100 Games of Padel

6-0 6-0 6-1 Rating: Backlash  Venue: usual venue (beach) We took the frustration of the Playtomic loss out on work colleagues today. My partner played very well with loads of winners from vicious quick smashes. I made very few errors and chipped in with some winners of my own. Lots of games actually went to Deuce but we seemed to win every one except the game they won in set 3. Just a nice day at the office. I tried some double backhand returns from the left and a couple of Sidewall boast serve returns. Was a good game all told

2-6 7-6 2-6 Rating: ach well Venue: Playtomic barn. Slow to start, gassed at the finish. 90 mins at the Playtomic barn against 2 fit guys that outlasted us. Long rallies, long sets. Really good match though. One of the opposition was had already played 2.5 hours of Padel and came straight from the previous court. The other guy was younger and fit. Compared to my rusty pairing of 10 days since a game for me and 20 days since a game for my partner. The Bandeja training? Ha! Gone. Will try in other games. The game itself was very tactical, lots of ebbing a froeing within points.  First set slipped away with a couple of breaks. Second set was tight right and I played really well there. 3rd set started 65 mins in at 9:30pm and the other guys just had more in the tank.  Well played, well beat in the end.  Ranking takes another tumble.

Bandeja, Bandeja, Bandeja Rating: Clear (Cynefin) Venue: usual venue (centre court) Ahhhhh what a good coaching session.  Like really good It was a one on one coaching session that I got as a present (much appreciated). I explained that I really wanted to work on Bandeja's as it was an area of weakness and I felt that I was overthinking it.  By mixing Volleys and Bandeja's the coach worked through a lot of the issues. What unlocked it was a technique of grabbing the racquet with the off hand when a lob is being played, automatically tha moved my shoulders and the racquet to the correct position. This meant I could concentrate on my footwork without worrying about my arms. by doing that, my footwork was sharper and meant I could "plant" myself and hit the ball properly. Still too short on a lot of occassions BUT it felt natural in the same way that hitting a lob is. Basically it had moved from the Complicated Domain to the Clear domain. Unfortunateyl with work commitme...

6-0 6-1 6-0  All with different partners Rating: Further Consolidation Venue: usual venue (centre court) After a long dark night of the soul I came out smashing. The fact that I was being targeted for an obvious weakness and it was working pissed me off so much, I went into this match mad and with the mantra that I would smash everything. I was playing with people from work and we decided to try fast fours but soon we just played full sets. There was a lot of thought of what I'd been doing wrong, I mean I play, I train against a wall most weeks for an hour, I watch LOADS of youtube videos and waht I came to was that I was thinking it over too much. It was like a learner driver trying to start a car and move it, working through checklists without that automatic feel. In Cynefin terms I was in the Complicated domain rather than Clear. I was thinking so much about perfection that my timing and positioning was totally off. SO. I just let myself feel rather than overthink.  See a b...

1-6 4-5 Rating:  reminder of how far to go Venue: usual venue (beach court) Oof a bit of a blow this one, it was a high quality game with handpicked people.  I'd rate myself as the 3rd or 4th best of the quartet and I think that was accurate on the day Players 1) Super Consistent Tennis Player - this guy never misses and punishes with top spin forehands 2) Super Aggressive Badminton Player - absolutely goes to net every opportunity, deals with overheads well. very few weaknesses for me 3) All-rounder who has sneaked ahead of me - very fit guy, consistent without a killer shot but has joined a Padel club and is playing a lot of games now 4) your correspondent The Tennis guy and the All rounder are in the same Padel club and don't get the chance to play together so I paired up with Badminton guy. Problem is, we have never ever clicked as a partnership. Lovely guy and I get on well with him but it doesn't work as a padel pairing. I think the issue is that we both expect our pa...

  Can't remember the scores but it was comprehensive Rating: Consolidation and Carry Venue: usual venue (centre court) Getting back up to date and with this one was with people from work. This was a good solid game, I partnered with one of the regulars from work and while my shots where pretty good, the thing I remember was that my tactics were better.  We were playing against two hard hitters and I was saying "hit soft" as they fed on hard shots. Sometimes there's an issue with finishing from both of us so I said, "default option should be soft and to the middle" and we basically farmed points from that. Nice game and one where I really carried the team

 Scores  2-6 5-7 Rating: Nice Got beat but played pretty well. Some lapses in concentration and some lazy footwork led to some poor shots but on the other hand I felt a lot more confident playing more agressive. Hit a full force bajada that fizzed up the court, bounced and pinged back off the wall. Hit a full on smash that worked well and another that sneaked just in next to the fence, who know what it was but I was just determined to smash everything in the scrappy games after the sets had finished. First set was a wash, second was heading the same way till we got back to 5-5 from 2-5. Unable to close it out though as some silly shots from me and my partner. At least it made it respectable. nice weather, nice company, nice