💬 Discussion 💬
How do people find padel partners?
Hi all, a new padel enthusiast here. Novice but I promise I didn't spend $250 on my first racket haha. So here is my question: the 4th player problem is killing my padel game. I keep getting a group going and then people disperse, maybe come back again but go away again. It's like herding cats right now.
I am part of the whatsapp group of my club and have tried the matching through playtomic, but I find the experience underwhelming. Playtomic open matches are fine too for a random hit but you never see the same people twice. And half the time the level description is way off. "Intermediate" apparently means anything from "started last month" to "ex-tennis coach".
So my question now is: how do you find people? Maybe I am missing something. I am techy so I am thinking to build this if noone else has done it. I want to get matched to people based on real, reliable feedback on personality, style and level of play, and context, etc.
Comments (18)
u/mudpieduck12h ago
just meet good people at the club, get their number and play again.
10
u/hugosanchez9112h ago
If the people don’t exist then building a tech solution won’t solve the problem. Depending on the city/country there are usually a combination of apps or fb groups or WhatsApp groups (I’ve played in 3 different countries so far). But if you’ve already found them all, your best bet might be organizing a tournament just to meet similar level players and then creating a group chat.
5
that's true but I am in a very densly populated area, you'd think it should be easier 🤣
1
u/GrindW8t10h ago
Maybe you overestimate yourself. People are already booked with people of their level. Maybe you're trying to fit in intermediate and you're not. I think most Padel players overestimate their level.
2
u/xAeroMonkeyx11h ago
I just use the open matches on Playtomic, after a couple months you’ll just naturally end up with people who are available at similar times to you
3
u/Jolly_Ad_388111h ago
What does your racket price have to do with anything?
The best option is asking at the clubs if they have whatsapp's groups, most clubs where I live do and they organize players by level.
3
u/DigEnvironmental895112h ago
It's the main problem of this sport with 4 players IMO I feel like a part time scheduling assistant just trying to fill my matches
I'm also struggling and I have free courts I could play daily
I created whatsapp group and found good players at local clubs
3
u/NecessaryAd61711h ago
You must find other people like you, that can play everyday day and have the means to do so.
Anybody that gets addicted to this sport faces the same problem starting. You must play as often you can with many people as posible to find and make a group.
If your city doesn’t have the many players then bad luck.
2
u/Wormwolf-Prime11h ago
I feel your pain. All my real life friends are too lazy/not interested . So I go to loads of coaching groups etc but even then most of the others in those groups come in pairs. I've been stuck at a lower level for ages just because I struggle to get a proper game, the closest I get is the club bronze Americano.
2
u/Felka_omg10h ago
Hey, the club in my city create an event call Tapas Tuesday (beginners) Thursday (intermediate) so they bring food and we have the 3 courts block to play Rounds Robin per 2 hours.
So people play with different people against different couples all the time. Definitely is a good way to find your group. Hope you can find your Piño 😉
2
Yea I know some clubs organize this kind of stuff but alas not mine
1
u/Itchy-Artichoke-12135h ago
Playtomic doesn't use level descriptions, though. It has very fine-grained numerical ratings with an accompanying reliability rating. If you're somewhat selective, it works great for matchmaking. Padel is a fairly tolerant game with level differences, given serve advantage, so honestly I've rarely had blowouts with randoms, even with the occasional 4.3 who turns out to be more like.a 5.0.
1
u/mercynuts7h ago
See if there's socials at your local venues you can go to, play with a lot of different people and then once you've established who suits your level etcmaybe ask if they want to play a game sometime as a pair
1