In this instructional video, a padel coach from The Padel School outlines five concrete actions beginners should focus on during their first five matches to accelerate improvement and avoid early plateaus. The coach explains why new players often develop chaotic, overly aggressive habits and stresses the importance of early coaching. The five tips are: (1) understand point construction by prioritising net play and using lobs or soft shots to transition forward; (2) maintain clear court positioning, staying in the back or at the net and avoiding the “no‑man's‑land” transition zone; (3) play slower, employing lobs and the chiquita to control tempo and create better net opportunities; (4) become comfortable with the glass, using it to vary speed and reduce the urge to rush forward; and (5) treat padel as a long‑term journey by incorporating off‑court conditioning, injury‑prevention work, and realistic training volumes. The video also promotes ThePadelSchool.com as an online coaching platform offering video analysis, footwork drills, and conditioning programs, and ends with a call to subscribe for more content.
Chapters
New players are coming to the padel court all the time. Maybe you've been brought by your friends or a social event, and what we're finding is they are being advised by other new players to the game. And what happens is there's mass confusion for anyone starting their padel journey. So in this video, we're going to explain what you should be working on in the first 5 matches of your padel journey. The reason I'm giving you 5 matches is because at the beginning, the first couple of matches, there will be overwhelming excitement as you discover this sport, as you discover playing matches. No doubt you're going to be probably hitting too hard, you're going to be rushing in the points, you're going to be chaotically tearing yourself around the court, and that's absolutely fine as you start to understand how the game is played. But I urge you to try and get the education and understanding of what you should be doing in the point as early as you can. I know so many players that have been playing for years and still are chaotic and rushed and trying to be super aggressive. and it's very difficult now to change their game because they've got into the habits of playing fast. But if you can do this at the beginning, it will be so much easier, and you won't plateau early like they will do. You will actually increase your level and continue to improve. So please try and put this into action as early as you can. At The Padel School, we work with players of all levels, right the way from beginner to national level players. And when I have these conversations with beginners, quite often the conversation goes that they are a natural at the sport because the sport is easy to learn, particularly if you've come from a different racket sport. The technical side of padel is quite easy to pick up. So players, they play the first time and they think, oh, this is easy, I can do this. And then they play the second, the third time, and they actually improve slightly because they understand the rebound and they think they know how to get into position. And this is almost where the problem starts, because most of the time players don't get lessons in the first year because they think, oh, I'm improving, I'm improving on my own, I don't need help, I'm going to, to continue to go in that direction. But all that happens is you plateau, often 9 to 12 months of regular play, and then you go to a coach, and the coach, like myself, says, right, well, we've got to change loads of bad habits because you've picked up all of these bad habits from having played hundreds of times over the course of the year, and now it's really hard to break them. So if you can implement some of these things as early on as possible, you will avoid that, that plateau. So even though you feel like you might be a natural at the sport and you picking it up on your own, please try and get some lessons or some advice on your game, and that way you will enjoy the game for much longer. So the first thing to focus on in these matches is try to get an understanding of how the points are constructed. Typically, you have two players at the back, you have two players at net. It's more advantageous to get to net, it's easier to finish points. 90% of points are finished from the net, so you want to try and get to that net position But also you don't want to rush and get yourself out of position by trying to speedily get to net. So if you're at the back of the court, you want to take your time, choose a good time to get to net, and that is when you are buying yourself time with a lob or a soft shot in order to get there. But you want to work out the strategy of how to win points. Now, what I would say is that players at this stage focus so much on the ball and themselves and their shots, as opposed to the game situation and the space on the court. Often padel is referenced with chess, and it is a little bit like that. You want to force your opponent into positions on the court, creating space to hit into, but at the same time guarding your space and not let your opponent get an advantage. So aligned with understanding how the game is played, my second tip is focus on the court position. Like inevitably what happens is you're playing at the back and without realizing it you're drifting in towards the net position and then you end up in this no man's land. And at high levels this is really a transition zone, players use this to transition forward and backward, but at a beginner level it's often no man's land because you really can't do much if you locate yourself in this zone. So when you're at the back of the court, stay at the back, don't drift forward. And when you're in the net position, don't drift back into that zone, hold net position and don't get too close to the net because every step you go closer to the net leaves a gap behind you for your opponents to hit into. The third tip, and this is aligned with court position and this is also aligned with working out the spaces on the court, is learn to play slow. It's very tempting to come in and hit fast, and it's very satisfying when you hit a big smash, there's a powerful pop on the racket and it bounces off the glass and you win a point, but the majority of points are won by controlling the net position. And to do that, you need to really lob or chiquita to get to the net. The chiquita is a soft shot down to the feet, and then when you get here, you still want to position them out of court. It is not a game of power. This will also help you maintain a good court position. If you play slower, it gives you more time to reposition at the back of the court or to transition to come to the net. But either way, playing slow helps you develop your court position and also develop the points in a strategic way. The next tip is get comfortable with the glass. Now, these tips all lead on from each other. You get control of the space, you understand your court position, where you should be, backcourt, frontcourt. You learn to slow the ball down, and in order to do that, you need to use the glass. Loads of people come from tennis and they are rushing, avoiding the glass, and you can't slow the ball down if you're half volleying and volleying. So You need to learn to use the glass, and this will be a major unlock for you because the moment that you get comfortable with the glass— and it's going to take a period of time because it is frustrating to learn— but once you get comfortable with the glass, you are then not feeling the pressure to rush forward. Often players charge the net because they don't want to be at the back and they don't want to use the glass. So once you get comfortable there, your game will evolve so that you can actually control the speed of the ball. Now we are giving you tips to improve your first 5 matches, but at this stage I I really hope you are getting technical and tactical advice in your game, but it can be really difficult to find good coaching in any country, even countries that have been established in padel for a long time. They don't have the coach education pathways there for players and coaches to learn properly, and that's exactly why we put together thepadelschool.com so that players can go, they can get the right advice, they can send in videos about their game, they've got follow-along footwork and ball control exercises that they can do off court all to help improve their game. So if you want to continue to improve and not plateau soon into your journey, head to thepadelschool.com. There's a 7-day free trial, so you can go and check it out. We're in that community every single day, and hopefully we can be your online coach. My final tip for your first 5 matches is see padel as a long-term journey. So often players come, they get excited, they get obsessed, they fall in love with the sport, and they go from playing 0 times a week to playing 5 or 6 times a week and unfortunately end up getting injured. So look after yourself, do the right exercises off the court. We have a whole course on that on the platform, or go and see a physio or strength and conditioning expert in order to get good training off the court, but also seeing it as a long-term journey that you want to improve and is something that you want to perfect within your game. Often players see it as a hobby and then a year down the line or 2 years down the line, they decide they want to improve. And it's very difficult for us as coaches to help that because they've got so many bad habits at this stage. So get in there early, do some good learning. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel because we'll have lots of information on how you can improve your game on here.
