Love me some ping-pong. Padel, sorry. Love me some padel!
Nobody knows the origins. The Spanish say it was first thought of justo there (somewhere in Catalonia). The Mexicans say it’s their thing. I’ve even heard it was polished up in Argentina. Doesn’t really matter. What matters is this: it’s one of the lightest, easiest and best sports to ever come across our generation.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I’ve known padel for ages but only recently have I come to the conclusion — and let’s say addiction… — that it was one of the healthiest things that happened to my face. And to my body.
I’m a chain smoker, I do like some beer and scotch but, mostly, I’m no Messi nor Lebron James when it comes to sports…
And I lol my ass off if you pass me a basketball because I’m 100% inept at what the hell am I gonna do next: shoot, pass, run, jump or dance the kumbaya. It’s worthless. Ask anybody who’s played me, with and against. #nogood
So, roll back to 2010, when I first got offered some ‘classes’, some padel classes at Alcântara Padel Club, below Ponte 25 de Abril. I had some fun but I never imagined the sport to be so addictive. The strategy. The tactical side. Not the Lebron or Jordan side to it: the thinking fast and doing faster side of it.
This is what padel is mostly about. As with any other team sport, you foresee the opportunity and you play to seize it. Don’t play the moment, the opponent or the wall, play the empty line, the diagonal. I’ve learned this years later because, let’s just say that I got my first ‘padel kick’ and then I… went home. For cigs. And probably scotch.
For 5 or 6 years I never played anymore. And the end to the first half of this lame story.
SECOND IMPRESSION
Pre, during and after #COVID came my padel glory days.
I’ve entered tournaments.
I’ve played with cousins that dominated their age brackets in tennis (padel is mostly populated with tennis has-beens, it’s a natural move, just like former tennis pros play… poker:).
I’ve played with teachers.
I’ve played with noobs, semi-pros, but mostly and most importantly I continued to play. To improve somehow. To tame my impatience to score a point. What’s funny is: I like me some fresco ball, some ‘raquetes de praia e tal’, never have I picked up a tennis racket but I can understand running for a ball at the beach. I just can’t stand running constantly for it in a padel court. I’m not a patient guy; to the contrary, I’m absolutely mental.
So… this I had do improve and, more recently — 2 or 3 years ago this is— I enrolled in more classes.
THE TEACHER
was
so I quit.
Of course. I was too wired. But I wasn’t playing on an almost daily basis. I played once in every 2 weekends. I was near the sweet spot of ‘let’s do some heroine but let’s be civil while we do it’. Like… I wasn’t 100% hooked. Yet…
THE BASICS
I don’t know them. I never read rules. I played with dudes that study, watch and breathe the sport. I never watched a live padel match, played by pros, the Spanish, the Argentinians, even the Portuguese do have their say in Padel World Rankings.
I just think once you overthink and interpret it you’ll lose focus. Trial by error, I mean, it’s like having surf theory. It might be fulfilling but how helpful will it be when you’re facing
THE HOOK
came in mid 2019-today.
Only then I befriended some dudes who invested in a padel complex. I’ve started to play with guys in the same frequency — they wanted more, and more and more.
Because padel has a facebook-ish/social side to it that I find hard to find elsewhere: usually, when you play football, you’ll have a laugh, you’ll talk to your opponents, but you don’t take it to beer, smoke or sex next level.
I mean, you can if you’re gay, fo shizzle. But, in padel, it is so proactive and dynamic the way you move and interact with the other side of the net that is impossible not to ‘chillax’ after a good 2 hour sesh of chasing and placing the ball.
So I did finally enter some friendly tournaments. I’ve lost 95% of them. I won one of them. Both mixed — I’ve played with girls, like 50% of the tournaments I’ve played are traditionally mixed — and ‘men only’.
THE MEN ONLY
game is lame, loud and ludicrous sometimes. You find raw talent on the other side of the net, you’re meant to win the game because there’s just so much testosterone all you have to do is to wait and win. Dudes are so temperamental and unpredictable that it can be fun sometimes but it’s mostly boring as hell.
Competitiveness — I speak for myself, I’m like This Guy when I hit the wall direct — takes a huge role and your opponents will find holes to your game: they’ll rob points, they’ll shoot balls at your face, they’ll even lose service games and keep racking the set score at their own will, so you gotta open your eyes and simply take a breath and play your thing.
This is not a common rule in 100% of the tournaments. But it happens specifically in tournaments where dudes are just being dudes and competing like wolves for a place in… I dunno, for a f#cking facebook tag.
It’s absurd but that’s what happens when you unite 16 dudes around a ball and a net and tell them ‘last team standing wins’. It’s not a padel game anymore. The court becomes a battlefield.
THE MIXED TOURNAMENTS
are the most fun. They’re lighter.
The mood is let’s-have-some-fun instead of go-for-win.
There are loads of formats in these gigs:
- you can start to play mixed and the decider is a final match between 4 men and 4 women to determine the 2 winners;
- you can never switch partners (this one I personally hate because the richness of padel is to adapt your game to your side and the other side of the net; often times, if you’re an offensive player like me, it doesn’t really matter who you’re paired with but I’ve played with people whom I’m harmonized with almost at a telepathic level);
- you can play up (W) or down (L) and then switch partners and opponents;
- padel, just like tennis or basket, has no ties, so if you have to play for 4 days and 18 hours… #justdoit;
And these are just the more common to find. I mean, you can edit and drag and drop new formats in this joint.
In the end: you’ll have a blast.
THE MERCH, THE GEAR
Padel is not a cheap game to play. It’s not basket. It’s not football. Its origins are, allegedly, semi-posh.
So, if you’re Portuguese, you will not be into it if you’re thing is usually football, snooker, videogaming, I dunno, more ‘pub-friendly’ sports and the more commercial choices.
I mean, I love to watch hockey and F1 but I don’t run for the hills to Autódromo do Estoril (now Portimão) or never have I rollerskated on the floor to chase that useless Oreo.
What I mean is, the standard padel match, 4 dudes or 4 girls, will cost you an average of €7–8, maybe more.
Some clubs are more expensive than others.
Outdoor joints like CiT Padel, UrbanFut5, Padel Lombos, Padel Quinta da Moura, will be your smartest moves, value for money, hands down.
Other complexes like ABC Padel, CNG, I dunno, more modern huts are more greedy when going through your pockets.
Merch? I don’t buy anything related to padel except for the balls and the mandatory racquet.
Gear? Two ridiculous Artengo kicks, with no traction whatsoever. I’ve come 2nd in a tournament wearing a pair of Stan Smiths, so there… just don’t play it barefoot or you’ll be crying for mamma.
Standard noob racquets? Go for BullPadel. Nox. Cork is not so bad, they’re telling me… 150/200EURs. So… yeah.
EVEN SO
Padel can be expensive but it’s very, very, very fun.
It’s also physically brutal as it is amazing to play. You can be trading blasts for 5mins. Like… I’m no partner for that. When I see the chance, I take it. No coach can ever correct me, polish me, tell me to calm down. I’m not a calm person. I will never be a robotic padel player. Don’t ask me too…
So, ‘data’ shows us padel is growing like hell.
I’m not sentencing you to ‘5 years in Padel Factory’, asap.
I just wanted you to know that padel is… the real deal when you wanna have some fun and, ye know, ‘sink some pints and eat some chips’.
Back to scotc, oops, back to the court please! Now play!
