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.

Players of different levels look for different kinds of tournaments, so the first thing you should do is consider your level and experience in competitive padel. Click here to find out your padel skill level.

If you’ve just started playing and don’t know many people who play padel, I would suggest you don’t play any tournaments and start looking for Americanas. These are events where you have 20-40 people and you get to change partners every match, so you can go alone and get to meet many people. Some of them give prizes for winners but mostly they are just for getting to know people, having fun and gaining experience. If you’re single, this might also be a great place to meet a guy or girl who shares your padel passion 😉 Participation in Americanas is quite close to 50/50 in terms of male and female most of the time.

Once you’ve got several Americanas under your belt, have found one or two partners that gel well with you and are ready to take things to the next level, you should start looking at tournaments.

Not all tournaments are of the same quality, but there are a few leading ones that we can mention. Here are some of the things I look out for when selecting amateur padel tournaments:

• Clubs where they’re played
• Type of prizes
• Duration of matches
• Whether they have a ranking system

You want to find tournaments that are played in the top clubs that have great facilities. Not all padel courts are the same, and some, unfortunately, are really bad in terms of bounce uniformity, amount of sand and its distribution, as well as the quality of the glass walls and fence. Maintenance can be an issue as well, and I’ve seen nets that are not of regulatory height due to not being maintained at the right tension, just to mention one example.

Next, you want to look at prizes, especially if you think you have a good chance of winning. Many tournaments only give the prizes that their sponsors give them for free, and this typically means padel rackets and bags. Now, any player who has been playing for a while will already have bought a good racket and bag, so these prizes tend to be useless, and you’ll end up reselling them at a much lower value on sites like Wallapop the day after. So I very much prefer monetary prizes, although this is still quite rare in Spain at an amateur level. I have noted that it is much more common in other countries like Germany or Sweden, so hopefully we’ll get such prizes at some point here in Spain too.

As for duration of matches, many tournaments let you play 30 minute matches or matches up to 9 games, which for me isn’t enough to really get a feel for the match, analyze the opponent, and really impose your tactics and game. It becomes much more random, and when I’m paying money to enter a tournament, I want to have a fair chance of winning.

Finally, I prefer amateur tournaments which are formatted in a circuit fashion just like World Padel Tour. That means that in January they will announce all the dates for that year’s tournaments and the locations, so you can plan your attendance in as many of those tournaments as possible. In each every tournament, depending on your performance, you will get a number of points, and those points will be used to generate the season’s rankings. You can then measure yourself over a whole season just like in the World Padel Tour.

Catalunya – Barcelona Padel Tour

The most well-organized tournament in Barcelona is probably Barcelona Padel Tour. Founded by Eddie Jackson Tingström, they organize the Vueling Cup in which each tournament runs over the course of an entire week, and the Nacex Express Tour which are played over weekends.

You are guaranteed 2 matches once you register for a Vueling Cup 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 – Publidep

Publidep organize the Circuito de padel Amateur Adeslas SegurCaixa, which includes 10 tournaments in Catalunya per year. There are more than 2,500 participants and it is widely considered as the best amateur padel circuit in the region. It’s the one that ex-Barcelona FC star and now padel player Carles Puyol chooses to participate in, and it’s definitely one of my own favorites.

Catalunya – Circuito Padel Adeslas

Publidep and Adeslas used to be one tour, but as from this year they are separate. I expect both to maintain their high standards, making them the two top tours in Barcelona and probably all over Catalunya.

I also expect Carles Puyol to continue his padel metamorphosis in this tour.

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. I’ve participated in several of their tournaments. They’re great to combine with a trip outside of your country, but the level tends to vary widely depending on the location of the tournament. Expect much higher levels in Spanish cities compared to other cities in countries where padel is still a very minor sport.

Others

Circuito GAES – Another good circuit outside Barcelona, this time to the south of the city.

VisaVis Padel Tour – circuit that is played outside of Barcelona, a good option if you’re not from the city.

Padel Master Barcelona – organized in the Maresme area.

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.

You could also join leagues spread over a few months such as Ligas de Padel Barcelona or Padelcat. Another growing league is the Series Nacionales de Padel which is played all over Spain.

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.

As I continue to immerse myself in padel and strive to improve every year, I’ve taken it upon myself to really learn how the human body works, especially in relation to exercise and sport.

These are the best resources I’ve found to help me along this journey:

• Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance
• Exercise Physiology: Nutrition, Energy, and Human Performance
• Physiology of Sport and Exercise
• Advanced Strength and Conditioning for Tennis
• Strength Training Anatomy
• Coursera course: Science of Exercise
• Coursera course: Introductory Human Physiology

Do you have any other resources to recommend? Let me know in the comments section.

Whenever you are practicing any sport in a serious manner, it’s important to undergo a medical test to make sure you don’t have any conditions that can endanger your health while practicing that sport.

Practicing a sport seriously usually necessitates pushing yourself to the max in order to improve your thresholds for power, resistance etc and thus make improvements to your overall performance. Having an underlying deficiency means you would be putting yourself at risk as that high stress can trigger a failure in that weak aspect of your body.

Sadly, we’ve seen many athletes over the years collapse and sometimes die while practicing their sport, and some of those incidents could have been avoided by better testing of the athlete and detection of underlying problems (usually related to their heart).

To keep on the safe side, I like to undergo a medical sports stress test at the start of every year so that I can set my mind at rest and also understand which areas I need to improve in.

My favorite test center is the following:

• Cipsa

Sanitas also offers some of these tests, you can find more info here. They have a Sport Medicine Unit in our Millennium Centro Medico Iradier. You need to contact them at 932 55 46 00 to have all details about the sport tests.

Here’s a good article about stress testing in sports.

I use jump rope training to improve my fitness and agility for padel.

A year ago I couldn’t even jump more than 5 skips and I did ridiculously huge jumps, which is normal for a beginner. I now can do the basic technique around 50x times continuously with no mistake. Unfortunately, it took me a while till I found a jump rope I liked, and I was also trying lots of other new things and ended up dedicating much less time than I wanted to this activity.

It’s important to get the rope sizing right before you start, so watch this video first:

Here are some videos of skipping rope techniques:

Here’s the plan to follow if you want to begin with jumping rope:

Basic Jump Rope Proficiency

Bounce Step

This is the basic step for jumping rope that you’ve undoubtedly seen performed multiple times. Bounce only once per swing of the rope and make sure you’re only lifting your feet just enough for the rope to pass under them.

Alternate Foot Step

Begin by balancing weight on one foot, swing rope around and jump with opposite foot then alternate feet as if running in place. Make sure you don’t kick backwards or you’ll get tangled in the rope. Count only the right foot and multiply by 2 to get the total number of jumps.

Once you can do 140 jumps of each of these aforementioned techniques without error or fatigue, you’ll have achieved a basic jump rope proficiency.

Make sure you can do these two skills at different speeds and switch between them by doing 4 jumps of each before switching. You should be able to do 500 consecutive jumps while alternating these two techniques.

Intermediate Jump Rope Skills

High Step

Begin with the alternate foot step and lift your knee to the waist level and keep alternating your feet while keeping your back straight and landing on the balls of your feet.

Side Straddle

Start with the bounce step technique and spread your feet to shoulder width and back to original position.

Forward Straddle

Start with the bounce step stance and shift the right foot forward while the left foot shift back and vice versa to continue the exercise.

Skier’s Jump

Start with the bounce step stance, keep feet together and jump a few centimeters right on the first rope swing and to the left on the second rope swing and keep up this rhythm. It should resemble a ski slalom.

Bell Jump

Keep your feet together and jump a few inches forward and then backward. The movement should resemble the action of a bell clapper.

Half Twister

Twist the lower half of your body so that the toes land pointing 45 degrees to the right, then forward on the second jump and 45 degrees to the left on the third jump, then reverse.

Full Twister

Same as half twister but with no middle jump.

X-Foot Cross

Cross your feet under the rope.

Forward Shuffle

Made famous by Mohammad Ali, shift the right foot forward on the first jump and the left on the second jump with the knee extended.

Backward Shuffle

Low backward kicking motion like jogging on the spot.

Heel to Toe

Start with the bounce step, on the first jump hop on the right foot and touch the left heel to the floor in front of you, on the second jump hop on your right foot again touching your left toe to the floor next to your right foot, repeat on the opposite side.

Backward Jumping

Reverse the bounce step by looping the rope in the opposite direction. Remember to pull your shoulders backwards.

Arm Crossover

Start from the basic bounce stance. On the first jump swing the rope around and cross your arms at waist level while your feet jump over the rope. After the rope has passed under your feet on the first jump extend your arms to the sides of your body to uncross as if you’re executing the bounce step creating a wide loop to jump through on the second jump. The feet should be doing a jogging motion as in the alternate foot step.

I’ll continue with the intermediate level jump rope skills once I get to them and update this post.

This is a good shop for buying skipping ropes in Europe. In the USA they are really popular. If you want something basic, check out Amazon or Aliexpress.

When you’re training hard and competing regularly in padel tournaments, you need to make sure that you are also taking care of your body’s nutritional needs. You want to make sure that you have enough energy to cover all your expenditure during training and playing, as well as taking in enough protein for muscles to repair themselves and grow if needed to adjust to higher demands.

Here’s what I recommend.

Protein Shake

I take a daily protein shake to help cover my protein needs. This can be taken right after your training session or padel match. After such hard exercise, your muscles will have many micro tears that need to be repaired, and protein is what your body needs to be able to do so.

Optimum Nutrition is the number one brand for protein shakes. I’ve tried their Vanilla, Cookies & Cream and Double Chocolate flavors. Double Chocolate is my favorite, and Vanilla is also pretty decent if you want to keep it plain. I wasn’t a big fan of the Cookies & Cream flavor, although it’s bearable. Some flavors work well with milk and water, while others are only tasty if combined with milk. Double Chocolate tastes great either way.

I buy the 2.2kg tub which serves me for around 2.5 months.

Here in Spain, I buy my shakes from one of these two shops, depending on which one of them has the best pricing at that point in time:

• Bulevip
• MasMusculo

Amazon also carries most variations of this protein shake, but the other two shops tend to have better pricing and occasional freebies.

Fruit

I know these are not really considered supplements, but it’s important to mention them as they are some of the major sources of fuel during intense activity like long padel matches. Bananas are my favorite food during matches together with dates.

BCAAs

I use BCAA powder to mix in with my water during intense workouts. While I haven’t found obvious evidence about this, my friend Andrew from MirrorFriendly recommends taking BCAAs, so I am currently doing so. The idea is that they protect your muscles from breaking down during intense activity.

Vitamins

I’ve experimented with vitamins over the years but have never found any obvious results due to their intake. The scientific opinion these days seems to be that unless you have major nutritional deficits you should be able to obtain all the vitamins you need from your feed and some daily exposure to sun. I do regular bloodwork to make sure that all my levels are good. A good doctor will easily identify any issues there and suggest which supplements to take, if any.

What supplements have worked for you? I’m curious to know, just leave a comment below.