Padel tennis is booming. But if you want to be successful on the court, you need more than just good shot technique – the chemistry in the doubles pairing is the real key to victory.
Padel tennis combines dynamism, fast rallies and plenty of fun. Anyone venturing into this trend sport quickly realises: you are never alone in the glass cage. Since it is always played in doubles, success and failure depend crucially on the interaction with your partner. Sports science research and experience from professional sport show that the psychological component and mutual coordination are often more important than the perfect smash.
According to sports psychologist Patrick Collins, whose findings were published in the specialist portal The Padel Paper, your partner's reaction after a mistake is the decisive moment in the game. An eye roll or a sigh after a missed ball can ruin the performance of the entire team. Collins points to sports psychological meta-analyses (including by Carron et al.) which prove that cohesion in a shared task – so-called task cohesion – is closely linked to sporting success. You do not have to be friends off the court, but under pressure you must act as a functioning unit.
Supportive and instructive communication between rallies is proven to help keep performance stable. A partner who has a calming influence after a bad start and gives tactical instructions is more valuable for success than pure motivational shouts.
How important well-rehearsed routines are is also evident on the professional Premier Padel Tour. According to reports by Padel Magazine (FR), there is a clear trend there: many pros are returning to their former partners. Prominent duos such as Paquito Navarro and Martín Di Nenno or Javi Leal and Fran Guerrero quickly celebrated success again after their reunion.
The reason for this is purely rational: you save the weeks you would normally need to get to know the movement patterns and quirks of a new partner. You know immediately what the other person can do – and what they cannot. Leal and Guerrero, for example, who have been playing together since they were nine years old, use their blind trust on the court perfectly to challenge even the absolute world elite.
If you want to try padel tennis or improve your game, you can derive concrete tactics from these insights of pros and experts:
Your takeaway: Actively support your partner after mistakes – mutual chemistry and well-rehearsed movement patterns will win you more points in padel than any risky winning shot.
This article was generated automatically with AI from the sources listed above and has not been editorially reviewed.