Mentality help

Play more tournaments/ competitive games. You’ll get used to the fact that it doesnt matter anyway

I have the exact same issue. It is the result of the critical brain interrupting the natural flow of your muscle memory and making you tense. What has helped me silence this voice far: - focusing on the ball and opponent's racket the moment the opponent hits it, allowing me to react naturally to it - breathing deeply out in the beginning of every serve to reset - telling myself every few minutes that it is a friendly match or that the match is already won but we're watching the result. That it doesn't matter and the rating or the result of the match has no consequences (because I don't play professionally) - not dwelling too long on points lost or mistakes. Saying "come on" to myself or to my partner and getting ready for the next point like a clean slate Also, I noticed that the game gets very chaotic when I am in my head. Every ball seems faster and space tighter. My body gets and reacts slower. When I notice this, I focus on my preparations, split step and lobs. This helps slow the game down for everyone and reduces chaos. I am very interested to hear how others deal with it.

Once I truly stopped caring about my rating deep down and accepted that padel is a social sport for me, both my tournament results and my gameplay improved dramatically. Instead of being targeted, I’m now being avoided at the level I play. I’m not sure how people can convince themselves it’s just a friendly match when they’re in a tournament, but once you genuinely stop caring about the result or outcome, it makes a world of difference.

This’s actually normal and it happens to me too When you get tense, it’s not just the shots execution gets worse, your decision making gets worse as well, U start overthinking, forcing things, or playing too safe at the wrong moments And sometimes the pressure is not only because it’s a tournament, but also because you start feeling like you’re the reason you might lose, or you feel your partner is getting frustrated, so the pressure keeps building… Honestly, this is where the partner matters a lot. When my partner makes mistakes, I always try to encourage him and take pressure off him, not add more. And when I am the one feeling tense, if my partner reacts that way with me, I usually settle down much faster and start playing my normal level again, even if we are clearly behind on the score So for me, a big part of dealing with nerves is.. don’t stay stuck on the last mistake, let it go quickly, encourage yourself, and make sure you and your partner try to support each other in a positive way during matches

Play more. High five your partner after a mistake be it yours or his. Smile because it’s just a game. If you want to get use to it try to give more stakes to your friendly games? Like losers get to pay dinner or at least the round of drinks afterwards.

There's a book called "The Inner Game of Tennis" by Timothy Galleway, which applies to pretty much any racquet sport. It helped me somewhat, even though I'm at earlier stages of my padel journey. The main thing I got out of that book is that when our brains are not focused on what's going on on the court, we don't play at our best. And the best way to focus on what's happening on the court is paying very close attention to the seams of the ball. Nothing but the seams. And remind yourself to get back to them all the time when you get too involved in the mental game going on in your head.

Visit a shrink

Change your objective : Stop playing to win. Play to execute your game plan. Keep it simple withclear intentions In tournaments your brain needs to be clear and not overloaded. Pick some simple things you want to do (play more to the middle, take the net early, use chiquitas when the ball is short) and stick to them. Accept mistakes In padel, more than 60% points are actually decided by errors, not winners. And accept that your partner will miss too.