The Bandeja Magazine Issue 2

news
Play four
Play fair
with Padel Pussy...
If there’s one thing that gets my gander in
padel it’s the ‘fridge’ treatment - when the
opposition purposely avoids hitting the ball
to you or your partner, so only playing on one
player and freezing out the other. It’s usually
about trying to neutralise the better player.
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There are a couple of players in my group
who seem to have no qualms fridging
an opponent, even when it’s just a social
match. As if winning were so important! In
a competition, it’s more understandable,
although I still find it poor sportsmanship.
Here’s my wish: that we could gracefully find
a way to say ‘stop being such poor sports’!
At least for the social games, I’d love it if there
were a code word that efficiently reminded
everyone that we’re on the court to have fun
and get some exercise ... all of us! And to
stop bloomin’ fridging!
With a couple of good players’ inputs,
I’ve created a list of things to do to deal with
being fridged.
In the first place, get a partner who plays
the same level as you (so there’s no
incentive to play on one person).
Let your partner know of the situation
because the person who’s playing all
the balls doesn’t always realise what’s
happening. If the opposition are
reasonable people, you can of course
notify them, too.
If you’re the person being played on,
hit more shots down the line in the
hopes to get more diagonal play.
Don’t play on just one side (ie left or
right). You can alternate on the service,
at a minimum. Secondly, going a bit
more extreme, you can switch sides
during the points.
Padel is a foursome. Let’s all play four
and play fair.
LTA puts celebs
on court
Lionesses Jill Scott & Ellen White, TV presenter Dr Ranj Singh, GB Olympic
hockey star Sam Quek and former Scotland rugby international Max
Evans are the stars of a new series of videos produced by the LTA to
promote padel.
Padel People puts the celebs on court to talk about padel, take on
challenges and have a light-hearted match. Padel coach Toby Bawden,
of Drop Shot UK and The Padel School, makes a guest appearance with
Dr Ranj and Nicole Scherzinger pops up on court with Max Evans.
Watch here: https://www.lta.org.uk/news/padel-people/
In deep water:
Toby and Sam
Nickel are given
paddles to play
with to even
out their game
against Dr Ranj
and presenter
Nicole Holliday.
Dr Ranj takes
aim on court
at Rocks Lane,
Chiswick,
watched by
Toby Bawden
and presenter
Nicole Holliday.
18 thebandeja.com