Join us for four days in Bilbao, where we tested an intensive and tailor-made course in the academy of Andoni Bardasco, former 25th player in the world. 

For any padel lover, going to Spain to do a training course is a dream that has sometimes been cherished for a long time but is not always easy to realize. Obviously, there are many offers, but the selection criteria are tricky.

Price may be the first thing you consider, but it shouldn't overshadow all others. Paying cheap to do an internship in a "factory" dedicated to padel, where teachers who speak kitchen English (and sometimes play less well than you!) bombard their students with deflated balls, is obviously not the best option.

Paquito’s level?

Beyond the budget, the first criterion to take into account is of course the quality of the teachers and their ability to analyze your game, your needs and to implement the means to allow you to progress. Be careful, do not expect to come out of a week of training with the level of play of Paquito Navarro. Becoming another padel player sometimes involves starting from scratch or almost, overhauling your game to lose bad habits. But acquiring good habits, good technical gestures, new game patterns and especially the automatisms that go with them is not done in a few days.

La bandeja explained by Andoni Bardasco

The intern that you are will therefore have to show humility and patience, even if it means taking notes like a diligent student to then implement what you have learned during your internship. Ultimately, it's a bit like going to a shrink: it's not the therapist - however good he may be - who does the job, but the patient. In padel, even with Belasteguin as a coach, you are the one on the court facing the ball and the opponents!

Four Alsatians, aged 24 to 53

That being said, follow us towards Bilbao, in the Spanish Basque Country, during an intensive course in the academy Padel Stuff. This is inseparable fromAndoni Bardasco, ex-world No. 25 when he was only in his twenties. Unfortunately, his career was shattered by a succession of injuries, to the point that he had to end it at just 26 years old. In 2020, he joined forces with Iñaki Loredo to offer courses in French and English to players of all levels. And for several months, Andoni and Iñaki have been joined by Paul Daulan, a young French instructor whose Padel Magazine recounts the adventure in Bilbao, both as a player and as a coach.

Alongside this trio of passionate padel experts, we are four Alsatians who came to Bilbao in November for an immersion course with Padel Stuff : Romain, 24 years old, Justine, 27 years old, Michel, 35 years old and your servant Jérôme, 53 years old. For four days, Andoni and Paul warmly welcome us and supervise us in the very beautiful club where they practice. Temple of climbing with an international reputation, the Biwak Climbing is also an indoor padel club with six courts, a ceiling height of over 15 metres, a fitness room and a lovely restaurant-brasserie.

Five hours of padel a day

In this perfectly adapted place, we devote five hours a day to padel, mixing technique, exercises, matches with (and without) constraints and video analysis of our practices. We are quickly marked by the reading of the game that Andoni offers. A coach with his expertise is able to dissect each of your shots with impressive precision and finesse of analysis. The movement, the preparation, the hitting plan, the accompaniment of the ball, the replacement: no detail of your game escapes his expert eye. And to confirm this, videos allow students to visualize with their own eyes, image by image, what the coach teaches them through words. There is nothing better to realize your faults and remedy them by copying the gestures of a professional player.

A video analysis session led by Andoni Bardasco

The specificity of Padel Stuff is a course in French (Andoni Bardasco speaks it perfectly) or in English, allowing you to concentrate 100% on padel: "It's hard enough to learn new things about padel," says Andoni, "there's no point complicating your life by doing it in a foreign language that you don't master well."

Adapt to each person

Among internship formulas offered Padel Stuff, we had chosen the most intensive, called "Full padel": in our case, we have two coaches and two courts for four players. In short, the ideal conditions to adapt the teaching to the needs of each person and work in depth on technique, tactics and even on the psychological aspects of the game, if necessary. We were all struck by the adaptability that Andoni demonstrates, like a top-flight tailor making tailor-made clothing according to the measurements (and tastes!) of his models. The promise that can be found on the website of Padel Stuff is therefore not an empty word: “The training that each player needs is different, the mission of Padel Stuff is also to adapt to each person and personalize the lessons both in the technical part and in the tactics.

As the two testimonials below show, each player profile will therefore find in Bilbao an education which corresponds precisely to their expectations, their level and their physical form: either an intensive practice oriented towards competition, or a more focused approach about the pleasure of the game and sharing. Without forgetting the tourist visits to the capital of the Spanish Basque Country and its superb region. It would be a shame to deprive yourself!

More information on Padel Stuff HERE].

Bilbao internship at Padel Stuff with Andoni Bardasco and Paul Daulan

Justine Fostier, 27 years old: “This internship opened up immense horizons for me”

"My goals were to know how to position myself better on the court, break a little my automatisms from tennis and create new automatisms from padel so as not to play wrong anymore. I also wanted to learn to defend better and to build my points intelligently.

This internship went very well, we were very well supervised by Andoni and Paul. The fact that they spoke French made learning easier because there were no communication problems. We also really appreciated the setting of the club, with its six pitches, a good atmosphere and a pleasant catering area, with the added bonus of the possibility of visiting and even trying climbing. We were really pampered and very well received during this week in Bilbao.

The course itself was very intense in terms of the information stored. For me, Andoni helped me review classic shots, including the lob, returns of serve, serve, and bandeja. He helped me modify the automatisms that come from tennis, while teaching me how to better reposition myself on the court after my shots or those of my partners. So, it completely matched my expectations: I managed to better position myself on the court, to gradually acquire padel automatisms. So I made enormous progress thanks to this course, I also discovered other tactical ways of seeing padel, which opens up a huge horizon on what is possible to do in this sport. So I recommend it Padel Stuff with my eyes closed and I can't wait to do another internship with them. »

Michel Haemmerlin, 35 years old: “A beneficial job”

“I went to Bilbao to perfect my smashes, learn the bandeja, positioning during the game and some other padel tricks. In summary, it was a very complete and very instructive camp, with good interaction with Andoni and Paul. They allowed me to understand more about certain game systems and the way of playing, especially on service returns. The difference is clearly felt now in my game. The serve has also been revised and that makes a lot of points easier to win now with a better serve than before the camp. Understanding where to play the balls on service returns was very instructive. It bothers and surprises opponents during matches.

The work on the bandeja has been beneficial for me, even if the use is not yet efficient enough. Above all, you have to think about the positioning on each ball and the position of the body before each shot. This will come with time. For smashes, a good lesson on the positioning under the ball and how to play it with the right area to look for. This is good in a match.

Direct play was also discussed and it was quite physical at the time. It’s a good lesson in how to move depending on how the ball arrives. The few warm-up exercises learned are perfect with friends before starting a session. In summary, it was a good internship that was worth it with very attentive and professional people. »

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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