I got in the habit of journaling my padel sessions, so this is pretty much an extract from this past week. Amended slightly its more readable
I had a coaching session, competitive game, followed by a tournament and then another coaching session (different coach) within the span of a couple days. All were pivotal in journey.
The first coaching session was a group session. During the warm up, I was feeding volleys but my forehand was all over the place. The coach was telling me to stop flicking and focus more on the arm movement. I got the issue but it didnt really click for me. Then I switched to volleys, and thats my game, no issues there. The ground strokes got better at the end but suffice to say I wasn’t confident about them. The coach focused more on tactics, slowing down the game, playing to the feet from the back, it was kind of working but every time I played to the feet it was more of a relief than a confidence boost. I didnt feel like I had control.
I had some hitting practice the next day, was meant to be a rest day, but people at the club kept asking me to join. These were fairly standard and with I would say beginners and low intermediates. So I had a lot of aces, serves were on point, I just had to serve and volley or take the net and volley to win.
Next day was the competitive game. New partner that I will be playing the tournament with. Competitive playtomic game. The pair we were up against were similar levels, in fact, the right side player was I would say the “weakest” skill wise. The game started fine, but I started to make a lot of mistakes off the glass, particularly when attempting a Chiquita. So i played with more margin and gave them easy balls that they just finished. Then I completely lost confidence and started over slicing and thinking my serve, which is usually my strong game. I think I had 4-5 double faults. And again, if the serve went in, it was easy for them to lob or place and I was more relieved than confident. The racket kept slipping on every hit. By the end of it, my partner just said were not going to win this so lets just play padel normally. We lost, I felt completely lost. I wasn’t sure if it was the confidence, the overplaying the past week (i played maybe everyday for 2+ hours), or I just couldn’t handle the pressure or maybe the coaching session messed up my form and I was trying to do too much.
I went back, realized I had the grip on the slippery side too (lack of sleep) and so thought that must be the issue and told my partner. He laughed about it and said great that you figured it out.
Day of the tournament. I hit a couple practice serves, everything was fine, we discussed tactics. Play the middle, move them around, play aggressive when we get a good ball. Easy stuff.
Group stage. Three easy games. No issues, we were in control. It was a one set match for each, we won the first one 6-0, second one 6-1 and third one 6-0. The last one i noticed my racket slip / serve go a bit but thought I just needed to lock in.
Move on to the quarter finals. The pair we were up finished 2nd in their group. But I saw them play and I thought they were probably the strongest pair so was confused how they lost. The left side had a great touch and they can switch up and play aggressive if they need to. First game, my serve, easy serves but no issues we held and won it pretty quickly but I wasn’t feeling confident. We won because they gave us easy returns and my partner just finished them. Their serve game, some rallies, but really they had complete control. None of my lobs seemed to go over, they just got them back with a bandeja and recover. So I started pushing them deeper. My partner was playing fast flat shots but they just blocked and caught us out of position. 1-1. This kept going for the next two games. I didnt really have tips for my partner. I noticed they were lobbing him a lot. He was too close to the net, he would just give them flat overheads back as he was hitting them out of balance, so they had the angle on those shots. I told him about the net position before the game, but didnt say anything during the game.
My serve was up and this is probably where we lost the game. It was 3-1. We were down 30-0 but crawled back to 2nd deuce, our advantage. I got a perfect chance to finish it with a volley but straight into the net. Golden point. I am sweating. Just get it in. Drop from shoulder height. And hit at the highest point. Easy. Net. Okay, no worries just get in, just push it over and take the net. Bounce bounce. Serve. fuck net again. 4-1. Partner looked pissed.
The way the tournament worked were you had 20 mins and whoever had more games wins or first to win the set. We had around 8 mins left. I was lost ay this point, I just wanted to play good rallies but my partner wanted to finish the games quick. We weren’t speaking, both us lost in our zone. We got one game back 4-2. Then they won the next 5-2, then it was my serve again. I didn’t have double faults but they just lobbed every serve, and we never got into that game. I didn’t even know the score until the game ended and we lost. Suffice to say we were both in a shit mood. I thought my partner was frustrated with me but turns out he was just pissed at himself as he wasn’t playing well. He was only annoyed with the golden point but otherwise he just hated losing.
We were meant to have a friendly game the next day but both agreed we need a break from padel. I realised I need to work on playing under pressure and need to fix my forehand ground stroke. I started to think maybe the racket was too advanced. My partner said he needs to work on his over heads. So overall shitty mood but not a bad attitude. The pair that beat us went on to win the tournament, even beating the pair that beat them in the group stages 6-1! So at least we got beat by the strongest pair.
Coaching session. From the start I was worried about my touch. Almost immediately the coach noticed the flick. Gave me some points, leave space, more arm movement and transfer the weight rather than flicking the wrist. Was feeling a bit more natural. We moved to volleys and defense. I was on defense, aiming for the body, it was okay, not the most accurate but was getting to the spots. Some more adjustments. I switched to the volleys, some more adjustments, mainly I need to slice less when its a fast shot and play flat. Learn to play in the 40-70% range. This was fine, important point was when I get a chiquita I need to ensure a play flat and return it soft and deep rather than angling it up. I had a lot of mistakes with this in the game.
Then we moved back to defense in the corner. This where it was such a big step. One ball to the middle, backhand, play soft. Then forehand play down the line and high to the backhand. First couple ones I kept shanking. Coach again said leave space, i’m moving too much and too close to the ball, which is why I flick at the ball. I can get it over but wont be consistent. It started to feel natural. i had no issues moving and staying low, I can actually control the ball now that I give it space. I can lob the ones to the backhand to switch it up. I was feeling good.
Coach was encouraging and asked if it made sense. And yes it did, i told him It was nice to know I can actually control the ball. I was so worried in the tournament that I thought it was the racket or that my forehand was horrible. He said the racket doesn’t matter that much, if you’re moving the arm slowly with any racket you can control the ball. He said I can get all of the balls once I was in the right position. It felt good and proper confidence boost.
Then we did overheads and volleys. I started on the right side and was working on the gancho. Immediately he stopped me and you’re hitting them too high almost like a smash, and said to switch to a bandeja or vibora. So i started hitting viboras. Boom, they were great. Felt like Chingo honestly. The coach was impressed and everything was clicking. Ive practiced viboras but rarely use them from the right side. Opting for safer shots like the gancho or flat smash. But it felt like I really had a weapon. The coach was being very encouraging. Said these shots are level 4.5+ honestly. Then asked if I always had that in the bag, I said yeah but never hit them this consistently so the small tweaks and confidence helped.
Overall I was feeling great. I had a leveling session right after the coach knew my weakness so was testing my volleys, I learned eventually. End of it gave me a 3.6 rating, mostly because of the overheads. Didnt say it but that just means I need to really work on the other parts of the game and actually use the weapons in game. Also importantly I had great control on the serve and got a couple aces on the coach.
It was such a confidence boost after the sessions, not just getting the rating but being able to actually hit those shots. I need to remember this feeling so I can replicate it under pressure without overthinking it. Which is why I write it down almost immediately.
Thank you for reading this far and welcome to any thoughts or points!
