Why I Love To Smash In Padel: A Coach’s Perspective
The smash is no doubt one of my favourite shots in Padel. Its powerful, looks cool and also helps you win points fast! From the satisfying noise of the ball being whacked off the sweet spot of your racket, to the strategic benefits that players can gain when deploying the smash effectively in a match, the smash is a shot we definitely want to practise. In this article I will be discussing the key pointers that have helped my students and I develop our smashing techniques.
1. Positioning Is Key
The smash starts with positioning:
Move Under The Ball Early: In my experience as a Padel Coach with Play! Padel, I have found that many beginners and even intermediate players, are often late when it comes to getting into the optimal position for the smash. Getting underneath the ball early will give us more opportunities to time our smash effectively. To get under the ball early with the correct stance, we need to turn our body and shuffle to the ball quickly. Many beginners make the mistake of standing still and watching the ball for too long. Once we see that ball being lobbed up into the sky we must be on the balls of our feet ready to get underneath the ball swiftly.
Stand Slightly Behind The Ideal Contact Point: After we have gotten under the ball, we want to ensure use small quick steps to make fine adjustments to our positioning. Getting slightly behind the ideal contact point will make it easier for us to throw our body momentum forward when executing the smash, thus creating devastating power on your smashes.
Keep Your Feet Shoulder-Width Apart: Adopting a shoulder-width stance will allow us to stay balanced and explosive. It is common for many recreational players to not use their legs effectively when smashing, adopting a narrow stance and keeping their feet planted to the ground. Your legs are your pillars of power, use them to your advantage in order to add that extra fire to your smash.
2. Racket Preparation
Throwing Motion Preparation: Bring your racket back high behind your head (like preparing for a throw). The overhead smash is similar to a throwing motion. One thing I teach my students is that they should learn to throw a ball far and high before mastering their overhead smash technique. The body mechanics that we use when throwing a ball should be similar to the ones we use whe executing an overhead smash in Padel. So if we are able to become strong in our throwing technique and incorporate it into our smashes, we will be able to see significant improvement in our overall smashing technique.
Point At The Ball: Pointing at the ball when its in the sky with your non-dominate hand will help you to keep balanced as well as aim at he ball more effectively. Think of your non-dominant hand as the crosshair and targeting system for your overhead smashes. It is common for beginners to not use their non-dominant hand effectively and have it tucked into their body while executing smashes and groundstrokes. So next time you’re on court, do make a conscious effort to use your non-dominant arm/hand to help with balance and tracking of the ball.
Keep Your Eyes On The Ball: This might sound obvious but you would be surprised to see many players take their eyes off the ball before striking it. A common tendency is to look at your opponents side right before hitting the smash, when instead, we should be zoned in the ball right up until contact. We should only take our eyes off the ball after it leaves our racket. This will help ensure that we strike the ball with maximum precision and accuracy.
3. Contact Point And Swing
● Hit At A High Contact Point: It is common for beginners to hit their overhead smashes at a low contact point. For the standard overhead smash we want to focus on contacting at the highest point possible so we can hit downwards on the ball more easily. However, for specialised smashes like the Vibora (attacking slice smash) or the Bandeja (defensive slice smash) a lower contact point is usually required.
● Loose Arm: The final concept for executing a strong overhead smash in Padel is having a loose arm. When we say loose arm, we refer to having a relaxed swing. If we are too tense in our body and arms, we will not be able to accelerate the racket as effectively in comparison when we are relaxed. Think of your arm as an elastic band on a slingshot, the more elasticity it has, the more power it can generate.
Mastering the overhead smash in Padel takes practice, but once you combine proper positioning, preparation, the contact point and maintaining a lose arm it becomes a key weapon to dominate at the net. Focus on control over power, reading the game, and shot variation to turn your smash into a consistent point-winner. Do stay tuned for more information on learning about this beautiful sport and I hope to see you on court soon!
