Tom: 0:00

We prepared really well and I think that reflected in the result and it was such a good weekend results-wise.

Sandy: 0:11

We're now live. We're doing our live podcast. So welcome to our members. Welcome to you, Tom. We're back from Madrid. I think in this episode, let's focus on Madrid, what the experience was for you, first time competing for GB, some of my takeaways from that week and how we can almost... Put what we feel is important into club players' games.

Tom: 0:35

Yeah, exactly. And also, because we are doing this live for our members, we will have time at the end for some live questions for any of our members. So if you want to drop them in the chat, do so, and we'll answer them at the end. But, Sandy, I feel like, first of all, we've got to talk about what a weekend, and we're coming back on a bit of a high,

Sandy: 0:52

aren't we? We are. Great Britain managed to qualify in the Euro Cup 2025, both in the men's and the women's, so we... It's set up now in different phases. So we were in phase two. We have now qualified to the next phase where we'll go and join the top four countries, which for the men is Spain, Italy, France, Portugal. And we will go and compete with them later on in the year.

Tom: 1:16

This is when it starts to get serious. It's when it gets serious, yeah. Because these are serious teams, aren't they, awaiting us?

Sandy: 1:21

Yeah, and it's the first time they've done this format, the FIP, and it's a bit of a weird one. I'm on the fence about it at the moment, because I did quite like that before, you're there for the whole week, and you play these teams in your groups, and you have group phases, and then you go to the knockouts after that, and it's a lot of matches, but you get some easier ones, some tough ones. Here, we played the qualifying, and I don't want to say they were all easy but they were all the matches were against teams we were expected to be and we still have to win them so nothing you know not taking anything away from it there but you know now it's going to be a huge step up to that next level

Tom: 1:58

but i also think for us the draw was favorable in that sense and in the fact that we didn't have some of those countries like belgium and those other countries that you kind of wanted to avoid if you wanted to qualify obviously because those are those are tough teams so like you say we definitely played tough teams in our group, but there were also other groups that were way stronger,

Sandy: 2:17

right? Yeah. I mean, it was Belgium were the ones that were floating and they got picked into Netherlands group. And actually, Netherlands beat them on the last day. So, Belgium actually didn't go through, which means they'll also be floating the next time and the draw is done. But still, yeah, we, I would say, had a favourable group for sure.

Tom: 2:36

It's interesting you said about having the tournament for the whole week because presumably... having spoken to you from other World Championships and Euros you've come back from, the reason you quite like that is that by the end of the week, you feel like the team is getting into a bit of rhythm. They're starting to play well because they've had consistent matches, which was kind of the reason we went there early to train, right?

Sandy: 2:56

Yeah, and I would say that we went there a couple of days early to train and we had three days of matches, which were the group stages. But I think what's good when we do it on the bigger format is that Let's say we take a group. Well, normally we would have a Spain or a Portugal or, you know, one or two very strong teams in the group. And then they would have ourselves and then, you know, a weaker team. And so you would be able to pit yourself against like really strong teams as well as weaker teams within the group. And so by the end of the week, you have a real variety of opponents and you feel really good because you do the group stage normally that's three days then you go into the knockout and that's three more days that that you then compete against these these players

Tom: 3:40

yeah exactly i i get that and i think to be honest our preparation going into this tournament was was really really good i mean i know that's i think is one of the first times we've done this before right getting to to the venue like that early to come and train at an academy and It was something I think as the coach you wanted to put in place for the Euros.

Sandy: 4:00

Yeah, we've done it. We've done it a couple of times before, but I was really happy with this in that, you know, we had three days. We had good training at the clubs. We had a practice match against Sweden, which was fantastic, like almost in the build up to that. All of our players got to play some competitive games and we managed to even get, you know, a court to train at the venue, like the actual court. So I think, you know, preparation wise, it was good. It was difficult conditions wasn't it it was fast and you know okay we were indoors with a little bit of AC but it was generally pretty hot there and I think it took a bit of time for players to get used to and even even just the humidity and the sweat I mean like you were to the point where you play a set and you could wring your shirt out it was so you know you were sweating so much and that's something that those conditions all take time for a player to get used to

Tom: 4:50

Yeah, no, definitely. I think we prepared really well and I think that reflected in the result and it was such a good weekend results-wise, both the men and the women. I think also a shout-out to the women's team. They had a tougher group than ours and they came through it and they fought really hard in that last match.

Sandy: 5:06

They did fantastic. I mean, to beat Sweden in that last match and to come down to the third game of that match and, I mean, great grit and determination from the girls in order to do that. I mean, yeah. hats off to them. It was a great performance and they deserve to be in that next stage. And I think it's interesting, I'd like to get your feedback on, you know, first time playing for GB, it was quick conditions, I suppose. What was your biggest takeaway from the week?

Tom: 5:33

Wow, biggest takeaway. If I had to pick one thing, I think, like you mentioned there, the fast conditions, something that seemed to be like a recurring theme throughout the week and it was shared by the coaches as well by yourself by john was using this idea of 80 volleys so on those quick courts and a lot of us have good volleys in the team like myself come from tennis and we've got other players that naturally we've got strike quite strong volleys so we were coming up with this concept around 80 volleys which was essentially the idea that we don't need to try and finish points with our volley so this idea that we can play at about 80%, use the speed of the court, use the fast conditions to our advantage, but play our volleys almost low risk. So we're not getting close to missing, but we're still being effective with them. And I think that idea of 80% volleys seemed to be a theme throughout the week. And I think it really helped us come through at least the matches I was playing for sure.

Sandy: 6:31

I think it's one of the difficult things like in training, whenever we do our training and we're practicing on defensive part of the game, The volley is, there's nothing on the line. So they end up like being really aggressive in volleys. And, you know, in training, everyone has amazing volleys. They swing a bit harder. If they miss, they miss. So they don't care. They're more relaxed. And therefore they have, you know, much better volleys. But then what you see is when you go into games is missing just simple volleys. Like when you're hit the serve, for example, and missing the first volley in there, there's no reason to do that. It's just a present for your opponent. And I think this idea of 80% volleys makes you focus on better consistency, but also it's because it's 80% and not 50%, you've still got intention on it. And I think that's really important. Like when you're at net to have a bit of intention on the volley, but at the same time, it's not like tennis where in tennis you come in and you have a volley it's like you expect that to be a winner really don't you come in you have one volley it's a winner and if it's not then you have a second one and that's definitely a winner whereas this is more okay i need to set this up now so 80 good strong volley put them under pressure. Maybe you end up playing three, four, five volleys sometimes in order to set the points up well enough, particularly at a higher level. And I think having that 80% volley is a really important mindset from that net position.

Tom: 7:55

Yeah, because ultimately the goal, especially in fast conditions that... You want to try and finish the point with a smash rather than trying to finish with your volleys. And I think that concept, once you grasp that, and that was something that I managed to kind of grasp over the week better and better, was this idea that I'm not trying to win the point with my volleys. Okay, you might end up winning the point with it if your volley's good or the opponent makes a mistake, but that's not the intention. The intention is to play your volleys well enough at a lower risk so you're not close to missing, but with the idea that you're going to receive hopefully a shorter lob that you can then finish with your overhead.

Sandy: 8:26

Yeah, and I think that's quite an interesting mindset even to have from the back as well. This idea of like, I'm not trying to finish the point. Okay, there are times when you get a short lob and yes, absolutely, you need to put the ball away. But I think it's this idea of like, and I use this like explanation with a lot of the players that imagine it's a drill. Imagine just doing a drill from the back, hitting one down, two down, one lob, like, you know, and you're not trying to finish. The moment you start putting pressure on yourself to try and finish is when the mistakes would come in.

Tom: 8:56

Yeah, and I like that. what you mentioned as well around the difference between practice and matches because that that also for me was so distinct in the sense of when you're practicing everyone is like firing those volleys in and I think from a defensive point of view I almost had to change my mindset again because when you're practicing and you're used to receiving those fast volleys you almost feel constantly under pressure like you're being rushed you're trying to think okay maybe I have to come up and block and then suddenly you get into a match where everyone's playing a little bit safer they're not firing those volleys in as fast. Actually, you do have time. And I think for me, that was also a big takeaway. I trained after the Euros. I stayed in Madrid and I trained at Diagonal Paddle Academy where we actually did the preparation. And that's something that I noticed, especially with the Spanish players, is that I feel like there's not such a big difference between their practice and their matches. They're practicing very much this 80% volley. They're making the volley, they're focusing on consistency. Whereas I feel like, at least from when we played British players, and I noticed that as well when we played the Dutch team, is that maybe because they're from tennis, but when you're in practice, you're just receiving volleys that are just super fast, but with high risk. And then you get into a match and there's such a big contrast.

Sandy: 10:08

I think a big difference is that in Spain... players are coming up to that position and they've done so much drilling. Like our team and the Dutch team is another example, is if you were to... compare a ratio of what percentage of they played match versus drilling, probably they're at 95% of the time has been matches and 5% drilling. Whereas I feel like the Spaniards, they play like that in matches because so much of their time is drilling. Even when they are doing their time at the academy, it's all drilling there. But if you go to a lot of academies around Europe and in other countries, Netherlands, the same in a lot of places here in the UK, they just go play matches or points. And so, you know, I think it's that mindset that helps them be more consistent on the match court.

Tom: 10:59

Yeah, we talked about drilling before, haven't we? And also the importance of getting that drilling in so that when you do come to a match court, it isn't such a big difference. You can almost just take that training that you've honed on the training court and it just is almost naturally improved. reflects onto the match score, which I think is what you're saying there around in these emerging countries, we don't have that volume. So you essentially just, you're playing matches, so you don't have that

Sandy: 11:23

volume of training. It's so important at all levels, right? I mean, actually, it's why we made the drill book, right? We made the drill book so that people would have drills that they could do to work on different parts of their game. But it's like, if I could wave a magic wand and say, right, every recreational player in the UK or any emerging country You know, every week when you play, let's say you play a cumulative of four hours of paddle social games, play just 10% of a drill. Like just do two or three drills where you're building a bit of consistency and using a few different exercises. Even if you just picked one drill from the drill book and you said, right, this week, I'm just going to do 10 minutes of this drill. It will make you more consistent because it's so difficult to become consistent just playing matches.

Tom: 12:08

yeah exactly and that drill bit we'll put in the show notes yeah the drill bit over 75 drills for all levels beginning up to advance every aspect of the game so on your app as well so you just take it to the court yeah super easy so do go and check that out

Sandy: 12:21

by the way if you're looking for new ideas to spice up your paddle training we've got the paddle drill book with over 70 drills that you can do with your friends or with your coach easy to follow structured and super effective head to thepaddleschool.com slash drill book to grab your copy or or you'll find the link in the show notes.

Tom: 12:43

You made the switch to the coaching bench this year. So I'm interested to know your debut on there. What

Sandy: 12:50

would be your biggest takeaway? I think the biggest thing I think about is... Like when you're a player and you play in most of the tournaments, you don't have a coach, right? Like you go and you play or if you play a social game, there's not a coach on the bench for you. And so when I used to play, I think I used to spend 90% of the time, well, 80% of the time on my game and then 20% of my energy or focus on support of my partner and making sure that they are in the right space so that I can play my game. And it's quite interesting now because now, On the coach bench, you actually have two people that you need to make sure that they are on the right path. And people are so different. Like, just their motivations, the way they think, the way they approach the match, the way they feel pressure. And so, you know... Every time I was on the bench, I would have two players in front of me and one player that I know I'm like, right, you need to focus here, get your intensity up, get your footwork here. And then to the other player, you're like, just relax. You just need to relax. Like, imagine that you're out playing, you know, doing a drill with your friend. And it's almost like learning how to deal with with those differing personalities, differing motivations at the same time to bring out the best. And also that you've got 90 seconds for it. So it's not like you could just take someone off and go for a chat for five minutes and calm them down. It's like you've got to find some quick advice or information that is going to to get them in that state of play that's best for them, you know, focused enough that they're not losing concentration, but also not too focused that they feel so much pressure on them that they get nervous, for example. It's really interesting because when you, obviously with the Red Bull, I do a lot of commentary. So you see what the guys on the bench are doing, you know, at the pro level. And it's the same, like it's a lot of it is almost like therapy or, you know, dealing with the mental side of the game, calming one person down or getting someone else focused on something tactical or, you know, and for me, that's been like, it's actually one of the bits I really enjoyed is that that psychological side of working with two players to bring out the best in that performance.

Tom: 15:02

Well, that's what I was going to say is that what sort of advice would you give? Because you don't want to do technical advice or what you're basically saying is most of it is going to be mental advice, tactical advice for players. Yeah, I think

Sandy: 15:16

it varies, right? Like if you think about your matches, most of the advice that I would give to you was around tactical. Like, you know, play to here, hit here. Like, you know, because I think you're someone who competes really well. You've competed for so many years. You find the right zone for yourself, but it's almost like you haven't probably over your years done enough drilling that it's natural. But if you took someone... like Sam on our team, for example, I don't need to tell him where to hit. He's drilled like the last 10 years of his life. It's more important that I get him in the right zone. Like I don't get him too tense because it's a pressure match. And I, you know, I say to him, look, you know, I'm calming him down to get him in that zone as if he were doing a drill, you know, and other players, it's probably somewhere in between, but it depends so much on the individual and how they deal with it. I think, you know, I don't think you give technical advice to anyone because they're focusing on the tactics but you I feel like I could give you quite tactical advice and you would go out and follow that whereas some people you give tactical advice and they go out for two games and you're like it's almost like you didn't listen to a word I said like you've just kind of gone and done the same thing that you were doing before and sometimes it takes repetition like that's one thing I found is like I was on the change of ends and I was saying it for a whole set like play the lob here do this here and eventually they they start implementing it and it starts working but it's yeah it's almost that it needs that repetition i think

Tom: 16:48

i mean looking from from the outside as a player i imagine almost what you mentioned the two challenges i would see is also how the first one being like how you have to keep on the ball around the tactics during a match if i look back to my my tennis days and even at a professional level i think the tactics change but they definitely don't change as often as they do in a paddle match plus also as a tennis player you're almost putting your game into the match. So it's very much, as a coach, it's very much around stick to your game, more mental. Whereas I think in Padua, if I think about the matches that you coached us, every few games, we might have to change a little bit who we play to, maybe play more lobs here because this opponent now is hitting their overheads well. So it must be quite ongoing as a coach on the side. I mean, you've got to be on the ball watching the whole time, right? Well,

Sandy: 17:36

I think it's like... You come up with your tactic, and I remember that even in one of your games, it was like, right, guys, okay, the left side player is a very aggressive smash, okay? Let's lob down the line. And then you go and play the two games, and then you come back, and I'm like, guys, remember that we've got to lob to the guy down the line. We've got to lob to the guy on the right, right? The guy on the left has a big smash. And it's difficult because when you're playing, you're so in it. But when you're watching and you're on the side, you see the pattern a lot better. And so... there would be three changeovers where I'm like, right, Tom, now I'd say, right, Tom, maybe hit your first one down. Next time, lob line. Like, your job is to lob line. Like, until you get it and then it becomes part of the tactic because sometimes it's like maybe the player doesn't see it themselves or maybe they don't realise that they are the ones that are lobbing to the strong player or maybe it's... So it's... It's like keeping your overall tactic in the focus and thinking, how can I get the players to do that tactic, which is another challenge in itself.

Tom: 18:38

I guess as well, just to say, is that when you do get the right coaching figure as a player, it's such a massive help. Obviously, I think if you don't have that right coaching figure, it can all unravel and it can be a problem. But I think if you, as a player, having a coach with that tactical insight on your side, I think is such a big thing. And I mean, just the second challenge I was going to mention, which you already touched upon a little bit, is I think the fact as a coach for a team, you're getting different personalities each match. Whereas I think when you said about the Red Bull TV and the coaches there, they're just working with two players, aren't they? So they know those players. Whereas I think for you, every hour and a half, you've got a new pair in front of you. So you have to almost be constantly on, well, again, on the ball to know, okay, and now I've got two different personalities in front of me. So that must be quite hard.

Sandy: 19:24

I think it is. I think, you know, like our team, I know really well, one or two, maybe less so, but our team I've known for years. So I think it's probably, it was more difficult probably for Selingo, like who coached the girls team to come in and to coach the team for the tournament because it's understanding them and their emotions and how they react to things. And, you know, you don't want, to upset people. You want to try and, like I said, almost get them in that competition zone. Like that's the most difficult thing. But if you can find a way to do that, then it works. And I think that's the skill of the coach is to get them in that zone. That's the main thing, I think. If you're enjoying the podcast and want to level up your game, our Paddle School membership is the best place to start. You'll get structured coaching, training roadmaps, and exclusive content every month. You can check it out at thepaddleschool.com. It's honestly the best way to keep improving week by week and to avoid the plateau, which is inevitable if you don't get training.

Tom: 20:25

So we've qualified. We've got the main draw knockout later this year. Dates... Dates to be confirmed. TBC. TBC. We've got a lot of training up until then to get the team ready. But sadly, a very successful first Euros on the coaching bench.

Sandy: 20:41

And a very successful on the playing court as well for you. That was good. Three matches, three wins. Off to a flying start. Yeah. I think we've got a question coming here from Mark on the membership. Is it common to use statistics during the match to coach the players? That is a great question there from Mark. And I think... Unfortunately, as a coach, you don't have access to live statistics when you are coaching. And this is something, obviously, when I'm doing the Red Bull commentary and we talk about the change of ends, we have access to stats. And so we can talk about it. And it's interesting on a commentary perspective. But as a player, like when you're playing and a coach on the side, that's why often as a coach, you take a few notes to try and track. And what I end up doing is I almost take a few notes at the start to try and see where the common threads are and then almost I sometimes ditch the notes because I'm then focused on like the mental side the personalities everything like that but I think you would definitely use stats before the match to at a high level. Like the thing is, is in a lot of these European games, our opponents don't have statistics. So it's not like you can say, oh, they make a lot of mistakes with their lob off the backhand side. Whereas at the pro level, because they stacked a lot of those matches, you could probably find that you could get those details. But in this, yeah, not really. I think one thing that I do track or I try to track as a coach is particularly you know the first couple of points if we make a return error in the first two points of the game and it's consistent then I will mentally just keep a little tally and you know at the end of the set guys go like it's really difficult to break if we've made four return errors on the start of four games you know like that that type of thing I would track but that's a that was a good question

Tom: 22:32

yeah because if I look back to when you were my coach in tennis and when I was a professional tennis player and you used to have a almost like a flow chart of statting each point and as much as I mean in tennis in a way because you're not on the side and I think it might have changed now but you're not allowed to actually give advice so you'd almost stat with the idea that you could look at them afterwards and do a bit of a post-match review but this sounds like when you're on the bench on a in a paddle game, you're, you're almost more involved actively. So would you not, you wouldn't do the same kind of flow chart.

Sandy: 23:04

And it's so much harder in paddle, like in tennis, it was singles and you've got 20 seconds between points. Right. And so, you know, I used to start like, you know, first, well, you go back and fiddle with your towel or your shoelaces. I would start, but here, I mean, it's, you've got two of your players plus two opponents and you're trying to, to start that. And the, time between points is like five or six seconds. And so by the time I started to do that in paddle, like originally, and I was just like, I don't have time. Like I'm not, while I'm statting all of that, I'm not seeing how you guys are reacting with each other and seeing what's happening there. So, and I didn't want to miss that because the between point interaction is quite important from a coach perspective. So yeah, I couldn't stat it in the same way.

Tom: 23:50

How useful do you think, let's say you could either digitally or perhaps you had an assistant coach that was statting it How useful do you think that would be, just out of interest?

Sandy: 23:59

I mean, if you can have it like real-time stats, a bit like we would in the commentary box with paddle intelligence, and you can get real-time stats so that I see you're missing a high percentage of your backhand volleys, it would be so useful, wouldn't it? Because I would say to you, right, OK, now we talk about 80% with your volley. Take it down to 60% with the backhand. Let's just spend this next game getting your backhand volley in. But it's quite difficult to do that. Subconsciously, you kind of keep a track, but you can't track everything within the point, not and concentrate on the dynamics of what's happening with the pairs and how they're feeling. And those between-point dynamics are really important. You see a player miss a volley and get super frustrated. I want to tell you at the next change of end hey, the left side player is getting really frustrated. If you can put a bit of pressure on him, it looks like he's going to crack. You know, that information is as important, I think.

Tom: 24:56

Yeah. No, it's a really interesting question. Thank you, Mark. Yeah, that may be something we can look at ongoing, can't we? It's definitely an interesting

Sandy: 25:05

topic. Something for me to do while I'm there. Could you just get tracking as well? Yeah,

Tom: 25:10

it's a super interesting question.

Sandy: 25:12

Perfect. Oh, he's come up with another question. What is the big difference for players having a coach on the bench instead of being alone as a pair? That is a good question. Now, I think it's a massive help because it's actually someone that can basically find the balance between the players. When you are two players on the bench, you need to find your balance and find your partner's balance so they play their best paddle. But with a coach, that's essentially their job. And it's almost like being the therapist, basically. But I

Tom: 25:43

think like we mentioned just earlier, I think if you have the right coach. I think if the coach potentially is not the right fit, then if anything, it can really make it worse, right? Because that's the time you need to kind of settle, almost regroup. And if you kind of feel perhaps like you're not and it almost makes you don't, you're not looking forward to

Sandy: 26:02

that. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes the coach can frustrate the players and it really makes it a problem. But no, it's another good one. Tom, an absolute pleasure to have you on this podcast. And thank you, members, for tuning in and the questions. And we will see you on the next one.