The #1 Skill Every Padel Partner Wants

Honestly, it can be the difference between you winning a match and losing a match is the preparation that you have when you step on court. Top. We are here with an episode today on a really difficult part of the game, particularly when you want to compete more or play tournaments, even if it's a club tournament. And that is, how can you bring the best out of yourself and your partner? How can you be an asset to, to your partner?

Yeah, we're going deep here, aren't we? In this, in this episode, I feel.

Like this is for us, this is.

Touching some emotional chords. It's around letting your partner down, isn't it? How can you be an asset and not feel like you're letting your partner down on the court? And well, we laugh about it now, but actually it's something that a lot of players experience, particularly new players to the game and they might come to the game, they really want to play with friends or play at a certain level when they're worried about letting their partner down, maybe because their own level or they don't feel confident enough. And I think this is also worth saying that it's something that players experience at a lot of levels as well. So, yeah, really interesting episode today. And we've got another acronym, another acronym based on a previous podcast where we put an acronym together. We thought, well, why not?

Yeah, the three P's, I like that. But I do like that idea there of it being for newer players, the game. And it could be, you know, you might as a female player mix doubles with your husband or you might play with a friend for the first time, you don't let them down. Or it might be you've got a long term partner that you've been playing with for a year and you just are either plateauing or you want to feel like you stand the best chance every time of going into that, that match. Well, and I think the first P, if we get with tip number one is prepare. And I think when I say the word prepare, I'm talking about almost preparation before you step on court. So making sure you get there early. There's nothing more frustrating than having a partner who turns up either on time or a few minutes late. I've been there.

It's like a pet hate coming through. I didn't even know this was part of it.

You can hear how passionate another P I feel about that.

Sorry I was late the other day.

Yeah, but you're never late. You're like me, you're always there, there early. But it's, it is, it's it's frustrating because you start thinking, oh, well, not only are they going into this match and we haven't had a chance to talk about our opponents, but they haven't warmed up properly. They go in in a rush, so prepare it. And it's so easy. It's just organize your timings, make sure you're there 15, 20 minutes before touch base with them. Ideally, you both get there together, you do a proper warm up, you know you're in the zone by the time you step on court. And honestly, it can be the difference between you winning a match and losing a match is the preparation that you have when you step on court.

Yeah. And it's not just physical, isn't it? We've talked about this in previous episodes as well. Around the mental side, mentally preparing. And I think when, when people hear that, they think, oh, I got to get there and do some meditation on the car, I've got time for that. We're not talking about to that extent mental preparation, but it might be going on the court with just a couple of goals that you're really clear when you step on that court and you play that match, this is what I'm going to achieve. And, and having that mental clarity is really important. It's not just physically warming up, getting a sweat on, but if you can go on, have a clear head, be clear on what you're trying to do on the court again, that will help you perform at your best.

Yeah. And I think everyone has busy lives, right? We have busy lives. If I go somewhere to play a match and I turn up at the time I need to play a match, I haven't been able to clear my head from whatever's going on in my, my life. And it's. And like you say, it's not, it doesn't have to be meditation, it's literally get there. And the moment you start talking to your partner or you put yourself in slightly more paddle frame, you will naturally focus more on what's about to occur, which is that match. So I think it can just be a question of just giving yourself the time. And so few players do this where, you know, they give themselves that time before even just to put their bags down and, you know, maybe do their shoes and maybe grip the racket, you know how, I mean, even in Euros, how many times do you see someone gripping a racket as they're walking on to the court? And I just think all of these little things can be done before and it's a great way to make sure you Start the match on the best.

Foot and leading onto that then is the second push which is push, pushing yourself, pushing yourself.

And that basically means competing like compete for the game and compete hard. And if you want, want to support your partner, ideally both of you are pushing but it's like, you know, you're going out there with the intention of, of to win and, and you're like me, like competitive mindset. We, we've competed since we were, you know, kids. I always know with you you're going to push to win that match. It would never cross my mind that you'll kind of give a half ass effort in a game. And so it's almost like if you can make sure that you're always pushing and competing hard in the game, then you'll not be letting your partner down.

Yeah. And I think from my perspective, having played with players that perhaps are a slightly lower level and so they might have this feeling that are they going to let me down as a partner, As a partner playing with someone, if I can see that they're really competing hard, they're trying for every point, they're leaving everything out on the court. At no point do you feel like your partner is a letdown because really all you can think is this person is really pushing it and they're doing everything they can to win. And we've talked about this a lot really Padel is so much about that. How many matches are won from purely just competing?

I mean at every level. And I think it's not just you talk there about playing with a partner of a lower level, but also you see this of players that are a higher level and they almost think they're too good and they don't try their best. It's almost when you get the frustration come in as well. And I think if both players are pushing then no one makes mistakes intentionally. You know, if you're both pushing, you know, trying your best, then it's like you will bring out the best in your performance. Undoubtedly.

Yeah, exactly. And I think the mental side this second P is around pushing and a lot of it is mental. And we have, well we've discussed that a lot in our mental toughness course. I'll put that in the show notes a link to our mental toughness course. That course is really about how do you become mentally tough, how do you become a competitor, how do you win more matches. And so if you are interested in developing that side of your paddle, do check that out because it's such an incredible resource.

We did it with our Performance psychologist jj I mean, look, we could have done a course where we just put our thoughts together of, you know, what mentally we should be thinking about. But, you know, as, as usual, we want to take it to another level. And, you know, we've done it with someone who works with Olympic athletes, work with, you know, top paddle players as well. And really almost we've broken down every situation on, like, how to deal with frustration, how to deal with anger, dealing with injuries, what you should do pre match, post match, what you do in a tournament. With training like this, it's one of those courses that if you are like serious about your game and you love to dive into like this topic, then it's perfect because it is a, you know, we do, we dive in deep. They're. They're longer videos. It's quite an intense course, but it's perfect if you want to compete better with your partner.

So at this stage, you definitely haven't let your partner down because you've got there early.

Say, you looking at me, looking at me there? Yeah, I haven't, Tom.

Yeah, no, I was talking about the listener.

Okay.

If the listener has prepared, they've arrived at a physically prepare, they've mentally prepared, they've gone onto the court, they're now pushing, competing hard for every point. They certainly haven't let their partner down at this point. Sandy the third P. Let's get into.

It is practice now. This almost occurs, I would say after the match, but not during the time of the match. So practice is great beforehand, but I'm really talking about not on a match day. And that's really for a couple that want to improve. Like, and sometimes you play an Americano and you, you change partners every five minutes and it's difficult to build a chemistry with a new partner with such quick turnover. But if you are playing regularly with someone and you want to develop into more of a duo, it's almost practicing together can be really key. And it's not just because you get better at your shots, but it's basically building a bond between you and your partner. You understand what they do well and find difficult. You understand how they feel about pushing it, how they almost react to difficult situations by doing that. Training together and practicing with your partner is such a good way to improve your game.

Practicing with a partner is a game changer. Since playing more matches with Sam, who's on the GB team, I've played quite a few fips with him. Being able to practice with him has been just such a difference in terms of otherwise Playing with different partners all the time, you really struggle to build that gel together. And once you start training together, you do start to understand them on a deeper level. You start to know where they're going to play, how they like to play to their strengths. So definitely agree around practicing with your partner. I'm also thinking though, for players that perhaps don't have a regular partner and you can still get high quality training in as an individual, can't you? Even if you have lots of different partners and even though we have practice as our third p in a way it kind of. It's cyclical, isn't it? It almost goes back to around the prepare, which is have you done everything possible leading up to a match to put yourself in the best place? And you and I talk so much about the quality of training. Are you training in the right way? Are you just playing matches or are you doing drilling? Are you getting good quality coaching in really this is around. What can you do before you step on that court or before you prepare for that next match?

Yeah, and I think it's interesting you talk about Sam there because what players often think is they think, oh, well, I can't train with them, you know, I need to train with my partner or I can't train with them because they're on that side or this side. Now Sam obviously plays on the right, you play on the left. And you can do a lot of training down the line. You can even do some cross stuff with them at net while you're defending, for example, and, and vice versa. If they want to work on the overheads, you can do it where you train with someone on the left, like find another left court player. So you train on the diagonal. There's loads to train on as a couple and there's so much you could do with two players on the court. I mean, I spent back when I started in Dubai, going back now 15, 16 years ago, the sport was so small around the world. Okay, Spain and Argentina had it, but I spent like a good three to four years just training with my partner at the time, Javi, and we would spend 95% of that training as a couple, like as a couple on the court. And it, it's so good because it just builds up your consistency the way you drill. Like even your fitness training, training as a two can really be a good way to, to work on your fitness. And I think when you know what to do, and this is exactly why we put our drill book in on the platform is so that players have, you know, 80 plus drills that they can do as a pair to work on different areas of the game. You know, it makes such a big difference when you as a pair can go out after that, having done so much practice.

Thank you everyone for listening to today's podcast. If you can like and subscribe, we'd be much appreciated. And if you're looking to improve, we're here to help. If you check in the show notes, we've got loads of resources in there that can help you. Sandy. See you on the next episode.

Until next time.