Here is an excerpt from a post-game conversation between two players. One is young, fiery, strong, the other older and experienced.

  • The youngster: "I don't understand, I have a more powerful racquet than you and yet, I have the impression that my smashes go slower than yours."
  • The old man: “In winter, you may notice that I spike longer, closer to the window: the ball goes lower… but faster.”
  • The young person: “In winter? Why ? You have to explain to me!”
  • The old man: “Because the higher the temperatures, the higher the balls rise. And vice versa…”

Moral of this exchange: when the playing conditions are slow, especially in cold and wet weather, we do not hit the same type of smash as when it is 30 degrees, with new and lively balls.

Isn't Juan Lebron who wants

We have all tried to hit a parallel smash once so that it bounces off the top of the back window and lob the defender. But between the intention and the realization, there is sometimes an abyss...

The perfect bell smash is one that bounces off the ground before the service line, hits the top of the glass, rises high into the sky, and returns to your side, staying out of the defender's reach, even when the defender runs fast and jumps very high. It is hit either flat with maximum power, or topspin so that the spin after the glass propels the ball even higher.

Lebron and his smashes

But perfection not being of this world - or so rarely -, we have all happened to hit from too far, to center the ball badly, or to choose the wrong zone of impact: on arrival, we often gets punished by the defender. And when in addition the conditions are slow and the balls lack pressure, we realize with annoyance that Juan Lebron is not the one who wants.

Find the length

This is where what is called the winter smash : a blow struck flat, with violence, impacted lower but more on the side. And instead of wanting to give it a lot of angle so that it goes very high, the spiker is looking for length. The closer the impact is to the glass, the faster and lower the ball will return. In the best of cases, the defender is overtaken; and even if he is advanced and can defend the ball, he will rarely have the opportunity to conclude the point on his counter-attack.

And that's how an old player with a round racket and a body bruised by the years can make a young stud feel like he hits harder than him!

READ also our article on the 10 kinds of smashes padel

After 40 years of tennis, Jérôme falls into the pot of padel in 2018. Since then, he thinks about it every morning while shaving… but never shaves pala in hand! Journalist in Alsace, he has no other ambition than to share his passion with you, whether you speak French, Italian, Spanish or English.

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