Nobody tells you this, but there’s a period in your padel development when playing more stops helping. You’re comfortable on court. You’re winning some, losing some. Your game hasn’t fallen apart – it’s just stopped moving forward. You’re 6, 9, 12 months in and you’ve hit a plateau.

The instinct is to book lessons. And that instinct isn’t wrong. But coaching at most UK clubs runs £40–70 per hour, it’s not always available, and – here’s the uncomfortable truth – an hour of coaching once a month rarely fixes a deeply ingrained habit. You walk away knowing what to do; the next match you go back to doing what you’ve always done.

There’s another way. It requires more self-awareness than just showing up and playing, but it works.

First, when lessons are worth it

This isn’t an anti-coaching piece. A good coach can compress years of trial and error into a few sessions. If you have access to one and can afford regular sessions, do it – especially early on.

The case for lessons is strongest when you’ve picked up a specific bad habit – a grip issue, a serve fault pattern – that you can’t diagnose yourself. One targeted session with a clear brief will outperform a general lesson every time.

But most of the time, most of us are just playing matches and hoping improvement happens by osmosis. It doesn’t. That’s the bit you can change for free.

Play deliberately, not just often

There’s a difference between playing and practising. Playing is two sets of matches twice a week and calling it done. Practising is playing with something specific in mind.

Deliberate practice in padel means picking one aspect of your game to focus on per session – not per week, per session – and actively trying to apply it during play. You might decide you’re going to work on your ready position between shots. Or close the net faster after a good lob. Or commit to the bandeja instead of trying to smash every lob for a winner.

You’ll forget about it the moment a ball comes at you hard. That’s fine. The goal is to fail faster, notice the failure, and reset. Each time you catch yourself reverting to the old habit, that’s a rep.

The mistake is trying to fix five things at once. Pick one. Play. Notice.

Film yourself – then watch it back

Almost nobody does this. Almost everybody should.

What you think you’re doing and what you’re doing are rarely the same. You think you’re positioned at the net, ready. The video shows you drifting back towards the service line every time there’s a lob. You think your lob is landing in the back third of the court. The video shows it’s landing short and catchable. You think you look like Ale Galán. You do not look like Ale Galán.

Filming is easy. Prop your phone against the back glass using a water bottle, landscape, wide enough to see the whole court. You don’t need more than 20 minutes of footage. You’re not broadcasting – you’re gathering data.

When you watch it back, look for three things: where you are when your opponents hit the ball (are you in the right position?), what happens to your feet before you hit (do you set up properly, or do you just swing?), and where your lobs and volleys are landing relative to where you intended.

You’ll spot one thing that surprises you. Work on that.

Two drills that don’t need a coach

You have a court, a partner, and 20 minutes before your match. Here’s what to do with it.

Lob and smash rotation. One pair at the net, one pair at the back. The back pair lobbing, the front pair smashing and resetting to the net. Rotate after 10 minutes. The goal isn’t smashing – it’s the rhythm: reading the lob early, setting your feet, choosing bandeja or smash based on height. Run it until it feels automatic.

Serve and advance. Server hits the serve, moves into the net immediately – not eventually, immediately. Most club players serve and hover near the service line, which is the worst place to be. This drill builds the habit of treating the serve as the start of a pattern, not a standalone shot.

Wall feed practice. Stand alone in a back corner, feed the ball to the side wall, and practise your back-glass return to the far cross-court target. Boring, yes. But this is where half of club-level points are decided.

Run any of these for 15 minutes before you play. You’ll feel the difference within a few sessions.

Watch the right people

Watching Premier Padel is useful for understanding what elite padel looks like. It is not particularly useful for understanding what to do about your own game.

The players you want to watch are the ones one or two levels above you at your club. Watch how they move between shots, how quickly they close the net, where they position themselves when their opponents are lobbing. These are transferable insights. Ale Galán’s forehand cross-court winner is not.

For video content, Deuce Padel and Street Padel Media produce instructional content at a useful club-player level. Premier Padel’s YouTube channel is good for watching bandeja/víbora selection under pressure. If your club posts league footage, watch it – it’s more useful than highlights from the world tour.

Fix one thing per session

This is the thing most players don’t do.

The temptation when you watch your game back, or when a better player gives you feedback, is to write a list. You end up with six things to work on and spend your next match paralysed, overthinking every shot.

Pick one. Write it on your phone before you walk on court. Check it at changeovers. At the end of the session, write one sentence about whether it worked.

After three or four sessions, you’ll start to see change. That’s the rate. It’s slower than a lesson, but it compounds.

Ask better players for a game

Most people who are better than you at your club are happy to be asked. The trick is not being annoying about it.

Don’t attach expectations. Don’t ask for feedback mid-match. Just ask if they’d be up for a social session sometime. Padel improvement happens by osmosis when you play against people who make you move faster and think faster. You’ll be dragged to a higher level whether or not you’re consciously trying.

The worst that happens is they say they’re booked up.

You’re not going to transform your game in a fortnight. But you won’t improve by just playing matches and hoping something changes. Deliberate focus, a bit of footage, a couple of drills, and one fix per session – that’s the whole method. It’s free.

The plateau isn’t a wall. It’s just where the game gets interesting. If you’re unsure whether you’re moving forward, how to know if you’re getting better at padel gives you five concrete signals to look for in your own game.