What to do when you can’t get anything going in a padel match?

Are you having a bad day and nothing you try is working? The first thing to keep in mind is that during a padel match you play a lot of games. This means that there are moments with different spells and playing tendencies. Therefore, it is essential to be aware of this and that you will be able to change that tendency.

Tips to reverse a bad day on the padel court

One of the situations that usually happens is to get into a small loop of negative thoughts. What we call the internal dialogue. This dialogue that we have with ourselves, we have to turn it into a positive one. Replace the message “I’m failing all” with “the next ball I won’t fail it” and turn the negative into a positive.

This dialogue is valuable, because at a muscular level we can become more tense and the strokes are no longer natural, as well as hurting ourselves mentally and losing focus on the point.

Another effective tip is to focus your attention on being able to enjoy playing, without giving so much importance to the result, and let things happen by themselves. The best points you have made, you probably “don’t know how you get them”, perhaps because you weren’t thinking about anything and it came out automatically.

To reach this state, first we have to have a good concentration and for this it is important to be able to have a correct breathing. Working on breathing is not easy, nor is it a matter of one day. We tend to breathe inefficiently; over-breathe, hold our breath and/or breathe shallowly. Between 70-80% of breathing should be diaphragmatic in order to obtain a deep inhalation and to be able to relax or concentrate.

Finally, in order to improve your concentration, use tools such as setting yourself concentration routines and/or anchors that get you into the game. During the training sessions do the same ritual before the training sessions; listen to your favourite song, place the towel on the bench always in the same way, etc. and during the training sessions; place yourself in the same way before the serves, when you feel you miss a lot of balls go to the glass to take a deep breath, etc.

All these tips should be done in training to be able to transfer them to the matches and in this way be able to know what to do when you don’t get anything right during a match.

In the following video, the coaches of The Padel School tell us about the 3 most serious mistakes we can make on the padel court.