It’s that time of year when many players are playing padel in cold conditions! Whether you’re playing outdoors – or even at indoor centres where the heating isn’t turned up – if you’re playing in cold conditions, there are some best practices all players should follow.

In this blog, I discuss three tips all players should know when playing in cold conditions. These apply not only to help you avoid injury, but also so you can have as much fun as possible on the court (even if you did wish you were somewhere hot and sunny). Let’s jump into them.

Don’t Skip The Warmup

This sounds obvious and you may have seen this one coming, but making sure you do a thorough warm up is crucial in the cold. There are two aspects to this one. The first is doing a warmup off the court which can be jogging and getting your heart rate up. Typically you’d also do more dynamic stretches before playing versus static stretching. The goal here is to get your muscle ready for action!

The second aspect is to move as much as you can in the rackets warm up. It’s so easy to come onto the court cold and then in the rackets warm up to be static because you feel frozen! In that racket warm up, bounce on your toes, make your movement dynamic, even shadow swing if you’re not hitting the ball. Do everything you can to get your body looser and warmer before your game starts. If you do both these aspects well, when you start the game, you will be warm and ready to play.

Be Conscious Of The Balls You’re Using

In cold conditions, padel balls become heavier and can feel flatter. This is especially true if they are stored in cold conditions too, for example if they’re left in your car overnight. When it gets colder, you may need to replace your balls more often and open up new balls.

If you’re playing in cold and wet conditions (let’s be honest, not a great combo!), this is even more important to consider as wet balls become super heavy. The reason this is a problem is that all of this can put extra strain through your elbow, shoulder and wrist joints, and can lead to injuries. I can’t emphasise enough how much of an impact balls can have on injury risk! So, be conscious of when you need to change them, especially in cold conditions.

You May Need To Adapt Your Game

We talked about cold conditions making the balls heavier. This in turn will impact your style of play and you may need to adapt your game. This means smashing the ball out the court will be tougher, winning points using fast smashes will be harder and you may need to use the walls more to win you points.

Overall, cold conditions require you to have more patience. You won’t be able to win on outright power so switch on your tactical mind in these conditions and figure out how you will win using the court and shot accuracy!

Bring Your A-Game In The Cold

Playing in cold conditions can be tough but if you apply these tips, you will avoid injury and have more fun in the process. What’s more, you will bring your A-Game to the court every time.

If you’d like to ditch the cold and train padel with us in the sunshine, we have padel holidays for players of all levels. Check out our events page here for more information!