Padel Match Analysis: Notational and Time-Motion Analysis during Official Italian Sub-Elite Competitions

Although performance analysis in padel represents a useful process to gain references about players’ technical and tactical behavior, most of the research was conducted in elite compared to the sub-elite competitions. Therefore, this study aimed to describe sub-elite competitions in order to enhance scientific knowledge for sub-elite athletes and technical staff. 4287 shots were analyzed within five areas (time-motion analysis, shots characteristics, errors, serve and points won). Effective playing time and work-to-rest ratio were lower than in elite competitions, while strokes per minute and total match duration were in line with it. Shots were mainly forehand volleys performed under the head, while volleys and smashes were more likely to end with a point in comparison with ground or wall shots. However, sub-elite winning pairs performed fewer volleys than the losing side and fewer errors on volleys. One serve out of five ended in errors (almost half were net errors); fewer errors during serve return shots represented an advantage for the winning pairs. Finally, 65% of the points scored were caused by unforced errors of opponents. This knowledge should help technical staff design specific training programs for sub-elite padel players.