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Like many padel players during lockdown and sanitary restrictions, I missed padel, a little, a lot, madly.
Our legs were itching, our eyes regularly drifted towards our padel gear left in the hallway "just in case".
Sometimes small hops, like before a return, or an air swing to mime a forehand, for the more technical a bandeja gesture, or even a rotation with perfect timing.
Some, to keep visualising, even subscribed to the World Padel Tour YouTube channel.
In short, we missed padel like crazy.
For many of us, padel is of course leisure, a game with friends followed by drinks, but it's also the adrenaline of competition and tournaments. Whatever the tournament category, all that matters is concentration, tension, the joy of victory and the bitterness of defeat.
Only one detail tarnishes the picture, at least for me, a former tennis player and 40-something athlete, the tournament rhythm and back-to-back matches. Indeed, 3, 4 or 5 matches in a weekend is often tough to handle for most of us. This is confirmed by the number of times "I'm dead" was heard on the courts last weekend during our latest tournament...
With the first "Los Maestros", the +45 tournaments at Esprit Padel, and soon the +55s (tournament name TBD, your ideas are welcome); I thought it was time to share my "experience" to give you 4 tips on how to handle a weekend tournament AND still be able to walk on Monday morning.
Tip #1: Sleep, Hydration, Nutrition
Nothing revolutionary for this first tip. It simply consists in preparing and managing your body before a major effort, at least if you run on the court.
Sleep:
Sleep is the best way for the body to rest and perform at full capacity. So we avoid an all-nighter, have some light soup and get 8 to 10 hours of sleep.
The wake-up time is also important: for a 10 am match call, you need to wake up two hours before to allow for optimal muscle awakening.
Hydration:
Proper hydration during exercise is a particularly important aspect, and no, I'm not talking about the recovery beer.
This hydration is prepared before the competition by drinking regularly right from waking up.
During exercise, you need to start hydrating right from the start, and drink every 10–15 minutes maximum in small amounts of 2–3 sips. The volume of water should be at least 1 litre per hour of sport
If you're not disciplined, there's a cascade of consequences of varying severity:
- 1% less body water reduces muscle efficiency by 10%
- the feeling of fatigue appears quickly in case of dehydration
- the risk of muscle injuries increases rapidly, especially in the calves for padel players
To replace the mineral salts you lose during exertion, but also to get an energy boost during the effort—thanks to sugar—energy drinks can be a good idea, but be careful: they shouldn't be your only source of hydration! It is essential to carry a water bottle if you consume energy drinks and to drink both regularly.
Nutrition:
The subject of nutrition is extremely complex, and I'm not fully qualified to give you a perfect lecture. Still, here are a few points to guide you:
- Carbohydrates should be prioritised
- Protein helps muscles function, but lean protein should be preferred
- Fats should be limited
- Food must be chosen according to your intolerances (of course)
The goals are simple: have enough energy available throughout the entire effort (even interval-based), reduce recovery time, and improve recovery.
Tip #2: Warm-up, Stretching
Warm-up:
Ah, the warm-ups… Most of the time, our warm-ups come down to hitting a few balls directly on court, right before starting the match with all the intensity a padel match can involve…
That's not what you'd call a warm-up.
The purpose of a warm-up is to prepare your muscles, joints, ligaments and brain for the effort ahead.
Just like when you were a kid, the first movements involve mobilising all your joints: ankles, knees, hips, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck. You start from the bottom and work your way up to the head. Once loosened up, it's time to raise the temperature of the muscular engine. To do this, simply jog lightly, then string together movements: "heel to bum", "high knees", "grapevine / cross steps". To finish, if the club hosting the tournament offers it, 10 minutes on an exercise bike will complete the ideal warm-up. All that's left is to step onto the court and catch your opponents cold…
Stretching:
Contrary to what you might think, it is not recommended to stretch immediately after your match. On the contrary, existing micro-lesions can worsen! The endorphins produced during exercise can mask the pain from these injuries, and stretching could aggravate them! So be careful!
On the other hand, stretching well after the effort, for instance in the evening between the qualifying draw and the main draw, will provide a feeling of relaxation, but won't improve recovery. For that, nothing beats a nice cold shower to reduce inflammation caused by muscle micro-tears… other products I'll mention later will also help on this point.
Tip #3: Knowing your weaknesses, equipment to protect yourself
That's the advantage, and the drawback, of being over 40. We have weaknesses and we know them, well in principle.
Many have suffered more or less serious injuries: cruciate ligaments, menisci, recurring adductor or back injuries, arm pains (wrist, elbow, shoulder…). I won't list them endlessly, but these injuries are extremely varied and differ from one player to another, and often combine for our greatest enjoyment.
Knowing them means being able to act before they become unbearable. For example, all ligament issues are often less severe when you hydrate properly throughout your day, and I don't mean pints of beer, obviously! It doesn't cost much and it's very effective.
On Esprit Padel Shop, we've created a health and prevention section to guide you towards products that we have tested and approved. I'll let you have a look around to find the product that suits your needs. If what you're looking for isn't there, then it's essential to check out Yann Obitz's Sport-Protech.
Come on, let me jump in and give you the two products I find essential for playing padel, which help me avoid quite a bit of pain after matches.
The first, the most discreet and therefore the most widely accepted, is the cross compression shorts from McDavid. In short, its compression technology helps to support and stabilise your adductor muscles. It's equivalent to strapping applied by a sports physio. Essential to avoid minor (or major) pain during and after exercise!
The second product faces much more banter, as it is more visible but also a clearer sign of ageing, and yet! It's the CEP recovery socks. It sounds magical and yet it's real since I've tried them: these socks allow muscles to warm up faster, minimising the risk of injury. They also minimise post-effort muscle soreness, allowing you to play back-to-back matches from one day to the next—ideal during tournaments!
We see a growing recognition of the usefulness of these products, with an increasing presence during tournaments and especially, of course, during +45 tournaments (and soon +55s!).
Depending on your weak points, there are supports and guards for every part of the body, and I can only advise you not to worry about what people think, and protect yourself!
Tip #4: Equipment for recovery
I'm going to talk about gear, but the basis for recovering properly after a day of tournaments. A little trick I discovered not too long ago to avoid stiffness the next day (you never know, you might be in the quarter or semi-finals of your tournaments...), is BCAAs, I'll let you look it up on the web, we have them at the club. These are amino acids that our body cannot synthesise (Valine, Leucine and Isoleucine)
Keep in mind that taking them:
- reduces muscle breakdown,
- minimises the depletion of glycogen stores,
- reduces the phenomenon of "central nervous fatigue".
If some are reluctant to use pharmaceutical products, I recommend looking into all the massage equipment, from the simplest with Blackroll rollers to the most sophisticated like the Flowfeet foot massager, as well as the Flowgun massage gun; they all share the same goal: promote muscle relaxation, blood circulation and therefore drastically improve recovery. The other benefit is psychological: taking good care of your body does good to the mind and allows you to head back onto the courts refreshed for the rest of the tournament!
Nota Bene: feedback after two return tournaments
I've just re-read the article, and I confirm the value of each of my points.
However, it seems obvious to me that I forgot a very important part... physical preparation...
Given the state I was in after the first day of the first two tournaments, I know I'll have to work on my fitness a bit, and I fully intend to share my experience with you. But that will be in a future article where I'll cover what was put in place, and its effect on my performance...
See you soon!
Sébastien Cornet, Founder of Esprit Padel
