3 Tips for Playing Better Padel
Padel has become one of the most popular amateur sports in the world for two simple reasons:
- The barrier to entry regarding skill level and fitness is extremely low compared to other sports.
- Due to the exponential growth and demand, high class facilities are now super accessible to most people.
Many players who learn to love the game stay at an amateur level and, though this is still a whole lot of fun, they never break through the barrier of becoming exceptionally good at padel.
Here are a couple of tricks that will help you add a couple of points to your Playtomic score, win more games, and keep enjoying the game we love more and more:
Play as a TEAM
Padel is almost always played in doubles format. The most important aspect to playing better padel and winning more games is moving together, communicating, and understanding your partner.
Think of having a rope tied between you and your partner. This will cause you to move to the net, back to the glass, and side to side together as one. This is how you should be moving most of the time.
Consistency is key
Roger Federer won almost 80% of his matches over his professional career. He only won 54% of the points. This staggering statistic shows us that making only fractionally less mistakes than your opponent could mean the difference between winning and losing. Furthermore, premier padel players play most of their shots down the middle. This percentage play not only reduces your risk of making unforced errors, it will keep rallies going for longer will eventually lead to an opportunity for you to finish the point without taking an unnecessary risk. Furthermore, it can cause confusion between opponents causing them to make the error - especially at amateur level.
When your back is against the wall, just stay patient and focus on getting one more ball in! Your opponents will try more risky shots (bringing unforced errors), your opportunity will come, and you will get ahead in winning the psychological battle.
Get used to the glass
Using the glass and understanding the rebound is telling of an intermediate player versus a beginner.
Learning how to judge the rebound speed, angle, and spin can be tricky. Once mastered, there are few shots from your opponent you won't be able to return.
Many beginner players use the back glass to return a ball after the rebound. IT may look impressive but using the back glass to return a ball should only be used in emergency situations as it often causes the ball to float back to your opponents allowing them to finish the point easily.
Masterclass
To fully master the glass (and learn loads of other important techniques) join us on our next Padel Master Retreat by emailing us at tala@plaega.com.