How to Stop Having Good Days and Bad Days on the Padel Court

Sandy, we get asked a lot of the time by players, how do I stop getting bad days on the padel court? Some days are great and other days are terrible. And today we're going to discuss how players can avoid having terrible days on the padel court.

And I think this is a key at every level, right? Like, this is key for beginners that are trying to go out and, and make consistent balls and have rallies and things like that, as well as intermediates, as well as your advanced players at the club, as well as like pros and, and people playing internationally, right? Like, the more consistent a level you get, the more likely you are going to be able to actually improve that level.

Yeah, and this is, this is how it, it usually goes for players. They normally, they'll normally go and play different matches, and some matches they'll go and, and they'll, they might play up a rating and, and they feel great and they can play at that rating and they feel like they're, they're there or thereabouts, and really they, they should be at even higher Play Atomic rating than they are. And then They'll play again that week, maybe 2 days later, and nothing is working. They're making errors everywhere. They feel rushed all the time. They're losing control of the ball. They're perhaps losing to lower-rated players and feel like, well, earlier in the week I had a great day and today is a, is a terrible day. And it is avoidable, but there's certain things that you, you can do as a player.

Yeah, I think some players even worse are like, oh, I had a bad day because my bandejas weren't working today. And then they play the next day and it's like, oh, I just couldn't use the glass or Or the returns, or like, they're not even consistently the same errors, which is, you know, another bigger problem. And it all speaks to not having the foundations in place. Like, you don't have these, these issues at higher levels because usually at higher levels you, you have the foundations in place. You've worked hard to make your game as mechanical as possible where your muscle memory for the shots is taking over the majority of your shots so that you get consistency. And I think you're always going to have slight fluctuations, right? You're always going to have, that day was a little bit better, I was feeling the ball slightly more, and that day was not so good, maybe I was a bit tired or, or whatever. Um, but, but those are minor fluctuations as opposed to drastically different PlayTomic ratings depending on the day. That you're playing.

Yeah, and we, we're lucky enough to have spoken to a lot of pro padel players all the way up to number ones in the world, and, and they always talk about their, their base level and how for them performing at their best doesn't really have anything to do with, with, with their technique or their play. It's, it's, it's all about the mental side, and it speaks to what you said there about— it's, it's another way of saying foundations, isn't it? But they've trained those foundations and they've consistently trained them over years, so they know that they have a base level That they can play at. And the most important thing for them is, for performance, is, is the mental side. Now, for a lot of recreational players, if, if you're only playing matches and you haven't done that training to build that base, you haven't really got anything to stand on. And actually, it's, it's really normal, I think, to have great days and terrible days, because if you haven't done that training, you don't have that base, well, you're kind of left in this, this, this, this kind of wave of, okay, some days if I'm feeling great, it's going to be amazing. And if not, then, then, then it is bad. So yeah, I think, I think like you say, even up to the pro level, building those core foundations is key.

Yeah. And you don't want to feel at the whim of the players on the court, right? Like so often we hear, well, my partner got a bit upset or my partner wasn't very good, or I thought he was a 3.5, but actually his level was closer to a 3 or the same with the opponents. And it's, In a way, they're kind of excuses really, that, that really it's your, your game. Now, okay, you're gonna, when you play against better players, you have to raise your level and lower players, you have to focus hard on making sure those foundations are in place. But so much of it can be done off the court.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like we, we are always talking about footwork and, you know, constantly putting out videos like, right, just do, if you do the footwork off the court. It becomes muscle memory, it becomes mechanical, you get faster, and then when you step on court, you are in better place. You're more prepared for the shots, you're more going to be more consistent, more accurate, because your preparation is good, because your footwork is good, right? And it's— and it has a knock-on effect of how aggressive you want to be with your vibora. Everything is like footwork related, in my opinion. When people say, oh, I'm struggling with my bandeja or my vibora, almost without seeing their video, it's like— Are you getting back fast enough? Are you getting back early enough? Are you in a good position for the ball? None of those are talking about the swing or the contact or the spin they're putting on. Like, this is just like the preparation. And I don't think real people realize how much you can work on that stuff off the court. The pros do.

Yeah.

So, so why, you know, why does everyone not work on that?

Well, there's a feeling that you have to have a coach, don't you? You have to get on court. with a basket to train that, but it's just not true, is it?

Yeah.

You can do so much off court. And actually, just going back to what you're saying there about the footwork impacting every shot, I was chatting to a member at one of our clinics and he said, I almost had a eureka moment that I realized that my footwork is the biggest factor to me being able to successfully execute shots. Whereas he said, I've always thought it's It's, it's my elbow or my, my wrist or, or all these little technical things. But he said, I realized that the biggest factor that is going to impact me is my footwork. And, and now, I mean, he, he's doing those footwork drills before he plays. He also said that he's like, I used to get to a match like 2 minutes before, do a little bit of a stretch and play. And he said, now I'm getting there 15, 20 minutes early doing the, the footwork exercises from our platform. And he said that The difference is night and day. So I think that, yeah, that footwork, the impact it has, can also be quick as well, right? It can be— if you start doing these footwork exercises, literally after 1 or 2 sessions, you'll find that you'll be on the court as a different player.

Yeah. And I think, without wanting to go heavy in the biomechanics, because I know I can get lost in there sometimes, but it's like, it's like you're in a ready position, right? That the opponent contacts, you You're hitting your— you're doing a split step. Okay, that's the first thing that happens. If we look at the kinetic chain of events that happens in the lead-up to the shot, it's your split step, then you move your feet into position for the ball, then you move your body into position. So you might turn, for example, or you might, you know, pivot with your hips or whatever it might be, and then you prepare the racket. Now all of that is in the preparation phase, and it starts with the footwork. So if you don't move your feet, you end up turning your body late, you end up the racket going late, and therefore your swing and contact, which is later in the kinetic chain are late and, and you make a mistake and you say, oh, well, I can't hit my bandeja consistently, or I hit it great in the lesson when the coach is feeding me because I know where I need to stand. But as soon as I play a match, it's all over the place. And it is the footwork. Like it almost certainly is, is that right now. I know there's lots of players that also have technical things with the, the arm and the preparation and things like that, but so much of Being in the right position is, is down to, to the footwork. And the whole point of having a consistent performance— now I'm just going to go out of the foundation slightly— is that you in a match can focus on the tactics. Like, that's, that's what you're doing. No pros are focusing on the technique. No pros are focusing on their footwork. They are focusing primarily on the tactics in a match, but they can only do that because they've put the work in. Like, they've put the work in on their footwork, on their technique, on these other areas, and then that way they can focus on the tactics, and, and that therefore their result is just so much more consistent.

Yeah, and it's ingrained, isn't it? It's— and I think that for recreational players, there's a tendency to, to take tips, maybe they've found tips online, and then they go straight into a match and try and focus on them, end up overthinking For example, like you said, footwork—it's not something you can just think about and say, "Okay, footwork's really important. I'm just going to think about it my next game." It just won't work like that. If anything, it will make it worse because now you're instead of being in a flow state when you're playing and thinking about the tactics, you're now in a consciously thinking state, which makes everything worse. So actually, it is probably worse to think about footwork than anything. But all of all of those. Those muscle memories ingraining automatic, all of, all of that when it comes to footwork can only be done if you train it. And, and really the best place to train it is off the court, I think.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, you can train it in a lesson, but actually I think that when it comes to footwork specifically, the best place is without a ball and in a space where you can really dial into the footwork movement, the patterns. You're in a relaxed environment where you're not receiving an incoming ball and, and you can really focus on, on grooving that footwork. Because the more you can do that, the more reps you can get, more quality reps, you're going to go on the court and it's just going to happen. And I know that perhaps people listening to that say, well, you know, how does that, how does that happen? How would I just get good footwork on the court? But it does. If you train it off the court, it's going to become automatic and you're just going to start moving faster. You're going to be earlier to the ball, you're going to be on balance. But you have to put The training and off, off the court.

Yeah, it's interesting. It reminds me of, uh, I did a video recently with Gonza, my co-commentator for, for Premier, and when we go to events, we try and get on court and we do some teaching. And he was like, I'm really struggling with my forehand at the moment. He's like, it's such a basic shot. It's just my forehand groundstroke, but I'm, I'm so inconsi— you know, inconsistent with it. So we went on court and we, we did some exercises. We saw, I saw him play and pretty much all I changed was his footwork. Like, and a little bit on his preparation, but almost all of it was just footwork. And at the beginning, he was like, oh, I'm exhausted doing this fast feet, you know, after 45 seconds or a minute. And I was saying to him, look, this is how you build up. You do this and then you do these trainings at home and you build up to 2 minutes and to 3 minutes to 5 minutes. And that's how you build up. That's how you get faster. And I've seen so many coaches that Start by fixing swings and fixing, like, like him, for example, he was, he was inconsistent with his contact. Now I know so many coaches that probably would have started, oh, you need to roll over the contact, you need to try and put spin on this, or you need to hit harder or flatter or something, right? And it's like, actually, if you just go back in that kinetic chain and you fix something early on, it will have the impact. I didn't even need to talk to him about, you know, his contact or his swing. Because when we did the footwork, he got there earlier and he was in a better position and therefore he had a better contact. And so I know we're hammering this point now of, of working on the footwork.

We've gone deep in kinetic chain. You said we weren't going to go there, but we went.

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. Um, but yeah, I just think it's, it really is like, it is a game changer. And I don't think people don't appreciate that enough yet, but that's our mission, isn't it, Tom?

Well, I think it goes back to what we, talked about at the start, which is good days and bad days. Because it's— we— that when you talk about the kinetic chain and the foundations, like, really, that is the solution to, to not having such ups and downs, isn't it? It's, it's creating a base level, the core foundations— footwork, control on the ball, um, movement— all of these, these foundations. And you— and I like the fact we went into the kinetic chain because really what we're saying is That also, that the footwork makes up the foundation of each shot. And so really that reflects into what we're talking about today, which is, well, the good days and bad days, the foundations are key because they make up the foundations of the shot, right?

Yeah.

So if you can get the footwork and everything else in place, then you're gonna stop having such ups and downs. Now, like you said at the start, you might have, you know, not a great day or you might not be feeling it, but You're always gonna come out on court with that base level, and I think that, that's what we wanted to go through today, was that to get that base level, it is possible, but you need a plan and you need to be doing the right exercises, and there is a solution to not having such great and terrible days.

Yeah, and I think if you want those exercises, you'll find them on thepowderschool.com. There's a 7-day free trial, we'll put the link down below. So just start them, start them within these first 7 days, Get them into your routine. You'll probably already notice within that time that you will be faster, and, and, and just see if it impacts your game. Then, then stick with it, go through the roadmaps, improve your game. But we almost guarantee that, like, good footwork will lead to a better and more consistent performance.