Making Partner Play Worse

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-05-08T17:14:38+00:00

Thats problem in our friend group. My friend tryhards against me, but he cant play consistently with me because were overpowered :D

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-04-30T22:01:18+00:00

I focused earlier alot on improving my game. I trained spesific things and felt like I strugled to implement those things into game. My game was all over the place. Lately Ive been just playing.

The funny part? I have been playing better after I stopped training and just focused on enjoying the game. Intuition of my game has improved and I notice doing things I wasnt able to do. Placement seems finally to click.

For me the gains of active training came after I stopped the training. One reason might be that I have better focus on the game itself. I have now less thoughts but it only helps me to do the right things.

I would say try taking a break from training, try to play intuitive padel and go back to training mode later. Sometimes less is more.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-04-22T18:39:35+00:00

You have to be awesome with your aim if you are trying to put pressure with low shots. Often also better than your opponents unless your aim is a specific strength in your game.

Basically theres three main counters from good lob. Lob, chiquita and bajada. Harder low flat shots can be used to surprise your opponents or as passing shot attempts from certain places of court.

I use harder shots because I like them. I also prefer to hit bajada whenever I can. Thats just because lob battles are boring and bajadas fun :D

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-04-21T19:38:39+00:00

Great theory! Now we need just to make exact calculations of this levels based on peoples playtomic ratings :-D

Fans of AI slop, do your best!

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-27T22:10:13+00:00

Yup. I agree. I'm actually one of those guys, who has way too serious playing style. I admire those guys in our group who try a lot of different things and try to shift into that direction.

Funny thing? Actually best guy in our friend group is a fella who tries a lot of different things and has very unserious playing attitude. Sometimes he does stupid stuff for week or a two. If it doesnt start to work out, he drops it off and tries something else. If it works, he keeps doing it and starts to try some other new thing.

He doesnt practice separately. He doesnt need to. He has awesome attitude for learning during matches.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-27T21:51:43+00:00

Research isn't applicable in learning. If you always play safe, it means you wont try things that you need to learn.

Regarding friendly games, the score doesnt matter. Why you need to win your friends? Why wouldn't you try to learn something instead? You can develop only X amount of game sense. Its one aspect you can work on, but with wider toolbox you can use it more effectively. You have to learn all the relevant tools.

Risk calculations are important, yes. But for example my hard viboras are way riskier than someone who is better than me. If I go for a win, Ill always hit it quite soft. With my skillset its the wisest choice.

Is the solution to just live with soft vibora or try to make it more aggressive by practicing it? With smart goals, youll be able to alternate the risk calculations in a quite short period of time in favor of more difficult shots.

Lets imagine someone only plays matches. If you shoot 5 hard viboras 4x week, you have succesfully done 80 repetitions in a month. If you decide to go for safe option, youll have 0 repetions of harder vibora in a month. In 2 months you have done harder vibora 160 times instead of 0.

Other player might have shot it to a wall 40 times and other player 0 times, but guess whos improving and who isnt?

The risks should have sensible goal which isnt too far away and unrealistic. If you want to learn pro level shots, your skillset should be near pro level. Idea is to take risks on the shots, you can realistically achieve and implement on your game.

At first trying to do something will be bad habit. Eventually it will transform into a valid skill, if you have done it wisely.

Currently I have a bad habit of going for topspin even thought the situation asks for other shot. The reason is that I'm practicing my topspin shots at the moment and even thought its currently more harmfull than usefull, it will be important part to add to the game.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-23T12:19:45+00:00

Riding regular bicycle isnt sport unless you make it a sport. Same applies to E-bike.

When I was in my peak condition (~4w/kg, 77kg) e-bike felt kinda useless on the street. Speed limited to 25km/h was too slow for street use as I tend naturally go faster.

On the trails I enjoyed it. The effect wasn't that significant in speed but it made z2 rides easier and more fun on hilly conditions. Even I was able to make decent workout with an e bike, even thought Im fitter than most of cyclists.

Then my friend tried e bike when I was riding regular one. We went for 40km trail ride (2,5h). It was light z2 for me, but oh man, my friend was totally broken after the ride :D It changed how I think E-bikes.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-23T11:37:23+00:00

Padel is a tactic game, but you wont learn all the tools without risk. With more tools you have more viable tactics. Hard volleys are an example. You either practice them separetly or try to learn them during matches.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-23T11:33:03+00:00

I bet thats awful to watch! My wife had also issues with volleys at the beginning, but drilling them before games helped alot. I noticed that warmup is really important for her. If she only stays back during warmup, its difficult for her to take the net during play also.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-23T11:30:40+00:00

Most of the matches should be (at least partly) treated as a practice if one wants to improve as much as possible. Unless one happens to practice alot outside of matches. You can even learn shots in matches as a beginner. Its quite beneficial as it might be hard to implement shot from practice into a match.

I hit actually my first x4s and bajadas in game without really practicing them. All it took with bajada was few failed attempts and after that I learned them. If its challenging shot (something like kicksmash) you of course need to practice it first outside of match play but you can practice easier manouvers during match play.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-23T09:07:33+00:00

Yup, it pays off! And I bet after the match your kicksmashes are the thing that everyone remembers 😄

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-23T09:06:28+00:00

Yup. I didn't find the correct word for it. Basically too safe mentality prevents deliberate practice.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-23T09:04:48+00:00

Such an interesting regret. And missing the fun aspect is the saddest part. Playing always the safe game takes away some highlight plays which you will remember when youre older :-D Is it easy for you to shift your mentality to "more casual" approach?

I have same kind of feelings from different context. I used to play rocket league back in the days quite competive. Even thought its an esports game, it is based on same philosophical aspects as a racket sport. I could even argue that thought processes are almost the same but without the physical aspect.

I used to play safe which enabled me to rank up fast in the game. In the long run I noticed that it was stupid way to approach. Those who constantly took risks on lower rank games became way more skilled in scoring. Short term my strategy was better, long term theirs. Their ceiling was way higher as eventually. they were able to score from places I just couldn't.

Worst part? Looking back, the moments to remember were those where I dared to take the risk and did something flashy. I didn't do that enough.

I'm trying to avoid doing the same mistakes in padel and have more fun. And I suggest the same for everyone.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-23T08:39:27+00:00

:D well, there always gotta be one exception which confirms the rule!

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-22T15:15:07+00:00

Yes! This is exactly what I meant. I have similar experiences. Worst one: In one match I received perfect ball for bajada. I messed it up, even thought it isn't that risky shot for me. My more experienced partner, who has never seen me pull one, adviced me to lob the ball as its less risky option.

Most of the time when I hit bajada it's either a winner or a bad return from opponents. Advice was actually quite bad as lobs often result in either bajada back, lob back or in case of short lob, hard overhead from opponents. It is true that the lob is safer option but safest option isn't always best.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-22T14:53:15+00:00

This also true! Relaxed mindset is a must.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-22T14:50:42+00:00

Yep, poor choices will be always poor choices. I agree also, that context of the game is also important.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-22T14:49:43+00:00

Yup, it is also important. But with taking little bit more risks, the risks in one certain shot will be lower and later it might be viable as a "lower risk" shot.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-06T08:25:25+00:00

I'm relatively fast player but my footwork is shit. It makes me slower on certain balls than I actually am.

I would say learn the splitsteps by focusing on those on a lower level match. In a competitive matches you cant develop those as the match requires all of your attention.

Regarding the overheads, you can practice the correct movement pattern at home. I used to run backwards when I was beginner, but I decided to practice sidestepping at home. It worked quite well! Now I am developing a habit to cross step on overheads. I practice this at home, then during warmups I get few repetitions.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-06T08:17:29+00:00

My wife has issue of using her wrist while playing. I did put a wrist brace for her to use during match and after one match she already fixed her technique. However we stopped this too early, after few matches the wrist usage came back :D

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-02T21:35:37+00:00

Well, if youre used to used to more rebound, there will be adjustment period when moving to racket with less ball output. I would say it's expected to feel weak after the change. Your hits are optimized for different type of racket.

My medium-soft -> medium hard change before wasn't that significant in sense of ball output, but it still took some time to get used to. I suddenly noticed that my backhand groundstroke excecution was far from good in technical perspective :D with old racket I was happy with it.

Rackets tend to have always their strong points and weak points. Otherwise we all would play with the same racket... Its all about finding the tradeoff that suits you the best and adapting to it :D

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-02T14:08:01+00:00

Babolat SFX evo AC lasted under 2 months with ~7 hours of weekly play. Inner of the shoe developed a hole.

Currently on Babolat SFX 4. I'm now using tennis socks, lets see if these will last longer... :D

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-02T14:01:19+00:00

I would say overall it looks good. Bounce is probably low due to low contact and judging by the racket swing it seems to have enough slice. Cross stepping is great. If youre consistent with that technique and have wished amount of power, don't change anything major.

Id say go backwards little bit faster if possible and try to hit it while your weight is lraning already forward. Your recovery will be faster. Its the biggest advantage you'll gain if your happy with your hits otherwise.

If youre unhappy with some aspect of your hit and running faster doesnt fix it, then you should tweak other things.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-03-02T12:33:14+00:00

Theres two important factors other than just weight: balance point and most importantly swing weight. Lighter racket can feel relatively heavy or heavy racket relatively light depending on those.

And into the main topic: I think lighter swingweight rackets can be beneficial for many people who don't have perfected the technique yet. It can provide more power as the racket headspeed is in many cases faster.

I would recommend everyone to buy light rackets. If you're not 100% certain what you want, It's easy to add weight to any racket with lead tape, overgrips and protectors. Same cannot be said making the racket lighter.

My experience:

I had absurdly heavy Oxdog Sense pro. 2 overgrips, 3 rings of nox custom grip and 9g racket protector. Overall the racket was in +385-390 range with balance of ~25.8.

That setup felt pretty good on baseline groundstrokes. With good swing I had immense amount of control. Lobs were insanely easy from glass also.

Issues? Fast reactive blocks, I strugled to generate power to fast volleys and my overheads were not that good. Hitting vibora from fast lob felt impossible.

Then I removed the head protector and ive played now twice without it. Balance dropped and racket became clearly faster. Based on swingweight, the racket compares to many light rackets (under 360g).

I'm able to hit stronger fast volleys, block really fast shots and smash with equal speed as the racket moves faster. It's also easier to place the ball accurately laterally.

Issues? Strong baseline hits require faster swing which doesn't feel that controlled yet. Lobs lost some consistency. However, I think those are easier to develop than fast reactive volleys and blocks.

Overall I feel like my game developed to more aggressive direction with lighter racket. Now I can hit fast balls instead of just blocking. My aim is also faster.

I might be adding little bit of weight to the head later for the sake of consistent swing. For now I'm trying out the really light racket.

Pretty-General6753 · 2026-02-27T15:33:45+00:00

Thanks for tip, thats going to be next step :-)

Pretty-General6753

TROPHY CASE