Beat Better Padel Players: The Real Secrets to Winning More Matches

Tom, we work with so many players both in person and online, and a big goal for players is to get better themselves but also to beat better players. So in this episode, let's talk about how players can beat better players, better opponents, and also what makes a better player.

Yeah, we've all been there, right? You, you're at the club, There are players, and players listening to this know those better players of the club, there's those players that they really want to try and beat, but they just can't seem to do it. And in this episode, we're going to talk about how can you beat better players.

And I think it's even more frustrating when you get beaten by someone and you know that they're not really employing the best padel tactics. Like, how often do we hear that when someone says, oh, these tennis players, we lose to these tennis players even though we are trying to slow the game down, we're trying to play the correct padel, but they end up beating us. And It's really frustrating for a player, isn't it?

Yeah, and you come off court and you're not quite sure, you keep losing, but you're not quite sure why.

Can't put your finger on it.

Yeah, you can't put your finger on it, and for a lot of players out there, it can be quite demotivating because you think, well, I'm putting the training in, maybe you're watching online content, maybe you're getting training sessions, and you think, well, how can I step up to that next level? And well, today we're going to talk about exactly how you can do that.

And I think quite often a big problem for club players is they play a game, they analyze the game that they think, and they often come to the conclusion that if they had a bigger smash, they could finish more points. As an example, smash or vibora or whatever, they could finish more points. So they go home and they binge watch loads of random content thinking, how can they get that smash? And then they think, next time I play a match, I'm just going to try and do that in my match. And then that doesn't work, and then it's almost a snowball effect of frustration, and I think it all stems from not really knowing exactly why they are losing that match, what they need to do to improve. And I think maybe we start at the point like, what makes a better player?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Let's start with what makes a better player, and then it will be easier to then backtrack and say, okay, how do you then beat them? So I mean, when it comes to what makes a better player, now we could go into so many different areas here, but I think The first thing that we want to talk about is consistency. Those better players are more consistent. They're more consistent mentally, but they're also more consistent on the court.

Yeah, and I think we can look at this in levels, really. Like, if you're a beginner, and I'm not going to say Playtomic ratings, but if you are low, low on that scale and you're a beginner, it might be that you are just not getting enough balls in the court. And often it's technique. It's technique that is causing that, because your technique is not consistent, therefore the result of your shot is not consistent, or you're not using the right technique, the right grip, all of those type of things. And, and so you are not getting that ball in the court. And you might be playing against someone who is maybe an ex-Rackets player, so they've got a bit more consistency. Like, good tennis players, good squash players, good any sport players consistently execute good technique. And so if they've come to the court and they're, they're executing good technique, probably they're slightly more consistent than you as a beginner, and I think that it tiers the whole way up. So, you know, what's the difference between us and Premier Padel players is they can consistently play at a higher level, and their shot selection, their decision-making is consistently better. We might be able to hang with them for 5 or 6 shots, but they, they could push that envelope and they could go further to 30, 40 shots if necessary, even longer sometimes.

Yeah, let's jump back into recreational to start with. And we were talking about different racket players, squash players, tennis players, but really what that means is that they've got a foundation. They've got a foundation in place, whether it's from a different sport, but they have a foundation. We talk about footwork, we talk about ball control, the grip. These are the foundations that if you want to be consistent, they have to be in place. I always think of this like a a castle built on sand, right? The players think that they need the big smash, they think that they need that, uh, portréz over the fence because that's always on the highlight reels on social media. But really, the consistent players are the ones that have those foundations in place, and that's exactly why we focus on that on our platform.

After working with thousands of players both online and in person, we have identified 3 main areas that we know can accelerate players' learning. Footwork, we have a Faster Feet for Paddle course. As soon as you sign up to the Paddle School membership, you're going to get that Faster Feet for Paddle course. You're going to get Complete Ball Control, which is how you can control the ball with your racket using your wrist, being able to slow the speed, change the height, etc. And then we're going to have Consistent Confidence, and that is a course based around how can you consistently put good habits into your routine so that you can consistently perform at a good level. So if you sign up to The Padel School today, you will get access to all 3 of those courses, and they lay really strong foundations for you to accelerate your game. And we've seen this at every level. So if you want to check out the membership, there's a free trial. You'll see the link down in the description. Tom, when we talk about being consistent, and particularly at a lower level, and consistent technique, I think a lot of it is repetition, doing the work off the court, and ideally in a training environment, whether that is off the court with a wall or whether that is on a court with a coach or with a training partner. It's that— it's building that consistency so you feel confident and comfortable in your technique, and therefore you can execute it time and time again. And I think that at the beginning it might be the basic techniques, but as you improve, it goes up and you're learning the technique for the bandeja, the vibora, the double glass shots. And I think part of it is getting good technique, and then part of it is tactical and where do you place the ball.

Yeah, talk about shot selection, isn't it? It's around risk, it's around how much risk do you take, and those better players, because they tactically understand the game better than low-level players, typically they take lower risks but higher benefit shots. So they're taking a lower risk but they get a higher benefit from it, and those players that perhaps don't understand the game as well are almost not even realizing the risks that they're taking. They're playing shots, they're perhaps seeing gaps in a court and playing there. And as a result of that, over the course of a match, because they're not thinking about the risks that they're taking, they end up losing because they're taking high risks and their opponents are taking low risk. And really, that's— padel is a game of percentages.

And I think there's a myth or there's a perception that the pros play close to the glass. They play shots that are high risk because it's high reward. And you always see the highlight reel of Tapia hitting a smash that, that kicks out or running out the court. And so there's a perception that the pros play winners close to the lines. But I challenge players, next time you watch Premier, watch where the ball bounces. Like, the pros are playing their volleys, their bandejas, their viboras. We recently did a webinar on this with our members talking about the shot selection, they are playing the ball well within the lines. They're playing their bandejas and viboras inside the service line, well with inside the box. They are not taking any risks on that, and actually they are playing the percentage ball all the time. And what the difference is between even pro levels in qualifying, for example, to main draw, to Tapia Coello, is how long will they do that before they take a risk. Like Yachingalan, Tapia Coello, or Gemma Andelfi, they will play 40, 50, 60 shots before they go for a risky shot, and they are just that much more accurate. They just can hit it with that much more pressure on the ball. But essentially it comes down to, to risk.

Yeah, it's worth emphasizing, taking a step back of what we talked about, consistency and technique and getting the foundations in place, is until you get those really ingrained in your game, it's difficult to then play the, the risk and tactics game because really you're, you're limited by your technique. So when we talk about shot selection, you have to have all those foundations in place to give you all of the options. If you don't, then you're limited. You're already limited with your options because your technique is flawed. So you perhaps don't have these different options. You only have one or two because your, your technique is, is, is not optimized. So We're talking about shot selection here, but that consistency, those foundations are so, so important. And when it comes to beating better players, there's— I feel like it's, it's, it's a logical, it's a logical approach, but I feel like it's a bit of a myth is that to be better players you've got to take high risk. So if we're going to come up against better players, you've got to go on there and, and really go for it and, and just try and blast through them and take those risks and, and win the game. But it's not always the case.

Yeah, I think what happens is club players, they play a match and early in the match they might feed a ball and someone hits a big aggressive smash which may have been high risk but it ends up pulling off and they end up winning the point.

I can't ever lob there again.

Exactly.

Unbelievable smash.

The opponent goes, oh, I've got to now hit my passing shot through here. Or a big one we find is we tell players, right, serve and volley 'Come to net, concentrate on your court position so that you're covering the line, you're covering the middle.' And they go, 'Well, what about that shot with the angle where the returner hits a fast topspin cross towards the fence?' And we say, 'Right, if they go for it, great, well played.' You know, either you're making your serve a little bit too easy, or if you've hit a good serve and they've gone for it, see if they can do it again and again. It's a low percentage shot, but all it takes is for the opponent to do it well once and then they go, oh, we can't do that anymore, and then they try and hit their serve faster and they try and cover that gap, but they leave other gaps open, and therefore the decision-making side of things. And I think that we had this experience when the GB team, when we played against Spain, I think players give their opponents too much respect, either based off reputation, in this case with Spain, or based off one or two winning shots or one or two results against other people. And actually, really you come away and say, well, we were in that match. We could have been in that match if we hadn't have given too much respect and we tried to finish the point too early.

So many matches are lost against, you know, better players— I'm saying this sort of quote unquote— because the players are trying to overplay. They're trying to— they see an opponent in front of them and like you say, whether it's give them too much respect or they think, okay, for me to win this, maybe it's a they don't have as much confidence in their own game and think, well, actually, this person is a lot better than me, so I'm gonna have to play at 150% of my level to even have a chance here. And as a result, by trying to overplay, take too many risks, you end up losing just through giving errors. And I'm sure so many players listening to this have experienced it. I know that I've experienced this, I'm sure you've experienced this as well. When you play those high-ranked players, you come off and you think, they were good, but actually I feel like I gave them the match.

Yeah, and I think when we analyze players, like let's take, we'll do GB versus Spain for example. Our team, obviously the Spanish team is better, but they're not technically better. Like they don't, I'm not saying GB is better, but the technique is the same in terms of if you were to play a game, they are not winning because their technique is better. They are winning because they are being more consistent and they are playing the right percentage shot and they are being patient. And the fact that you see them as better means that you are almost being even more rushed. And we had those matches against Spain, in every match we came off and it was like, like, don't give them too much respect, like stay in the rally. If you stay in the rally and be more consistent, you are getting closer to their level. And I think that's the hard thing, and it's the same at the club level, is the better players, okay, maybe they might have a couple of shots technically better, but they are better because they are executing them more consistently. So If you are playing against better players, I think really the key is to say, right, I'm going to make them play lots of balls. Because there's nothing worse as well if you are the better team, and we've been in this situation, and you're playing a lower level pair and they make loads of balls.

Yeah.

Because then you start feeling the pressure and you think, oh, I'm better than them, I should be doing this. And so if you are playing against better players, like, make loads of balls. Just play good padel and keep the rallies as long as you can and see if they can actually finish the point.

Yeah, that's what you're relying on as a better player is you're almost relying, or at least I go into a match and I think I just know that the lower level players are going to try and finish the point too soon. And if I can just keep the ball going, I just know that they're going to get impatient or they're going to try something too high risk and that's how I'm going to win. You have the same, I'm sure, that you play against those players, you think If they just made, that was, you know, you come off and have tight matches, you think actually if they had made a few more balls, it got a bit tight in the scoreline, that could have been a really difficult match. But as a result, they almost just gave me the match. And that really is the difference.

Yeah, and if you and I go and play a tournament now, like a national tournament, let's say, and we come up in the first round and we know probably the first round might be some ex-tennis players playing, you and I are not gonna say, right, let's just blast them off the court. We're going to say, right, let's just make loads of balls. And they will play the first game and we will make all the rallies 15, 20 shots. And if they win a rally, it's because they have fought for the 20 shots and they start thinking, I've got to do more, I've got to do more. And then they make mistakes and we're like, perfect, we'll just stay here. And the result could look close if you're watching the points, but could be 6-1, 6-1 because consistency over time will win those games.

And we talked a little bit about the mental side, but I just want to touch upon that for a second because Having that, being mentally objective during a match is really important because you mentioned there about those, those high-risk shots that, that, that happen. And as a player, you— and this is, this is so, uh, understandable— is that players remember those shots. Remember that passing shot that went past you? You gave them that gap and it goes past. You don't remember the 5 they missed. You only remember the one that, that went past you. And that's where being mentally objective and saying, okay, 'Let's see them do that at 5-all, 30-all,' as opposed to thinking, 'Ah, I cannot give them that gap again because they've just hit it past me.' And that's— there's another side to it, isn't there? The mental side.

Yeah, and I think it's almost emotional, isn't it? They've got to be unemotional. If you play a really close rally and you fought really hard for that rally, but you end up not quite coming out on top, mentally and emotionally you're a bit drained and you think, I'm not going to do that again. I'm going to try and finish the point sooner. When really what you were doing was probably right and your opponent, you got to think your opponent is also getting tired with that longer point as well. And if you start rushing it, they think, oh, that's good. They're going for it. They're going to make mistakes. So I think the emotional or mental side of it also ties into playing better players and again, not giving them too much respect.

And to almost summarize then for for everyone listening to this, to beat better players? We talked about consistency. So consistency of technique, getting the foundations in place, that's key to this.

Well, I think if we were going to do this in order, we would say, right, get good footwork, like good footwork, good racket skills and control. Get a good routine, which is basically what the 3 courses we push when people join our platform straight away. Then focus on your technique and get really solid foundations with your technique, then focus on your tactics, working on shot placement and decision-making, not taking high risks and going for too much. And then you are almost at a level there— when you've— when you're kind of going through that, you're at a level there where you now start to need to focus on the mental side of the game and how you can be objective in the match and sticking to game plans and things like that.