For the past couple weeks, my family has been playing the game of cold tag. You know the one where one person gets sick and tags the next, that one tags another and so on. It's seldom they all get sick at once. Instead, they play tag so the whole process spans over at least a month. Anyhow, someone managed to "tag" me so now I've got the bug.
So, my padel fun has been somewhat on hold for a while and by the end of last week, I was tired and in a nasty mood. Strange since it was a Friday, the sun was shining, Spring was in the air and the kids just started their Easter break. Guess I was just suffering from padel withdrawal...
But it's a new week and I'm patting myself on the back since yesterday, I took Padel Trainer’s course — the Net Game in Padel. I now have a manual and a certificate, so watch out people. My net game is officially on point! #ha #iwish
We got a lot of interesting and useful information and it all seemed to make such good sense but, any new information needs time to marinate and once it's marinated, the brain has to tell the rest of the body to execute.
One of the first topics we discussed was the different ways to take over the net. Don’t rush it — don’t do it just because you're supposed to. Wait for the right moment and make sure your partner is in tune with what you're thinking. In order to make sure you're both in sync, you need to be systematic and structured and on top of that, don't make any stupid unforced errors!
Once you've taken over the net. Don't relax for God's sake. Be ready for the worst. Just because you make it to the net doesn't mean you're home-free. Now, you have to start building the point — you cannot just go in and win. This process can be compared to chess. Make your move with the next three moves in mind. Or maybe even compare it to a cobra swinging its head back and forth waiting for the perfect moment to go in for the kill. You get the picture right? It's so clear in my head but my grip-it-and-rip-it tennis mentality seems to always fog up that pretty picture.
Patience is key, but so is positioning. You need to position yourself in the right place according to what you, your partner and your opponents are doing. Positioning also controls what shots you choose to hit. For instance, don't go for the bandeja if you are not in position. Chances are your bandeja is going to fail then. So, Padel Trainer Dani Dios pointed out so kindly that even if we often think so, our bandejas don't suck! Hearing that was one of the highlights of my day #nevermindthatitjustmeansthatmypositioningsucks
Aside from positioning, syncing with your partner and watching your opponents' every step, make sure you hit "heavy" volleys — those with speed, spin and right depth. During the 5 hours of practical work on the court, I think I managed to hit one heavy volley!!! The rest were unfortunately light-weight #canonlygetbetterfromhere
In addition to the information overload, it was a very inspiring day of hanging with more padel lovers, meeting Daniel Dios #hegavemeanopeninvitetocometraininspain and being able to add more items to my list of padel goals. For starters, I think I’ll try focusing on a couple things at a time #babysteps
1) Hitting heavy volleys #constantworkingprogress
2) Analyzing my opponents´game
Wish me luck!
