Biomechanics and Injuries in Padel: Why Your Technique Is Costing You Your Elbow (and How to Prevent It)

Padel has experienced a spectacular boom, but this growth has been accompanied by a silent epidemic. According to the latest epidemiological studies in sports medicine, tendon injuries in the arm account for more than 40% of all pathologies in this sport.

Hi there, I'm Manu. As a Sports Science Graduate (CAFYD), in our padel lessons in Valencia and Paterna we see players every day arriving on court dragging elbow pain —whether lateral epicondylitis ("tennis elbow") or medial epitrochleitis ("golfer's elbow")— assuming that wearing a strap or taking anti-inflammatories is simply "the price to pay" for playing. Through biomechanics and sports science, let's break down why this is false and how to solve it for good.

The Equipment Trap: Racket & Vibrations

Unlike tennis, where strings dissipate a large portion of the impact energy, a padel racket is solid, has a shorter handle, and features a very different center of mass. Scientific research has proven that several equipment factors drastically multiply the eccentric stress endured by your forearm tendons to stabilize the racket at the moment of impact:

• Diamond-shaped rackets: They shift the balance toward the head of the racket, increasing the torque your wrist must accelerate and brake.
• Excessive weight: Playing with rackets heavier than 350–365 grams without adequate forearm strength.
• Inadequate grip thickness or hold: As we analyzed in our article on the invisible mistakes of the continental grip, a faulty hold forces you to squeeze the handle with excessive isometric tension.

Whenever you hit the ball outside the "sweet spot", the racket transmits severe torsional vibrations that generate continuous micro-tears right at the tendon insertion in the elbow.

The #1 Technical Mistake: Late Impact and "Arming" the Ball

The true root cause of the injury, beyond the racket itself, is the player's biomechanics. The court environment (glass walls, metal mesh) forces rapid spatial adjustments. The most destructive mistake we correct in our padel classes in Valencia is hitting the ball late, especially after wall rebounds.

"When you strike the ball behind your body line, you completely shut down the kinetic chain, forcing the small flexor and extensor muscles of the wrist to absorb the entire load of accelerating and braking the racket." — Manu Carrilero, Sports Science Graduate

The kinetic chain is the sequential transfer of force that starts in the legs pushing against the ground, travels through hip and trunk rotation, passes through the shoulder, and ends in the racket. By preparing late and hitting behind your body, you cut off that transfer and force your wrist muscles to snap at the ball on their own. This mechanical overload exceeds the tissue's tolerance threshold, triggering tendon degeneration.

Similarly, as explained in our guide on why traditional padel technique is holding you back, poorly executed overhead shots like the víbora —where the player abuses lateral slice by isolating the arm without rotating the torso— impose massive valgus traction that destroys the inner side of the elbow (medial epitrochleitis).

Carlos's Case: Relearning How to Play Pain-Free

Carlos is a textbook example of this cycle. He had to quit the courts due to severe acute epicondylitis. When we analyzed his game on video at our indoor court in Elite 22 (Paterna), the clinical origin was unmistakable: late racket preparation at the back of the court and víboras executed purely "with the arm".

In our lessons, we reset his biomechanics step by step:

1. We adjusted his grip thickness and corrected his grip pressure.
2. We advised switching to a round-shaped racket (low balance) with better vibration absorption.
3. Using video analysis and our professional ball machine, we taught him to always strike the ball in front of his body, using leg drive and shoulder rotation to take the dirty work away from his elbow.