How to Hit a Vibora That Bites

Tom, in this episode we're going to talk about how to get a vibora that bites, and that is how to learn the technique, how to practice it so that you can use it in your game, and importantly, how to get confidence in that shot, because it is definitely a confidence shot.

It's a shot everyone wants, isn't it?

Yeah.

It's the shot that wins you, wins you points. It feels pretty good. It feels amazing when you hit that vibora into corner and it stays nice and low. Yeah, it's probably comparable to say if you hit that drive on a golf course straight down the middle and that feeling after you think, yeah, I've, I'm loving that.

Yeah, but we all didn't start there, did we? No. And it was one of the harder ones for me to overcome.

You think your golf or?

Yeah, my golf or my paddle vibra. Yeah, it was one of those for me, it took a while. Like I often describe it to tennis players of imagine you throw the ball toss to the side and you come round the ball, which I did a lot in tennis actually.

I remember, yeah, you went through, you got the yips a little bit.

I did get the yips on my ball toss at one point.

I remember playing a tournament. Remember when we played that doubles tournament in tennis where I think you had the yips on it? I remember you saying to me, you're like, I just, I'm gonna have to just, yeah.

I can't keep catching this ball toss. I'm gonna have to keep doing it. Unfortunately, it was a grass court tournament and the slice out wide was, was what was winning us really. Um.

Little did I know that you were just practicing your vibora for the years, years later. You're the last laugh.

Yeah. But it is one of those that it's a really awkward contact point for racket sports players in general, I think. And so, um, you know, getting, getting used to that is, is difficult. And it's also one that you need a relaxed arm, that you just can't play that shot with it with any kind of tension. Otherwise, it— you become stiff and then inevitably you make a, make a mistake on it. So why don't we break the shot down first and then we'll talk about tactically what to do with it, and then we'll also talk about how people can build confidence Yeah, technically this is, this is an attacking—

let's, let's talk about tactics first. So the tactical point with, with the vibora is that you would play a lot of viboras mainly from the left side. So if you're a right-hander playing on the left, you're going to play a lot of viboras through that middle ball. And this is an overhead that is a bit off a shorter lob, so you're going to attack this ball a bit more. It's not short enough that you would hit a smash, and it's not deep enough that you would play a a bandeja. This is one where you can attack, and, and tactically what you're trying to do is you're trying to, if you can, hit double glass. If you can, that's, that's probably the best, the best way of using your vibora. And a lot of the time you want to play cross-court on this shot because that way you can recover the net afterwards. But really tactically, this is a shot where the lob's a bit shorter, you have a chance here to attack but not necessarily finish.

Yeah, and I think not necessarily finish at a higher level. Do you remember, like, when you go through that phase of, like, you're probably a 4.5 or a 5 and your vibora is designed to finish, but then as you go to a 5.5 and up to 6, it's like suddenly your opponents are defending them. Either they're blocking them or they're playing them off double glass. And, and so, you know, the level we play, for example, that the vibora is now used as a setup so that you hit a vibora with the idea that if you hit it well enough, you might be able to finish on the next ball, or maybe— It's— you might have to play 4 or 5 viboras in a point in order to get an opportunity. So, and, but, but if we kind of rewind back to, you know, a lower level like 4.5, for example, that it often finishes, finishes the point.

But that's a tricky mindset, I think, for players to have though, because I think at the lower levels where you do finish the point with it, in a way it can almost make you go the other way where you try and hit it even harder than you need to. Yes.

Yeah. It's not, it's not full power, but it almost like, if we look at the journey, is a low, a beginner level and low intermediate, they win with this powerful flat smash. And then players start to learn to run up the court and get that flat smash back. So players start to learn the vibora. And then what they do is they hit the vibora and it ends up behind the player because they've run forward thinking it's a flat smash and then it ends up behind them. And so they end up winning points like that. And then the players stay back, but they haven't learnt well enough to deal with the double glass, and so the vibora ends up being a winner. But then as the players get better and defend, they, they defend those. And so often the mindset is, I'm going to hit my vibora harder and harder, and then you end up, like you say, making, making mistakes on it. But it's more important the spin on the shot, so that the sidespin combined with the precision of where you're aiming, that makes this effective.

Yeah, because what you're really doing is you're testing the opponent's defense, aren't you? If you're putting that slice on it, that spin, then it's rebounding off double glass. At a certain level, players, no matter what speed you play it at, that's probably going to win you the point.

So starting with the technique, as with all the overheads, footwork is key. Getting back into a position to the side of the ball so you've got distance to freely swing at it, which I think is a, is a big thing. And that is anticipating, seeing the lob, You recognize that it's a short lob, therefore a potential to attack, and the vibora is going to be your tool in order to do that. So you've moved side onto the ball and you know you're going to really rotate and whip through this shot, so you need that, that space to the side and you need to be far enough back that you can contact this effectively at forehead level. And I think that's an error that a lot of people do with their footwork is they go back but they don't go back enough, and therefore the contact is too high or the contact is behind them, and then that ends up being a bit more of a bouncy vibora.

Yeah, bouncy. Or you might find that you try and hit this shot and it goes straight on to the back glass because the contact usually is too far behind you, or maybe you, you take it late. Um, but yeah, what you said there about recognizing the lob, I think for me that, that is so important when you're learning the shot, is, is recognizing this is a chance To hit a vibora, and then, and then going through the footwork, the preparation, everything else. This, this overhead is quite unique, isn't it? Because it's, it's a throwing action.

Yes.

So unlike the bandeja, where we've done an episode on the bandeja where we talked about it's like a high forehand volley, now this one is, it's more of a throwing action, which means you can be a bit more aggressive, you can hit this shot a bit faster. But actually the preparation, in terms of the height of the preparation with your racket, it's similar to the bandeja, isn't it? And a common error is having a low elbow, whereas actually you still need that elbow up because you're looking for that swing path That's a bit more linear.

Yeah, you, you keep the elbow up and it's like you're brushing the back of your head with the, with the racket. And yeah, it's a fully like horizontal shot. And this is why it's more risky than the bandeja. The bandeja, you're coming down, therefore you have a contact zone that is easier to hit, whereas now the ball is dropping and you've got to swing horizontally and contact it at the right place. And that's why if you're playing outside or a very high ceiling and it's a high lob and the ball is dropping faster and faster with gravity, It's very difficult to, to hit an effective vibora because the timing on that, it's like there's no margin for error. So, so that's what you've got to, got to think. You've got to play this in a time when you know you can time it, time it well enough that you can hit, throw the racket through the ball. And we often describe it, for those that have ever done like axe throwing, where you, you kind of throw the axe, you like, you release with the hand, and that is almost the, the final whip. Or whipping a towel, um, is an— is another way.

Skimming a stone.

Skimming a stone. Like, all of those are are where you just release the wrist, release the hand, almost like a whipping action with your arm to that contact.

Yeah, and to do that, you need to play the shot freely, I think, because it's very difficult to hit this shot if you're tentative or if you're unsure. You really need to let go on the contact to get that whip, to get that extension, and I think that for a lot of players is, is one of the hardest things to do. When you, when you don't have confidence on the shot, the natural thing to do is to overthink it or to try and force it. And the second you do that, you, you can't play the shot. And so you really have to play a shot freely. You have to really go for it, um, and, and learn to play the shot with confidence.

Yeah, and I think to get that, you need the technical repetitions And repeating it enough. I was gonna say off the court, but off the match court. So yes, you can practice this at home. And that's actually what we're doing this month in our challenge is our Vibora challenge. So that's where we work with our members every month and we do a 30-day challenge. And this month it's on the Vibora. So we're doing shadow swings, we're doing the movement patterns, we're doing like the still ball exercises, we're doing where you throw for yourself and you practice and you build up Really good repetitions off the court, and then ideally you're also practicing it on the court, whether that's a ball machine or a training partner or a coach feeding you repetitions so you can really build it up, build up confidence so that when you step onto a match court and that lob comes up, you're like, in your mind you're like, I've got this, and you, and you go and you can relax and you, you throw the arm at it. Now, I would say if you miss it You need to find a way to be relaxed and confident on the next one. And I see this so often where we might work with a player on their vibora.

Oh yeah.

And, and in practice we're like, this is great. Like they're so relaxed and they come to a game and they're feeling good about it. And then in the first game they get an opportunity and they swing and they miss. And then we don't see that vibora again. Like there's then, you know, a mental panic. And after that they end up pushing a bandeja. And you, you think even the pros, they miss, especially at the beginning of the match, they miss these shots. They miss their topspin smashes, they miss their viboras. They miss their lobs, they miss at the beginning of the match, and they find their range. And, and so you have to have confidence in yourself and your technique that it will come out.

Now, the difference between the pros and the recreational is that the pros have done the repetitions.

Yes.

And, and we've, we've been lucky enough over these last few months to interview so many top players, and, and that was a topic that we chatted to them a lot on, was what proportion of your game is mechanical versus mental, and what do you focus on? And, and the recurring theme that kept coming back was they've done the repetitions, they've done the drills. A lot of their shots are already automatic and mechanical. And I think that it's very easy for, for us to say, well, you have to approach a shot with confidence, and if you miss a few, then don't lose confidence. But the reason the pros are able to do that is they've got the repetitions in. And for recreational players, if you're, if you're planning to learn the Vibora from scratch, and even if you understand what the key Errors are, if you're going to go out onto your social game and try and learn the Viva from scratch, you just won't be able to do it. You won't. And you won't be able to hit that shot with confidence because you haven't got the repetitions in.

Yeah. I mean, learning anything, right? You need to, you need to practice repetition, whatever the sport and whatever the, whatever the exercise really like. And often we use driving as an example because it's, it's so widely known, but it's like, Okay, you enjoy, you know, doing go-karting, for example, and you think, oh yeah, I'm a go-karter, but actually I really want to drive on the road. You're not just gonna go from go-karting and then go, you know what, I'm gonna pass my driving test and rock up and parallel park and just think, oh, I've got this. You're gonna pract— you've got to practise in order to be able to get it right. And you're gonna do it badly initially, and then you're gonna get with practise better and better, and then you're gonna get— build confidence when you start doing it better until you can actually do it in a pressure situation. And If you're serious about actually wanting to get better at a sport like padel, you, you need to build up those repetitions because even if you only play games with your mates, it becomes a pressure situation after the WhatsApp groups and everyone's giving themselves a little bit, a little bit of hassle on the, on the WhatsApp and you step onto the court and you're like, I really want to win this. This, the moment you think that, that is now a pressure situation. And so. You need those repetitions in order to be able to play under pressure.

And what you also don't talk about, or what we haven't talked about, is that the bad habits that are being ingrained when you don't have the right technique.

Oh yeah.

So if you're, if you're going out there and you're, you think you're doing the right thing, you think you're gonna try in the social game, and actually your technique is off, all you're doing is honing the shot and it's actually gonna get worse. You're actually repetition— there's lots of repetitions of the wrong shot. And so this really is a shot that, as we talked about, we have our member challenge this month and we take our members through every single stage of learning this shot with the majority of the exercises off court. So solo drills you can do at home with a racket, and it really is the way that you can learn a shot from scratch. So if you want to go on court and play a vibora with confidence, that is how you're going to do it. You're not going to be able to do it by going on to a social match and trying to To implement changes in your vibra.

Yeah, you're not going to wing it in the game. And we have a 7-day free trial, so you can sign up. We'll put the link in the description, in the show notes. You can literally sign up for 7 free days. You get access to the platform, you get access to the challenge, you'll get the exercises daily that we're putting in there to start working on that vibra. And if you want a way to finish points with your vibra, like, there is no better way to learning it.