How to COMMUNICATE with your partner!

That's the difficult one is when you're dealing with players that think they know the right answer and they think they know what they should be doing. They're just incorrect. Welcome, Tom, to another episode of the Paddle School podcast. Great to have you today. Let's discuss a question that's come up on our community. So the paddleschool.com we have our membership platform and one of our members has said to us, look, I'm playing in these social or rotational games, americanos, whatever you want to call them, and I change partners quite frequently. So I play with someone that I don't always play with, and I'm trying to do the right thing by hitting a lob or hitting a ball and coming into net, but my partner doesn't want to or doesn't come in. The. They stay at the back of the court and sometimes it's ex tennis players that are recreational players and they just stay at the back, which is almost the opposite of what we were like when we first came from tennis, wasn't it, that we chip and charge and in on everything. But a lot of tennis players prefer to just hang back and just almost rally from the back. And the question is, how do I get my partner to come in with me, assuming that it is the right time in the rally?

A lot of diplomatic, I think, is the.

That's a loaded question, isn't it?

That is, yeah. How do you do it in a way that you don't end up clashing, clashing with your partner and both of you walking off the court?

Well, they followed that up with saying, should I go to the back of the court with them? Because I think what was happening as well is like sometimes either after a serve, they're serving and not going in. And so my kind of follow up to that was I said, well, there's a few options. Either they don't know they should be coming in, they're ignorant, or I mean, that sounds bad, but they don't have the knowledge to know that they should go in. They don't know the tactic or they believe they are doing the right thing. They think they know the tactic and, you know, they, they should be at the back. That's what. What they think or the option might be that maybe they're less mobile and, and we see this sometimes with a, you know, an older generation or if there's a bit of an injury or, you know, for someone that actually they feel like they can't be fast enough to get to net and therefore they prefer to stay back I think the first one.

Well, if. If they don't understand paddle and the tactics behind coming to net and both of you controlling the net, I think that's probably something you would try to discuss. Perhaps not during a game, but maybe when you are at the break or you're having a drink or something. I think to discuss them like that during the game itself on the court, I think probably is one to leave for when you got a bit, you know, a few minutes at the side of the court and you can have a proper chat with them. That'd be my approach. And again, doing it in a diplomatic way, which is, well, the Brits are quite good, I think, at this kind.

Of thing where you dancing around the subject.

Yeah, dance around the subject. Well, not necessarily dance around the subject, but doing it in a way that doesn't make them lose confidence or make them feel like they letting the side down or you're doing it in a way that kind of. Yeah. Patronize them in any way. I think it's just having a bit of a kind of conversation with them on that is probably how I'd answer that. First point. What do you think?

I think it really depends how receptive they are and also how in control you are. Do you know what I mean? Like, sometimes you see players when they play points and they lose the point because their partner doesn't come in and they get stressed and they go over and you see them going over to their partner, they're going to give them a right talking to. And if you are one of those players, then I would definitely wait for the change of ends. If you are probably slightly more calm, laid back, you can probably go over after a point and say, hey, look, you know, no stress, but. But when we try and do this and you could probably have a bit of a softer approach to it, I think, but you're right, you definitely want to do it when they are receptive and. And also, you know, hopefully if they're just starting the sport themselves, they're not going to be. I know everything, you know, I know it alls right. They hopefully are going to say, you know, oh great, I can learn from you. And the key is almost to giving them that information, but not like trying to complicate it like saying, oh, you need to move here or you need to move there. And the advice that we gave to the member is almost like, if you do a really good job explaining why, like the why of it, then they should get it and then it will become part of their game rather than Just telling them what to do.

Yeah, or just get a power school reel. Get a reel out. Get your Instagram account out. Get, get a reel out. Where we. I'm sure we've done so many videos on, on this topic, haven't we?

I thought you was gonna say to name and shame video. Video them and send it into us. Yeah, I mean, we've done, we've done loads of reels. We've got loads of like, court position tutorials on our platform. But yeah, yeah, that would be the way to do it. So number two was they think they are doing the right thing. And I think this is the most difficult is like players that you say to them, oh, you know, we should try and come for. And they, they go, no, no, no, I'm this, I'm where I should be. And what we often see. And this is, you'll, you'll resonate with this is when you see coaching and you say to them, right, you really should move forward after you've hit this ball and then the next point they'll move forward to the right place and the ball goes past them and they look at you and go see. And you're like, yeah, but that wasn't quite the right example. Or they'll stay back and rip a shot that's like, really lucky. And it goes in and they win the point and they go, see, I told you I should be back here. And you're just like, okay, well, you've just been reinforced with, you know, a negative, A negative answer there. But that's the difficult one is when you're dealing with players that think they know the right answer and they think they know what they should be doing. They're just incorrect.

Yeah. And a lot of those players are tennis players, aren't they? Because it's that classic. You're used to playing in a doubles where you serve, stay back, and you hit ground strokes. And in tennis, maybe not the highest levels, but recreational level tennis, you can just stay back and, and play from the back of the court. And that is a good tactic. You probably wouldn't want players at recreational level serve and volleying necessarily on, on both serves. So it's. Again, though, it comes back to this lack of understanding, doesn't it? And probably diplomacy as well. When you have someone who believes that they're doing the right thing, then you have to be even more, even more diplomatic, even more persuasive of how you think that, you know, they should adapt their game.

Yeah. And I think it's just, it's Almost with, with those people.

It's.

I don't want to say like, you, you've got to prove it, but you kind of have to show how it works. Like, you need to explain why, but you also need to then show them. I think you, you know, and that's what I can't remember. I was listening to a podcast and they were talking about, you know, to change your beliefs, you need to be shown like that is the way. So, you know, coming forward and showing them what they should be doing and showing them the error of being out of position or being, you know, back at the court, for example.

Yeah, completely agree now.

Now, number three.

No, so let's, let's look at, let's look at mobility then.

Yeah.

And I feel like this one, this ties into number two quite nicely because I think a lot of players obviously have a mobility issue, so they might not be able to move as quickly as they'd like to, and therefore they perhaps don't serve and voyage both serves, so they stay back. But in a way, I've seen so many players as well tie that to number two, where they almost reinforce the idea of, well, I, I can, you know, I don't need to come forward anyway, and, you know, I'm not mobile enough to do it, so. Really interested to hear your thoughts on this one.

Yeah. And I think you can play in a certain style that plays into this. Like, you don't, you don't need to be serving in Australian formation and hitting, you know, a ball quickly down the middle of the service box and then trying to sprint across into your net position. We're not, like, there's ways to play that can buy yourself time. And I think a big common error for recreational players when, when they try and take the net is they hit a lob and they move towards the net regardless of where that lob's gone. And often find themselves stuck mid court because the opponents have hit an overhead and they've not been able to get their way in. And actually, sometimes it can be a bit of a blessing if you are slightly slower off the mark because then you actually wait for a better lob. And that's what I'd recommend. You can play away. So if we were playing together, for example, and you were less mobile, I would hit my lob, like high and down the line so that once it clears their heads, I have to go a bit closer because I'm the down the line person. You can hand back a little bit, like slightly further so you've got less distance to cover. And there's, there's certain ways that you can get this into your game without trying to rush into net positions.

And it's the same with the serve, right? It's the same. You can hit a slower serve to buy yourself time to get to net as opposed to trying to hit the serve super fast for anyone, even if they are mobile, it's tough to get to net in that case. So if you slightly less mobile, you can hit that serve a little bit soft to just buy yourself a bit more time to get in.

Yeah. And actually like hit softer. And if you can hit slow and hit the glass, you have plenty of time. Like even if you're, you're less mobile because a slower serve buys more time, hitting the glass buys you time because the ball will slow and they've got to wait for the rebound. And it's actually not that easy. I think the difficulty is that when people put a medium to fast serve in, in the middle of the box and the opponent hits a tennis ground stroke past you and you're like, oh, well, I've got no time. But I think if you can be accurate with your serve, then, you know, then Absolutely, yeah.

This question comes in a lot, doesn't it? I think there's always, I feel like when, at least when I've been asked this question, there's a bit of an element of frustration with it, isn't it? If your partner is, is one of one of these three, these three points. So it's.

Yeah. And I think, I think there's another thing to think about there as well, is because if, when you and I play a pro AM and we play with a student, for example, it looks like we're walking around the court. Like players say that, say, oh, it looks like you're walking, but you always seem to get there. And we are moving at a slower speed. We're just reading the game. So we hit a ball into a corner and we're already taking steps to where most likely the ball will go. And so I think it's another thing if you are a bit less mobile, it's like hit to somewhere and then immediately start watching what your opponents are doing, you know, what position they're in. If you see that racket drop below the height of the ball and the face is open, it's likely they're going to hit a lob. So you start moving and reacting earlier. And that's, that's for me, is one of the trickiest things for players to get and for, you know, for us to teach as well. This idea of, like, anticipating what's going to happen so you have more time.

And that comes with volume, doesn't it? I mean, we won't go into the. The topic of anticipation because that's. Well, you know, I love jumping down a rabbit hole.

Yeah, yeah.

But that topic of anticipation, I mean, that just comes with volume and playing matches, doesn't it? I mean, that's how you're going to.

Improve that and awareness, I think, like, it's something that, you know, we did this recently on a. On our palace. Almost like, like when you hit, to hear, really watch their body position, like, what's their racket doing? Where are they positioned in relation to the ball? What's likely to come? And actually when you stop the player. We, we did this exercise where we were hitting and we, we stopped like midway through a shot and they were like, we're saying, like, where's that likely to go? And everyone could tell you where it was going to go because they're watching the shot. It's just the processing in a point is not happening. You know, there's almost like the focus is on the ball, not on the opponent. And it's, it's. It's quite a tricky mindset to change.

Yeah, really, really interesting topic today to chat on and hopefully for, for those listening who can resonate.

We're going to become more diplomatic, is what I'm saying.

Yeah, exactly.

Become more British.

Yeah, that's the outcome of this podcast is. Yeah, just be more British. No, no, I think a really, really interesting topic. I'm sure it resonated with a lot of people listening. And Sam, I'm sure we'll chat about a few more of these topics in the podcast to come.

Yeah, well, definitely. Our members are putting quite a few good questions into our community, so we are thankful for these questions that allowing us to make this content.

Sam.