Padel and tennis elbow: what actually helps

Padel elbow is common enough that most clubs have several people in a brace at any given time. If that is you, changing racket is one lever, and it is worth being honest that it is not the biggest one.

I want to be careful here. There is a large body of research on lateral epicondylitis generally, and a much smaller one on padel specifically. Most of what gets repeated about rackets and elbow pain is borrowed from tennis, where the equipment, the swing and the impact are different. So treat confident claims, including the ones below, with some suspicion, and see a physiotherapist rather than a comparison website if it is genuinely painful.

The specs that plausibly reduce load

• Soft core. A soft EVA or FOAM core deforms more on impact and returns less shock up the arm. This is the change most players report helping.
• Low balance. Head heavy rackets create more torque at the wrist and elbow on every shot. Moving from a diamond to a round or low balance teardrop reduces that.
• Lower weight. Modest effect, and it cuts both ways: too light and you swing harder to get the same result, which can make things worse.
• Fibreglass or lower grade carbon face. More flex, less stiffness, softer feel. The stiff 18K carbon faces that advanced players like are the least forgiving.

Put together, the low-load racket is a soft, round, low balance, moderately light one. It is also, not coincidentally, the beginner shape.

See soft, low balance rackets

The things that probably matter more

Grip size. A handle that is too thin makes you squeeze harder to stop the racket twisting, and grip pressure is a plausible driver of forearm load. Most padel handles arrive thin. Adding one or two overgrips is cheap and reversible, and it is the first thing I would try.

Technique, particularly on the backhand and the bandeja. Hitting late, with a leading elbow and a locked wrist, loads the tendon. A few coaching sessions will do more than any racket.

Volume. Going from twice a week to five times a week is the most common story behind an elbow that suddenly hurts, and no racket fixes that.

Balls and strings, or rather the padel equivalent: cold, heavy, waterlogged balls hit harder into the arm. Playing outdoors in a British February with old balls is not neutral.

The honest caveat

Plenty of people change to a soft round racket and feel better within weeks. Plenty of others change racket, feel nothing, and only improve once they rest, load the tendon progressively under a physio, and fix the shot that was causing it. Both experiences are real, and the racket industry has an obvious commercial interest in the first story.

If your elbow hurts now, the sequence that makes sense to me is: see a physio, add an overgrip, reduce volume, then consider the racket. Not the other way round, which is the expensive order.

What not to bother with

Copper sleeves, magnetic bands and vibration dampeners marketed for the elbow have very little supporting evidence. Elbow straps and clasps do seem to help some people manage symptoms while they play, which is not the same as treating the cause, but it is not nothing either.

If you are in real pain, this page is not medical advice and I am not qualified to give any. A physiotherapist or GP is the right call.