A year after our first internship at Padel Stuff, back to Bilbao in the academy of Andoni Bardasco to deepen the “quest for the perfect gesture”.

To hell with the codes of journalism, I am writing this article in the first person, thus assuming total subjectivity. Nearly a year after my first internship-report "tested for you" in Bilbao, I returned to Padel Stuff in order to benefit from the experience and teaching ofAndoni Bardasco.

Three days of training, with at least four hours of lessons per day (in addition to two hours of free play with local players), is a good dose of padel, especially for a fifty-year-old organization... But it is obviously too little to work on and integrate all the shots of this sport.

A kind of “padel mechanic”

This is confirmed by the coach of Padel Stuff, in his perfect French: "Ideally, it is better for students to come for a week. Three days does not allow me to take apart the trainees' game. I am a kind of padel mechanic: what I take apart, I have to put back together before letting you go."

And of course, it is preferable that the "reassembled" version works better than the initial version. However, do not be under any illusion: when leaving a training camp, whether in Bilbao, Barcelona or Malaga, no player comes out totally transformed, ready to play a final table of Premier Padel.

Dr. Bardasco examining Romain's forehand volley

The lessons of a training camp are like a seed that is just waiting to germinate: the coach sows the seed, explains the objective to be achieved and how to grow the top player that is potentially dormant in you. Then, it is up to the player himself to apply what he has learned, whether on a physical, technical or tactical level. Sometimes, we even have the impression of regressing: it is an unpleasant step, but necessary to lose bad playing habits and allow a new player to blossom.

Millimeter precision, video as reinforcement

If you are already a good player, the benefits of an internship at Padel Stuff will take the form of a few details: a modified attention position, an optimized movement, an improved body orientation, a shortened preparation, etc. But these details added together can change a lot of things in your game.

My feeling when seeing Andoni working, with me and a few friends as students, is that this former brilliant professional, whose career has been broken by wounds, remains driven by the quest for a form of perfection on the track. Hence the title of this article: the "factory of the perfect gesture". Every time I go to Bilbao, I am amazed by Andoni Bardasco's eye, his way of dissecting your game with millimeter precision, without missing any detail of what is "wrong" or what works well.

In recent months, he has taken this quest for the perfect gesture a little further by developing everything a video analysis work that he offers to his students. From a filmed sequence of a shot, whatever it may be, Andoni exercises his gaze, frame by frame, to flush out and track down the slightest parasitic detail in your game, such as a delay in preparation, a striking plane that is too far forward or too far back, an imbalance in the body, etc. The player, thus enlightened about what is wrong with his gestures, can then work to correct them in order to acquire new automatisms.

A video analysis led by Andoni Bardasco

25 unplayable bandeja, worthy of Bela

I was also struck by the impeccable technical model that Andoni still embodies and his ability to string together strictly identical shots, six years after his retirement from the sport and while he never trains. An example: out of about 25 bandeja hit in a row by our coach, the best defender in our group, a level 8 player, was unable to defend any of them! The bandeja is not the most offensive shot in padel, but the one that Andoni Bardasco likes is a cousin of that of Fernando Belasteguin, a master in this field!

The latter was already world number 1 when he crossed paths, in 2008, with Andoni Bardasco, then aged 15 (read below).

Portrait – Andoni Bardasco, the childhood of a future pro

No wonder the Basque player was marked by this exceptional champion, who remained at the top of the padel pyramid for 16 years.

Andoni, himself, reached his best ranking (25e) at just 21 years old, before seeing his career ruined by repeated injuries. His goal at the time, he told us in an interview, was to be the best. In fact, he once refused to become Paquito Navarro's partner: "I wanted to beat him, not play with him."

But while Paquito rose to the number one spot in the world, Andoni Bardasco was forced to hang up his palas. And today, the coach he has become remains driven by the same desire to be the best and to help his students move towards the best version of themselves. If you want to break through the glass ceiling that every padel player encounters in their progression, a stay in Bilbao is a useful – if not essential – step to take one or more steps.

More information on Padel Stuff HERE

New York Padel Court

An internship in Bilbao also offers the opportunity to do some sightseeing and visit the Guggenheim Museum.

After 40 years of tennis, Jérôme fell into the padel pot in 2018. Since then, he thinks about it every morning while shaving… but never shaves with a pala in hand! A journalist in Alsace, his only ambition is to share his passion with you, whether you speak French, Italian, Spanish or English.

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