Why Your Lob Is Holding You Back (And How to Fix It)

Sandy, let's talk about the most important shot in padel that is the difference between winning and losing matches. This episode, we're going to talk about this shot, and for every player out there, no matter what their level, this will be the difference between you winning and losing.

[MUSIC] And that shot is— drum roll—

the lob.

Yeah. Right? And I've watched some of your recent games in your FIPS And it's the same almost for you as it would be for the club player, as it would be for the beginner, as it is for the guys in Premier. When I commentate for Red Bull TV and we're watching the match, the difference, even the difference there between the reason they're losing at first and second round and the reason they're winning or losing essentially in the final.

Well, you commentate for Red Bull TV and I tune in the weeks that you're away. I tune in because, you know, I'm missing you and I think, ah, let's see what Sandy's up to, and he's— and you're commentating on the Red Bull TV. And there's, there's one thing that I noticed from— well, there's lots of things that you talk about, but the quality of the lob, especially from, say, first, second round, quarters, semis, and finals— I feel like the difference at that highest level from semis onwards is the quality of the lob. And you talked about it in a, in one of your recent events, I think it was in, in Buenos Aires. You were talking about lobbing, um, I think it was Augsburg, the, the difference is that the, the top players are, are lobbing just that little bit deeper where, where maybe it's, uh, 2 feet from, from the back, it's, it's now 1 foot. And that smash and the overheads that Augsburg had just couldn't, couldn't deal with it. And that quality of lob, that, that depth, I feel like is a bit of a nuance, but it's, it's so important at every level.

Yeah, definitely. And I think it's really the difference we talked about there between, you know, first round and quarterfinals and semis and finals, etc., at that level. But I think it's also—

At every level.

If you look at your games, if you look at your games, you say, right, we ended up losing that match and we lost it, whatever the score might be, 6-3, 6-4, for example. The difference was usually the depth and, and accuracy of the lob. And it's really the only shot, I think, that you can almost put the result of a match down to. Do you know what I mean? Like, you might miss a few more viboras than you would otherwise, or you might miss a few of the topspin, but the lob is so crucial because it's really almost in every point you are hitting that lob, and it's dictating how frequently you get to net, how much pressure you're putting your opponents under. And we used Buenos Aires as an example, but it was a slow court. And so there you had to hit that lob and you could get away with a little bit more against an Alsberger, for example. Alsberger on a faster court could have hit his smash and got away with it, but even, you know, at that pro level there's just such small margins.

I think of the best matches that I've played and in the lead-up to those matches, if I really focused on just getting baskets, lob training, just constantly lob, lob, lob, getting the volume in with the lob, I've definitely noticed a difference, a positive difference when I go into the match court. There's something about the confidence stepping up to the ball and having that confidence on the lob that you can hit it close to the back or to have, you know, small targets at the back of the court makes such a difference. But at the same time, there's also something about playing those top players that if you can't sometimes replicate the pressure that you're receiving from the net players to then play a lob after that, if that makes sense, to only use baskets, it definitely helped me in the lead-up to matches, but there's also a part of me when I play those very, very top players that I think, how do you replicate that situation? Because to receive fast low volleys from, from top players, the pressure that they're putting on the net, to then play that lob, that's a different story.

Yeah, I think it's like anything, isn't it? It needs to be trained, and the more you train it, the more likely you are to be able to repeat it in a game. And when you get to a game Yes, absolutely, there's more pressure. And not just the depth and the slice of the volley, but also the pressure of the score and your partner and you wanting to get a result. And so I think that— I think the approach when it comes to matches is to say to yourself, right, I'm going to find my range under this pressure. And I think that's where so many players go wrong at a recreational level and at a higher level is they feel the tension of the match and they don't want to hit the lob out, so they push the lob and it goes short and their opponents attack. And so then they think, "Oh, okay, I'm going to do that again," and they push again and it goes short. Whereas the pros don't take that approach. The pros, if you, if you actually watch a lot of the matches, they miss the most amount of lobs in the first 3 games. They, they hit it, they overhit it because they are trying to find their range and not— they're not overhitting it because they, they don't have a range on the lob. But in this pressure situation, in these conditions, they need to find that range. So the first couple of games, they overhit their lob, they then bring it in a little bit, and they find their range. Whereas I think at a recreational level, players are so afraid of hitting it out because they don't want to immediately lose the point that they just push, and then it's an easy smash, and then, you know, point goes bye-bye anyway.

I think also there's Maybe just, uh, there isn't an awareness, I think, for recreational players that how important a quality lob is, that the difference in depth between if you can hit your lob 1 foot deeper, how much of an impact that has and how much of a difference that has the level that you play at. So I think for a lot of players, there's the idea of, I hit my lob, I didn't miss many lobs today. I feel like that, that for a lot of players at recreational level is is a positive. It's like, okay, I made the lob. But then I think that so many players would benefit from this understanding that, that really the quality of the lob will dictate the level at which you can play at. If you're, if you're playing at intermediate level and you're trying to get to that high intermediate level, simply if you just change the, the quality of your lob, the depth of your lob, and you improve that aspect to your game, that in itself would be able to take you up a level.

I think part of it is also decision-making. I think it's Choosing to play the lob at the right time and choosing the right lob to play, right? So there— let's start with the second really. There is that there's different types of lob. You can play the fast lob where you, you play it lower, but it's got a more horizontal trajectory and it goes over them. They may be able to jump up and reach it and touch it, but, but it goes more horizontal. And then you've got the, the high lob, which is almost the up and under, where you go high, it goes vertical, the ball is dropping, it's more difficult to hit. Depending on conditions, opponents, etc., game situation, where you are in the point, you might use one more than the other. And then it's almost like selecting the right time in the point to play that. Now, we're always saying, particularly when learning, I think at a recreational level, club level, it's very much a get used to the lob as an attacking shot. Like, set the point up, get an easy ball, then use the lob because you're more likely to hit a quality lob if it's an easier ball. So, so then use the lob to get the depth to hit the quality. I think as you go up in level, your, your level improves and your defense improves, and you can also play the lob as a defensive ball. But, but again, it's, it's choosing the right time to play that lob. So for example, if you're forced back in the corner towards the back glass, to play a fast lob is, is very difficult because you've got a smaller target area to aim for, and, and likely they're gonna touch it and remain, you know, in position. Whereas if you can play a chiquita first, they come forward, you get an easy ball, and then you play a fast lob as a volley or after a chiquita, then you're more likely to, to hit a good lob. And okay, we've gone quite specific with the example, but it's choosing the right time to, to play that lob.

And a lot of that is, is training. You're training the decision-making. And you and I, uh, we, we talk a lot about the importance of drilling, the importance of training This is something, when it comes to the lob, if you want to improve the lob, it's not just something that you can only do with a coach. You can do this if you find 2 to 4 players, maybe you've got a partner that wants to train and you guys can find a court, or maybe you've got another 2 that want to do this as well. You can just spend the time working on exactly that, working on the Chiquita, working the right time to lob, trying to hit as many lobs as you can in those situations, and not only training the shot itself, but training the decision-making of when's the right time to hit it.

Yeah, and I have a question for you. You go a lot to the academies in Madrid, and also you see a lot of our training when we train national level players. What percentage of drills and conditions do we use that have some involvement of the lob?

Pretty much every—

Yeah, every 95%, you would say? Like sometimes you might use a chiquita or you might use something, but, but the majority is lobs.

Yeah.

Like, you either make that your condition, you make that early in the point, you— like, it's such an important part of the game. And I don't think, I don't think players realize how much the pros lob. Like, if you look— and, and I know it from, from the commentating because I see it every day— and you, you basically watch the match and they're hitting like 12 to 15 lobs per point, you know. And, and that's something that, particularly from a tennis background, like, tennis players come in and they you might hit— you wouldn't even hit 10 lobs in a match, right? Like, so, so you come with this mindset of, I'm going to hit passing shots, I'm going to hit fast through my opponents. Whereas paddle players, it's like lob, lob, lob, lob. And you— how often do you hear at the club when you say, oh, that person's a lobber, you know, as if it's an insult to, to their paddle, when really I think, oh, they've, they've got the right idea.

Great stuff.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But if you're from tennis, you, you get frustrated because if you play a lobber in tennis, it's really annoying.

Yeah, and if you're at a clubhouse that's got tennis and padel, and then you're really confused. Okay, well, wait a minute, is he a tennis player or a padel player?

Because, you know, so almost like the beginning really on padel is like, use it. Yeah, use it, use it more than you think. You know, if you had 10 shots in a rally, there's probably going to be 5 of them lobs, or 4 of them lobs, 3 or 4 chiquitas or soft balls, and then 1 or 2 fast, right? That, that— as a general guide is almost what your 10 points would look like from the back of the court.

And the example you mentioned there around 95% of the drills have lobs in, hopefully as well that for players out there that perhaps didn't realize how important the lob is, that is how important the lob is. So if you're not thinking that much about the lob, like your thinking and your thought and your training should be, the lob should be a massive part of that. If it's a bit of an afterthought then hopefully listening to this has made you change your mind.

Yeah, and I think if I were to— let's take one of your recent matches and you're playing against good smashers. And now you play these, these tournaments and I wasn't on the bench, but— and you didn't have a coach on the bench, but what would you think I would be saying to you if you're playing in this match, the lob is, is going short, it's not working? Like, what would I be saying to you at the change of ends?

Commit to the lob and miss it. If you're going to miss it, miss it long, but commit to it. Commit to that glass.

Yeah, like it doesn't matter if you hit— and I'm not saying like hit the fence, hit way up the glass, but hit that bottom part of the glass, like overhit. And I think about your recent match and I think, how many smashes did they win versus how many times did you lose the point because you overhit the lob?

Yeah, yeah, no, exactly. And but I also think that— and I'm sure players listening to this have, have maybe been in, been in the situation as well— is that once you start and you don't have that mindset of, I'm going to commit to this and miss it long, and your opponents start hitting winners, or, or they start attacking the lobs that you're not quite hitting deep enough, it's tough. You can start to get a bit tight. You start to, to start doubting, doubting your lob. And I think that obviously having a coach on the bench helps, but for a lot of players listening that they go out and playing recreationally, they don't have that. They don't have that support and that that advice. And so it can happen, and it's, and it's normal that you can start to feel a little bit tight if you start hitting a few short lobs, your opponents start hitting attacking smashes. But it's that shift— you need to have that shift in your own mindset to say, okay, they're attacking my lobs, my lobs are going too short, commit this now, even if it means I make a few errors, I'm going to hit it long. But that shift in mindset, I think, is, is a challenge, but it's what you need to do.

I think as well, like, if we talk technically for a second, it's you get tight, you get a bit nervous. You're going to hit the lob, you get nervous, your footwork slows down, your ball— you like, your hand squeezes the racket more, and you end up jabbing at the ball and it goes, goes short. And I think so much of this is tied to good footwork and good ball control. And those are things that you don't want to think about in the moment. Like, the pros are not thinking, how do I get my feet in position? How do I hit softly and control this ball up? And that's almost, for us, why those two areas are pillars when it comes to our platform. We have a Instant Advantage bundle. So whenever someone signs up to the platform, instantly we were like, right, get doing our footwork exercises. Literally, if you do them today, you will play better tomorrow. Like, that is, that is how effective they are, and that's how our members see them. It's the same with the ball control. Get control on that racket. So when you go to a match and you get to those tight moments, your footwork is a little bit faster, your, your hands are a little bit softer on the racket, and the, and the control, and you will get better at those shots. Now we'll put the link down in the description if you do want to get faster feet, like start today. And if you do want to get better ball control, you can do all of this at home, in your garage, in your garden, and, and it will just make you that much better when you go to the court, and that much more accurate with your lobs, I think, particularly in match situations or pressure moments.