Courtside in Qatar: Sandy Breaks Down Premier Padel 2025

What is it like there? Do you get to go into the players lounge a lot? Do you get to play yourself a little bit? Tell us what's it like behind the scenes working at Red Bull tv? Sandy, great to be back on the cod with you. You've just come back from Qatar where I know you've been commentating with the Red Bull TV team. And I watched the tournament. It looked like a great tournament. I thought the commentary was fantastic.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

And I wanted to do a little bit of a summary of, of your trip and I thought it'd be a nice chance on this podcast to get a bit of behind the scenes action, find out what, what actually goes on behind all of the commentary. Because I'm also interested to know what almost like a day in the life of is when, when you go and work with, with Red Bull TV on this commentary. So, Sandy, welcome back. How was your trip?

Yeah, it was great. I mean, I love, I love doing those trips and I like Doha and I mean the Qataris are like into their paddle and also they have like such high standards for like hospitality. So the hotel is great, the services around the tournament are great. It's all set up like really, really well. It's just a nice week. And I mean in terms of, in terms of the playing, it's like, it's funny, we talked about it a bit on the broadcast, but the first couple of days were so windy. I mean, it was almost to the point that like when the players were warming up and I saw them on the practice course, they were just testing the wind, they would hit the ball like way out to the left of the court and the wind would just take it all the way across, like. Right. I mean, it was like gale force winds. And so when you're watching from the camera angle, you can't see the flags that are just like flipping in the background. So you don't really realize it. But those first few days it was so windy and it was really impressive how not only did the pros adapt to the wind, but they were reading it all the time and adjusting their lobs. So even in that wind, they were hitting up a high lob and they would let the wind take it and then it would die towards the back of the court. And so the level of play on the first few days wasn't great because of the wind. It was decent, but it wasn't like a spectacle. But then the last couple of days the wind died out and then the finals was just an impressive performance. Sure.

A Lot of recreational outdoor winter players can resonate with those gale force winds.

Well, it's difficult, isn't it, because you're on the core and you're covered by the glass so you don't think it's that windy. So you're on there thinking, yeah, it's not too bad. And then as soon as you hit a lob up like above the protection of the glass, it just immediately takes it and it's. It's something we always say to players, isn't it? Like, if it is windy, every change of ends just go and remind your partner the direction of the wind. So say, hey, remember this end, we have to hit it a bit further into the wind because we're against the wind and just remind each other because how many times have you done it when you change ends and you hit that first lob and you just miss it by miles and go, oh, I forgot that actually now the different end, the wind's going in a different direction.

Well, normally I'd say winds change completely. Doors, it's completely changed. It's swirling now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't get any rhythm.

No. It's interesting, isn't it, how the wind changes the game. You talked about it not being a spectacle. So how does it change? What are the different shot choices that players will make given that it is so windy?

Well, I think the first is understanding the direction and strength of the wind. Because if you use a high lob, you've got to remember it's so difficult to smash in wind too. Right. Like if that lob is coming down and it's moving, whether you want to be aggressive with the smash or hit a vibra or bandea or whatever, it's moving. So it's really tough to smash. But also it's tough to be accurate with the lobs. And this is one of those where you know how there's so many coaches out there now going, oh, you should just learn vibras. People don't need bandekas anymore. I tell you, the first half of that tournament everyone was hitting bandejas because the wind's moving and it's really all you can do. And so it's adjusting like that and it's probably using chiquita a little bit more faster. Lobs obviously are less affected because they're in the air for less time. But I think the main thing is, and it's the same in tennis, the same in other sports is remembering that all four players on the court have the same conditions. So whoever gets frustrated with it is going to be the one that ends up losing. And it's so easy, right? You hit a lot of. And it's easy to get frustrated with the elements, but, you know, you've just got to remember that everyone on the court has the same conditions.

Yeah, it's really interesting topic because I yesterday actually played a tournament. I'm in Florida, so I went to Miami and played a tournament at Ultra. So I think they've got 28 courts in total. I think that's correct. Indoors and outdoors. And we played outside in the sunshine, which obviously not complain about is absolutely beautiful. The club was amazing. But it made me realize that I've played so few matches outdoors in sunny conditions. So I played in the uk, obviously not so sunny. And the rest of the time, even when I've been to Spain, it was all indoors. And it is such a different game. I mean, even training before this tournament, everything we've done so far, our academy and replay, is indoors and it's such a different game playing outdoors. You got, like you talked about, you've got the wind, you're the sun. Even on a nice day. I mean, it was by all accounts a nice day yesterday, but still there's a bit of a win going on. The wind is changing, the sun was, I don't want to say a problem, but it was. You needed sunglasses to play for the first time a couple of hours and then the sun went down and you could see again. And it just makes you realize that playing outdoors when all of the elements are evolved, it completely changed it. So we've actually got tournament coming up in Las Vegas next week, which we're going to, which is outdoors. So it's really good for us to train. And I really kind of underestimated how important it is to train in those conditions because I just thought, oh, well, we could just keep training at replay indoors and we can go to Lagos next week and it'll probably be okay. It might take an hour or so to get used to conditions, but I feel like, particularly with paddle, it's a lot more than that.

Yeah, it's a different sport. And this is why I know a lot of people say, oh, well, we shouldn't do any premier outdoors, but I understand that obviously to get rained off is a massive problem and you got some tournament like Santiago where they didn't even finish the tournament, but I think it's really good to have some of these outdoors because it just teaches you to be a bit more patient, to almost be considerate of the elements. Use them to your advantage. And yeah, it's a different game and you really need to practice outside before you can really play at your bs. And you know, an example is like Cuello and Tapia playing in the final and those high lobs were going up and Tapia was still bringing it back to his side and you know, they were playing a ridiculously high level. Same with the semi finals in those conditions. But you just have to be aware of them.

Yeah. So it's really interesting. And yeah, for all those players out there who do maybe have a combination of indoor and outdoor, it's good to make sure you train outdoors before you go and play the Swarm. It will help you a lot. So, Sandy, give us a bit of a behind the scenes insight into what a day in the life of his life. Because we see you in the commentary box and hear you commentating, but what is it like there? Do you get to go into the players lounge a lot? Do you get to play yourself a little bit? Tell us what's it like behind the scenes working at Rebel tv? Yeah.

So, I mean, I suppose first thing to think about is like the Rebel tv, like the crew that goes for the week, you've got your videographers and video editors and producers that go at the start of the week because content needs to be made at location for the production. So if you watch the broadcast, you see a lot of highlight reels and artsy creative things. That's that team kind of making that, you know, the day before or a couple of days before. And probably there's about a team of about 20 people for that production. So it's not just the ones you see on camera. I mean, there's a lot of behind the scenes and it's a really good, efficient team. So like they'll always be like an OB van which is basically monitors the broadcast and the feed and make sure, you know, it's all lined up with the studio and there's a whole production side behind that is massive. And then when we go, we start the broadcast on the quarterfinals. So we go the day before, we'll do a dress rehearsal the day before, like going through the next day's schedule and plan. And then we basically have two sites. So we have the site where the studio is, where you see us behind a desk, where we got the microphones and we're almost talking between matches around what's coming up, what's happened in the match and what are some of the things to look out for. And. And then we've got the Commentary box, you know, that's obviously where we go for during the match and we do the commentating for basically quarterfinals onwards. And then you've got some of our kind of like roaming reporters that will be on the grounds and they do the post match interviews and they'll do interviews with the crowd or around the venue. And so a typical day might be the quarterfinals or semi finals where we'll get everyone in position, do makeup and hair obviously and then get everyone in position, do a rehearsal and then we will almost start the broadcast. So we'll start all in the studio together and then one of us, myself or Jordy will go and commentate a match while the other one stays studio and then we'll keep switching during the day.

Oh, so you are airbrushed. I was, I wasn't sure. Yeah, you didn't want to. Don't want to ask.

Now. I find the makeup a bit more challenging. Obviously I'm not used to it and it was like hot, humid environment is all dripping in my eyes. So I didn't do too much of it after the first day, much to the frustration of the makeup artists. But yeah, the whole thing is super well organized and you're there doing the broadcast. You've got the kind of earpieces in so you know what's going on with the rest of the team, you know what's coming up next. And like before I did this with Red Bull, I. I didn't have a lot of experience in that. Like I've done commentating before, Like I did that quite a few times in Dubai, but nothing like this where you've got a producer in your ear that's kind of managing the process and explaining what's going on and everything like that. And then obviously you see the production so the people watching on the Rebel TV app see the finished article, as it were.

I'm interested because you also have experience as a coach on the tennis tour, being behind the scenes of big tournaments like this. I know that you coach myself, but then you also coach other top world ranked players. So you've been in these kind of environments as a tennis coach. I mean this is a long time ago now. How does paddle compared to tennis do you think? In terms of players? I don't say professionalism because I'm sure they are all professional, but almost that environment that the players are in compatible compared to tennis. And I mean that in the sense of with tennis you have very much closed teams so players will have their own team around them. And this is single space. I'M talking about they have their own team around them and they'll very much focus on their fitness and their physio and their routines and that's what they're going to do. And then they go and play the match and they come off afterwards and again they go back to their team and it's almost. They're quite kind of isolated teams of players. How does it compare with Padawan? Is it similar? Have you seen it changing over time as the sport becomes more professional? I'm just interested to know what that kind of atmosphere and environment is like behind the scenes.

Yeah, it's interesting because some of my earlier experiences. So I was tournament organizer for in, in 2015, the Dubai Master, like World Pedal Tour Masters. So this, this is 10 years ago and we held that and there were only two players in the whole tournament, Bella and Lima, that asked to access the gym. No one else accessed the gym. No one had strength and conditioning trainers, no one had like they didn't come with their physios. There was no, almost, not really much of a warm up. People would do a few arm swings and then go on to court like this is 10 years ago. And it was, it was very much a group of mates that would travel around and play this tour. A bit kind of how I imagined the amateur tennis being back in the day. Now I would say that it's evolved over time. Obviously there's a lot more prize money now so you know, it's taken a bit more seriously. Sponsors are paying the players a lot of money now. Everyone travels with S and C or a sports physio or they have their off court programming. So everyone now, and probably with the exception of Paquito, but everyone now is doing a proper off court like SNC training, doing a warm up. But we're still at a stage where it's kind of a group of friends because it's the same group. They've all ended up growing up together, playing together, whether it's in Spain or Argentina and they're either based at Madrid or Barcelona and, and so they, they all really know each other. And so that's why the player association now at Premier, like they have so much power and so it's an interesting dynamic now in that it's still a closed group of players because no one from another country is getting into that group for another five, eight, 10 years. Right. And that's why they can boycott, you know, tournaments and they can be so powerful and, and almost from a Red Bull point of view, it's like they want to do more and more with the players, but the players are quite difficult to work with sometimes to, to get them on their own to do stuff. And so it's almost in that transition. I think it's not at tennis level because tennis level, you know, the players understand the promotion and what's required in terms of publicity and everything like that. But it's a long way improved from where it was 10 years ago. And so now, and I'm not saying all players are like this, there are a lot of players that are very good. They finish their match, they come for a post match interview, they understand the importance of broadcast. Some of them are learning English, not all of them, you know, and, and there are some that their English, I, I remember their English from 2015 and they didn't speak a word and now they speak quite fluently. Well, you know, we spent time with Paquito and these guys and now that you can have a conversation with them in English. So yeah, things are changing on that front.

It's really interesting, isn't it? And the social aspect that he talks about, how it's still a group of friends. Do you feel like that almost reflects the general social aspect of paddle? The fact that the professional tour is still so social and that. Do you think that almost in a way filters down into the rest of the sport? And I say that because since being in the U.S. i've had conversations with players about Padel and for lots of players here, it's a new sport and they very much relate it to pickle, which I don't have much experience of, but from what I've heard is a very competitive not. And again, I don't know much about this, but this is what I've heard is that it's very competitive. It's not that social in the sense of the Americans really want to take it seriously. And you go out there, particularly with the professional pickleball and competitive pickle, you're out there to win. There's no social aspect. And a lot of players that have come over from pickle to paddle said it was just such a nice breath of fresh air because they said, oh, it's so social and everyone is so nice and paddle and it's so friendly. And I was explaining the rules to a few Americans here around. If you're not sure if a ball is out or in, you just play. You play the point again. If one person isn't sure, then we play the point again. And they couldn't believe that that was a rule. I said no no, no, no, no, that can't be rule. If I call the ball out and the ball is out like you would in tennis. And I said no, actually that this is what's so nice about Padel is that it is more social and it is more friendly in that sense. It's kind of more user friendly in a sense of no, no, we, we're gonna say we're gonna play that and that happens even up to the top level that if you're not sure then we're gonna play, we're gonna play the point again. And there isn't this idea of well, I've called the ball out, therefore it's my point. And the reason I mentioned this is I find it's gonna be really interesting over this next period. As the sport becomes more global, it becomes more professional, it becomes more commercial. Whether that will change and whether that friendly, social, all inclusive community feel is, is going to change. I just wanted to get your opinion of it because it's interesting when you talk about how the top players still are a group of friends and whether that will change over time.

Yeah, see I think it goes the other way. Instead of it being like top down, I think it goes like social up. So as in all of these players will have started as kids like playing with older players and grown ups and things like that. And they will have been taught that from an early age in paddle of like that sportsmanship. And so now when they're at the top of the game, they continue that. And actually, I mean even in the final, there's times when a player would serve, the umpire would call it out and the person returning would overrule the umpire and go actually no, no, that was in have another serve like that would. Can you imagine that happening in tennis? There's absolutely no way like there's maybe one or two tennis players that would do that. And also I imagine like imagine growing up in junior tennis without people just cheating you off the court.

Well, I was going to say I think I've seen that a couple of times in tennis and it literally makes all the reels, doesn't it? Because it's such a big thing. A tennis player says oh no, that serve was actually in have another serve. It's suddenly like a viral real. Whereas you realize in padaw is happening all the time. I mean it happens almost every match, at least a few times where you just let's, let's replay the point.

Yeah, and I remember junior tennis. I mean there was a few players that single handedly like ruined Junior tennis for a lot of players, just because there was such cheats and there was nothing you could do, they would call a ball out and it would be all their call. And you just, I remember it now.

Junior tennis, professional tennis, even at pro tennis. I mean, I remember even when I was, you know, in the middle of my Tennis Rail, they had 400 in the world playing. I mean, even with umpires, there were players that would try and manipulate the situation to try and almost get the umpire to kind of go swing the call their way and still find a way of cheating through matches. So, yeah, it's an interesting topic. I'm gonna, I'm almost mentioning because I, I hope it doesn't go that way, but I'm.

Yeah, I think at least for the short term, foreseeable future, it will stay sportsmanship and who knows, when prize money becomes big and there's a lot riding on the line and things like that, it may change, but the hope is that it will stay like that. I also think that there's not really line calls. There's only a line call on the serve and the serve is such an irrelevant line to call that, you know, it's not like tennis where you get aced or you win points off the serve generally. And so, you know, and after that it's, whether it hits the glass or the fence or not, the result of the ball is so obvious that it's very difficult to cheat that, particularly at higher levels. So I do definitely hope it stays that way.

Yeah, let's, let's see. We'll be watching this space and. Well, it's, it's nice to have you back, Sandy. The trip looked nice. The one thing I didn't notice this trip and I might have missed it, I noticed you were croissant making in your previous Red Bull. What? Was there any.

Wasn'T any of that this time? Unfortunately, no, no, I did, I did sample a lot of dates and, and carac and local foods, but we didn't cook any or, or have some ourselves.

We didn't capture that. We didn't cap with the Red Bull crew.

No, that's just my free time.

Well, we'll look forward to what is next because I know they tend to do that, don't they, on each week. There's a. Yeah, there's something, Something a bit. Yeah, exactly. Well, Sandy, nice to catch up and good to have you back from Qatar and it's nice to hear a little bit of a behind the scenes of what goes on and. Well, I'll see you on the next vlog.

Sounds good. See it.