All technical are good to know to progress at padel. It's up to you to find the most suitable. Players, monitors, do not hesitate to use themental imagery.

Mental imagery, what does it mean? It is in a way using information in reference to an object, an animal, an attitude, which will allow you to better understand a movement or a phase of the game.

If we look at martial arts like Kung Fu, we see that many movements come from the movements and attitudes of animals (the praying mantis, the monkey, the tiger or the crane). We will of course not ask you to move on a track of padel like a monkey or a tiger, but taking their attitude on certain shots might help. Let's take a closer look!

Object imagery

The idea is to help you better internalize a movement. For example, when preparing for a forehand, you find it difficult to place the pala correctly backwards. One of the solutions may be to imagine that the end of your sleeve is an eye that must watch your opponents' ball come. For a badly finished end, one can imagine a tray on which you will have to put a cup after having impacted. There is therefore an infinity of objects that you will be able to apply to your technique so that it is as fluid as possible.

Environmental imagery

Once you understand the technique, it comes time to play tactics, your attitude on the track. During a match, you can't always play with the same intensity. You are sometimes on defense, on offense, either you have to keep the ball in play during important points, or you have to impose yourself with “mastery” against a weaker pair.

These attitudes can be approached in various ways depending on who you are. Of course we will not take the same examples for people who work in 2 different worlds. So if you are a monitor, try to find images that best represent your audience; what is their job, do they have children, do they like nature, motor sports, travel, outings ... just as many elements that will allow you to quickly make them understand the attitude to choose depending on the moment of match.

Let us take 2 examples

1- You are in defense and you are a player who is very aggressive. You score one point and then you lose 3 because you are always looking to make the perfect shot from the back of the track. One of the ideas may be to get on a cruise ship and let yourself be carried away by the waves. You know that you are on board and that you will not be able to reach the destination once the boat has docked. There is no point in rushing you. At first you will have a hard time, but little by little you will relax and understand that you have to be patient until you can get off the boat for the next visit.

2- You find yourself at the net and you realize that your volleys never put your opponents in difficulty. Maybe it would be good to think about being aggressive? For this you can imagine being a lion or a tiger trying to bite its victim with each impact with the bullet. In this way, all your blows will take on another dimension; you will go to meet the ball, you will accelerate a little more the rhythm and especially, the effect which you will print will make more damage on the side of your adversaries. But be careful anyway because the lion and the tiger are animals that study their prey before pouncing on it: do not conquer the point at full force ...

Conclusion

To each his own method. For some people, mental imagery is a real added value, for others it has little or no meaning. Do not hesitate to motivate yourself by looking for images or situations that represent you, your partner or even your students.

 

Julien Bondia

Julien Bondia is a teacher of padel in Tenerife (Spain). Columnist and advisor, he helps you play better through his tutorials and tactical/technical articles padel.