Hi everyone, this is Dani Hoyo, professional padel coach for more than  8 years and playing padel for almost 16. And today we are going to talk about  the importance of hitting flat. Okay, Dani. But when I play with a lot of topspin  and the ball goes really close to the net... Or when I play one volley with a lot of slice  like this one, it's very difficult to take. Dani, these balls are so good. Yes, I agree.  But only if we analyze them individually. Padel is more than that and that's  what we are going to understand today. How is your game when you  have the sun in front of you? When your shoulder is painful, when you don't feel really comfortable  because the game is too tense, when your partner is not the  best partner in the world, when you don't feel 100% comfortable All the time when you are playing  friendly games or competing That's the important thing: competing. I really want to inspire the people who are  competing and taking this sport seriously. I know that we will never feel 100% comfortable. That's why with flat shots, what we are doing is building simple  mechanics and we are reducing variables. One really good coach from Spain,  from Valencia, once taught me: "The slice is like the salt on the food.  If you put too much, the food is not good." And that's the same that happens  in your padel with your shots. To give you some examples of top  players who are playing with flat shots: Coello and Tapia, current number one in the world. And also Paula Josemaría in the  female category, top 4 of the world. And also Jose Maria Hoyo, who is  my dad. He doesn't play padel, but has the same surname as Paula Josemaría.  Hi dad, if you are watching this video! And very important guys, I know that you like a  lot these videos and you are learning so much. But where you are going to learn much  more and you are gonna finally become Agustín Tapia is subscribing to the newsletter. I'm sending one email every day  putting all my knowledge about padel, so you have something from me. So please subscribe because you are going to learn a lot and you are going to  finally learn how to smash. In this video, we are not going to  focus a lot on the technical area. We are going to focus more on  understanding why this is so important. What we are trying to do in the padel method, the mindset and the philosophy of the academy. We will become really good players  if we become regular players. We don't want to play well just  today or just in this tournament. We need to become good players and regular players at the end of the season or  at the end of our career. Reason number one: playing flat  is going to allow us to have a really consistent base from the back of the court. Allowing you to play normal  shots, lobs, or chiquitas. And also it's going to allow you, when we are at  the net, to play normal volleys from up to down. Or normal overheads safely. When we are at the net, our opponents at the back  are playing hard and we are receiving hard shots. So when we open the face of  the racket too much to slice, it's very probable that  these balls go directly out. Or if the timing is not  perfect, that ball can float. If that ball floats, they get  time to play a lob, come to the net to counterattack, or play a chiquita. That's why playing flat you are  making them play with less time. And of course, that ball won't be as  good as a volley with a lot of slice. But that is something you only will be  able to do if the speed of the ball is really really slow And I have a question for you: when  is the ball coming really slow? never. subscribe not never but... When you are starting playing more  and more, so many people before playing padel has been playing tennis  at this stage of the sport worldwide. So people usually plays hard. So if you are here and you don't  have too much time to volley, you are not going to feel really really really good to play a really really  hard shot with a lot of slice. Reason number two: imagine that you are receiving a lob. You are going to do one overhead. And in this overhead that you are going  to play now, you are going to slice a lot. This ball that you are slicing a lot  is making you spend a lot of energy. And I'm going to show you now that you can compare this one with a lot of slice or this one flatter. The second one you are spending much  less energy than in the first one and also that ball is going much faster. So it means that they have  less time to think what to do. Double benefit because you are saving energy  and also you are giving them less time. In this case less is more. This shot more compact, more aligned,  spending less, will be much more than this while we are running back and we  don't have a really good preparation. We are going to always find the balance because  to hit 100% flat is very very difficult. Before I was doing volleys with a lot of slice  because I had a very very good volley before. Maybe I was using 50/50 50% slice, 50% flat. One volley 50% slice and 50% flat looks like this. It looks really well if we just analyze this one. But during the match it's very  very very difficult to do this. Now the volley that I'm trying to do now is this: it's one volley that if we compare it with  the other one, it's a bit less quality. But I'm sure that I can be the  whole match doing this volley. I would say that is 80% flat, 20% slice, and I can even do it 90/10 if I can take the ball a bit higher than the level of  the net, which it will be this one. Or even if the ball is higher, instead of  playing one ball with a lot of slice from here, the option that is giving us to play  flat is to play one chancletazo. So this ball is very difficult for these players  if they are at the back of the court to take. Yeah, this ball is very difficult  unless they block it, but it's going to be very difficult for them to block it. So this is something that is giving  you the possibility of playing flat. Some quick wins that you can start doing to  start hitting flatter than before are the next. When you are hitting with slice, the sound of that shot is not so big. But when you are hitting flatter, it's much noisier. So that is going to help you  easily to find these feelings. The second one and the most important one: go to watch the video where we teach  you how to grip the racket well. Or directly you can use the Auro Grip system where you automatically will start holding the  racket well, gripping the racket well. And you will see how you are allowed to play forehand flat and backhand flat for  whatever shot that you want to play. Playing padel is not about  shots. It's about something else. Let's say you stop playing padel for three months because you get injured or  because you have to travel. If you come back to play  padel and you have to play and perform well in that match, how will you play? Your game depends only on good feelings, depends only on how comfortable you  feel or depends on what you have here? How you understand the sport, how you understand  the technique, how you understand the tactic. So that's what I want to teach you guys.  I want you learn how to play this sport. I'm not training at all because I'm busy with the academy. I don't have too much  time, but I'm still competing. I still have time to compete... Dani Hoyo and Pablo Rodriguez.  This is their opportunity to really fight back. They'll have to  fight in a difficult rally though. Dani Hoyo is on fire! And I'm competing against  guys who are really trained, who they are playing every time  and they are training a lot. And I can compete against  them not because my rhythm of the ball or my rhythm of competition is high. No, it's because I'm understanding  better the sport than them. And of course that I can lose, I can win, but  the important thing is that I can compete. The thing of playing with a lot of  slice, it makes your game be very demanding of playing and playing and  playing and be very active physically. But what if you can play in a more relaxed way? You can make them make more  mistakes and you can observe and analyze better to create better  your strategy to be a better player. That will be much better for you.  Your padel will have a more long term. The good player is not the one who  can make something spectacular. The good player is the one who can make something  simple for a long time under a lot of pressure. So see you guys. Thanks so  much for watching this video. I hope you like it. See you in the next one. Let's grow our level!