have the same issue and done with detached retinas. I advise everyone to wear them

I mashed the ball right into my eye via the glass, very painful and a bit of a black eye. But I would not wear any protection as I now pay more attention when I hit the ball via the glass.

Literally just came back from the optometrist because the same thing happened to me last week. Doctor said he sees a lot of these injuries. A lot! It’s actually the second time it’s happened to me in 3 months. Now I ordered a pair of goggles on Amazon. Better safe than sorry. Your eye is an extension of your brain.

A year ago the exact same thing happened to me. Everything was black for about 30 seconds. Now my sight is perfect again, but I play with glasses now. People react pretty chill and sometimes say they consider it too.

I played an idiot who just wanted to smash a ball as hard as he could. I was in the transition area and he hit me on my eyebrow with a smash whilst at the net. Racket to face, no bounce. I weren't bezerk and his response was "why didn't you move?!" So I would say, don't worry about weather wearing eyewear is an accepted thing. Just wear it if you feel you need to. As you don't know who you'll be matched up with.

I used to play squash and know some people using eye protection.  In 20y of playing, I've never had any incident (not even close), so I never felt the need.  But if you need some, I think that squash goggles would be perfect...

I am blind in one eye so have to protect my working eye and I play padel with eye wear. I love the Oakley sphaera and use it with tint to mitigate losing the balls in floodlights

Way more common than people admit. Most clubs see 2-3 eye injuries a year from padel — usually from ricochets off the glass or mistimed volleys. Squash-style protective goggles work fine for padel too (Dunlop, HEAD, Wilson all make them, around €20-40). Fog-resistant ones are worth the extra 10€, cheap ones steam up in 5 minutes indoor. Glad you're okay. Don't feel weird about wearing them — plenty of intermediate and advanced players use protection regularly.

I wear it after taking couple of volleys to the head. I know another guy who does. Not very common, but normal.

The answer is: depends. If you have pre-existing conditions, or slow reaction times, you may need eye protection. I've taken so many balls to the face (including direct smashes) that you'd expect me to be hit in the eye, but it hasn't happened once because I have existing reflexes that help to protect my eyes. Then again, I spent years being punched in the face, so that's probably where that comes from. Also, the risk decreases as you progress in levels, because you learn better positioning and better players are very unlikely to send a ball at your head (since it'll be out if you duck). So overall, I think that lacking a pre-existing condition, eye protection is probably not quite so important in padel in the long term.

How funny, smashed myself in the eye last night with racket bouncing off the back glass into my face. I’m now rocking a nice black eye

Stupidly, it’s not common at all. But after taking deflections to the eye myself (the second one almost serious), I won’t play without it. It’s not worth losing your eyesight.

I had lasik eye surgery and wore protective glasses for a while. They were admittedly cheap quality but they were a pain, fogging, not holding very well... If you're gonna wear them, buy good quality. But I dont think it's very worth the hassle or the price...

It’s problably a racket preparation