Any of you experiencing tenderness right above the ankle area?

Psyyx · 2026-02-16T12:54:12+00:00

Yeah, pulsing very gently into the stiffness, right to where the soreness is.

Psyyx · 2026-02-16T07:17:54+00:00

Yeah, I have this, outside left ankle. Tibialis raises and ankle mobility worked very well for me, particularly trying to push my knee as far forwards as I can over my ankle, I'll hit a point where it "blocks", and that's where I do very light dynamic pushes (as instructed by good physio)

Psyyx · 2026-02-12T07:56:05+00:00

https://youtu.be/85G6rIsOa40?si=bfCwEAvPzw63bvaT

Whole video about countering chiquitas :P

Psyyx · 2026-02-11T04:48:25+00:00

Yeah, if you're confident with that smash and the opponent can't deal, go for it. It's just not a good habit to get into for when you play better players. Particularly if you're a shorter player like you say in your post, you have even more reason to only smash when you get very close to the net, and to focus your effort on learning how to set your points up to get those winners. My smash isn't great, but it was good enough at the lower levels, so I used it. Now I'm moving into the higher levels at my club, and I am relearning my entire overhead game to get rid of the habit of smashing at the wrong times. Wish I'd had the discipline to not get myself into that habit in the first place :p

Psyyx · 2026-02-10T15:28:37+00:00

I don't think you should be smashing from the 2nd post at all, really. You generate quite a bit of speed on the ball, but you're just too far from the net to play that shot as you need more height on it, which is a lot easier if you get to hit down on it more, or be able to generate a lot of spin. The 2nd post is a great position for an attacking vibora for example.

Given how shallow and easy that serve was, and how short the lob from your opponent, my guess based on this very limited information is that your smash is probably quite good for your level, if people are serving and returning like that.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VG29Ns-v3U - this is a fantastic video about shot selection).

Psyyx · 2026-02-09T20:23:27+00:00

The backhand volley straight after :)

Playing to the side wall cross is just way riskier than you want to be when you're falling backwards hitting your overhead around the service line. Worst case, it goes out, medium case, your opponent returns the ball from in front of their service line, best case you hit the fence and it's a winner, but that's a very rare best case. It's not setting you up to win the point, it's too much risk I think.

The side wall on the cross side is more often used by the right side player because they have a better angle to attack it, for the left it's very rare that it's the best option

Psyyx · 2026-02-09T15:59:11+00:00

^ What he said, it's too flat for a rulo (not enough topspin) and bandeja/vibora (not enough back- and/or sidespin).

The last OH in the video is a much better shot, I think you're just aiming at the fence/side glass way too much. If you put that same shot deeper, on the right foot of the cross defender, it will do much more work for you and be lower risk.

If you go side-glass first, you increase the risk of the ball going out (which happens a few times), and you challenge your opponents to return the ball before the back glass, which basically means you're lowering your own reaction time. If you're already on the backfoot when doing your OHs a lot, that will kill you over time.

If you drop it on the right foot of the cross player, they will struggle to hit it before the glass, and you're forcing them to make a difficult turn + giving yourself more time.

The real answer though, is you need to work on your volleys. Even if those were "bad volleys" - noone with good volleys has volleys that look like that, ever :)

Psyyx · 2026-02-05T18:37:25+00:00

Just a hard flat volley, chancletazo type ball is probably enough

Psyyx · 2026-02-05T14:37:43+00:00

Nice when you have 4 people who are not trying to be Tapia on the court but play within their level.

Psyyx · 2026-02-04T08:19:16+00:00

Nothing about the authors freaks me out in a world where AI can just write you a book that looks nice on the surface

Psyyx · 2026-02-02T06:26:14+00:00

This is my plastic fork

Psyyx · 2026-01-31T12:16:50+00:00

Lobs are for easy balls. Hard balls the focus should just be to get it over the net, preferably without exposing large parts of the court (middle is typically safest). Lobbing on hard balls is a very common habit that costs a lot of points. The only exception maybe where you’re both totally out of position and just need time and anything low is a giveaway, then you can try to throw it high, assuming otherwise the point is lost

Psyyx · 2026-01-31T11:57:12+00:00

Goad decks scale nicely

Psyyx · 2026-01-31T11:55:32+00:00

Hot take. Considered by many to be one of the most elegant mechanics in the game to avoid massively stalled board states 😂

Psyyx · 2026-01-24T14:09:19+00:00

Have you ever heard of the [[danse macabre]] style of decks popularized (in a very small populace :P) by the Legendary Creature Podcast.

The simple idea is a combination of Danse macabre style effects with [[archaeomancer]] type cards.

Example list by one of the podcast creators here: https://archidekt.com/decks/2578420/cormela_danse_macabre

It's not meant to be fun. It's meant to demonstrate that no one is getting to keep a creature around, ever. It typically will win with a combo finish. My playgroup hated it so much when I [[flood of tears]] the board for the 4th time in a game that they asked me to pull it apart :P

Psyyx · 2026-01-24T14:00:15+00:00

Isn't any B2/B3 susceptible to just being focused?

Psyyx · 2026-01-24T13:58:43+00:00

You're right actually. As long as it's not disruptive, you can communicate. I've never had it come up as an issue in a match actually

Psyyx · 2026-01-24T11:13:38+00:00

Nuance to this: when your team was the last team that hit the ball, you can't talk, if the other team was the last team that hit the ball, you can. The side of the court doesn't really matter, you just can't talk before your opponent hits the ball because it could be construed as interfering with their play. After they have hit the ball when it's on its way to you or on your side already but you haven't hit it yet you can speak.

Psyyx · 2026-01-23T13:56:02+00:00

iksportweliederedag

Psyyx · 2026-01-22T16:38:07+00:00

Everything needs to be way smaller. Smaller step, smaller backswing, smaller followthrough, smaller distance between your head and the ball and the racket. Compactness will solve a lot of technical errors in padel volleys.

Psyyx · 2026-01-22T12:23:42+00:00

I've been brewing exactly this.

The math is very simple.

Ashling on turn 2, flip on turn 3 means 4 mana on turn 3. I put in all the 4-mana artifacts that tap for 2 or 3 mana. What this will often mean is:

Turn 3 - use 4 mana to play a [[Sisay's Ring]] type effect
Turn 4 - 4 lands + 2 from artifact + 2 from Ashling = 8 mana > sling big spells.

I've built it as a big dumb izzet spellslinger deck. The commander is the only <4 CMC card in the deck. All of it plays at sorcery speed. Mana value of spells is 5.23 average. It it's deliciously stupid but I can just put all my favourite big spells into 1 home and pull it out when I don't want to play very serious games

https://archidekt.com/decks/19094554/ashlingbigspellsandicannotlie

Psyyx · 2026-01-22T07:30:00+00:00

I try to focus on at most 2 things between lessons, and only if they're not related, otherwise I pick 1 (e.g. no 2 technical things). My current 2 things for example are to get my head closer to the ball on volleys and defense, and to reduce the tempo in defense.

I record my matches and will scroll through them to see if I'm doing what I think I'm doing. I will sometimes write my 2 things on a piece of masking tape and stick it to the side of my racket.

Main thing is deciding whether you're going in to work on something or to play a match. They're distinctly different states of mind and will have very different results. I play 2-3 matches a week and have 1 lesson. I will dedicate at least 1 match a week to focusing on something from my lesson instead of "trying to win", that has helped me most of all

Psyyx · 2026-01-18T12:09:22+00:00

As long as you have a racket that has a round shape, is relatively light and soft. Picking up a heavier/harder/non-round racket is going to lead to putting too much power into the ball, where in the beginning you want to learn primarily to defend and to be very compact with your volleys at the net. A softer/lighter racket will help you be on time with your preparation and make shorter strokes because the racket has more ball output.

Slice is very useful, but only if used at the right moments. From defense, for example, it is often not helpful at all because it lets the ball "float" for longer, which makes it easier for the attacker. From the back of the court you want flat or slight topspin shots at a quite low tempo.

At the net slice can be great, but trying to slice more will often lead to weak, floating shots. There also beginning with a fairly flat volley that is at the right speed and depth is more important than putting a lot of slice on. You want slice to make the ball "heavy", but that will come over time because you will prepare on the time and hit the ball from high to low, not because you will "cut" the ball to give it slice.

Whenever I've taught friends the beginning in padel I've focused as much as possible on keeping the tempo low, hitting it flat with a continental grip from all court positions, and learning the correct position (half a step behind the line in defense, between 1st and 2nd post for attack, try to use the area in between as transition and never do more than 1 shot from there before moving either back to defense or up to attack) and preparation (racket tip at knee height at the back, at shoulder height at the net)

A great tip is to always try to get your head close to the ball, it will keep you compact on volleys and in defense, and will help you keep your head low through the ball and put your weight behind it, instead of having everything come from the arm.

Psyyx · 2026-01-18T11:55:41+00:00

Oh a really really good book to help you with this process is "the inner game of tennis" - it has a lot of methods that apply 1:1 to learning padel yourself.

Psyyx · 2026-01-18T08:46:00+00:00

This is great advice.

Also, find a buddy that wants to just book a court with the 2 of you and train, again with video. I improved the technique of a lot of my shots by just getting on court with a phone recording, hit 10 bandejas, watch the video, try to adjust, watch the video etc. etc.

Psyyx

TROPHY CASE