The Chiquita: When the Soft Shot Beats the Lob
Quick Answer: A chiquita is a slow, low ball into the feet of a net player, so they must volley upward and give you a ball to attack. Use it when a lob is off — they are standing deep, the light is bad, or your balance will not allow one — and stay back for the reply.
Two opponents are at the net and they will not leave. You are behind your own service line. Hitting hard has failed three times, and your lobs keep coming back as bandejas.
The chiquita is the other door. It is the softest shot in padel and one of the most aggressive things you can do, because it does not try to beat the net players — it makes them hit a ball nobody can attack from.
What the chiquita actually does
The whole shot is one piece of geometry: a ball below net height cannot be hit downward. The net is 0.88 m high at the center under the FIP Rules of Padel, so "below net height" means roughly below the hip of a standing adult — and everything struck from down there has to climb.
Put a slow ball at a net player's ankles and they have no good answer. They can volley it up, softly, and give you a floating ball around the middle of the court. They can try to be clever with a low drop volley and miss it more often than not. What they cannot do is hurt you, because the racket has to travel under the ball to lift it over the net.
So the chiquita is not a defensive shot and not an attacking one. It is a set-up: you are buying a weak reply, and the next ball is the one you win the point with. If you hit a good chiquita and then do nothing with the floating volley that comes back, you have wasted it.
Chiquita or lob?
Same situation, two answers, and picking correctly is most of the skill. The full decision tree for the high answer is in when to lob; here is the comparison that matters.
| The situation | Play the lob | Play the chiquita |
|---|---|---|
| They are crowding the net, a meter or two off it | Yes — over their heads is wide open | Their reach is good this close, so less effective |
| They are standing deep, near their service line | They can run it down and bandeja it | Yes — a ball at their feet from there is horrible |
| Late sun, low ceiling, indoor lights | No — the court conditions eat the shot | Yes, and it does not care about the roof |
| You are stretched but in control | Risky: short lobs get punished | Yes — smaller swing, smaller risk |
| One of them is a strong overhead player | You are feeding their best shot | Yes — take the overhead out of the point |
| Your last three lobs came back as bandejas | Vary it | Yes — the change of shape is the point |
The pattern is simple enough to remember on court: the higher they stand, the lower you play; the deeper they stand, the higher you play.
Where to aim it
Three targets, in order of how uncomfortable they are for your opponents.
1. The seam. At the feet of whichever net player is nearer the middle, angled so the ball is between them. Now the volley is both awkward and shared: they have to lift a low ball and decide whose it is at the same time. That is the middle doing two jobs at once, and it is the highest-value chiquita there is.
2. The outside foot, cross-court. The longest flight path, so the most margin for you, and it pulls the net player wide while their partner stays put. If you like one target for the whole night, this is the safest.
3. Straight, at the near player's feet. Fastest to arrive, least time for them to adjust. It is also the easiest one to hit too high, because you are aiming across the shortest distance.
Depth matters more than the target. A chiquita should land closer to the net than to their service line and still be below net height when it gets there. Anything landing around their service line has become a slow, flat mid-court ball — which is a free volley with your name on it.
Pace discipline: the whole shot is speed
There is a narrow window between two failures.
Too slow and the ball hangs. They step in, take it above the net, and hit down on it while you are still admiring the trajectory.
Too fast and it arrives at chest height. Same outcome, more pace on it.
The check that keeps you honest: the ball should still be traveling downward when it crosses the net. If it is flat or climbing as it passes, it will be above net height when it reaches them.
For the swing, small is the whole instruction. A compact motion with a slightly open face and no big follow-through — the shot is closer to a controlled push than to a groundstroke, and the aim is a ball that drops rather than one that travels. That description is enough to start; the pace calibration comes from repetition, and thirty of them in a warm-up will teach you more than another paragraph here.
What to do after you hit one
Stay back.
This is the mistake that makes players give up on the shot. You hit a lovely chiquita, feel the point turning, and run forward — straight into the low volley they lifted, which is now dropping at your ankles in the middle of the court, where you can do nothing with it.
The sequence that works is: chiquita from the back — where defending together off the glass is the skill that keeps you in the rally long enough to play one — watch what comes up, and then move. If the reply floats and you can meet it above net height, that is your attacking ball and both of you go forward together. If the reply is low and clever, you are still at the back, still in the rally, and nothing bad has happened. Getting caught in mid-court is the third of the three positioning sins, and the chiquita is one of the two shots that lures you into it.
One honest caveat: at higher levels the chiquita is used as an approach shot, and the pair follows it in. That works when the ball is genuinely good and the net players are genuinely stretched. At club level, wait for the evidence.
Failure modes
- It gets volleyed away. Too high or too slow. Aim to land it nearer the net, and keep it dropping.
- It goes into the net. You tried to make it too perfect. A chiquita that lands a meter deeper than intended is still a low ball at somebody's feet.
- It becomes your only shot. A pair you play every week will start standing on their toes, waiting for it. Mix it with the lob and with the occasional flat drive at a gap — the variety is what makes each of them work.
- You aim it at the best volleyer. The whole point is to make somebody uncomfortable. Pick the opponent who does not enjoy low balls, which after a season with the same crew you already know.
The drill that fits a crew night
Ten minutes, no coach, no basket.
Two players at the net, two at the back. Net players may only volley — no overheads at all. Back players may only play chiquitas. Play the points out. Whoever is at the net will discover exactly how few good options a low ball leaves them; whoever is at the back will find the pace window inside twenty balls. Then swap ends and do it again.
The other half of this skill is what happens when the chiquita is not available and you are stuck in defense off the glass, which is its own subject in this cluster. And the shot the net players use to answer your lob — the one you are trying to take away from them — is the bandeja. The order to work through all of it is in the guide to getting better at 2v2.
FAQ
What is a chiquita in padel?
A soft, low ball played from the back of the court into the feet of an opponent at the net, so that they have to volley upward from below net height. The name means "little one" in Spanish. It is the standard reply to two players who have taken the net and will not leave, and its purpose is to produce a weak volley you can attack.
When should you use a chiquita instead of a lob?
When a lob is the worse bet: they are standing deep rather than crowding the net, the sun or a low ceiling is in the way, your balance will not support a full swing, or one of them has an overhead you would rather not feed. As a rule of thumb, the closer they stand to the net, the more you should lob; the deeper they stand, the more the chiquita hurts.
Where should a chiquita land?
Closer to the net than to their service line, and low — the ball should still be dropping as it crosses the net so that it arrives below net height at their feet. Aiming at the feet of the player nearer the middle is the most awkward version, because it forces a difficult volley and a decision about whose ball it is.
Should you go to the net after a chiquita?
Not at club level. Hit it, watch the reply, and only move forward if the ball that comes back is above net height. Running in behind your own chiquita usually means meeting their lifted volley at your ankles in mid-court, which is the worst position on a padel court.
Why does my chiquita keep getting volleyed?
It is arriving too high, either because you hit it too hard or because you hit it so softly that it hung in the air and let them step in. The test is the flight path: if the ball is flat or still climbing as it passes the net, it will be above net height when it reaches them, and any competent net player will hit down on it.