What the Pros Do Best: Patience Wins at Every Level

It's interesting to see that even at those higher levels, at the highest level, that we're still talking about patience, consistency, waiting for the right time.

Tom, a pleasure to be here with you on the podcast. As always, new episode. And for those of our members that are tuning in and watching this live, it's part of our membership. Please pop your questions in the chat and we will get to them at the end of the podcast. And if you're not a member and you're listening to this on the podcast, you can find on the paddleschool.com our membership, you can sign up and then you can actually be part of a live conversation as we're doing these podcasts.

Sandy, you're back from Buenos Aires.

Back from Buenos Aires eventually. It's quite a long way.

Wasn't one of those trips where I saw from the social media all the sunny, sunny pictures, the tropical climate and. No, I was jealous. It was quite the opposite, wasn't it?

It was quite cold. It was quite cold. But you probably did see a little bit of like steak eating. And I definitely enjoyed my food out there, but it was cold. But the atmosphere was amazing at the arena. Like, I've always heard that the crowd in Argentina is good at paddle events, but this was really impressive.

Before we get onto the paddle, it reminded me when he talked about the steak eating was. I saw you trying out the Argentinian tea.

The mate.

The mate, yeah.

Yeah.

Was that because you couldn't find a good coffee?

I mean, I couldn't find. Actually, I'll tell you what, I did find a good coffee. I was really impressed. You know, when you. You go somewhere, you might not do this, but I look up specialty coffee or roasteries and they're just. There happened to be one near the hotel, so I did frequent that quite regularly. I got. Actually, I wanted to try the mate because it's something you see if you go to a tournament anywhere around the world and you want to spot an Argentinian, it's. But they've got a mate in their hand and they're sipping through lat. Metal straw. Yeah. And so I just wanted to see, like, what, you know, what all the fuss was about. The rage.

Yeah. And also if you. And you see your opponent is drinking one of those before you play them and you know they're continuous. I've got a tough match.

It's intimidation. Yeah. Yeah.

So for all those players that are wanting to intimidate those opponents.

Yes.

Start thinking that tear you before the game.

Yeah. If you don't want to Get a tattoo of Messi on your calf, then just get a little mate up because that does the. That does the job.

So that was your. Your trade off, was it?

Yeah, exactly. I didn't want the tap. Yeah.

All right, let's talk about the paddle then. So it was, well, cold conditions out there, slow conditions as a result. Actually saw one or two players like quite noticeably cold when they were playing. So how are the conditions out there? How was the play and how did the cold temperatures affect the paddle that week?

Yeah, so it was really slow and it was partly the cold weather. Partly, as always with these tournaments you play caught down temporarily and it's. Takes time to play in, but it was. It was cold. And so you probably noticed if you watched it that the players that meant that they were unable to finish with their smashing. And that's a massive thing. Like even Cuello Tapia were not able to finish the point. So. So the ones that are lower than that, that don't have a big smash. It was really tough to finish pointing at the ladies game as well. It was almost. The points were so long, they had to be really patient on the court during the point. They had to set it up for finding space on the court. And so it was such a different dynamic. Interestingly, the vibra played a much bigger role in setting up and finishing points. And you saw that a lot like, even like Galan, for example, you know, he wasn't hitting the same big smashes back, but he was using his vibra a lot more to keep the ball low at the other end for his partner at Chingotto to close, as an example. But yeah, it was slow. And it was also interesting how. How they adapted.

Do you think that paddle is better to watch when it's slower? That's always a debate that I have with players around the world, is that this fear that paddle is becoming so fast that it's just a game of when that ball goes up and it's lobbed, it's a smash and it's the end of the point. What are your thoughts on different speeds of the game?

It's interesting because something players always say is, they say, oh, it's too fast, the point is finished too easily. But really, like how many players can finish the point too easily?

Yeah.

Three.

Yeah. Only a few.

Four.

But they have such a big advantage, don't they, compared to the others?

They have such a big advantage, but they. On these slow conditions, they have an advantage anyway because what happened was you made it slower conditions and therefore your players that are lower than that. And let's say, you know, Tapia, Quayo, Galan, probably the three biggest, you got Alberger, you got a few others that can finish on fast courts from anywhere. But now you got a situation on a slower court where no one can finish unless, you know, Tapia was still doing a pretty good job kicking out and bringing the ball back and Quo too. So they still have an advantage. And all it meant was like, as an example, LeBron, Stupa, people that probably could bring the ball back on a faster court were not able to. So in my opinion, I actually, I quite like it on the fast courts because it gives a chance for, you know, Coccineto and, and these types. And also the women, the women kicking out three meters, well, you barely saw any of that this week because it was slow. So I actually, I'm not saying I like it when it's really fast, but I don't think it's a problem when players are able to finish the point. I mean, I just think that's the direction the game's going to go in. And the left side and right side players are going to be. Have to be able to to finish the point and have bigger smashes.

And as a result, players had to be a lot more patient than they throughout the week, whereas when it is faster, they can go for those bigger shots a bit earlier. So it's interesting to see that even at those higher levels, at the highest level, that we're still talking about patience, consistency, waiting for the right time. And I know that when you were commentating there, you hear those little exchanges at the change of ends. Usually they're in Spanish, but you hear what the coaches and the players are saying to each other. And I thought it was interesting you mentioned around being patient and they were talking about for them to win, they had to be even more patient than normal.

Yeah. And they were constantly reminding each other like, you know, you wouldn't think that LeBron and Stupa would have to have a conversation at the change of ends to be like, right, we need to be really patient here. Like, just be patient. Like repeating it several times and the coach coming on and repeating it with these guys. And same with tap and cl, like, just be patient. Like, you're going to have to play yourself in the point. Don't go for a finish too early. Like you would think at that level that they already know the importance of patience, but it's just got to be emphasized again and again. And so much of this is the mental side of the game. As well. And at that level, when the technique, everyone's technique is good, everyone physically is pretty good. Tactics are decent. The difference is the mental. Yes, tactics and yes, how you use your court space. But it's the mental that is the difference between that level. And being patient is such a key part of that. And you can only do that if you are, you know, mentally in a good place.

That's interesting because if we talk about recreational players, and this is right now, we're talking about the highest level in the world, but even at recreational level, patience is the difference between beating those better players, isn't it? Actually, when we talked about patience and in the lead up to this podcast, I thought, oh, I've definitely read that somewhere. And I've actually got your, your paddle players guidebook here. We'll put in the show notes if you want to check the book out. But one of the, one of the sections is around beating better players. And specifically, and I'll read this out because, I mean, this is literally sounds exactly like what you would say. Be patient and play sensibly. Beating players who are better than you is all about practicing patience and being sensible. Great players have these traits in abundance. Be patient and play with angles. Be sensible by reading your opponents and using tactics that they find difficult to defend against. And that was just one of. There's quite a few pointers here of how to be better players. But it was interesting when you mentioned this. Around the slow conditions at Buenos Aires, even the pros are talking about it. It's also applicable to recreational players.

Yeah. And I think it reminds me of a conversation I had this morning with one of our members, and she's midway through the mental toughness course that we have on our platform, and she was saying, this is amazing because we're accessing a performance psychologist. As a recreational player, I feel like I'm getting access to what the pros are getting, and it's helping me to be more, more patient on the court. Because it's not only patience during a point, it's almost patience during a match that if you, you have a tactic and you feel like it's worth it, keep going with that tactic, don't do it once, and then stop. It's not just isolated to a point, but, you know, be patient throughout and be patient with your partner and, you know, all of these things. It's. It's basically encouraging, like a calmness in your game.

There are different layers of patience, aren't there? Because if I look back to I played a FIP event with Sam Jones the previous weekend. And I think patience was also a topic that came up for us when we were playing. I think we played guys, a couple guys that were about 120 in the world and so very high level. And patience was also important to us. Not because we were impatient and going for crazy high risk shots, but actually just playing one more ball, like going fat lob when we had slightly easier ball as opposed to going for it after maybe five shots in the rally, play another chiquita or play one more ball and then go for that lob and try and take the initiative. And I think it's great how it applies to all levels, but also there are layers to it, aren't there?

I think there's also the patience of you're doing something in a point, like as an example at any level, right. Beginner all the way to advanced. You hit a ball into the corner and they get that back and you think, okay, I'll hit one more in there, they get that back. It's so tempting then to change direction and to do something different or to go for drop shot or do something creative, but it's almost like being patient with your shots. Go again to the corner, go again. Like it's. The pros do this and they do it all the time. And, and that's what I like. I was encouraging people to watch live like Premier Padel because they see the players doing this. So yeah, absolutely, it's within your, within your game to do that. And I think it's finding a balance right between. A lot of players will probably say, well, I'm very good at being patient getting the ball in, but I can't finish the points. And it's part of the reason players don't finish the points is they're often choosing the wrong ball to do it on. Like they're. Maybe that ball is too difficult. And so, you know, sometimes it requires more shots till they get the easy ball. And then when you get the easy ball, it's almost like pull the trigger, go for that shot, be aggressive. But if the ball comes back and you have to defend again, then be patient again. This is why Padel is such an interesting game. It's easy to, to pick up, but it's really challenging to get good at. Particularly the tactical and mental side of the game, I think.

Yeah, exactly. And what I love about you going to these trips with Red Bull TV and, and for anyone that hasn't listened to Sandy's commentary or wants to tune in, they can, they can download the app, right.

Yeah, it's Rebel tv and it's on an app and you get all of the. The live coverage of the event. You get all the highlights on there. And I mean, it's a. It's a great broadcast. Like, I'm not just saying that because I do the broadcast on the majors, but it's, you know, it's. It. It's a good content. It's definitely worth. Worth watching. Yeah.

It's only next week you're actually off to Rome.

Yeah.

To commentate with Red Bull TV again.

Yes, exactly. For the major.

I'm, as much as. I'm always interested about the paddle side, I'm always interested about what happens off the court with the coffees and the food and.

Yeah, I like. I like Rome.

You're exploring.

Yeah, yeah.

You exploring the city and all of the.

Yeah, I'll definitely do that.

They have over there, so I'm always interested in those updates.

Well, I'll try and keep our socials, you know, going on that. Tell you where I'm having pizza.

Exactly. Exactly. Well, Sam, it's a pleasure to catch up and.

Well, you had a big week as well. Oh, sorry. Let's not wrap it up there.

Yeah, it's just gone.

You've been with Rome there. You've been selected for the GB team.

It's a big week. Yeah, that's.

That's awesome. I mean, you've worked towards that for a while now. You know, like training, like tournaments, everything like that. So that's, you know, you must be quite excited about that.

Yeah, it's been a. A big week and really happy to be on the team. I think it has been a lot of years of training to get on there, a lot of tournaments, a lot of frustrations, but excitement and, you know, going through almost the. The learning stage of transitioning from a tennis player to a Padel player. I think when I look back, I think it was definitely a. I want to say a bit of a roller coaster, but I also think that when you. When you first start coming from tennis, I think an element is. It's great because so many things transition, but then I think it's. It's also a very, like, humbling experience because you realize quite quickly when you start playing good paddle players, and I was very lucky because I had you that I was playing with and I. A very good paddle player. And I realized, okay, I'm. Even though I've come from tennis here, I'm so far off what a good Padel player is. And so you Then realize that you've got to start again and you've got to get those foundations in place and you've got to build them up. And yeah, it took, it took a few years of traveling and playing tournaments and having some tough losses and having some great wins and, yeah, really excited to.

It's a long journey. It's a long journey when you come from tennis. And I think for you, in some ways it was good that you, like I was involved early, but also it's difficult because you kind of are just starting this sport and you see the gap. Whereas I think a lot of people come from tennis, they jump on a paddle court, they play with their mates who are also tennis players, and they think, oh, I'm quite good at this. And they do that for six night, nine months. And they think, oh, wow, I'm great. And they don't play a paddle player for, for ages. And I think that yours was the better way to improve and to get better. But it's, it's almost like you, you almost started with the grind as soon as you came across and it was like, right, I need to work on the glass and defend my corner and learn the overheads and do all of that. And so, you know, often people, when they come from tennis, they discover that. But it's 912 months into their journey and they have a lot of habits to change. But it is a long, it is a long process because you're not just changing technique, you're changing the tactics and you're understanding new ways to develop points. And also the mental side, like we talked about, the patience within a point, like, how often did you say to yourself in tennis, oh, I'm just going to be really patient in this point.

Yeah, never.

Right. Like, it was always like, let's, let's take the ball early, let's put pressure, let's be aggressive, like. And that for years you said that to yourself in your games. And it's almost like you've got to take yourself away from that now. It's a bit like when we play, we talk about this when we play gold points or when you, you know, you want to break your opponent's serve in tennis, you'd be like, right, I'm going to step up and be aggressive, whereas now it's like, I'm going to outpatient them.

Yeah, the P word again keeps coming up. Yeah, but I think just going back to what you're saying. Yeah, completely. And when I talk about the journey of it having its ups and downs, I think, and I'm sure lots of people listening to this probably resonate, is that there are times during your journey where you feel like perhaps you're not really improving and you go through a period of maybe it's like a few weeks or a few times you play and you get frustrated because you don't feel like you've improved that much. And then you just got to be very consistent with it and just keep turning up and doing all the right things and getting that right coaching advice. And then you will see little breakthrough moments and they just help you kick on each time. And that's why I talk about it being a bit. A bit of ups and downs, because there are moments for. And I'm sure you have the same in your journey as well. It's not just. It's not just a straight line going up. There's different kind of learning, learning points along the way.

Quite nice, though. You have, like, little challenges and then it feels like a real sense of achievement. It's a bit like at the beginning, the. The corners feel like a nightmare. And then you reach a point where you do a turn and get one back and you're like. There's a little kind of euphoria as you're like, oh, that's amazing. I've now done that or with your vibra. And it's. It keeps being bouncy for ages and you work on your technique and eventually you get it where you can consistently keep it low. And it's. There's that little reward as you go. And I think it's almost like all of those little bits within the game. And then there's a bit of, like, winning matches, like winning matches against players that you've lost to or that are a better level than you, and you've managed to, like, grit it out and tactically won a game. So it's, you know, it is very rewarding at the same time. Right, Tom, I see our members have written some questions in the chat. Let's answer them. So, tactically, when the court is slow, and that was the question from. From Maria. How can you finish the point? We talk about the vibra keeping the ball low, and it's basically, how can we find opportunities where we can put our opponent in a position out of a, you know, out of their comfort zone that you can be aggressive. So the vibra is a great one for the next ball, a setup ball where you can keep it low and then you step forward and be aggressive. Another good one is, and we call it the Winter Smash, you know, where you hit the ball as a smash, slightly lower to the side, but it's flat and it goes fast and deep. You see players using that a lot. And actually we saw players a lot more using the fence, like the volley down, like down into the fence. So those are almost good ways to finish. And I think something else that we saw a lot of is because the Smash, because it was a slower core and the Smash was therefore less effective, players were smashing less, less and therefore lobbing more because the smash is now not as damaging. So players were hitting a lob and they were, were staying back, you know, almost trying to use chiquitas or use shots from the back in order to make their opponents uncomfortable. So, you know, that's almost what I'd recommend. And I would get really comfortable with lob. If I noticed a slow court at the beginning, I'd be like lobbing, lobbing, lobbing. And that's what we saw. I mean the points and the matches were so long because the players were able to use their lob so effectively.

One shot, I think I've certainly used it in cold conditions. Here is on that smash instead of going for say a 3 meter smash. I know at the pro level they normally bring it back, but use the rulo using that ruler normally when you might try and smash fast or smash 3 meters, like using that ruler defense. I know you talked about the volley defense, but that's also a way of, again, you might not win the point straight away, but you can definitely put them under pressure by ruler defense and then it can create all sorts of confusion for them.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that was used a lot.

Yeah, it's an interesting question. I mean it's, it's interesting. Now we're talking about cold conditions, isn't it, as we're going to summer.

Oh, a beautiful, beautiful British sunlight.

We spent three or four months in overwinter talking about cold conditions here.

Yeah, Moaning, moaning about British weather all winter and now.

Well, we're preparing for next winter, so.

Exactly. Yeah, get consistent.

That's a great question. Thank you, Maria.

Yes, we'll answer these ones as well. So yeah, the mental toughness course is on the platform as a bolt on and that's with our performance psychologist JJ and we talk a lot about frustration, preparation for matches, preparation for training, what to look for, how to, how to kind of calm yourself. A lot of techniques that not just world class paddle players use but, but also athletes. He, he does a lot of Olympians. So yeah, definitely check, check that out. And then Ray is really Unusual. I mean, so what happened in, in Buenos Aires is the silicon between the, the detached. Yeah. And so they had to put new silicon in, it had to dry and therefore play was cancelled. The men could have played behind closed doors if they wanted to. It was their choice. It was their choice to play two matches on the next day. And that, that is challenging.

I mean, some of them were so good there, they wouldn't.

Yeah, well, and also like there was a lot of Argentinians and their families and friends had come and so they, I get it. They wanted to play in, in front of them and, and you know, some of the players like had straight, straight set wins like quite quick on, on the, in the morning and then played again and others had a three setter and then had to play again. So it was unusual. But also having said that, a lot of the players will have had to like, when you're in qualifying, you have to play matches.

Well, I was thinking not, not even qualifying in the main draw of the, in the main draw of the FIP events, which are a level below the tour level. I mean, you're playing at your first round on Friday, then you have second round quarters on Saturday and then semis and final on Sunday. So that's super tough.

Yeah. Yeah. So, so, but, but what I mean is it's like, yes, it is more difficult and, but also at the same time they're physical athletes. They, they should be. And, and they also had to do it in order to get up, up the rankings.

I think an element of it though is that if you're not used to it, I mean they probably did it to out the rankings, but they've probably been through a long period now where they haven't had to do it.

Yeah.

So it's definitely a. Yeah. A more load on the body. It can, it can be felt and probably the cold conditions don't help either, does it, for the body and having to warm up and cool down.

Yeah, yeah. I mean they had, they had kind of six or seven hours between games so they would go back to the hotel and, and kind of recharge. But yeah, it's, it's not what they're used to. Right. For sure.

Yeah.

We can wrap this up now. We will be back on with our.

Webinars and yeah, we'll chat soon on the podcast very soon.

Look forward to it.