Everyone who plays padel wants to improve, and improve fast.
You want to win more matches, but a lot of the tips that people give you take time, effort and hours of practise.
Well don’t worry, because in this article I have 5 EASY padel tips that you can put in your game to help you improve in 24 HOURS.
These don’t take hours of practise learning new techniques, you can put this in your game right now, and watch yourself improve.
Here are 5 easy padel tips to improve in 24 hours, let’s go!
1. Play diagonal/cross court way more.
The first of the easy padel tips is to play diagonal or “cross-court” WAY more.
When I watch/coach people, a lot of the rallies are all over the place, with no structure or thought behind where you are hitting the ball.
People also like to smash or hit the ball straight down the line, especially when playing on the left.
However, there is a flaw in this.
It is a LOT easier for people to return the ball when it is played straight to them, there is no angle, and if it hits the back glass then it will come off very straight, easy for them to return.
If you play cross court/diagonal to someone, especially at the net position, the ball will hit the back glass and be harder to return, as it will fly off at an angle. For beginners, this can be very tricky.
2. Take the warm up seriously.
The warm up, isn’t meant to be a vague, boring exercise where people just hit back and forth around the court before you start playing properly.
It’s the chance to practise your crucial shots that you have been practising.
Your important shots that need to be perfect for your game.
You need to warm up the following shots:
- Off the wall
- Volleys (crucial)
- Overheads (crucial)
The warm up typically takes about 5 minutes, so focus on these shots the most. As these are the ones that are not only the MOST effective, but also the ones that are most likely to go wrong.
You will feel more confident
With a decent warm up, your confidence will go up before the game starts.
You already hit 10 volleys and 10 bandejas, you got most of them in. When the first one comes to you in a game, you will be ready for it.
Sometimes when you play on a new court or for the first time in a while, you need to adjust to the pace of the court and get a feel for it. The warm up is perfect for this.
Take it seriously, do it thoroughly, and results on the court will improve.
3. Use the “fridge” tactic
The fridge is my personal favourite of the easy padel tips.
This tactic is commonly used in Spain, and it is called “the fridge” and it stops you from aimlessly hitting the ball around, and instead, targeting one player.
This tactic isn’t about finding the weak link.
It is not to say that you should just hit to the weaker player, but instead, hitting to one player will lead to this.
- The targeted player will become under pressure
- The other player will become “cold” and not ready for the ball
- The other player will get frustrated
- The targeted player will get tired
- The targeted player is more likely to make a mistake, more balls to him = more chance to miss.
If you split the balls hit to your opponents completely evenly, then it is less likely that they will make a mistake. With more balls going to one person, they will have to move around more, and will eventually make a mistake.
The other player then gets cold, frustrated, and when the ball does EVENTUALLY go to him, he is likely to make a mistake.
4. Lob more, a lot more.
One of the most easy padel tips, that people don’t do enough, it is a joke how effective this is!
Lobs are the most irritating, frustrating, boring, tiring and effective shots to receive from an opponent.
Notice the key word effective, the previous 4 adjectives are all negative, because that is how it will effect you, however it is very effective for your opponent.
The beauty of the lob is that you can do it over a hundred times a game, it is one of the few shots that won’t get “found out” or the opponent learns and can easily counteract it.
You could lob the best in the world, and if the lob is good, the best player in the world would still have to run back from the net position and take it off the back wall.
An effective lob achieves this:
- Pushes the opponent back
- Allows you to take the net position
- Get’s you out of danger (defence)
- Gives you time
- Slows the game down
There are countless other benefits, but the lob should be used so much more. Maybe 1 in 2-3 of your shots in defence should be lobs.
5. Play consistent over winners.
The final piece of advice from the easy padel tips!
Don’t count your winners, count your mistakes. The mistakes are the ones losing your game.
In padel, the game is lost on mistakes. In 90% of games, the team that loses is the one with the most mistakes.
Keep the ball in play, as much as possible, don’t play crazy shots out, don’t try get it perfectly in the corner, especially on a crucial point.
Your opponents will make the mistakes for you! They will win you the match!
If you and your partner makes two mistakes each per game, that is a whole game given away based on mistakes. If you miss one, the next one has to come in.
Challenge yourself, can you go 3 games in a row without a mistake? Now if your partner is fairly solid as well, then I bet you will all of those games.
What are the “crucial points” ?
For me, any point past 30-30, is a crucial point.
The point on 30-30, is a crucial point.
Especially now with the introduction of golden point, as soon as any team gets to 40, in a game, has two chances to win instantly, whereas before you had the lifelines of deuce, advantage, deuce, advantage back and forth.
You need. to play extra consistent on these points, you could afford to go for a shot on the less crucial points, such as the first few points of the game, or when you are 30 or 40-0 up.
You can now easily lose matches 6-0 or 6-1 when all of the games have gone to golden point.
