100 Games of Padel

6-2 0-6 6-0 Rating: Sometimes it's about showing up Venue: Usual Place, The Beach A mixed cast for this landmark game. 3/4 of the way through. We had 3 decent level players and one more limited. We swapped teams around after every set and you can see the impact. The limited player was more back to the wall, can't play off the glass very well and really talks himself into a bad headspace. But you know what, he was there and he enjoys it.  I said after, if he'd thought about playing some games with people more around his level and he said that he doesn't mind getting beat as he learns more. Good attitude! although on court you'd think he was in a deep depression ha ha. First set me and my partner went 3-0 up before it went back to 3-2. I wasn't bothered in the slightest but I could sense some unease, worry and impatience within points from my partner. He got himself sorted though and we cruised to the first set. Second set, I was with the more limited player and h...

  Casual Game but scores were 6-0 2-6 6-0 6-1 Rating: Palate Cleanser Venue: Playtomic Barn Well that was the palate cleanser that was required. It's not about the scores or the rankings as it was a Casual game because that was exactly what I was looking for. I set it up on Playtomic and got some interest from the sealclubber player I'd played before and his girlfriend. They wanted to play but not enter scores as his girlfriend was a wee bit lower in rating. By that time, another player had joined and I bunted the decison to him. As we didn't have anyone else we changed the competitive game to an unofficial casual game and it was ideally what I needed. High level but no pressure. Now, I will call one of the players the sealclubber as he beat me and a rookie badly in one of my earlier matches before but he's a really nice guy. Loves his Padel, was great to play against him tbh. So the main takeaway is that I didn't fluff an overhead the entire game. They weren't...

 3-6 5-5 (we won a tiebreak played as we were running out of time) Rating: The Hangover part 3 Venue: Usual Place, Center Court Same cast as the Hangover Part 2. Just not much fun. At some points I was turned away to get ready for the next serve knowing that there was no way my partner would return a shot. I mean, that's bad from me but you just knew. "ah, that's gone". At one point my partner literally was playing with his back touching the glass. For multiple shots in the same rally. I then gave up and stopped playing proper padel. I just stayed at that back with my partner and tried to hit defensive shots. Because of this, we went on a 3 game streak to tie at 5-5. We agreed on a tiebreak and our opponents made more errors that we did and we managed to sneak the second set. ugly though and again. I STILL played utter shite. Was standing there with none of the intensity and tactical nous of the previous month or so. getting distracted from my own game by thinking of ...

4-6 5-5 Rating: The Hangover part 2 Venue: Usual Place, Center Court The hangover continued.  Another poor match. Another time I played below what I'd consider my usual level. I miss playing with partners that take the net with you rather than stay at the back and leave you marooned. They then are forced to then soak up all the balls from the opposition.

Scores - pfffffft? Rating: The Hangover Venue: Usual Place, Center Court Ugh, back to normality. this was a work match with work players and I think everyone came away a bit annoyed.  I steamrollered one set and then struggled the other two.  The standard wasn't high. There was limited tactical play. Just a bit dissapointing.  Not every game can be an epic but it shows the importance of levels. It's not great if the level is too far apart. I played shit as well, way below what I thought I'd class my standard as.

6-4 6-2 4-6 Rating: Unbeaten European Adventure Venue: Green Padel, Tenerife Playtomic match again with Fraser against an higher rated Father and Son pair.  The dad had won intermediate tournements and was double my Playtomic Rating. Match Report We absolutely farmed points all game from my lobs within a foot of the glass. Only shot available to reply was a weak lob and Fraser would just eat those up with his smash. Yum yum. He carried it in the second set especially, his service games were automatic holds with his fast serve where as mine were battles. I served first. Got broken. The 3.8 was playing left and my serves were too pedestrian for playing Australian formation. He was placing it to my feet or out wide where I was struggling to cover. But here's the bit. I LEARN. I knew he was doing that. I made sure that my serves were 10% faster and with 15% more slice. He was still going parallel but under pressure now and I knew what he was doing so I was volleying his return to the m...