Game 1: 4th Jan 2026

Score

6-0

6-0

6-2

Then (6-2 and 6-3)

Rating:

Great Fun (for me)

Venue:

Playtomic Barn - 90mins

Covered but very very cold (-3c)

Report:

So I've not played over the Christmas holidays and boy have I missed it. 

Setup a match with people around the same rating as me that I hadn't played with before which is always a strangely nervous thing. Luckily they were all sound.

The way the teams set up meant I was partnered with a guy who had experience of the tactics and unfortunately our opponents were always being sucked into no man's land. In saying that, I played really well for me. Lobs were on point, very few unforced errors, serve was good without being incredible. 

Partner A also played really well, some buttery soft backhand volleys down the line from the right hand side. And communication was great throughout. A++++ would partner again.

After 3 pretty quick sets we swapped teams and, although I felt like a dickhead doing it (as I am not good enough to give advice), I pointed out to Partner B that he had been caught out with the ball at his feet and gave a quick overview of where the defensive position should be roughly. He seemed pretty thankful and it definitely improved his game in the subsequent set. Some lovely serves from him as well as great overheads.

For me, I had a couple of nice Viboras and some cheeky wee "no look" shots to the fence at a tight angle. Oh and one pickup that I am still not sure how I got to it.

Onto Partner C who at that stage didn't look happy. I said the same schtick about staying in the defence position and avoiding being sucked into no man's land and it worked out. A really close fought set until we pulled away at the end. Lots of "stay back, stay back" from me when the guy was creeping forward.Was good to help get a win for the guy as 70 mins of shellacking at -3c isn't fun at all. 

My serves on this set were on point. I was using the visualisation of hitting the ball and then following through to hit a second imaginary ball and it worked really well for hitting serves with depth and accuracy. Still lacking backspin though. One serve I hit hard down the middle came back with interest and flew past me before I could get to the net. Noob error.

So game 1 in the bank, great way to start 2026 with nice fellow players even though it was freezing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Game 21: 19th February

  No score Rating: Family Padel! Me and my kids Venue: The Local - 60mins on the Sandy Court Report from my 7 year old. Good shots Like I hit my dad right in the goolies. It was really funny.  He was like running off crazy and he did some great shots as well. But I also smashed it up against the wall and it went flying out of the court so many times About the game I think it was a tie cuz we each had 4040 and our time was up when we finished so we so then we got the set so we actually won against my sisters.  Final thoughts. I hit it to the other court like seven times and they kept throwing it back. My sister just hit a random guy's knee  with the ball. like what? it was so weird I was like bro. What the heck. I literally scored with like a backhand volley which was really good and also a power volley.
Read more

Game 8: January 25th

 Score :  4-6 1-6 4-6 Rating: mismatch Venue: Playtomic Barn - 60 min competitive game Report: Me up against two significantly higher ranked players and playing with a significantly lower ranked partner that I hadn't played with before. I'm rated midway between intermediate and beginner and that's what we had in the match. Tough tough match and the score flatters my side perhaps. There wasn't much in the way of rallies (as seem by the amount of games we got through) and I am not even tired after the game. Randomly, I tried a "willy" after getting surprised with a good return after my serve but it was a massive fail. I did do a successful backhand boast which I struggle with usually . Overall I didn't play bad. It was a 3.6 roentgen performance. But I was just unable to drag my team into contention.  I did play on the left and had no issues with backhand serve return all match. And some of my lobbed serve returns into the corner were excellent. the fact tha...
Read more