The Joy of Padel Podcast Season 04 Episode 17

On this latest episode of the JOY OF PADEL podcast, I turned the mic on myself for a change. Rather than the usual interview format, I decided to tackle one of the most frequent—and, let’s be honest, the most awkward—questions in padel: what level are you? As players, we all get asked about our rating, and answering honestly can be a minefield of egos, hope, and the occasional bit of creative accounting.

My Background and Motivation

My own journey with padel has been less about perfect technique and more about creating spaces where people can enjoy the game and learn. From running this podcast to playing and organising matches, I’ve seen up close how the mystery (and sometimes drama) around player ratings can make or break our on-court experience. This solo episode is my effort to bring both clarity and a bit of fun to a topic that’s too often treated as a source of stress rather than joy.

Main Topics Covered

The episode focused on why knowing your true padel level isn’t a verdict or a value judgement—it’s a vital tool for improvement and enjoyment. One concept discussed was the role of rating systems like Playtomic, and why even the best systems can’t account for partnership dynamics, different formats, or your energy on the day. A key consideration was the temptation to inflate our own skills, often remembering our highlight-reel moments and forgetting the less glamorous errors or off-days. I didn’t talk about it in this episode, but I did cofound an app specifically looking at how an individual can create an accurate and portable personal rating. If you’d care to explore it, you can check out Pango Sports. It’s truly dedicated to this very topic!

The discussion explored five crucial areas for honest self-assessment: shot quality, positioning and decision-making, partnership and communication, performing under pressure, and physical readiness. Several points were raised, including the importance of watching professional matches to assess the true quality of play, being aware of pressure moments, and always, always prioritising fun—after all, that’s foundational to the Joy of Padel ethos.

Three Takeaways

• Recognising your real padel level is a gift, not a judgement. Honest self-awareness leads to better game selection, more productive practice, and a more enjoyable experience for both you and your partner.
• Current rating systems are useful but incomplete. Your number is a signpost, not your identity—chemistry with your partner, tactical flexibility, and how you handle high-pressure points are just as important as any algorithmic rating.
• Curiosity and humility drive progress. The real enemy isn’t a “low” or “high” rating, but a lack of self-inquiry. Watch the pros, assess one thing at a time, and celebrate intentional improvement—no matter what the scoreboard says.

If you’re serious about enjoying your padel journey, focus less on the rating and more on playing with curiosity, caring for your partner, and embracing the walls. Don’t forget—a single, honest improvement can bring the most joy. Ready to self-assess and grow? Listen to the full JOY OF PADEL episode and share your thoughts on what’s helped you get a kinder and clearer sense of your own game. Let’s keep bringing joy—and honesty—to the courts!

To find out more about PANGO and the Joy of Padel:

• You can check out and download Pango Sports here. 
• Find or follow on Instagram: @JoyofPadel
• Find or follow the Joy of Padel Channel on YouTube

To listen to the show:

To listen to The Joy of Padel podcast, you can use the embedded player above, or go find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any number of other podcasting services listed here.

Send in your questions or reactions:

Please send me your questions — as an audio file if you’d like — to nminterdial@gmail.com. Otherwise, below, you’ll find the show notes and, of course, you are invited to comment. If you liked the podcast, please take a moment to review and/or rate it! ¡VAMOS!

Further resources for The Joy of Padel:

back wall | bandeja | club padel | decision-making | joy of padel | match awareness | match consistency | match selection | mental game | overhead shots | padel communication | padel defense | padel ego | padel Enjoyment | padel glass | padel humility | padel improvement | padel level | padel partner | padel positioning | padel practice | padel pressure | padel progression | padel Tactics | padel volley | partner collaboration | physical fitness | Playtomic rating | purposeful training | shot quality | technical repertoire

This transcription comes courtesy of Castmagic.io an AI service for podcasters.

Minter Dial: Hello and a very warm welcome to the Joy of Padel podcast. Today I’m going to be changing the format and not doing an interview, if you can imagine that. I’m going to be providing my own take on a key part of padel. I want to talk about one of the most frequently asked and, in my experience, most awkwardly answered questions in padel: what level are you? I mean, how good are you? It’s a question that matters. It helps us find games, choose tournaments, meet new players, and avoid those awful, dreadful mismatches where you have this pair who’s wondering whether to go for coffee after 20 minutes while the other is wondering whether they will even touch the ball again, you know, get put in the fridge. But it’s always also a question that can trigger ego insecurities, wishful thinking, and occasionally a certain amount of creative accounting. And the reason I want to explore it today is not to shame anyone, least of all myself. The subject is serious, yes, but I want to approach it joyfully, because getting a clearer view of your actual level is one of the best ways to make your padel matches better, your practice more useful, and your time on court finally more fun. My central message is totally simple. Knowing your real level is not a judgment, it’s a gift. It gives you a better starting point. It helps you select the right games. It allows you to identify what you genuinely need to work on when you go practice or take a pro. And perhaps most importantly, in a sport that’s played by 2 people, it helps you become a better partner. After a match, have you ever had that temptation to Begin a phrase like, oh, we lost because my— because of my partner. He wasn’t up to snuff. Now, every now and again, that may be right. Your partner may have had a poor day. Perhaps they were ill, perhaps they were nervous, perhaps they’re trying a new racket, hadn’t slept well, had played 3 matches already, or simply came late coming to the court. A number of reasons. In any event, But when my partner becomes the standard explanation why we’re not winning, why I’m not winning, we have stopped learning. The more interesting question is, what happened in my game? Did I make enough good lobs to allow us to take the net? Did I cover my half of the court properly? Did I offer my partner a calm word after an error, or did I sigh silently, shake my head, or create more pressure? Did I choose the right overhead? Did I rush my volleys? Did I try to hit a winner when the intelligent option was to be more patient, you know what I mean? And did I really understand the level of the match that I was entering? This last question is worth dwelling on. Not long ago, I played with a gentleman who was very quick to announce that he had on Playtomic a 5.0 level. Famous. For context, Playtomic, if you don’t know about it, uses a 0 to 7 scale. Your starting level can be set through a questionnaire, and competitive match results can move your rating up or down over time. The platform also uses a reliability measure, meaning that ratings based on fewer verified results can shift more dramatically. A 5.0 is not a casual decoration, you can imagine. It actually implies a very strong, advanced club player, someone who ought to have a solid technical base. tactical awareness, and a considerable degree of match competence. Good mindset, good decision-taking, a large repertoire of shots. Anyway, this guy stated his stated level was a little higher than mine, so naturally when we walked on the court, he immediately called dibs on the left side. You know, that’s the, the power side. Now, the left side is also the player who is expected to have more aggression, to take responsibility for overheads, especially down the middle. It can suit a player with a strong smash, a reliable vibora or bandeja, and the ability to finish, and of course can also construct points from that side. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to play on the left, but claiming that position also sends a message to your partner. It says, I can take this role, I own it. The match in this particular case didn’t go well. Afterwards, the explanations came out. He hadn’t played for weeks, he just came back from holidays, he usually didn’t make that many errors. wasn’t his normal standard, and of course we all have days like that, right? But padel is unpredictable, and one match does not define a player. However, the deeper reality, as I saw it, was that his game simply was not up to a 5.0 standard. His claimed rating had become a little detached from his ability to execute consistently under pressure and in partnership, the things that a 5.0 player should and Ought to be able to do. In other words, it felt as if he’d found a way to negotiate his way upwards in the system, play, you know, game it. Again, I, I don’t tell that story to mock him. I tell it because there is a small version of that temptation in many of us. We all take the possibility that we are slightly better than the evidence suggests. We remember our best set, our best smash por tres, the match when we beat somebody above our level. We forget, however, the shorter lobs, the poor positioning, the overhead volleys, and the occasions when we were carried by our stronger partner. The problem is that an inflated rating does not make padel more enjoyable. It usually makes it actually less enjoyable for you, your partner, and the people who booked a match expecting something else, something better. So here’s my exhortation: don’t get focused on the number. Get focused on being your best and doing your best. For starters, as some of you will know by now, rule number 1 is to have fun in padel. That’s why and how this podcast got its name, Joy of Padel, after all. Anyway, just for those of you don’t know the 5 rules, my cardinal rules, rule number 2 is don’t get injured, because if you get injured, you can’t have fun. So warm up, take care of your body. Rule number 3, Be the best version of yourself. Do your best. Show up and be your best. Only then can you look at rule number 4, which is then try to win, because it’s in that order. And rule number 5, a beer, una caña, as we say in Spanish, after the match, at least if it’s afternoon, you know what I mean? Anyway, why a number can’t tell the whole story. Rating systems are helpful. They have an important role. Playtomic, which is basically the leader in the world right now, says its scale ranges from 0 to 7 and that rating changes are influenced by competitive results, the relative levels of the 2 pairs, and the confidence or reliability attached to a player’s rating. That can be extremely useful for organizing matches, as many of you will know, but no system today fully captures the living reality of padel. For example, a player’s apparent level changes with the partner. Some pairs are naturally complementary. One player has a wonderful lob, the other is decisive overhead. One is calm in defense, and the other creates pressure at the net. Together, they look far stronger than either might appear with a poorly matched partner. The level also changes according to the format of the match. A player who explodes over one short set may not sustain the quality across a long, demanding best-of-3 match. A relaxed Americano is not the same test as a competitive match at 5-all in the 3rd set, especially with the golden point looming. Then there’s the court, the surface, the opponents, the local playing culture, and your physical condition that day. Some players are better in hot, fast conditions, others in slow, defensive-oriented conditions. So yes, use the number, but don’t worship it. A number is a signpost. It is not your identity. It does not capture your character, your potential, your capacity to learn, or the contribution you make to a partner’s experience. I want to tell you a story about the player who would not go back. I played against, and then alongside him as we switched around partners during the match, a taller and younger man recently. He had excellent hand skills, good speed, and genuine power. In some situations, he looked formidable. He could volley quickly, He could react at the net. He had the athleticism many of us would happily borrow, and especially me. But he just couldn’t stay back. More accurately, he didn’t want to stay back. This is the tennis man’s malady. All pure padel players see this, and the good ones know how to take advantage of it. He was visibly uncomfortable with the back wall. He seemed afraid of it, though I doubt he would never have described it that way. Rather than defend properly, wait for the ball, use the glass, and then build the point again, he would creep forward. Often he was 1 or 2 meters inside the service line, in precisely the zone where clever opponents can make you suffer. And they did. The more wily padel players noticed it immediately. They would lob him. They played the balls to his feet so he’d make them do half volleys. They used the angles and the walls to get behind him. He would get caught out too far forward, unable to volley effectively, unable to retreat efficiently if he ever wanted to, and unable to defend with control. The issue was not the lack of athleticism. It was not a lack of hand speed. It was a lack of paddling intelligence. His positioning and court awareness were off, and there was a reluctance to confront a crucial part of the game that just made him uncomfortable. And I’m afraid to say the worst of it was that there was no way he was going to hear that from me, an old geezer, I suppose I might be described as. And that is the more serious version of the problem. Not simply overrating oneself, but lacking the self-awareness, curiosity, or humility to ask, what am I missing in my game? What am I doing wrong? The good news is that that is fixable. The wall is not your enemy. La pared es su amiga, as we say in Spanish. It’s your friend. It’s one of padel’s greatest pleasures once you learn to trust it. The wall gives you time. It turns apparent chaos into an organized defensive opportunity. It lets you absorb pace, reset the rally, and recover your position. But you need to be willing to go there, which likely means screwing up and losing along the way. But hey ho, you’ll be better for it down the line. Just ask Luis Estrada, who’s the current number 6 in the United States and who was my guest in season number 2. He said he spent a year losing in order to learn the wall and to defend properly. How to assess ourselves more honestly without taking the joy out of it? My favorite exercise is to watch professional padel, especially the women’s game. It is extraordinary viewing— intelligent, intense, athletic, and hugely instructive. Let’s not forget, highly entertaining. In any event, Watching one of the top women’s play, watch and look for a long rally, say of about 20 shots, which is about, let’s say, 30 seconds. Then ask yourself a difficult but rather valuable question: how many of those shots could I reproduce at the same quality? And I do mean quality, not, oh, I can get my racket to that one, and not, oh, I played that shot in the last lesson I took with the pro. Could I play that ball with comparable control, height, depth, pace, spin, direction, and tactical intention? Could I do it from that position while recovering the court, knowing what my partner is doing, and preparing for the next ball? Padel isn’t a collection of strokes, it’s a sequence. Every point is a small journey. You may see a professional hit a bandeja and say, oh yeah, I have a bandeja. Fine, but can you hit it, or even should you, when you’re late reading the ball, when the lob is deep, when you’re tired, when your opponents are waiting for the predictable cross-court ball that you’ve hit already several times? Can you choose the right target and keep your pair connected? That distinction is not intended to make anyone feel inadequate. Quite the reverse, it gives you an honest and exciting map of where to go next. So going forward, what to do? Here are 5 things that I, I recommend, and I’d love for you to to assess. There are 5 areas. The first is shot quality and technical repertoire. What can you truly rely on in a match? Not what have you done once. What can you repeat when it counts? Can you defend off the glass? Not just single bounce, but 2 glasses. Can you lob with height and depth? Can you volley with control rather than simply punch the ball? Can you use a bandeja to retain the net rather than hitting a wayward overhead that hands it away? Can you vary your shots enough that opponents cannot read you too easily? As you get better at padel, the variety and deception is critical to making your game better. The second is positioning and, and decision-making. This is where that taller player I mentioned earlier who was struggling— being quick, powerful, or technically gifted doesn’t compensate for being in the wrong place. Padel rewards patience. It rewards playing from the right zones. It rewards knowing when to advance, when to hold, when to defend, and when to let the glass work for you. The transition going back and forward is a supremely critical part of any advanced player’s game. Third, and this is a big one, is partnership and communication. A padel match isn’t 2 singles players sharing a court. It’s a collaboration, a dance, as we like to say in Spanish. Do you say something useful after an error? Do you call mine, yours, switch, or leave clearly? Do you agree on a plan together? Can you adjust that plan as the match goes forward? How quickly and how clearly do you communicate where the opponents are? This is a big lack in so many parts of players’— padel players’ games. In so many of the episodes I’ve had with top players on this podcast, they stake out just how important communication is to the success of their game. Do you understand whether your partner prefers help on the middle, wants more lobs, needs reassurance, or needs a tactical adjustment? A good partner can make an ordinary player look better. A bad partner, on the other hand, even a technically excellent one, can make the entire match feel tense and unproductive and basically unfun. Maybe this isn’t as relevant for most amateurs, but knowing your partner well off the court is good for improving your communication and building confidence on the court. So for the 4th item, it’s regarding your game under pressure. Let’s say it’s 5-all in the deciding set. Do you retain your normal patterns, or do you speed up, get tight, overplay, retreat into safety, or seek a miracle winner? Pressure is not a character flaw, it is information. If you become frantic when the score is close, perhaps you need a routine between points. A breath, a word with your partner, a simple first ball objective like, let’s just put it down the middle, or a higher margin return on service. I like to say that dealing with pressure is why I play padel. I love those moments. I lean into them, and I try to remind myself, especially when I feel my heartbeat racing. So how aware are you of your tension, of the pressure you’re feeling, and how do you find ways to combat that pressure to play the right balls? So for the 5th element, it’s your physical readiness. You don’t have to train like a professional to play good club padel, but your fitness shapes what tactics are realistically available to you. If your legs are gone after 45 minutes, your lobs may become shorter Your transition became— becomes slower, your overhead decision-making worsens, and your partner ends up maybe doing more than their fair share. That’s fine if you agree to it. The objective is not perfection. It is to see the connection between your body and your game, and to make small investments that make your matches more enjoyable. So in all of this, the real enemy here is not a low rating, nor is it an inflated rating. The enemy is the absence of curiosity and self-awareness. If you lose repeatedly, do not begin with the question, why was my partner making so many mistakes? Try this instead. What’s the first thing that tends to break down in my game, in our game? Maybe it’s the return of serve. Maybe it’s the quality of my lobs. Maybe it’s the failure to hold the net, or maybe it’s a lack of communication. It could also be that you only ever play matches and never practice those difficult situations that keep recurring, get those sequence of events ingrained in your system. Playing is wonderful, but playing and practicing are not quite the same thing. The Padel School run by Sandy and Tom Farkasen has made the important point that match play alone is not necessarily enough to improve. Purposeful training rather than simply repeating matches is what turns awareness into development. Pick one thing, just one. For the player afraid of the wall, it might be spending half an hour learning to defend off the back glass without rushing forward. For the self-proclaimed 5.0, it might be watching a legitimate 5.0 player and asking without defensiveness, what are they doing consistently that I’m not doing yet? For you, it might be agreeing with your partner that for the next 3 matches, you will celebrate every good decision even when the ball does not quite come off. I’ll never forget a time when I, uh, a player did a shot that was completely not what we should have done. We won the point, and I said, well, that wasn’t what we agreed. He said, yeah, but we won the point, which wasn’t the point anyway. So here is my invitation: before your next match, do not worry too much about whether your rating is exactly right. Do not obsess about being called intermediate, advanced, or something else. And if you lose, resist the immediate temptation to build a case against your partner. Instead, enjoy the opportunity to be precise and to learn. Watch good players. Watch the pros. Notice the gap, not with despair, but with fascination. Ask what you can genuinely execute under pressure. Ask where you stand on the court. Ask how you communicate. Ask what your body lets you do at the end of a match. Ask which single improvement would make your next game more satisfying. Your real level is not a verdict. It’s simply the point from which you start your next bit of joy and progress. I’d love it if you go into the comments after listening to this and, and put down what has helped you gain a clearer, kinder, and more useful view of your own paddle. Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t feel like you were trying to live up to some hype, some expectation that was beyond your game, and that you really focused on being your best self. Because after all, by being your best self, I think you procure the highest level of enjoyment and will probably play your best game. So until next time, play with curiosity, look after your partner, and enjoy the walls. Vamos!