Padel warm-up

Are you also one of those who comes to the club right away and gets directly on the track? Or are you the one who wants to finish the warm-up quickly to start the game as soon as possible? If you are one of this type of player, just report that sooner or later the body will take its toll on you.

In the world of paddle tennis it is very common not to warm up, to enter the court on time and start with a long-distance rally, two or three volleys and a smash with all your might. After this "warm-up" the typical "I'm here, how are you doing?" is heard, this fact on many occasions greatly speeds up the warm-up of the rest of the participants in the game. These attitudes generate injuries in the middle of the match such as pulls, contractures, broken fibers... You may be lucky and not suffer any injury at that moment, but the next day your body will recriminate you (heaviness, stiffness...).

Experts always recommend warming up for a period of time between 15-20 minutes. During this time we have to get our body to assimilate that it is going to practice sports and thus prepare the muscles.

Apart from improving your physical activation and thus preventing injuries, a good warm-up will put you in game mode. You will enter the game much more concentrated, from the first ball you will be able to appreciate how your body responds and you will feel more comfortable. This can make you gain an advantage in the first games that can later tip the balance on your side.

A good warm-up would consist of :

1. An off-court activation, while players finish the previous game. A jog on the spot, side steps, some jumping, neck movements, arm movements (forwards, backwards and opening and closing)... All this activation must be very light, with few repetitions; It is not intended to break a sweat but to alert and activate the body that it is going to practice sports. (If you have arrived at the club in time, it is recommended to stretch off the track. Stretching quadriceps, calves, groin muscles, forearms, triceps, biceps...)
2. Once we get on the court, there is no need to be in a hurry to touch the ball. If you haven't had time to stretch off the track, stretch when you enter it. At the same time we continue to move the joints (elbow, shoulder, knee). Once we are clear that our body is ready, we start the rally.
3. The rally should not consist of knitting or seeing who hits it harder, but should be a warm-up so that your body comes into contact with the impact of the ball. In this initial rally we will also analyze the court, if there is humidity, see the type of carpet and see the type of rebound offered by the wall / wall.
4. Once we have finished the long-distance rally and analyzed the track, we will prepare to go up to the volley. As mentioned above, you should not seek to make a point or make your opponent run, but instead try to get your body used to a shorter and more direct impact with the ball.
5. Once we have finished in the volley we will ask for a balloon to be thrown at us to make a tray, and prepare for the game. If the balloon is not good, we should not make a great effort since even our body is not at 100%.
6. Once we have finished a series of trays, we will ask him to leave us a series of short balloons to perform a smash. It is always recommended that the first smash not be hit with all the force, but everyone knows their body and knows when it is ready to demand a harder impact.
7. Once we have finished these steps, the coaches recommend leaving the track, drying the sweat and drinking a little water. In this way we will be prepared to face a great game.

A warm-up is as important as post-match recovery. Before entering the shower it is very important to stretch all the muscles again, since in this way we will relax them and they will not give us problems the next day. Having played a game of more or less an hour, a large amount of fluid will have been lost, so it is important to re-hydrate well. We don't have to wait when we get out of the shower or when we get home to drink water or the isotonic. In this way the body does not lose fluid and does not get used to such low levels.

It doesn't always heat up as one wishes:

• The typical one who is believed to be playing in the warm-up:

• The one who believes Juan Martin Díaz :

• The latecomer:

• The one who arrives and greets the whole club while warming up:

The player who enters the court, already greeting those next to him, stops to talk to them and other things. This player is harmed because he doesn't warm up well, but at the same time he is interrupting yours since he is more concerned with greeting the whole club than warming up with you.

Opponent analysis:

Analyzing the rival is a double-edged sword, since in a certain way you can see the weak and strong points of the rival. Otherwise the rival can see yours or warm up in a way that makes you think that he doesn't even know how to hold the racket and once in the first set everything changes.

We can play this card in our favor to gain an advantage. We must appreciate the rival well, where it fails, where it costs him, or if he is hiding a blow. If when we ask him to throw us a lob he doesn't know how to shoot it, or when he has to go off the backhand wall he can't pass any, we must focus the game on those aspects. It is important to discuss it with our partner so that he can tell us what he has appreciated about his parallel and to be able to gain an advantage in the first games.

It should be mentioned that we are also going to suffer from this strategy and we have to be prepared to get out of it. It is as legitimate to do it as to have it done to you and you have to be physically prepared to face it.

In general, the important thing about warming up is warming up and in the background the analysis of the opponents.

Look at it practically: