Is the right player in padel evolving? The end of the 2023 season has shown us that roles are increasingly interchangeable and destined to reshape together. We explain why.
Left or right player?
Right or left? The age-old question, in politics as in padel. On the left the attack, the revolutionary push: the Marxes, the Che Guevaras, the Paquito Navarros, utopians of the racket, throwing flares to break the mold. The padel theory tells us that the left player is the one most devoted to the attack, with point finisher characteristics and the most powerful smash of the pair: it is up to him to monetize the construction work carried out by the partner on his right, closing the exchange with an incisive or decisive blow.
On the right instead the defense, the calculated play, the solidity of the schematic thought: the Thatchers, the Di Nennos, the Chingottos. Il thinking brain of the couple, in padel, he is certainly the right player: solid and cautious, intent on laying the foundations that pave the way for his partner’s decisive intervention, between variations and changes of pace. A role of cut and sew that with the advent of players like Lebron, it seems though destined to change, devoting itself more and more to power and anticipation.
Right and left, two defined poles. Apparently granite certainties, yet destined to collapse to be remodeled together. Here because.
No need to pull hard: the Chingotto-Di Nenno rule
David versus Goliathbig against small: a challenge that always likes a lot. The final of the World Padel Tour 2023 Final Master was not only a reinterpretation of the biblical story, but a real tactical manual of rare intelligence, which opened a reflection on the game same. On the one hand the outsiders, Chingotto and DiNenno, both right-wing players, both bandeja workers. On the other, the number one in the world, Lebron and Galan: tall, powerful, stronger than all. One pair that pulls very slowly, and one that pulls very hard. The tiny Chingotto then, right-footed player par excellence, takes sides on the left for the first time in my career.
The match tastes like a clash of styles, of visions of the world. And what happens is a half miracle. The field is slow and this means long rallies. The hope of the challengers thus finds himself hanging by a thread of intelligent play and physical effort. Di Nenno is in the right corner, moving in perpetrating the usual exhausting yo-yo volèe-tray, while Chingotto affects geometry and changes of pace in the center, without ever forcing the play. After a chess fight, the two little workers manage to surprise tear the second set to the thugs, the only ones to succeed in the tournament.
Joy does not last long. In fact, the prediction is obvious and Galan and Lebron win it in the third set. Ma what matters about the match at the Palau Sant Jordi is not so much the result finalebut the tactical methods implemented by the challengers. Never a por tres, never a power play for little Argentines. Is it possible that they managed to play an equal game? But if breaking through is impossible and counterproductive, then the basics of padel are backthat of the origins: bandeja and network control. You don’t need a winner, you can win without making a mistake. Almost.
The rule of patience
As mentioned, Chingotto and Di Nenno lose the final in the third set, but how to read the performance?
By individualizing the issue, and pointing it at Chingottothe question becomes even more interesting: can you play on the left effectively even without big offensive weapons? The answer is yes. If our two little heroes manage to play that game evenlywithout big offensive tools of definition, then this sport still speaks the language of patience. They won’t win that game, but just go down the category because the rule becomes more and more reliable.
Enthusiasts and club players prick up: up to a certain level, in padel you don’t need to shoot hard, nor necessarily close the point with a winner. And on the left you can play well even without a big smash. The key thing is not to make mistakes. He also says so Gustavo Spectorthe Italian padel guru. And looking back at the match, Chingotto and Di Nenno are the best example.
It must be said, that in the case of the level of a WPT final, that of Chingotto-Di Nenno is definitely an edge casebut useful for reflection. The evolutionary direction of indeed padel of the tops does not stop to the mere solidity of the game, but rather it seems more and more to combine the characteristics of the left player with the right one. A mix of power and defensive reads well embodied by one player in particular: john lebron.
Lebron’s rule: beyond the right player
If the rules exist (even) to be broken, then john lebron it exists for a reason. Once an excellent left-footed player, alongside a legend like J.M. DiazLebron adapted to the opposite role to forge the dream couple, with Ale Galan. The wolf he then becomes a right-wing player, but entirely atypical: in addition to the patient solidity and defensive qualities of the classic “right”, Lebron moves the athletic but above all conceptual bar of the role itself.
From all sides of the field: explosiveness
Explosiveness, smash kick from every position, aggressive advance. Lebron takes the offensive characteristics of the left player adapting them to the geometry of the other side. The possibility of finishing the point also from the right becomes like this a striking weaponwith the opponents forced to defend themselves on the edge of perfection, with the defensive margin of error practically zero. If normally in difficult situations one tends to raise the lob on the right player, with Lebron this safe haven doesn’t exist, as he manages to generate smash winners even from that area of the field. The clear superiority of the number one in the world is also given by this.
The atypical position
Finally, there is the other revolutionary feature of the Lobo: his field position. atypical, blatantly advanced even in the defensive phase (and so is Galan), enough to play often en bloc or in reverse near the service line (something not recommended to mere mortals by any wise teacher, who would suggest instead letting the ball slide against the glass). The intention is to be aggressive and maintain the network as much as possiblestrengthened by the superiority in the game from above. By raising the percentages of permanence on the net in fact, at a statistical level, the difference is made in this sport. Lebron and Galan know this well.
For the rest, Lebron retains the classic characteristics of the right-handed player. Patience in holding the exchange diagonally with the traythe first class mobility (despite the long levers, which actually allow him to reach the ball often with a single leap), the rhythm changesmade even more fearsome by the aforementioned smash.
The concept of right playertherefore, with Lebron comes significantly remodeled. It is a direction, an arrow pointing to what will be paddle of the future. And if sport has always been destined to undergo changes, the difference today lies in the speed with which they occur. In this sense, considering the boom he is experiencing, padel can only accelerate.