You can have the best technique in the world, the best partner in the world, the best equipment in the world, if you find yourself in front of great defensemen, even with little technique, and you do not know how to face them, it smells like back to the locker room. Here are some things that might help you.

Super defensemen are among those hard to play because they make few mistakes, are the champions of the lob, play perfectly with the windows, and to top it all, stay mostly at the bottom of the field to wait for the fault. Since they have a big physique, it will be difficult for you to use them. So what to do?

If you have already encountered this type of player who requires you to make points and mistakes, this article is for you. (The others read it anyway the day it happens to you).

  • Try to minimize direct mistakes. Your opponents feed on your mistakes, by reducing your mistakes you will force them to come for the match, something they certainly know less well to do.
  • Reduce your margin of error. Most often you play balls very close to the windows, with effects, speed, and these defenders send you these balls. So try to play more simply by playing the zones with more security.
  • Do not lose patience. Your opponents have it. If you are in a hurry to return to the locker room, your opponents will help you. Take the time to play each point with the same intention.
  • Wait for the best moment to finish a point. Too much rainfall and your opponents will make you pay. Prepare your point, move them and finish with your best shot.
  • Take them out of their comfort zone, which is often the backdrop. Slow balls behind the net without necessarily a corner will force them to come forward and create gaps.
  • If you know how to do it, use the quick smash. It's like a high volley but hit very hard in front of you. You take little risk because you do not look for angle, but you surprise by breaking the rhythm.
  • Do not try to stay at the net. Your opponents are used to it. If you have to go back to the bottom of the field, go ahead, the decor is nice too. Quietly rebuild your point without hurrying.
  • You can earn your points from the bottom or by pressing. Your opponents at the net are perhaps weaker than at the back (if they are that strong, you have fallen on the pros, forget it;). Attack from the bottom with fast balls. You can squeeze them by taking their own volleys, but that already requires mastery of the padel.
  • A match is never over, think that you can always tip the game on your side.

These tips are to apply in a certain case. When you enter the field, first play the game you best master, yours.

For the players who would be very good defenders, it will have to change the way you play, with these tips you will not win a match 😉

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.

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