Hello! My name is Karl Zahra, a 30 year old engineer from Malta! This is the first in a series of blog posts about padel here in Malta. I was first introduced to the sport of padel around 3 years ago by my cousin Jean Galea. Jean lives in Barcelona and it was during one …
Proper breathing is often a neglected element at amateur level sport, and sometimes even professionals breathe incorrectly, although nowadays with the influence of good coaches and technology this is very rare. I definitely struggled with improper breathing myself. My biggest issue was holding my breath during padel while playing shots or while lifting weights at …
A deload is a planned step back from the volume (sets x reps) or intensity (load on the bar) in your current program. The idea is to give your tissues and nervous system a chance to recover after a period of intense training. For advanced lifters (or individual training styles like powerlifting) this is important …
Should You Deload When Training for Padel or Tennis? Read More »
Today I want to address confrontation in sports like tennis and padel, where it is quite common to have opponents try out some gamesmanship techniques to try to put you off your game. I’ll start by recounting a situation that happened to me recently while playing in a padel tournament in Barcelona. I’m always a …
How to Deal with Confrontation in Padel and Tennis Read More »
Here’s a quick list of five different ways you can improve at tennis or padel. Go through them whenever you feel like you’re stuck in a rut and you’re not improving much. Movement and positioning – understanding the footwork patterns to be the most efficient on the court and can your recover to the right …
Five Different Ways to Improve at Tennis and Padel Read More »
During friendly matches and most amateur tournaments padel matches are played without an umpire. The qualifying rounds of World Padel Tour don’t have a referee either. This means that the players will have to judge certain things themselves in an amicable manner. Let’s talk about some of these things to keep an eye out for …
Padel Etiquette and Rules For Non-Umpired Matches Read More »
Timothy Gallway spoke about the inner game of tennis in his two books on tennis psychology several decades ago, although all the principles remain true to this day. He observed that we think of ourselves as one person, but when playing tennis or padel (and certainly in other areas of life) there really are two …
The Trap of Trying to Improve Your Skills During Matches Read More »
Your hips are essential for proper padel form, so we need to make sure they’re both strong and have excellent mobility. Here’s a video introducing the concept of hip rotation mobility and an assessment to see where you’re at. Whenever you attempt to improve something in your body, always start with a good assessment followed by …
How to Improve Hip Strength and Mobility for Padel Read More »
Most padel players at any level enjoy watching World Padel Tour matches and dream of imitating the moves of their favorite padel players. However this might not be the most effective way of spending your time if you’re an amateur player and are trying to win more matches. What does being an amateur player really …
So how do we win at padel? It’s the million dollar question, and perhaps one that tennis players especially ask when making the switch to this sport. At first, for ex-tennis players, padel might seem like an easy sport since you get the impression that you don’t have to run a lot or hit powerful …
