If you want to improve at padel, the best way to do so is to get a private padel coach and have regular lessons, play as many matches as you can and also make sure you are at peak fitness. However, when we’re not training and resting our bodies, we can still continue improving at padel by watching matches and tutorials on YouTube.

Here are the best YouTube and Vimeo padel tutorial channels:

Rafa Galvez Padel

Rafa Galvez is a padel coach with many years of experience. He started off as a tennis coach and later moved on to padel. He has some excellent video analysis of WPT matches, as well as a very nice collection of fitness for padel videos.

Manu Martin – Mejora Tu Padel

Probably the hottest padel channel at the moment, Manu combines padel tips with shots from his life and that makes it very interesting. Manu is the coach of the popular Alejandra Salazar and also Gaby Reca.

Paquito Navarro – DaleCandelaTV

Paquito Navarro needs no introduction, he is currently the no.1 ranked Spanish player in the World Padel Tour. He’s also a very friendly and funny person, and this character shines through in his padel videos. In every video he teaches us a new shot. I find these videos to be really entertaining and great if you want to learn how to hit the ball from a padel champion.

Rodrigo Ovide – Herbalife Padel Tutorials

Herbalife is one of the main sponsors of World Padel Tour and they have created a series of videos explaining the main padel shots. Rodrigo Ovide, one of the most well known padel coaches, is the one who explains the technique in these videos.

Miguel Sciorilli – Arena Entrena Padel

Miguel Sciorilli is another very well known coach, he was the trainer of padel number one Fernando Belasteguin for many years.

Hugo Cases

Another padel coach that has created a series of good videos to learn the basics in his YouTube channel.

Mauri Andrini – Hello Padel

Mauri Andrini teaches us the basic steps and positions in padel. The best thing about these videos is that they are in English and are very well produced.

Padel Trainer

This is probably the best padel channel in the English language. They also sell a padel course on Vimeo, so make sure you check this channel out if you don’t understand Spanish.

I also found this hour long padel theory talk which is very interesting too, and again it’s from the Padel Trainer guys and presented in English.

Unfortunately most padel YouTube tutorial videos are in Spanish, so you’re out of luck if you can’t understand a word. On the other hand, it’s a great incentive for you to learn Spanish, which is a very useful language to know. As we have also seen, there are also some new channels that teach padel in English, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing more channels in English as padel continues to expand throughout Europe and the United States.

Do you have any other favourite padel channels that I missed? Let me know in the comments section.

The grip of a padel racket is very important part of our padel equipment collection for obvious reasons. Having a bad grip can cause us to lose the feel of the racket or have it move around too much in our hands while hitting shots.

A good grip has the following characteristics:

• Comfortable fit according to the size of your hand and personal preference.
• Absorbs shocks when hitting the ball.
• Absorbs sweat well.

The best grips are the white ones. Many people prefer the colored ones as they might match the racket’s color scheme better, however you should know that since the non-white grips are injected with ink, they lose some of their porosity and hence they don’t absorb sweat that well. The end result will be more slipping of the grip causing a lack of confidence with your racket and more mistaken shots.

There are two types of grips: the grip and the overgrip. The undergrip has a sticky side and every racket comes with one installed. Most players just add overgrips over the undergrips to suit their palm size. Some players prefer to change the undergrip itself and install one they like better. A famous example is Paquito Navarro who only uses the undergrip on his racket, without any overgrip.

Other players can add up to 5 overgrips, especially if they are battling injuries such as tennis elbow. Each overgrip reduces vibrations a bit more, so it will help players that have this issue. However each overgrip also lessens the feeling that you have with the racket, so you need to balance the pros and cons and see what you like best. I can tell you from experience that even having one extra grip can alter your play negatively in a significant way as you won’t feel as confident hitting the ball, resulting in many more mistakes. I tend to use a grip with two thin overgrips or one thin and one thick overgrip. I have quite a big hand. The general rule is that when you wrap your fingers around the handle there should be extra space to fit a finger between the top fingers and the bottom of your palm. Of course, this is just a general rule; use whatever you feel most comfortable with.

Let’s take a look at some videos on how to install grips.

First up is this video from Paddelea showing the most common way of installing overgrips:

Second up is Mati Diaz, who installs his grip in a peculiar way. He installs it the other way round to the most common way of installing it:

Next up is Paquito Navarro, who, as mentioned earlier, removes his undergrip and replaces it with one of his preference. He does not add any overgrip as he prefers having maximum feel of the racket’s handle.

Grips typically cost between one and four euro, and the professionals tend to change grips every game. Amateurs can change it every few games, depending on how much their palms sweat. You can also buy gels or powders to reduce sweating in your hands and does prolong the life of your grips.

Myself and Ole Muller, winners of Men’s B Category

During the past weekend I’ve had the chance to take part and play in the International Padel Experience tournament in Rotterdam.

Together with my partner Ole, I was really looking forward to my first experience playing and competing outside of Spain. Padel is the second most popular sport in Spain but it’s still in its early stages throughout the rest of Europe. I was therefore curious to see how the sport is picking up in the Netherlands.

We played at Padel club Victoria. They have 3 very nice padel courts and many players who converted to padel after playing other racket sports such as tennis and squash. It was very nice to chat with players from several countries and talk about their padel experience. I think in the coming years we will be seeing the definite explosion of this sport throughout Europe and many more new players.

Let’s get back to the IPE Rotterdam tournament, it was well organised. All the matches we had scheduled started on time and there was a very nice atmosphere at the club. Free beer was provided by sponsors Estrella Damm, although to be honest I would have preferred to have free water or at least a water fountain. We were lucky with the weather as it was hot and sunny during the whole three days, so it was very important to stay well hydrated while playing.

The tournament had four categories, Men A and B, Women, and Mixed. We took part in Men B, guided by the padel level guide available on the International Padel website. In reality we encountered players between levels 2 and 3.5 in this category, so there was quite a wide range. This led to some very easy matches against players who only started playing very recently. The final however was really hard and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We only managed to win at the very last moment after a super tense tie break that decided the match. After chatting with Luis from International Padel, I learned that every tournament is a bit different with regards to the players’ levels. For example, since padel is more established in countries like Spain and Portugal, the level is considerably higher. Luis therefore recommended that we stick to category B for our next tournament in Lisbon, Portugal.

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