Why Drilling Matters: The Key to Long-Term Progress in Padel

Today let's talk about the importance of drilling and why it's so key for players to improve long term. Sandy, I hear this so much from players that when it comes to training they just want to play matches, they just want to play points and when it comes to drilling, they just don't want to do it. And I thought a really interesting topic today is the importance of drilling and not just playing matches because I feel like this is so applied to Padel more than other sports. If I think of tennis, we always look at tennis obviously, but other sports that perhaps are more technical where you need to do drilling because you need to learn the techniques, you need to have that, that technical base with paddle playing points is so fun and doing drills is, I personally think it's quite fun, but a lot of players would rather just go and play a match. So today let's talk about the importance of drilling and why it's so key for players to improve long term.

Yeah, and I think when we talk about drilling, like almost defining that for, for recreational players or for people is like drilling is, is doing exercises to work on parts of your game. Now whether that's, you know, a ball feeding like with a ball machine or with a coach feeding you certain selections of shots, or it's a, a drill that you can do with a, with a partner where you're hitting a certain pattern of play essentially. Right. And, and I think that this is a big topic all the way from people learning and starting right the way up to, well to the top of the game. Right. Like to, you know, our British players is, is a question that we say. Like I don't feel like everyone understands the value of training and exercises and drills. And I think, you know, you've come from a professional tennis background so, so you get it. And I would say the high level ex tennis players coming across the paddle, they get it. But I think a lot of people don't necessarily get it because they watch Tapia and Toledo and these, these guys doing all these flicks and these trick shots and playing in the, you know, play matches and it's so easy to play matches that you think, all right, well I'm just going to do that. Like, I don't think people realize the sheer volume of drilling that like Tapia does. Now I'm not sure I could say the same for Toledo, but you know, Tapia, Coelho, Paola, like all of these top players, regardless of how talented they are, the conditioning and the patience and consistency comes from drilling and having a professional attitude.

The Importance of drilling is not just training the shot or the technique, is it in Padawan, in other sports as well, there are so many different dynamics to it. So I think let's, let's go into those now, into a bit of detail. So in your opinion, what are the different aspects of using drills in training?

Well, let's, let's. I think let's start from the beginner level and work our way up. So I think beginner level, it's the best way to learn the technique, to get a good habit, for the technique, to get repetition and rebounds. And we're always saying to players, look, if you want to get good with the glass or the corners, like have repetitions, build up a database of rebounds so you understand when the ball goes there, you know where it's coming out, you know how to play it technically and, and, and how to hit. And I think, you know, it's a, it's a great way to do technique and even some element of tactics within a conditioned play. So that, I mean, whenever we do our paddle holidays or our clinics, you know, those are all exercises and drills and often that players are doing with each other so that they can continue the rally, but at the same time they're working on the shot and this will enhance their, their, their match play.

I think leading into that or tying it together is this idea of focus and concentration, isn't it? Because so much of that is getting volume and you're training the specific shot or the specific area of the game you want to train. But so much of paddle and not making mistakes and being consistent is actually focus. And that's a big part of what drills helps you do, isn't it? It's not, it's not just the physical shot itself.

Yeah, well, and now if I look at the levels going up and, and we can use an example where you were training with the GB squad and I was taking that session. It's almost like we, we were doing some drills that were like four or five minutes and it was like trying to get as few errors as possible. So you're essentially trying to keep that concentration as long as possible. Because when we go to world championships or Euro Championship, whatever it might be, and we have a tough game and players are tired and it goes to a third set and it's four all in the third set, those that can keep their concentration, can keep their determination, will make the right shot selection. So I think, I think that's part of the training and the drilling. And I think another area is almost this idea of simplifying patterns of play, because I know from when I was playing, and I know you felt the same, is that you can get into a game and the lob goes up and you go to a certain position, you think to yourself, I've got 25 different options I could hit here. Whereas if you're used to doing a drill, for example, as a vibra cross into the corner, coming forward with an aggressive forehand volley, if you've trained that combination a thousand times, when that situation comes up in a game, you are much more likely through muscle memory and also through know your situational awareness, you're much more likely to repeat that and look for that, that second shot after a viber, for example.

Yeah, it's really interesting on that point, but also the point before you mentioned around the, the mental side of, of drilling, because you can also make drills mentally challenging and put pressure into drills. I'm. I'm thinking back to my tennis days and there was a drill that I used to do, like I think they called it the David for air drill. And, and if anyone knows tennis, David Freya was very good Spanish player, could just run, run forever. Probably one of the best players Spain has had. But one of these drills that apparently he used to do was you. You would have five balls, so the coach would feed you five balls and you'd have target areas on the court and it was five sets of five. So the coach would feed you five balls and you had to hit those five balls within, within one of the target areas that was on the court. And they had to be in a row. So you did five in a row. Now that's one set. You then do the next set with another five balls. If at any point during that next set you missed, you start again on the first set. So really you've got to get 25 balls. So it's five sets of five in a row. Now you might get through the first couple of sets and feel quite good. Then you get through the third set and you think, I've done well here. Now you get to set four and five and you start getting nervous. Because I mean this, I think at one point I did this drill for. Honestly, I was on court for about two hours. This was the only drill that, that we did that day. And it got to this point where I kept getting to set four, got to the third ball of that fifth set and I missed. And that feeling of I've got to go back to set one here, I've got to reset, I've got to Find the energy, find the focus to then do this all again. And I can't remember who the coach was at the time, but it was one of those drills where it was like, you're not leaving this court until you finish these five sets of five. So. And I'm not saying that every player listening recreational powder has to do this, but just a nice way of understanding how you can make drills mentally tough if you want to.

Yeah, it reminds me a lot actually. Recently we filmed that series, the Mental Toughness Series with JJ As a performance psychologist. He's worked with a lot of like high level Olympic athletes in various sports and he was talking about like a growth mindset basically. I mean, obviously part of this course, I think we've got 24 videos, I think it's about four and a half hours in total video time of he breaks down dealing with frustration, dealing with anger on the court, like, you know, your mental preparation before a match, before training, etc. And part of it is like this growth mindset and how you've always got to be kind of looking forward and looking, looking out without thinking about the past. And that's why that is, is you think, well, I've done three sets now I'm on, like if I make a mistake now, all of my previous time has been, been wasted. And that's a big difficulty for players in, in a match as well. Right. Like if you go five love up and then it comes back to five three, all your thoughts then are around, oh my God, if I lose this set after being five love up, you know, and then, and then suddenly you're, you're in a tie break in that set. And so it's such a major part of having the right mentality on a match court is what you do on the training court and drilling and, and I think as well is like, you know, a lot of players say, well, I can't get high level players to do it with me. I need to play someone better than me. But I think the key to this and what makes this so good is that you can get something out of playing and doing the drill with the right focus at players lower than you like. And for me as a coach, that's the most frustrating when and I see this all the way like recreationally but also at high levels is you know, you know, you've got a good player and they play with a weaker opponent and they just switch off and they just like, oh, I'm better than this person and they get, you know, frustrated. I should be playing with someone better or this and you think you've just wasted a really good opportunity to work on your game and work on your, the bits that you need to. And I think that that also needs addressing.

Yeah, I mean just on that, on the top of the mental course, we'll drop, drop that in the show notes so people can have a look at that. Because that, that course is just, it's a brilliant goal and if you want to improve the mental side of, of your paddle, I mean JJ is one of the most experienced sports psychologists out there and he's worked with Olympic athletes. I mean he's incredible.

So yeah, it's a course that I use a lot as well, like competing and because the videos are a little bit longer, because we're going into psychology topics, it's definitely one to, to kind of watch and consume and then you can rewatch and then, you know, he gives you some great techniques to getting it into your, your, your lifestyle, your game essentially.

And I like that point around what you mentioned with playing lower level players because that's such a common complaint from players is that they play well at their own level or above, but they struggle in tournaments and those first few rounds of a tournament playing lower level players, they find those are the toughest matches and sometimes even those matches where they might even get to a point where they could be losing that match because they don't have that focus. And training with those players is such a good chance to zone in on yourself and say, okay, I know this player is below my level, but I'm really going to focus in here and I'm not going to miss the ball and I'm going to, I'm going to really try to improve this in my game and have that focus because in a way that the paddle itself is not even important. It's actually your own focus. If the outcome of this session is okay, I played with some a bit lower, but I had 100 focus during this session. That is going to be way more important when it comes to that tournament than even the paddle itself. You're playing now.

Tom, I have a huge question for you.

I'm ready.

You ready? You since a young age, and I know obviously know this, but you since a young age have always had an intensity of focus. You've always like, I remember you as a little 7 or 8 year old like learning tennis like you'd be out there hitting baskets of serves, you know, like you've always naturally had that intensity and you know we're talking tennis and paddle, but I Think just generally in your life like you're, you're someone that has an intensity of focus. Do you think that it can be trained or enhanced? Because not everyone has that.

So. Really? Yeah, it's a good question.

I'm putting on the spot here and.

I haven't, I haven't asked that before, so. Yeah, you have. You have put me on the spot. I think it can be trained. I think from early on I knew the importance of it because I'm very competitive as you are. And when I play sport I want to win. And so I think a big thing for me was I learned early on the importance of, and take the serve for example. If I could improve my serve, that would have such a massive impact on the chances of me winning that match. And so I took that focus to practice because I really wanted to win. And I think there's definitely an element of that competitiveness, understanding why focus and training is so important. And then I think the flip side of that is I know that that focus all leads to self improvement. And for me playing paddled, really, I try and bring that to whatever I do is just, I know that to have that, that focus just leads to self improvement. You can unlock your potential, you can try and get the best, best out of yourself. So almost going back to what you asked around, can it be trained? I think it really can. I think it's, it's just one of those things that as a, as a player, if you can understand the importance of it, and it's something that we talk about in drilling in general is players perhaps are not so focused in training because they don't really understand why it is so important to be focused. No matter who they're playing, no matter what the drill is, they don't really understand the, the implications of if I can train this focus, I know that in a match, no matter what happens, I've trained my focus. So it's like I've got laser focus site that will help me win those matches. I don't think a lot of players connect those dots. So I think that's perhaps why, you know, a lot of players don't, don't see the importance yet.

And I think it's even more important than paddle, than tennis because in tennis short points often serve return maybe a third ball and then long gaps while you go and pick up the balls. Whereas I think Padel, it's more difficult because the points are longer, there's less time in between. You don't get as often to like press the reset button. Or you can't just walk at the back and go and pick a ball up and 20 seconds to do that. It's almost like the point starts three or four seconds later. And so being able to maintain that focus and concentration is super important and really can only come through training.

And we haven't even touched upon the physical side yet. We've talked about the mental side, the focus, the concentration, drilling. The importance of drilling is where we started. I mean, how important is that for the physical as well? It's key to train your body, know it can perform to improve your performance. I mean, so many aspects, physical and mental.

Well, yeah, like we've said before, it's almost. It's muscle memory and also it's opportunity to work on things. It's really difficult to work on things in games if you only play matches. You can't work on your technical things or specific footwork or whatever it might be. It's really an opportunity. And I suppose if you're at a recreational level, always try and get in. Even if it's one session of drilling or even 15, 20 minutes of drilling before you play your match, or once a week or whatever, whatever it might be. Anything you can add in will help you become a better player. And I think if you aren't sure what you should be doing. This is exactly why we made our drill book. Right? We've made a drill book, I think 75 exercises and counting on different parts of the game is split down to different parts of the game, different levels. So you can go in there and you can select beginner level Bandeja, for example. And then there'll be a handful of drills that you could do with a partner to work on that. And again, we'll put the link down in the show notes, but it's just a really easy reference point and it just gives you something. Something to work on.

Yeah, I think it's a massive misconception for players that think that you can only really do drills if you have a coach on the court. And that was really why we created that drill bit, because they're all drills that you don't need a coach for. So they're drills that you can go with another player. So a lot of these drills are two to four player drills. So you don't even need four players, but you can also do it for four players as well. And you can go on the court without a coach and you can do a really, really good, intense drilling session. Like you said, for any level. With this drill bit, we've got. So do go and check it out. It's a really, really good resource.

Feel like we need to get on court and do some drills.

I know. It's making me want to get out there.

See you hopping up on your toes. Yeah. There you go. Tom, thank you very much. A pleasure.

Sam.