Court Notes Padel
Padel stats glossary: scoring, shots and match evidence explained
Plain definitions of golden point, star point, tie-break, bandeja, shot mix, personal baseline and more, with a note on whether each one is entered, detected, estimated or permission-based.
This glossary defines the padel terms you meet when you look back at a match: how points and sets are scored, what the main shots are called, and what tracker measurements such as shot mix or personal baseline actually mean. Each measurement says where it comes from: entered by a player, detected by a sensor, estimated from motion, or permission-based (only available if you allow it).
It is part of the Understanding your game series. Scoring definitions follow the FIP Rules of Padel, effective 1 January 2026.
Scoring terms
Game
A game is scored 15, 30, 40, then game. Points are entered by players or an umpire; no wrist or racket sensor can tell who won a point. See how to read a padel scoreline for what a final score can and cannot show.
Deuce and advantage
Under advantage scoring, when both pairs reach 40 the score is deuce. The next point gives one pair advantage; winning the following point wins the game, losing it returns the score to deuce. A game therefore needs two consecutive points from deuce.
Golden point
The golden point is a no-advantage rule. At 40–40, one deciding point is played, and the receiving pair chooses whether to receive on the right or the left side of the court. The receiving players cannot swap positions for that point. The pair that wins it wins the game.
Star point
The star point is a third FIP scoring option. From deuce, two advantage cycles are played. If the score returns to deuce a third time, one deciding star point is played, with the receiving pair choosing the side. PlayDNA’s Watch scoring currently offers golden point and advantage, not star point.
Set
A set is won by the first pair to win six games with a two-game margin. At 5–5, a set can be won 7–5. At 6–6, a tie-break is normally played. A match is the best of three sets; by prior agreement, a third set can be played without a tie-break.
Tie-break
A tie-break decides a set at 6–6. Points are counted 0, 1, 2, 3 and so on, and the first pair to seven points with a two-point margin wins the set 7–6. Players change ends every six points.
Super tie-break
A super tie-break is an alternative to a third set: at one set all, a single tie-break to ten points, with a two-point margin, decides the match. FIP rules also describe a mini set to four games as another alternative format.
Break of serve
A break happens when the receiving pair wins a game. Because serve alternates between the pairs, breaks usually decide sets: unless a set goes to a tie-break, the pair that won it broke serve more often than it was broken.
Right side and left side
In doubles, each player usually covers one half of the court. The right side is sometimes called the drive or forehand side, the left side the revés or backhand side. The receiving order chosen at the start of a set stays fixed for that set. See left or right side in padel doubles.
Shot terms
Forehand and backhand
Groundstrokes hit after the ball bounces, on the racket-hand side (forehand) or the other side (backhand). In padel, many are played after the ball comes off the glass.
Volley
A shot hit before the ball bounces, usually near the net. PlayDNA separates forehand volleys from backhand volleys.
Lob
A high shot that sends the ball over the opponents at the net, usually to buy time or to move them back. See why a good lob feels satisfying.
Smash
An overhead hit with pace, often aiming to end the point or to bounce the ball high off the back wall.
Bandeja
A controlled overhead, usually sliced, used to answer a lob while keeping the net. It is about placement and position rather than outright pace.
Víbora
A more aggressive sidespin overhead, related to the bandeja. Even experienced players disagree about where one ends and the other begins; read bandeja or víbora. PlayDNA’s eight shot classes include bandeja but not a separate víbora class.
Serve
Every point starts with an underarm serve. The server bounces the ball and strikes it at or below waist height, diagonally into the receiver’s service box.
Match evidence terms
Stroke count · detected
The number of swings a wrist or racket sensor accepted as shots during a session. It counts the wearer’s strokes only, not the rally, the partner or the opponents.
Shot mix · estimated
The share of a player’s detected strokes in each shot type. In PlayDNA the eight padel classes are forehand, backhand, forehand volley, backhand volley, smash, bandeja, lob and serve. Each label is an estimate from wrist motion. See what your shot mix says about how you played.
Uncertain label · estimated
A shot the classifier could not label confidently. PlayDNA marks it as uncertain rather than guessing silently, and you can correct it in Review strokes. Confidence is never shown as a percentage.
Swing intensity · detected
How vigorously the wearer’s wrist moved during strokes, compared within PlayDNA’s own scale. It is not ball speed and not a measure of how good a shot was. See the rhythm of a match.
Heart-rate zones · permission-based
Time spent in five heart-rate bands, available only if you allow heart-rate access and enough readings were recorded. They describe the session’s effort, not fitness, fatigue or readiness.
Wrist-stroke burst · detected
A run of the wearer’s strokes close together in time. It is not a full rally, because the other three players’ shots and the walls are not seen. See what wrist-stroke bursts can and cannot say.
Session kinds · entered
The kind of session you choose on the Watch: Game (scored), Game · No Score, Ladder (timed rounds with court movement) and Practice (shot tracking). PlayDNA compares sessions of the same kind with each other. See practice vs match.
Personal baseline
What your sessions of the same kind usually look like. PlayDNA needs three compatible sessions before showing one. It compares you with yourself, never with other players. See why one match is a noisy sample.
Game DNA
PlayDNA’s six-signal profile of a session: power, serve, net, overhead, control and movement, each compared with your recent sessions of the same kind. It describes how a session played. Game DNA explains each signal.
Session grade
A 0–10 summary of the Game DNA signals. It needs at least ten classified strokes and describes how the session played, not whether you won or lost. See know your game, not just the score.
Sources and scope
Scoring, tie-break, alternative-format and serve definitions follow the International Padel Federation’s Rules of Padel, effective 1 January 2026. Shot descriptions are general padel usage, not FIP definitions. Measurement terms describe PlayDNA’s current app: it records the wearer’s detected strokes and a human-entered team score, with heart rate only by permission. It does not see ball flight, wall contact or other players, and none of its measures is a ranking, technique verdict or health assessment.