The Power of Resilience in Padel

Are you able to stay calm and focused within your game? For me, that's that mental resilience, really.

Sandy, we're back with another podcast episode and we have literally just got off court, having battled it out in the heat in London, which we don't normally say that, but it was roasting out there. Bit similar to. Well, you've just come back from Rome, haven't you, on the. The Red Bull TV team at the premiere. So what were your key takeaways from your week?

Yeah, so, I mean, it was just hot on court for us there. It was really hot this week in Rome for the players competing there. And it really changes the game, doesn't it? I mean, it. Firstly, it makes it faster, but then when you're outdoors, outdoor is a very different play to indoor. And I think it was quite an interesting week in terms of the level. One thing that really like Sean, was the pairs that showed more mental resilience often ended up winning. They didn't often play their best paddle. Like lots of examples this week of like one player not playing their best, but still getting through the matches. And I think that's quite an interesting topic to discuss.

Yeah. The topic of the day is resilience. And I think, before we jump into it, what does it actually mean in this sense? So I. I think everyone listening probably has an idea of what the word, like the literal meaning of the word. But I think when it comes to paddle, what does a resilient paddle player look like?

I think when we talk about resilience, I think it's sticking to a mental framework that suits you and your game. So, for example, if you are someone that plays your best paddle, when you stay calm and you're able to keep focused when you're calm, it's like, are you able to play that throughout a match, throughout a tournament, in difficult situations? Are you able to maintain that calm focus when it is a set, all four all, for example. Or maybe when you've hit a shot and you think it's in, but your opponents think it out and you play a let and you've had something within there that's, you know, could potentially frustrate you, are you able to stay calm and focused within your game? For me, that's that mental resilience, really. And you've also got to think it's not only yourself, but it's also for your partner as well. Like, you need to be resilient as a pair because it's no, no good if I play with you and you completely lose it. And go off the boil or you lose concentration or you go away. It doesn't matter how resilient I am if our team is let down by one of the players.

Yeah, I definitely feel like resilience applies to paddle so much more than, than even tennis, I would say, mainly because I feel like the way paddle is with the points and the variables that happen within a point. I mean, you, you can go through stages where you can just lose a series of points in paddle almost like with bad luck, like perhaps you get a bad bounce or it hits the cage and doesn't come out or, and before you know it, you can lose a string of points really without having actually played badly. And so I think for me, resilience is so key because you can go through those patches. And if I take today, when we played just now, I feel like going through the match, we, we had moments. Sam and I played against you and Nick and we went up in the match. We, we went three, three love up in a set and then we ended up losing the next couple games. And actually you guys played very well. We had a couple of unfortunate bounces. We lost a couple of golden points. That's the other thing with Padaw is if you play the golden point rule on juice, then I mean, really, anything can happen. And so I do think that that resilience applies to Padel even more than tennis, because that was our background, wasn't it?

Yeah, well, it's interesting because it happened for you in two sets. Like in the second set, you went two love up. I think 30 love up. You were almost cruising and lost a little bit of concentration, lost a couple of points. Before you know it, you're four, two down or five, two down. It can happen so quickly. Like that's the thing in Padel, like in, in tennis. I remember, I remember coaching you and watching your games and you were able to go to the back of court, get a towel, like walk around the back, take your time. 20 seconds, you had the time. Whereas paddle seems to go so quickly, you've got like four seconds. Sometimes when you finish a point and you start the next one, that momentum almost just keeps going. And then what happened, you know, happened again in the third set, you're going up again and, and almost letting us back in. And it can be very easy for high level players to do this, but also recreational players to do this and then start having a bit of a thing. And even, you know, Nicola I was playing with is like, right, well, we, we came back in the second set. So we can come back in this one. And the person who's let them back in thinks, oh, well, we let them back in in that one. And suddenly you're overthinking and you're, you're doubting yourself. And it's, it is definitely more mental, I think, than tennis for sure.

And I've started to have such a different mindset with paddle as well. When, when you go up in a paddle set. I mean, I used to have this in tennis, but in a way with tennis, you try and trick your mind and you say, right, I'm a breakup or I'm a double break up and try and trick yourself and say, oh, it's, you're not really ahead. But because the serve is so dominant in tennis, if you've, if you're a double breakup in a set in tennis, really, if you have a one good service game, then the set is yours, really, if you've got that double break. Whereas I feel like literally I go full of up in a paddle set. And I'm almost thinking I need to stay focused here because I think almost I've lost so many sets from being 3 love 4 love up. Now that's probably something I need to work on there. But yeah, like today I went three love up there and I almost knew I was like, I need to treat this as if this is like 00 in a set because I've been burned so many times by losing and again lost. Today we ended up losing like four games in a row. And yeah, it's amazing how quickly a match can turn.

I think as well, because Padel, the nature of it with the glass and the fence and you know, the way it's played, you, you feel like you can be unlucky and like, yes, golden points is, is one, but you can end up hitting a shot and it bounces awkwardly off the fence or someone like scraps a ball and it comes off their frame and they win. And it's like you feel like, oh, that's just bad luck. And I think as soon as players start saying, oh, it's bad luck, like it's. You then almost comforting yourself that you didn't play, like, and you get yourself into a little bit of a rut in that. I just think it's, it's got to be. You remember, like how when we started competing properly in tennis, we almost learned, I think it was a cool, like the 16 second cure or 20 second cure where you got 16 seconds to get yourself reset between points. Here you need a five second cure. Like, it's like you need to reset yourself within five seconds, but forget luck or this or that or what happened in the last point and almost move yourself forward. And I think, I mean, this is why we put together like that mental toughness course with JJ, the performance sports psychologist, so that there's loads of scenarios, there's people that get frustrated and how do you deal with that or you get angry, how do you deal with that? How do you prepare yourself mentally before a match that you want to win? And obviously, you and I, we want to win every match. Right? And so it's the same as. Same as most people. And, and how should you. If things are getting out of control within a game, how can you change it? What breathing techniques can you use? Things like that. And that's almost why we made that mental toughness course, because we know that the top athletes use it. It's almost giving access to recreational players as well. I think it's just a really important part of the game. And in Rome, it was so noticeable, like, it was one of those where, like, Chingotto and Galan won the whole tournament. But in the semi final, I've never seen Chingotto miss so much. And he just missed loads of balls and, and Ali Galan had an option there to get frustrated with him or to like, raise his game to almost cover and support him and, and almost Ali Galan raising his game and being more dominant and almost being extra supportive helped Chingotto just get in enough balls for them to get through. And I think that that's. That's often what it is if you're not playing. Like, like even today when we played, had you or Sam just made a few more balls at two love or three love up, you could easily, easily have turned that into a four one up or whatever it might have been. But it's just, it's that thing of, like, even when you're not playing your best, make the ball, because you could still come through it.

Yeah, it's interesting. Is it? Because I, I always compare it to my competitive tennis days, and I know what you said there about players comforting themselves, saying it's bad luck, but it just does feel like that. Like, if I feel like with tennis, like the only real variable that could happen in tennis, which would be bad luck, is someone hits a neck chord and that's really the only thing you could say. Okay, someone could, perhaps if you're not playing on the best quality court, they hit a line and it does a funny bounce, or they shank a winner and hand but the odds of that happening are so rare that in a way you kind of say, well, that that was bad luck that happened. Or if someone hits a net cord on a break point, the odds of that happening are, are so slim. Whereas you do feel like that in paddle. Like I'm thinking today, where there are some times when the ball would go into a corner, it just wouldn't bounce and come out and wouldn't bounce on, on a golden point. And you look at back on that and think, well, I didn't actually play badly in that game, okay, there's probably things I could have, could have done differently. You always look back retrospectively and think that, okay, I could have, I should have. Instead of lobbing him there, it gave him the chance to hit to fence. And then I had a bounce off the fence like that. Maybe I should have lobbed down the line, therefore he wouldn't have hit that ball to fence. But do you see what I mean? I feel like you don't come away from a game and feel, I've just been broken there because I played a bad game.

But it's interesting, isn't it? Because in tennis you would have told yourself if that had happened, if they hit a net cord at juice, for example, you would have said to yourself, well, that was unlucky. But really I shouldn't have put myself in a situation where it is juice or where it is five all in a tie break or whatever that situation is, and it's such a small percentage of the match that it won't have made a difference anyway. Now, the interesting thing with Padel is in tennis, most of those rallies are three shots long, two shots long, right? Most of our rallies today, for the most part, were eight, 10 shots long. So, so probably the luck is probably the same or similar percentage. It just feels more in paddle because the rallies are longer. And so something might happen where it bounces off a double glass and you just not quite got in the right place and you flick it and it. And it maybe bounces like. But you really would be telling yourself the same thing in that, well, I shouldn't have. If it's got to golden point in the game, you could look at the, the two unforced errors you make at zero and say, well, that's why we got into golden point. And so actually, really, you make your own luck, if you know what I mean. Like, that's the way to look at that, rather than to say, oh, I've been really unlucky here. And even I remember recently one of your matches where you had a lot of golden points and they didn't go your way in Whetstone, in that in the fip. And there were quite a few of those games where you had a break point before gold point and you didn't. Weren't able to convert. And I think that that's almost the way to approach it in your mind, rather than thinking it's bad luck because that's out of your control.

Yeah. And like you said there, unforced errors. Well, I mean, unforced errors are the biggest killer, aren't they? And I mean, it's interesting looking at Rome, because the conditions are fast. Players were making unusually high number of unforced errors there when it was hot there as well. So that was a factor.

It was really hot. And it was not only hot and it made it difficult. Like the points were so fast, but also physically it was difficult. Like the players were sweating a lot and a lot of them use that, the four on Total Grip spray. So I'm a spray that they would spray onto the grip or onto their hand to. To improve the stickiness of the way they grip the racket. But it was. It almost meant that there was no, like, margin for error. And that's why you saw a lot of, like, return errors or a lot of just basic easy mistakes. The ball is being fast and pinging around and I think that's something that, you know, when you play in fast conditions, you need to consider.

Yeah.

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Yeah. And going back to our match today, I mean, noticeably it was outdoors, which changes the game most of the time. We're used to playing indoors and if anyone's listening to our podcast, they probably get sick of us talking about the UK weather for eight months of the year. But we've got sunny skies now, which, believe it or not, we're now complaining about it being too hot. So a true British way. No, but we were playing outdoors and it was hot. And it's amazing how that combination of outdoors plus the heat completely changes the game.

Right?

Yeah.

Because what happens is players are able to smash and be aggressive on a faster court, but at the same time, you've Got the light, the sun, a little bit of wind. It makes it difficult at the pro level. They smash so well, even outdoor. And so a big thing in Rome this week was almost like they weren't hitting the lobs well enough. And if they hit a bad lob, the point is finished. But also at the same time, players going for smashes when they're too far back and on an indoor they might have more success, but a slight mishit and they're in immediate trouble. And I think, you know, we were talking about this after the game today is almost like if you are going to play in outdoor condition, you need to practice in them really.

Yeah, well. And another I thought interesting topic we chatted about after the match was I quite like hitting my smash. It's something that I'm trying to develop into a bit of a weapon. And I think when we played out today versus when we play in perhaps indoors or other conditions where they're a bit heavier, you can hit the 3 meter smash okay on a shortish ball. But I think today was a real chance for all of us to actually use the heat, use the conditions and even bring the smash back to your own side. And I think for me the decision in my mind around, okay, how should you try and use when the conditions are like that, how should you try and use that smash or practice that smash? Because I'm not used to practicing in a way where the ball goes up in the air and I think, right, I'm going to smash this and bring it back to my own side. Really all I'm thinking about is the conditions I'm used to training in. If the ball's, if the lob's a bit shorter, I'll just try and kick it out for three. So when you go into a match situation, should you be almost overplaying it? So perhaps missing a few that you wouldn't normally go for. But the idea is that long term you're developing a weapon in your game or how do you see that?

I think this ties in quite nicely to the topic today, which is like the mental resilience. It's almost having that approach that you got to go for your attacking smashes. And even though you might not have confidence in them initially, the problem is if you don't go for them, then you'll never develop your smash. I'm not talking like long term but also within, within that game. If you watch the pros and Tapia is a, is a great one for that. But lots of players are like this where you Know, the first few games of a match, they'll miss like three or four smashes and you think, oh, that's so uncharacteristic that they miss that smash. But then inevitably they start getting the range right, they start getting the shot right. And you know, for him, halfway through the first set and onwards, he now has a smash as a weapon. And, and when we played today, I just felt like when the lob goes up, you didn't have like ultimate confidence that you were able to bring it back. And actually towards the end of the match you started hitting it a bit more and you did, you brought, you know, like quite a few of them back to your side. But it's, it's almost like having that mental resilience and confidence to do that and not thinking about your previous smash, you know, like, it's almost like that calm clarity of like, right, this ball is for me to smash and to bring back and not thinking. I, oh, I tried it earlier in the game and I missed and now I'm going to miss again.

Yeah, I mean it goes back to this idea of the, the conditions you train. I mean, I'm trying to think of the last time I played a match in sunny outdoor hot conditions. I mean when we train it's either in indoors where it's a bit colder, a bit heavier, or, or we play in ntc which again is quite heavy conditions. So I think for us we just don't practice bringing that smash back. So when that ball goes up, there is a bit of indecision. You think, right, I can hit it, I can bring it back in these conditions. But it's almost like your brain doesn't, it's not instant, there's a trigger in your mind which is, oh, wait a minute, I could bring this back.

I think the best way to do that is almost to spend longer in the warm up smashing and seeing what you're capable of. If I think to warming up and you or I were against each other, so we were warming up down the line. I think you only tried one to bring it back. You hit a few 3 meters and then you only hit one to bring it back. And it was almost like, yeah, if you know, you're in a new conditions of fast call and if you watch the pros, like, like Galan LeBron, like these guys, they will have seven or eight to bring it back to their side. Bearing in mind they've already been on a practice core and they've already like got that range right. So I think that's Probably a big, big factor in to gain because it's confidence at the end of the day, it's to give you confidence in that smash.

Yeah. And it all goes back to like. It's interesting the. The terminology we're using, like confidence, resilience. I mean, so much. This is the mental side or paddle, isn't it? The shots. The shots are obviously important, but going into games having that resilience, confidence, all of these kind of mental aspects, which again, you pointed to with our mental toughness course. I think we're going to put a link in the show notes for that. But it's just so important for all those players that are listening. Wanting to win more matches, wanting to improve the mental side is. Is key to that, isn't it?

Yeah. And if you listen to what the coaches are saying to the pro players on the bench is the most part there is some tactic, but the most part is right. Be patient here, okay. If that ball goes up, go for your smash. It's like that's their job as the coach is they're building their confidence and getting them to, you know, to play with the right frame of mind in the match.

Exactly. And the word for today for everyone out there is resilience.

So the word is mental resilience. Big long word.

One big long word. Yeah. Resilience. Do your own work on it. Sandy, well played today.

Thank you very much.

You had a good match?

I did have a good match. I actually played pretty well. So I'm feeling good about myself and.

I need to go and work on my resilience, I think.

To go work on your resilience. If you enjoy this episode, please do subscribe on whichever platform you're listening to it on. And if you could leave us a review, we would be over the moon, wouldn't we?

Thank you very much, Sam.