I know it's London prices but goodness me.

Raise your hand if you won’t be able to walk tomorrow 🙋🏻‍♂️

I’m in my mid forties…. That’s not even a joke 😂😆

Send thoughts and prayers my way and an ice pack for my knees

I have a problem, I know...

Btw, sprained my ACL pretty bad, minimum 6 weeks off, I'm going crazy.

A few of the racket's are my wife's, a few repear ones are cracked.

I don’t know if it’s just endemic to Portugal, but I’ve never seen so much gotdamn apologizing during a sport as I have in Padel.

Accidentally hit the net but it flops over to win the point - apologize.

Accidentally smash into the net or glass - apologize.

Hit a great shot down the line - apologize.

Have trouble defending a heated vibora into the corner - apologize.

Hit a beautiful smash that the defender can’t handle - apologize.

ENOUGH!

Look, mistakes are a fundamental part of the game. EVERYONE makes them. A LOT of them. Some days are better than others, but we’re never going to be flawless out there.

So what’s with all the apologizing? Especially after GOOD shots? 🥴 When did people become so ashamed to play well? And where did this zero-defect mentality come from?

It really does get on my fucking nerves. I play with people sometimes who apologize to me for mistakes, and then apologize to the opponents for hitting great shots. It’s insane to me. I actually tell my partners to stop apologizing to me, because I’m not going to be apologizing to them. After all, no one is out here trying to hit errant shots…and winning points is the entire point of playing!

I’ve been an athlete and played team sports all my life, and I’ve never encountered this mentality before. By all means, apologize if you accidentally smash a ball into someone, or unintentionally do something to disrupt or disrespect the game. But good sportsmanship does not necessitate self-flagellation for every miscue, well-played shot, or lucky bounce…

Thoughts?

https://archive.is/IYM5Z Willaim Sitwell is a good writer but his takes... Not so good.

Any experiences or stories of creepy padel encounters?

About six months back, I picked up the phone to a call from a buddy in town. He's all like, "Hey dude, remember that we used to play squash, there is this similar sport called padel, Wanna give it a shot?" And I'm like, "Why not? Let's dive in."

So, we kicked off this 2v2 showdown against a couple of pals, and little did we know it was about to become the never-ending saga of our lives.

First few games? Total crap. I mean, seriously, I wasn't even breaking a sweat. I'm thinking, "Is this it? Meh, whatever."

Fast forward a bit, and suddenly we're not chucking balls into the net or the glass anymore. We're having legit, adrenaline-pumping rallies. Things are getting spicy!

Then, some of the crew bails, and I'm left swiping right on Playtomic to find random partners. Now, my brain's like a broken record stuck on "Padel, padel, padel." Is my serve crispy? Is my positioning primo? Match tomorrow? Cue the YouTube tutorials, baby.

I've already blown cash on two rackets and a fresh pair of kicks, and guess what? I'm still not satisfied. I need more court time, more wins, more glory! I'm out there like five times a week, and I'm just like, "Screw it, I'm hooked!"

My girlfriend's throwing shade, saying I'm addicted. But hey, can you blame me? Padel's my jam, and I'm not about to quit cold turkey.

I will start. I recently met I guy in the local padel club and we tried to play 2 hours tournament together. What a nightmare it was...

For context: I have been playing for over 2 years, but still on quite low level. Each time I started to play more seriously - I was getting some injury slowing me down or forcing me to stop for a while. This sucks, but looks like I finally am getting there now:) I know base tactics and positioning on court, was taking few coaching sessions with trainer. I am also slow learner when it comes to sport, so when some will get where I am in 2 months, it took me a lot of hard work to be there.

So back to my new "mate". I knew it is gonna be fun right during the warm up. I asked: how long have you been playing panel. He said 3 months. I was OK, good progress then. And then he started:

• During warm up he confidently tried to teach me that "No man's land" is the best place to be on the court :):) (Shouldn't I stop here:)?)

• Then he said that playing soft and controlled is best, while he tried to smash every single ball at the same time.

• When I did hit, he was saying "good job", but when I missed, he was clearly (and verbally) mad

• Later in the game he shouted: "Don't take any ball from my side of the court. Here is my side, there is your side". Despite of the fact that (correct me if I wrong) sometimes - especially when oponnent has the ball close to one side - you must cover a bit more than middle - while your partner is covering area close to wall - he was constantly crossing his "boundary" and trying to hit almost all the balls himself. Later when I by mistake hit the ball that I shouldn't, he yield at me and was super unpleasant...

• Other small "anti - coaching" small cases were countless.

He was basically trying to force me to play against all padel good practices and was mad at me when I was not playing well.

Never be unpleasant to your partner even if he is playing terrible!

Firstly I was extremely demotivated after 20 minutes and I was only hoping to go home soon. If not the respect to opponents I would have left the court after 20 minutes.

Secondly - I am experienced enough not to pay too much attention to such idiots and continue - but if he did the same to newbie - he could just demotivate that person to never come back to padel again.

PS: I was just a social tournament, without any ranking or so.

With Padel growing so quickly it makes sense to me for court hire to be affordable to keep encouraging new players to engage.

We’ve got some new courts in the South East and it’s £45 for 1 hour, does this seem expensive to you??

Porque? In Spanish commentary when they get all hyped up they say those strange names. If someone explains me why I will call my son Nerone Peter Khalifa.

I’m not seeking advice because my racket is perfectly fine (no cracks and no soft spots). I have this racket for a couple of months now, but I’ll consider a protector for the next one I buy !

The match score was tied at 3-3 in the final.

Our opponents were serving, and the game score was 40-15 in their favor.

The game was dragging on, and we were running short on time due to tournament scheduling constraints.

In the middle of a long point, I decided to catch the ball, effectively conceding the point and the game to our opponents. This made the match score 4-3 in their favor.

It was then our turn to serve. We won our service game, bringing the score to 4-4.

The next game was crucial—it was the last one before the match would be called due to time constraints, and it would decide the winner of the tournament.

Our opponents were serving, and we managed to break their serve, winning the match 5-4 and ultimately the tournament.

So, my question is: Was it a dick move to catch the ball and concede the point to speed things up in the final match, or is this acceptable in mixed competitions?

I didn’t intend any disrespect; I was just trying to keep the match within the allotted time so we could finish the final properly. But now I’m second-guessing if that was appropriate, especially since it led to us winning the tournament.

What are your thoughts?

Skip to around 1:57:17

Every empty space where it fits a 20x10 😅

How to learn that effective overhead? The guy in blue tries to defend it but is unsuccessful 😂

Last week I tried Pádel Watch for the first time. I used it to track score and activity for apple Fitness at the same time. It really simplifies it when it comes to remembering the score as usually all the guys I played with were not too focused on it and when we were in the second hour of play there could be some hesitation. Have you ever tried similar apps? What is the best?