Playing Padel and Looking After Yourself with The Alexander Technique
It’s the world’s fastest-growing racquet sport, played by more than 30 million people, and its popularity shows no sign of waning. Welcome to padel.
Invented in 1969 by a couple on holiday in Mexico keen to stave off boredom, today padel has fans across the globe, including a fair few celebrities from David Beckham and Serena Williams to Rafael Nadal and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Not unlike a cross between squash and tennis, padel is mostly played in doubles on an enclosed court that is about a quarter smaller than a tennis court. It employs the same scoring conventions as tennis and, like squash, participants can bounce the ball off the walls.
Players use solid racquets (there are no strings), serve underarm, and use smaller balls. There’s a net across the middle of the court and the surrounding walls are made of glass, concrete and wire. Fans say it is fun, easy to learn, and incredibly sociable.
However, brute strength is unlikely to win many points in padel, as James Power, a devotee of the sport, explains.
“For me, playing padel is like a chess game. You are always thinking three moves ahead. It’s not about smashing the ball around. If you apply too much power, your opponent can often return the ball easily off the back glass. Padel is incredibly good for your mind; it’s about strategy, balance and consistency.”
Padel and the Alexander Technique
As a qualified Alexander Technique instructor based in Knutsford, James has found the Technique to be incredibly helpful for people who play padel and other racquet sports.
Put simply, Alexander Technique teachers gently use their hands to show students how to improve their co-ordination and undo unnecessary tension. This helps to reduce problems caused by unhelpful habits. James describes it as the “user manual for your body and mind”, adding that it’s “an effective way to improve your posture and performance” and “a powerful method to restore grace in movement”.
James has already worked with horse riders, using the Alexander Technique to help riders with their balance, movement and posture. Now he is employing the same strategies with players of padel and other racquet sports.
“There’s a really good fit between playing padel and using the Alexander Technique to improve your skills,” he says. “So many things work together. There’s finding ways to do things more efficiently. There’s moving around the court in a way that means you are reducing the risk of getting injured. There’s also a skill in learning to pause and be in a state of readiness. It’s this constant building of awareness of how you are moving.”
For James, the Alexander Technique is “thinking in activity”. Put another way, he works with his clients to encourage them to use their bodies mindfully.
He explains: “This means you are not just relying on habits and hoping for the best when playing padel. You are looking at how you can move with less tension and with less stiffening and shortening in the spine when you are approaching the shot. Great padel players control the speed of the game so they can win the net position and then win the point with a well-placed volley.”
Good habits, good practice
A foundation of the Alexander Technique boils down to this: stop doing the wrong things and you are halfway there. James plays padel three or four times a week at CPASE and is learning every day. James comments: "CPASE has a fantastic ethos of encouraging recovery time and has a holistic approach to health."
James knows how easily you can get injured if you are not thinking about how you are moving. With this in mind, James works with clients to help them become aware of unhealthy habits.
“Prevention is a huge part of the Technique. You stop doing the wrong things, and the right things can happen. That really is the Alexander Technique at its core.
“In padel, this can mean helping a client to notice when they are stomping around the court with their back hunched and compressed, rather than moving in a more light-footed way. It can also mean helping a player to allow their arms to fully connect with their back so they can make contact with the ball without overusing their wrist.”
But when neck, back and shoulder injuries do occur – not uncommon in a game like padel which is notoriously addictive – the Alexander Technique can help. A key lesson is to learn to pause and regain your sense of poise.
“Clinical trials have shown just how good the Technique is for reducing back and neck pain” says James. “I have seen in my own practice a significant and permanent reduction of pain in clients presenting with injuries from playing after they’ve had lessons in the Alexander Technique. It is incredibly effective, whether I am working with experienced athletes or people coming to padel for the first time.”
James adds: “As Alexander would say, people don't decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.”
Clare Stobart, Managing Director of CPASE Health Club in Knutsford, has been learning the Technique and says:
“It was really beneficial to understand all about the Alexander Technique and learn from James how this can fit with padel. This really got me thinking about my movement and I will definitely be applying this, not only when playing padel, but in day-to-day life.”
James Power teaches at his studio in Knutsford, near Tatton Park and at the Manchester Alexander Technique Training School.
For more information, check out his website, Find Your Backbone, at findyourbackbone.com
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