This is the most recurring and most “secret” question in the game of padel. In the sense that it is never discussed as thoroughly as it should be, probably because it touches on very personal components. But the problem is: how do you choose your playing partner?
Let’s start with the fact that it can be a complicated relationship because of the factors of play and needs, let’s also say that when you’re just starting out it’s normal to be bewildered and it’s absolutely normal to try the game with several different teammates, even taking into account that you can’t always find them free when you want to. This is at least in the beginning.
I can say that at this early stage I always recommend trying to play with different teammates, because everyone gives something different in their game, because everyone is different in vision, tactics, or strength. As you try more teammates you understand what you want or who you are.
As time goes by, and experience, you start to see certain things better, based also on your style of play. So certain teammates you find because they have technical values that are adherent or complementary to you, and this results in a well-homogeneous total game, while others you find because of strength, because you perhaps need to compensate or attack especially with incisive decisiveness. I do not think this is the case with me, because of the “strength” issue, as I prefer a more tactical and calculated total game, without overdoing it with strong shots.
So, first rule: completeness. Look for what the other can give you to complete the game, that thing that maybe you cannot give but the other gives it, combining, however, with your advantages.
Second rule: the good relationship off the field. Let it be “nice” for you, with you.
It sounds trivial, but it is not. Think about it for a moment: try to imagine off the field if you related to an obnoxious or totally haughty person on every issue, even over a dinner on the fly, or a seat on an airplane, and with the same heaviness then you would have to relate to them just to “not agree with them”: that’s the end of harmony.
These are the first two basic rules that lay the foundation for wholeness, which you cannot guess at first, but you get there by getting to know yourself technically and privately. Things that you understand well in the first few tournaments, I assure you, as well as the fact that you will relate to them several times during the week, even for other matters.
Good. To these two principles you add or have to reach the third, fundamental and cement of it all: alchemy. What is it? It is that thing that doesn’t happen to everyone but you find it in the rarity of certain couples (it sounds like I’m talking to you about marriages, no: it’s worse here) and it is that thing that happens in the field without the use of words, but just immediate and distant glances, indeed even making the shoulders talk when you can’t see it from the face. That is, it is that thing that is the ultimate attunement. Pure alchemy, precisely.
Because you live padel the same way, in the same vibe, in the same wavelength, and it really goes beyond the first two rules said.
Alchemy on and off the court, of course.
And how do you find it? It will happen if you experiment. It will happen one day that you find yourself.
You feel it in tournaments or matches, that’s the secret that starts the couple and the confidence and the awareness throughout the year in various tournaments, in various competitions, and especially in very difficult matches, in complicated moments, or when you’re under scoring and you have to manage everything: thanks to the alchemy you will come out of it.
Once you achieve these three points you will be a missile-proof pair, and they will know it even before you put your foot on the court. You will be a fortress from afar.
Completeness, sympathy, alchemy: the three unspoken rules.