Crack the Americano Code: Secrets to Finishing on the Top Court

How do people listening go into their next Americano? With the goal and with a solution of how they can end up on that top court?

Tom, we have a huge episode today on something that a lot of players listening will be probably taking part, and that is how can you win your Americano? And by Americano, it could be a social rotational tournament. It could be something that your club puts on as a bit of an event. But how can you go to a competitive social evening where you're rotating partners? Most of the time it's called in Americano and put in your best performance.

It's that elusive goal, isn't it? Get on that top court.

It is.

Depending on how it's organized. If it's a whistle, is the whistle blown on the final rotation, and you can finish on the top court, you know, hands in the air, celebrating. I don't know how serious your Imperial is.

One for the crowd. Yeah. Yeah. And often, I mean, we call it like king of the court or something like that, where, you know, winners go up and losers go down. Even though you may not keep track of necessarily the scores, you definitely can see who's on top core and who's right at the bottom.

Let's talk about how then, how do people listening go into their next Americano with the goal and with a solution of how they can end up on that top court?

And I think, just as a. Sorry, as a slight side note to this is how many people come away from Americanos so frustrated that they go, oh, I just had such a bad evening in the American. I paired up with, you know, Bob and then Jane and then this, and I just couldn't win. And they say, oh, it's either bad luck or they just played really badly. And it's also for these people, how can you put in a good performance at those? And I think we're going to split it down into two areas, aren't we? Number one is how can you play your best given that you are constantly having a new partner?

Yeah. This is a real challenge, isn't it? I think it's definitely something that isn't easy. Something that is quite unique to Padel as well, is playing with lots of different partners, perhaps even people you don't even know. Maybe they're quite new to the game as well. It's a massive challenge, particularly in a competitive environment when you're trying to win. Having new partners with different levels, that can be a huge challenge.

Yeah. And we do this, don't we? Sometimes when we do, like, pro ams or Mix ins and you play with different partners and, and you know, we don't know them. And so almost the first bit of this is like, how can you build great rapport with a new partner in.

A short amount of time?

In a very short amount of time. I mean, it's literally you change onto the new court and you almost. Sometimes you're introducing yourself at the same time as saying, right, which side you want to be on. And I think that, you know, you can really maximize that time. Like, I know what I try and do is if I'm with someone new and you come onto the court, there's always an element of tension there because it's like you either don't know your partner or you do know them, but you don't want to let them down and you don't know them well enough that you can make mistakes and not feel apologetic about it. And I think that the first thing is almost like go on the court. And what I try to do is almost like a little mini icebreaker, which is almost like tell a little bit of a joke or you know, say something that is going to try and relax them like as you go on and then as much as you can almost get to know them like before you even play that first point or if you play that first point, it might be the first couple of points and go, oh, do you want me to take that ball down the middle or do you want me to move into this position? Or I really like to use my lob cross court. Where do you like to play? Like, it's those type of things before you start and in those first few points that can make a big difference over the course of the time period that you play, which is often anywhere between 7 and 15 minutes or something like that.

But I imagine if you go on to an Americano, me or yeah, if you, if you went to play an Americano, that you would typically play left. Because the more, let's say, experienced player plays left, perhaps the, you know, the better player would play left. And so that discussion ends up being a bit of a no brainer. At least that's also when I've played Americano. Social Americanos, that seems to be that the, the immediate thing that my partner says, oh, you should definitely play left. And then, you know, we've already agreed those sides. Now I think for people listening, that can also be a point of tension, can't it? When you go onto a court and perhaps you both prefer playing left and then one of you has to decide who plays left and who plays? Right? I mean, that's. That's quite a big moment, isn't it, in an Americana when you first come onto the court?

I think, yeah. And I think with us it's slightly different because normally, like you say someone would. We would come on and the amateur would say, oh, do you want to. Yeah, you should play left. You're the stronger player. But often, you know, at a club, people think that they are left court players or they think that they are right court players and they go on and go, I'm a left court player, I need to play on the left. And I think there's two problems there. One is really at a club level, you should learn to play both sides for exactly this reason. Or, you know, maybe one time you're going to play with a stronger player, or one time you play with a lefty and you have to change sides. And so you need to be prepared for that. But then also too, I think that it's more important that you build a good chemistry with your partner than you push them on the side that they don't want to be on. Right. Like that, you know, that's for. And even if you and I play and we play with someone and I say, do you want to play? You know, which side do you want to play? Now, most of the time I play this socially, and if it was like a serious match, then, yes, I'd say, look, I should probably play on the left so that we win this. But generally I'm not too fast. It's just very difficult for a pro player to play on the right and have a big impact on the game because obviously it's my backhand down the middle instead of a potential vibra or smash, etc. But I think at club level, it's almost being diplomatic in how you ask for your side. If we were to come on and we didn't know each other, and I said, hey, Tom, you know, I'm used to playing on the left. I really like to play.

I'm a left go player.

Yeah. Versus that.

Yeah, it's like on our reels.

Yeah.

Cross. Big red cross.

Yeah, there's a big red cross. But I think if you do it diplomatically and you say to your partner, look, I'm just more comfortable there. I don't mind to play the other side, but, you know, I just feel like I'm better suited that side then, you know, most of the time players go, okay, yeah, no worries. Like, it's about building a good social environment. So, you know, I Know, we've kind of dived into this which caught. Which side should I play on here? But it's almost building that rapport as much as you can. And if someone comes on and they say that to me, then I go, absolutely, you play on the left. And they will play better because they feel like I've got confidence in them and I'm supporting them. Whereas if I tell them to play on one side, immediately, you've kind of ruptured a potential relationship.

There is a happy medium here to also not play Australian on serve and therefore switch sides. I know I have seen that in Americana. That could be an option where if you feel like you've given your partner the side you want to be on and you've perhaps wanted to play left, you've ended up on the right. You could also not play Australian, therefore you get to mix both sides. I think that. Is that a happy medium?

Yeah. And for those listening that don't know Australian, that's when the Volier is on the same side as the server and the server will serve and then move across to the open core. And, yeah, absolutely, you can do that. I think that's probably a. A whole podcast episode around why you would play Australian formation and when you should use it and what you need to think about. Because at most club level Americanos, they could play Australian formation or normal formation and it would be absolutely, absolutely fine. So, yeah, I agree that that would be a happy medium.

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Can implement straight away. Just head to the paddlescore.com drillbook and we'll also have a link in the show notes. So the first tip is building rapport. Lots of communication. That includes communication within a point as well, doesn't it? It means calling balls, being quite verbal during the Americano during the set that you're playing, because that's also important. Not just the in between points, but during the point and the second tip we're going to talk about.

I'm just. Sorry. Oh, sorry to interrupt. You just popped in my head and I've only done this once. But imagine. Imagine you're like speed dating, right? And you're going around different, you know, like different stops and you're. You're trying to build a rapport straight away. That's what it's like. It's almost like as soon as you step on the court with someone new, it's like, right, like, relax. Like, have a joke, Relax them I mean, these are not tips on how to speed up.

I was going to say which side you play. No, they know you've got a paddle player.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's just convenient, that is. No, but, but that's the key is like straight away something that's going to make them feel relaxed.

Yeah.

And. Sorry, Tom, tip number two.

Well, the second tip is around the tactical side of playing an Americano, isn't there? Because it's very easy to go through the motions. I've played quite a few social Americanos. It's a. It's a good atmosphere. Probably got some music going on, everyone's having a nice time. But what is forgotten sometimes is you can actually come in to those games with a bit of a tactical element, can't you?

Yeah, definitely. And I think, I mean, we have it, we. Like, I've run loads of these before where you've got a whistle or you shout out and the moment you blow that whistle and it's like people have eight minutes or 10 minutes, there's like a frenzy to play for serve and get the. Get the balls and then step up to the line and hit serve and like, it's just a rush because you feel like you've only got a finite amount of time that you need to fit all of your paddle game into. And, you know, tactically, like, if you look at the best way to play paddling, to get the best performance, it's like, be consistent, be patient, play long points, you know, put your opponent under pressure. But if you go in there and you are rushing and, and trying to quickly get as many points on the board as you can, you often end up making mistakes. And this is a question for you, Tom, now, is like, what makes someone rush more when it's 00 and they got eight minutes, or, or when it's their four one down and they've got five minutes. Do you know what I mean? It's almost like they get more frenzied as it goes.

Yeah. Who would have known? Americano could be a human experiment.

Exactly. Well, the guinea pigs. But it is like that, isn't it? You see, you see people go down a few points and then people are saying, how long left? And you've got four minutes or whatever, and then they're really rushing and before you know it, it becomes a landslide. For the opponents or the players that are taking their time, being patient and.

Having run an Americana myself with the whistle, I can tell you that I've had lots of evil. Yeah. The looks that I get as the time's going down, there better be an extra three minutes on this clock because I've got some points to get back. But like you said there, I think you can end up winning points very quickly, but then you can also lose points very quickly and actually find yourself down just as fast as you thought you were up.

Yeah. And no matter what situation you're in on the court, it's almost better to try and play patient, try and play consistent, try and work the points. You know, maybe the exception is if you are down and you know you haven't got long left and you need to get some really quick points on the board, but more than likely that will continue to put you in the other direction. So it's almost like when you tactically, when you start that Americano with your new partner, build a great rapport. But then also like those first, particularly those first few points is play some long points, like make the rally last, use the lob, use sensible setup volleys down the middle of the court. Like, don't try and finish too early. Don't almost let the fact that it's timed pressure you into rushing.

Yeah. And I think that same approach also applies in matches. Obviously you don't have a time element when you play matches. Now you might do if you feel like you've got 60 minutes on the clock and you want to quickly get a win under your belt. But if you look at, say in tournament play, that's the same approach you should take at the starter match, shouldn't it? It shouldn't be that you go in, have a high risk strategy from that first game. You should go in with that same mentality of making lots of balls, playing low risk, sussing out your opponent. So as much as it's important for this Americano, which I know is the most important thing in the diary is winning that Americano. But it also applies for also recreational tournaments that you're, you're going to be playing.

Yeah. And even recreational matches. Right. Like often you book a court 60 minutes or 90 minutes and you get on there and you think, I want to maximize the amount of paddle we play. And so I'm going to do a quick two minute warm up and then we're going to get straight into it and then you play and it becomes a set all. And you think, oh, I've got, you know, 20 minutes left for this third set and then you start rushing the points again. And okay, you know, we can kind of joke on here and say the match doesn't mean anything, but at the time players take that very seriously because it's against your friends or it's a must win match. And so it's the same advice applies in that consistent patient paddle trying to maneuver your opponents into difficult positions is going to be the way to go.

So if you've got an Americano coming up do listen to this episode. I was going to say share it, share it with your partner but actually if you're looking to get the top core maybe you should share it.

Do not share this, do not share.

This with your partner but whether you've got an Americano coming up or a tournament make sure you you do listen to this episode in the car on the way there because it will help you get that top court.

And also what we say to our members on the platform is let us know how the Americano goes so you know put put these tips into practice and tell us in our community if it was successful or not. Sam.