Jean Galea - Student of Life

May 26 2017 Leave a Comment

Facing Our Fears

Here’s a great lesson on facing fears, from the legendary Will Smith. He talks about the strong fear he faced the night before going skydiving and all throughout the run up to the actual jump.

As soon as he’s pushed off the plane he realizes that it’s the most blissful experience of his life. There is zero fear, the point of maximum danger is the point of minimum fear.

The best things in life are on the other side of terror or maximum fear. I’ve found this to be so true in my life, but Will illustrates the point in the best way in this video.

So what’s the fear that is currently holding you back from achieving your next breakthrough?

Spend a few minutes thinking about that, then take action!

May 23 2017 2 Comments

The Tony Robbins Morning Priming Exercise

Here’s a textual description of the Tony Robbins morning priming technique. Tony uses this technique every morning and I’ve been trying it out myself for the last few weeks. It’s truly powerful.

There are three parts of three minutes each in this priming exercise.

Phase 1 – Breathing

Tony uses an adaptation of Kapalabhati Pranayama for his breathing exercise.

Get in a comfortable, seated, position. Close your eyes.
With your arms raised above your head, breathe deeply through your nose.
Lower your arms and blow out through your nose as your arms are coming down.
Repeat for 30 breaths.
Rest for 10 seconds. Feel your body and any sensations.
Repeat the set for 3 times.

Phase 2 – Gratitude

Put your hands on your heart and feel it beating.
Breathe in and feel the blood rushing through your body.
Think of 3 moments or people that you can feel deeply grateful for. Feel what you felt and see what you saw, make it real.

Phase 3 – Goal setting

Focus on three important goals that you have for the next day, month or year. He calls it Three to thrive.

Will you try it out? Let me know how it goes!

May 11 2017 Leave a Comment

The Magic of Three Goals

I’ve written about the shiny object syndrome and trying to do too many things before, but today I’d like to add one more realization, which I call the magic of three goals.

Basically, it means that the ideal number of goals or tasks per timeframe is three. For example, when playing a padel match, I usually think about all the improvements I am going to apply to my game in this particular match. In the past, I never thought about setting any limits. I eventually realized that it was impossible to apply a dozen improvements all in one match. More likely, I would end up too overwhelmed and just defaulting back to my usual game. When I started to limit myself to three particular improvements it became much more achievable and manageable.

The same applies to team meetings. Before we start a meeting, we set three objectives at a maximum. That way at the end of the meeting we can review our meeting and hopefully see that we completed our big three goals. Of course, there usually are more than three things on the agenda, which is great, but it’s important to select a maximum of three big ones. That way we are setting ourselves up for success rather than failure.

Having too many goals for one session, be it sports, a meeting, or even a workday, sets you up for failure and frustration. Set three goals and focus on achieving them.

May 10 2017 Leave a Comment

Best Padel Clubs & Courts in Barcelona

Do you want to play padel but have no idea where the best courts and clubs are? This is exactly why I have prepared this article. It will give you several options all over Barcelona, be it in the city center or the surrounding towns.

Barcelona Center

Here you’ll find the name of the padel sports center and the area (click here for a PDF showing all the barrios in Barcelona) they are in.

Putxet Sport – San Gervasi

Putxet Sport is a comprehensive fitness club that offers 2 recently built padel courts plus personal and group tuition. This is where I currently train and play most of the time.

Indoor Padel – Sant Marti

The only indoor padel courts in the center of Barcelona. Group and individual training are available at economical prices. I train here regularly.

Artós Sports Club – Sarrià

They offer private coaching as well as group lessons. Padel courts can be reserved online.

MB Padel – Zona Franca

A very nice outdoor padel club, they have daily matches via Whatsapp, and the courts are well maintained. I pretty much play here every Sunday with the Barcelona Padel Meetup group.

Valldaura Sport – Nou Barris

Three padel courts await you at Valldaura Sport.

Centro Municipal de Tenis Vall d’Hebrón – Vall d’Hebrón

This club hosted the tennis finals at the Barcelona olympics in 1992. There are 6 padel courts.

Club Natación de Barcelona – Barceloneta

Play padel on the beach (or almost) at Club Natacion de Barcelona.

Club Natacio Catalunya – La Salut

Three padel courts.

CEM Espanya Industrial – Sants

This club is located near Sants station and has two padel courts (brick walls) that are quite cheap.

Fairplay Pádel Club – Les Corts

A very good club that also organises regular tournaments. There are 8 padel courts and a nice chillout area.

Club Esportiu Laietà – Les Corts

Eleven padel courts.

Pádel Blau – Sarrià

Four padel courts with a blue surface, which is where the name comes from. Economical prices.

Ciutat Esportiva Vall d’Hebrón – Vall d’Hebrón

Two good padel courts and a Whatsapp group to register to matches during the whole week.

Pádel Barcelona El Prat – El Prat

There are 14 padel courts at this big club. What I love is that if you pay 39 euro per month you can play as much as you want in the mornings with no fee per session.

David Lloyd Barcelona – Les Corts

This is a really nice club with top facilities all over. You can check out their tournaments on the Facebook page.

Bonasport – San Gervasi

Bonasport has 8 padel courts, although they’re quite old and have stone walls rather than glass

Sant Just Desvern

Sant Just Padel Club

A very modern club with 15 courts.

Llobregat

WOW Padel Indoor

A very nice and new indoor padel club with 7 padel courts.

Star’s Padel

This is where world champion Fernando Belasteguin trains, so I don’t need to tell you that the facilities are top notch. There are 14 padel courts.

Village Padel Club

Village Padel club has 8 high quality padel courts. They organize regular tournaments and have their own leagues. Check out their Facebook page for the latest news.

Padel Indoor L’Hospitalet

Six indoor padel courts.

Castelldefels

Club de Tennis Andrew Gimeno

They organize internal leagues and have 11 padel courts. They also have loads of tennis courts and a pool and gym.

Viladecans

Red Indoor

Seven professional high quality indoor tennis courts.

Gavá

Padelarium Gavà

An indoor padel club.

Padel Indoor Gavà

Eight indoor padel courts.

Sant Joan Despi

CT El Moli

Two padel courts.

Tennis Sant Joan Despi

Nine courts.

Teià

Club Tennis Barcelona Teià

This club has 6 padel courts.

Badalona

Padel Indoor Badalona

Six indoor padel courts.

Terrassa

Terrassa Club Padel

Ten indoor padel courts, including 1 beach tennis court.

Montgat

Padel Montgat

A very nice club that is situated close to the sea, there are 4 padel courts.

Premià de Dalt

Club de Tenis de Premià de Dalt

This club is located around 20km away from Barcelona. There are 4 padel courts and private classes with Guillermo Casal, a WPT player.

Vilassar de Dalt

Vila Sport Club

A new club that is still under construction.

Vilanova del Valles

Vilanova Indoor Padel

6 indoor padel courts.

Vilanova i la Geltrú

Club Padel Vilanova

8 padel courts.

Have I missed out on any other padel courts/clubs? Let me know and I’ll add them.

May 04 2017 Leave a Comment

Best Amateur Padel Tournaments in Barcelona

Padel is not just for the pros, in fact, one of the best things about the sport is that anyone of any level and age can have a great time and even take part in competitions.

There are competitions being held all over the major cities in Spain, and now also internationally. In this article, I’ll mention the best ones I know of in Barcelona, and also some of the international ones.

Catalunya – Barcelona Padel Tour

The most well-organized tournament in Barcelona is probably Barcelona Padel Tour. Founded by Eddie Jackson Tingström, they organize one tournament per month.

You are guaranteed 2 matches once you register for a tournament, and you play 3 sets in each match. If you lose the first match, the second match will be in the consolación category and that is played with a super tie-break format. After the first two sets, if there isn’t a winner, super tie-break will take place. This means that the first team that reaches 10 points, with a difference of 2 points, will be adjudicated the third set.

For the first match, new Bullpadel balls are used. This is important as balls degrade very rapidly in padel and tennis, so you want to have the best balls that have a good bounce.

You can win good prizes like padel bags, padel racquets and of course Spanish jamón.

They also have an online shop where you can buy lots of padel goods, except for racquets. As from 2017 they also have a brick-and-mortar shop in Barcelona that’s located within the Red Indoor club in Viladecans.

For the latest news check out the Barcelona Padel Tour Facebook page.

Catalunya – Publi Dep

Publi Dep organize the Circuito de padel Amateur Adeslas SegurCaixa, which includes 10 tournaments in Catalunya per year. There are more than 2,500 participants.

International – International Padel

International Padel organize amateur padel tournaments all over the world, and are a great example of sports tourism within the padel niche.

Of course, local padel clubs in Barcelona and surrounding areas also organize their own tournaments. Some of them are weekend tournaments while others are year long tournaments or just one week tournaments.

Finally, ligasdepadelbarcelona.com is another good site for finding out about leagues in Barcelona and past results.

Have I missed out on any important amateur padel tournaments? Let me know and I’ll add them to this post.