The Joy of Padel podcast with David Garcia

David Garcia’s Background

– David shares his journey in padel, starting at the age of four.
– He discusses his early years playing in his neighborhood and his progression to professional padel.
– Mentions notable players from his neighborhood who also became professional padel players, including Ale Galan and Alba Galan.

David’s Playing Style

– David describes his playing style as fast and competitive, likening himself to a fox.
– He talks about his physical attributes and how he compensates for not being tall or strong.
– Discussion on his favorite shot, the “Bajada de pared,” and his approach to different shots in padel.

Evolution of Padel Techniques

– Minter and David discuss the evolution of padel techniques and the introduction of new shots.
– David explains the importance of adapting one’s game to the team and the match situation.

Coaching at M3 Padel Academy

– David talks about his role at M3 Padel Academy and the academy’s growth.
– M3 Padel Academy’s methodology and structured training programs are highlighted.
– The academy’s upcoming new facility with 18 indoor courts is mentioned.

Training Methodology and Coach Consistency

– Importance of unified training methods and consistent coaching across the academy.
– David explains how M3 ensures all coaches deliver the same high-quality training.
– Discussion on the challenges of maintaining consistency while allowing individual coach personalities to shine.

Client Programs and International Reach

– Overview of M3 Padel Academy’s client base, including school students, competition players, and professional players.
– The academy’s international training weeks and collaborations with clubs worldwide.
– Emphasis on the need for coaches to speak multiple languages due to the global nature of padel.

Challenges in Coaching and Padel Culture

– David discusses the difficulty of finding and training good padel coaches.
– The importance of experience and making mistakes in becoming a good coach.
– Insights into the culture of padel and the importance of teamwork and communication on the court.

Personal Anecdotes and Reflections

– David shares a funny anecdote from his competitive days involving a heated match and a partner throwing opponents’ bags over the fence.
– Reflections on the importance of sportsmanship and dealing with imperfect calls in padel.

Join Us Next Time

– Stay tuned for more episodes of The Joy of Padel, where we continue to explore the world of padel with top players and coaches.

Follow David Garcia and M3 Padel Academy

• Instagram: @davidgcampospadel
• M3 Padel Academy: Instagram | Website

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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:

David Garcia | international padel training | M3 Padel Academy | padel club facilities | Padel Coaching | padel coaching certification | padel competition | padel court techniques | padel game strategy | padel global expansion | padel mental focus | padel partner dynamics | padel physical training | padel player | padel player development | padel player improvement | padel professional players | padel psychological training | padel shot techniques | padel tactical training | padel teamwork | padel training consistency | padel training drills | padel training experience | padel training methodology | padel training programs

This transcription comes courtesy of Flowsend.ai, an AI service for podcasters

Minter Dial [0:03 – 0:17]: David Garcia, welcome to the joy of padel. It’s brilliant to have you on the show. I heard about you through Atte. I know that you know my cousi, Nallé. And so let’s start with a little bit about who is David Garcia?

David Garcia [0:18 – 1:12]: Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Minter, for this invitation. For me, it’s a pleasure to be here and to share my small or big knowledge, depending. And who is David Garcia? Well, to sum up is a guy that has been playing padel. for 27 years, since I was four years old. I started playing in my neighborhood. My parents moved to a neighborhood where we have a padel. court in there with walls, with stone ground and everything. And I started playing padel. so young then, my whole life in this beautiful sport, competing, training as a coach now in M3 Padel Academy, organizing all the collaborations, all the international collaborations. So my life is padel.

Minter Dial [1:12 – 1:32]: You would be, I suspect you might even be my first pure player on the joy of padel. That’s to say, you began at the age of four. I began at the age of ten, but by the age of ten, I was already playing tennis as well, where it seems like you were actually, you know, I suppose you probably played tennis as well.

David Garcia [1:32 – 2:23]: No, no, never, never. I’m pure padel. player. I started playing padel. then when I started training at the age of six, it was padel. I used to train like two times a week because padel. was not so professional whenever we started, but always padel. never tennis. And just like a fun information or something like this in my own neighborhood. And the neighborhood where I started playing padel. we were, whenever we were kids. Then we became professional padel. players, five of us. My brother, Carlos Garcia Campos, that now has stopped also playing professional, Jaime Menende, that he has been top hundred in the world, and then Ale Galan and Alba.

Minter Dial [2:23 – 2:26]: Alba and Ale Gallan, I think, I think I’ve heard of them.

David Garcia [2:27 – 2:49]: Yeah, yeah. The neighbor Galan did a video in his own car where he started playing padel whenever he was two years old, three years old. And I used to live in the third floor in Ghana, in the fourth floor. So we know each other since we were kids and both were padel. pure padel. players.

Minter Dial [2:49 – 2:54]: Oh, boy. Right. Well, so Alba and Ale also are pure padel. players.

David Garcia [2:54 – 3:04]: Yeah, both of them. I used to train because of the aids with Alba Galan in the group, and my brother used to train with Ale Galan when they were young because of the age.

Minter Dial [3:05 – 3:32]: I see. That’s brilliant. Beautiful. So let’s talk about your game, first of all. So you got to be the top 60 in the world and you retired from professional padel. four years ago. Talk about your style of play. I love to find out a little bit more about how you, as a pure player, in particular, it’s very interesting. What’s your style of play? And the way I like to ask it is, what sort of animal do you think of yourself as on a padel. court?

David Garcia [3:33 – 4:29]: For me, it can be like an animal who is fast and who competes well, because I’m not so tall, I’m not so strong. I am like 172 cm tall, so not so big. So I have to supply this kind of physical, because I used to face a lot of powerful, strong players with being soft, being fast, and core competition well, the important points, and also with good techniques. And I used to play whenever I was young in the left side. But whenever I became professional, because of my physical condition, I moved to the forehand side and to the right side. And I was not a right hand player as usual, because I also pressured the ball. Do some winners. It was like a mix.

Minter Dial [4:29 – 4:41]: Yeah, well, because you played on the left, you knew how to put away shots. I mean, Chingoto comes to mind as a small now playing with Galan, a smaller right side player.

David Garcia [4:42 – 5:22]: Yeah, yeah, more or less, or maybe more like dineno, that maybe pressures a little bit more than Chingoto. But the thing is that padel is not an individual sport, is sometimes you need to adapt to the team, adapt to your partner. Probably Chingoto with Gargan is playing slowly, safety and working more because Garan is winning more points. But whenever Chingoto used to play with momo or within the master final with Dineno, he had to look for more winners or whatever. So he adapted their own game to their own style of play to the team.

Minter Dial [5:22 – 5:28]: So what sort of animal would you, how would you describe your game if you now had to use an animal?

David Garcia [5:28 – 5:38]: Probably like a fox that exists, small but fast. It’s quite similar, I think that’s funny.

Minter Dial [5:38 – 5:59]: My father, who was the. I think he was the very first guest on my show. He called himself the Silver Fox because he’s an older man, but he’s known the game like I have since the early 1970s. So what about your favorite shot when you’re playing still today? What do you. What is your favorite shot?

David Garcia [6:00 – 6:25]: I think with updates, that is the Bajada eparep, because it’s my favorite shot. I win a lot of points with this, and sometimes whenever I play, I prefer instead of doing Avanteja and keep the net to let the ball pass, because I know with my bajada, I’m going to win a lot of points and have a lot of good results with this.

Minter Dial [6:25 – 6:27]: And do you have a cuchilla as well?

David Garcia [6:28 – 6:43]: Mix? Yeah, but it’s kind of good. I don’t want to say good things about me because it’s something that I think trainers or players should say. But being honest, it’s one of my best source.

Minter Dial [6:43 – 7:53]: Well, beautiful. I mean, when you think about padel. certainly, I think, and your comment would be useful. We’ve had such an evolution of the game where when I was playing in the beginning, it was basically a slop around and there were not even. It wasn’t, you know, the walls that stopped at 3 meters and I mean, such a different type of game, only in concrete. And then it seems like we’re inventing new shots more and more. You’re hearing led dormione, you know, maybe wasn’t something that was so obviously done before. La Bajada wasn’t sort of tried so much. It was a shot off the back wall. But now we’ve given it a name, it feels like La cuchilla is another version. We could actually start talking about different shots off the back wall because you can do the one that a little short shot, like, almost like, but a Chiquita sort of comes down on the side of the players. What shot is that? It’s not like a bajada traditionally. For me, a bajada traditionally is, you know, you’re coming back and you’re hitting, you’re slapping it off the back, you know, high off the back wall to try to get by the two players of the net. But there feels like you could be nuanced about what types of barradas to play.

David Garcia [7:54 – 8:55]: Yeah, totally for me is that every single player has different and own technique. Because in a natural way, in a natural aspect, the movement each different players are going to do is going to be totally different. So for me, the bajada and the cuchilla is different because if you see the bajada opela is more flat and more strong and looking for more power. But the Cucilla Paquito, for example, is so hard also, but with more spin, if the ball pass the opponents, there is less rebound. But for me, the most important thing is with this shot, with the technique you have, I don’t care to try to have the most option you can about direction, about strong strength, about all different things. For not knowing, not being able the opponent to know where they are going to play, how fast and how, with what power, etcetera, and what is the.

Minter Dial [8:56 – 9:11]: I love that. What is the most important concept is you’re going back to the bahada to make sure you have all that flexibility to hit it where you want. What, what’s going through your mind as you’re going back? You let it bounce. Now what? What? How are you working your mind?

David Garcia [9:11 – 9:52]: Yeah. The most important thing for me is to be able to hit the ball high and in front of you. Because some, whenever you let the ball pass, some you. You expect a ball that is perfect for you, that is in front of you, high and the perfect one. But sometimes the rebound is not as you would love to have it. So the most important thing is the decision making about, okay, if the ball is not as easy as I thought, even I was going to do a bajada, let’s throw a lot, or let’s throw a slowly bajada, because I can take the risk whenever it’s perfect for me. If not, I have to change my opinion. But this is something that you have to make the decision in seconds.

Minter Dial [9:52 – 10:09]: Yeah. For example, if the ball’s coming too close to the wall, it drops sort of slowly on the wall, as opposed to coming off the wall, which, of course happens or hits. Maybe even the grill, the netting on the top, of course it’s going to bounce weirdly. And so there, you have to be more safe about the way you play it.

David Garcia [10:11 – 11:02]: Totally agree. So if the ball is difficult in the end, it’s not having the rebound you want. You have to throw a lot. Or, for example, it depends also the result you are having. Even you are having a very, very good bajada. But the last three bajadas, you missed two, or the opponent has blocked the three of them, and you are not winning the net and you are not reaching your objective. Maybe you need to look for something different. So it depends on the match of the opponents or maybe in the day. That’s the difference between a very good player and a normal player. The normal player is doing always a good shot, but if it works or not, it doesn’t might, it doesn’t matter to them, but the very good player know how to adapt and see what is happening in a match and select the. The shot that is working in this game.

Minter Dial [11:03 – 11:23]: I love the way you’re talking about that. And I can’t imagine having had to practice against Ale Galan, the guy. Or, you know, so many of the players have such reactions. If I were to do a bajada, they would see it. They would have a cup of tea before hitting the ball. They’d be survived totally. I wonder when he’s going to hit the ball. I’m ready.

David Garcia [11:25 – 12:03]: Totally. Totally. There we in M3 part academy. We have Galantine Koto now, and I have, I had the opportunity to train with them also because I know Alain, a lot of years ago, I used to play around one year with Alan whenever we were younger, both. And the difference between the top hundred in the world and these kind of players is how fast they hit the ball without making mistakes. It’s crazy how fast and with, with so less, so with not a lot of mistakes. And it’s totally crazy that it is.

Minter Dial [12:03 – 12:14]: All right, well, one more question about your game. What is the shot that you want to improve on, which is the one you feel like I need to get better at? That one, probably.

David Garcia [12:15 – 13:19]: I would say the forehand, the normal forehand without wall. Why? Because whenever I started training padel. is one of the things that the padel. players do it worse than the tennis players because this lift forehand, controlling the speeds, controlling the direction without wall. Normally we let the ball pass and we use the rebound. We don’t use this forehand. We don’t use to train this normal forehand a lot. So I will set the normal forehand for changing rhythms, changing direction, and having more confidence in that stroke. It’s something that whenever I used to compete a lot, I worked a lot, a lot, a lot on this because it’s some, it’s a stroke that, for a padel. player is not the most trained one that, compared to a tennis player, tennis players are training this every single time.

Minter Dial [13:19 – 13:49]: Well, I think in particular of the return of service, where if you, I mean, that’s most of the, I don’t know if most, but when you’re playing on the right, when the wall, it comes off the wall, you’re hitting it sort of a sidewall and stroke, or just a direct stroke, and you’ve got to time it correctly so you get it back over the net, down at the feet of the server. But what about your backhand, then? Because that normally is also the same situation. But you say your forehand is more important to you to improve than your back hand drive.

David Garcia [13:49 – 14:30]: Yeah, I think both depends on. This is a particular case of me because as I used to play more time in the left side, I trained more the normal backhand because the ball came more to my backhand instead of my forehand. So the forehand, I passed the ball to the other side, and I never needed to control a lot of the speeds in the ball because with this, just passing the ball to the site was enough for me. Whenever I moved to the right side, whenever I was in 1920 years old. I saw that I would need to have more control in the forearm.

Minter Dial [14:30 – 14:46]: Beautiful. All right, now let’s talk about your current occupation. David, you are working at the M3 Padel Academy, as the director, head coach. Tell us about and a shareholder. Tell us about what is M3?

David Garcia [14:47 – 15:37]: Well, in general worlds, M3 Padel Academy, is one of the biggest academies in the world. We are a team of more than 35 coaches that we train with the same methodology, with the structured trainings and it started like eleven years ago and now we are working here in Madrid in two different facilities. Okay. But in September we are going to have and own our own club. We are going to be the first academy in the world that is going to own a specific padded club focused in competition and training. It’s going to be so big. It’s going to have 18 indoor courts with five center courts 15 meters high, the roof. So it’s going to be amazing.

Minter Dial [15:37 – 15:39]: You can really do you know La Bomba?

David Garcia [15:40 – 15:50]: Yeah, yeah, you can. Pinchado. We say pinchado: very high and you didn’t, you don’t even touch the roof. So it’s going to be great.

Minter Dial [15:50 – 16:07]: All right, so let’s start talking about the coaching system that you have. So I assume what that means is that each of the coaches uses the same techniques and the same styles and the same designs and, and the same types of strokes.

David Garcia [16:08 – 17:32]: Yeah, normally we’ve seen that it’s important to unify the way the team is working because a lot of years ago people were fertilized to the trainer. If the trainer trains good, it’s okay. If the train is training different but also good, it’s okay. But people don’t fertilize to a product, to a training where used to be fertilized only to the trainer. We’ve seen that we need to do something more professional, something to offer the same training, the same product to every single customer that comes to us. Instead regarding it doesn’t matter which coach is the one who is going to part. How we do this. We give the same information to all of our coaches. We do the same supervision of the coaches to every single one. And also we work with the session program. So we have an annual planning for training divided into levels. Competition, training are organized so the coach are not inventing the training by themselves. They are following what we in M3. We said them today you have to do this lesson the next day, this one, the next day this one, the next day this one. Sorry, I don’t hear, I don’t hear you.

Minter Dial [17:32 – 18:41]: Now you are right. I put myself on mute because I don’t want you hear the drilling behind me. But when you use the word fidelize in English, we would say typically more gain loyalty or get the loyalty people, just to be clear. But the notion of having the same system is so important. Obviously, if you’re changing coaches as a student, you come in and then all of a sudden, because I have an example where I had one coach that said to me, well, we don’t do the gancho anymore. That’s out, that’s passe. Whereas another coach said to me, well, no, no, it’s completely useful. This is where you use it. I’m like, which one is it? And so if you’re getting mixed messages like that, when should you leave the ball to go by? You hit the wall or little technique aspects like la vie bora is. Is different from La Mandeja. But the mandeja, by the way, has changed, in my opinion. It used to be a real tray shot. You know, you had the tray. Now the way you hit it, it’s closer and closer to a vibora. So which one is it, when is it? And all these other things are important to have the consistency amongst the coaches.

David Garcia [18:43 – 20:14]: Totally. For us, the most important thing is that all of our team has to send the same message, the same information to the. To each different player. We say that we go in our methodology space, that we go from the game to a technique. And all the coaches know that we have to do a warm up and a control drills where we have to focus in consistency. We have to work techNique, where we do technical corrections, and then we have to do some points with condition or tacticals, and there we have to do tactical correction, not technical correction. Okay. They know this and they know what kind of operation they have to do, how we teach this, how we teach this. And even the coaches are changing or someone is ill and it’s not coming and another one is going to do the lesson to them. They are going to work in the same way. So the customer, the player is not feeling that is changing the training. So we reach one thing that for us is very important, that people whenever come to M3 Padel Academy, to train. They are not training with David Garcia Campos, with Fernando Polly, with Jorge Martinez, or with Angel Reno, or with David Rechena. They are training with an entry coach. They know the training is good and the training is going to be good, but they don’t choose which training they want. So this is something that takes time to reach this. That takes a lot of work to reach this, but now we are in the perfect point for this.

Minter Dial [20:14 – 20:59]: Well, so I used to run a large company that had 2000 educators. So this is something I’m very familiar with in terms of what it takes to make that consistency, because we were in 40 countries around the world, and we wanted to have a consistent approach. The challenge was allowing the individual to exist within that system, because the personalities. How much? Someone who’s really smiling a lot. Well, should you allow them to smile? Someone who’s much more introverted? Can it be part of the same system? And how do you allow for personality to flourish within a singular system?

David Garcia [20:59 – 21:59]: Okay, this is something that is difficult to control. Okay. We ask our coaches to have. To have respect to their students. They are working face to face with the public, to smile, to be honest, to be sympathetic, to be empathy. But this is something of the personality you cannot control. Maybe someone prefers this one smiles more, this one talks more, and this one is a little bit more serious. It doesn’t matter. But if we control the rest, what we can control, the other things are smaller. So maybe if the coach is changing, okay, maybe this one can be a little bit more funny, or this one can be a me, can do a little bit more jokes. I don’t know. But if the training is same, if everything is controlled, at least what I can do as a company, as an academy, I control as much as I can about what the final service we have.

Minter Dial [22:00 – 22:14]: Beautiful. All right, so talk to me about your type of clients and how do you attract them. What sort of programs do you provide? Whether it’s for internationals or it’s always in English, or. How do you do that?

David Garcia [22:14 – 24:06]: Perfect. Now, in the. In the academy, in these facilities, we’re working, we have around 1200 students. Okay. We call it school students. Okay. Or escuela mater. These students train every single week. Okay. And these students are from initiation, intermediate and advanced adults and kids. Okay. Apart from this, we have 150 competition players that they train two, three, four times a week, and a group of 30 professional players. In this pile player, we have Galan Chingoto, we used to have LeBron, we have Chingotto beyond Delphi, and a lot of more girls. Guys, okay, apart from this, we are receiving people from all over the world. We are doing, like, training weeks where people come from South Africa, from United States, from Australia, from Shanghai, from Sweden, and they come one week to train, like intensive training, okay? And we are receiving people every almost. We do it like three times, three weeks, a month, groups around ten to 15 players, okay. And we also are doing collaboration with clubs all over the world. I am the international expansion manager and I consult all the collaboration we are doing. And now nowadays we are working with clubs from the Philippines, passing through Hong Kong, in the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, Sweden, Italy, Kuwait. So a lot of countries we are going and we try to share all of our experience with them.

Minter Dial [24:06 – 24:11]: So a lot of your coaches must speak other languages other than English or Spanish.

David Garcia [24:12 – 24:51]: Totally, totally. Now, for example, as we are growing the team, we used to be like five years ago we were too many coaches. Now we are 35 coaches. But now the coaches we are teaching, the coaches we are hiring, they have to know in this because it’s something that is totally fundamental and totally important. Because now padel. is global. 15 years ago, padel. was only played in Spain and in Argentina, so there were no problem. But now it’s booming all over the world. It’s crazy the way it’s booming all over the world. So they have speaking.

Minter Dial [24:51 – 25:37]: That is so true. And one of my challenges on the joy of padel. is getting good players that also speak English by note battle. This is an english speaking podcast, so we’re talking about coaches. 1 second. One of the challenges that I see for speaking to so many clubs around the world is that it’s difficult to get good coaches, getting converted tennis players who know how to hit the ball. Okay, technically good on that. But they don’t actually have the culture of padel. And so I’m wondering a, do you coach coaches? And two, what is it about the culture of padel. Can you distill for us? What do you think is the culture of padel. perfect?

David Garcia [25:38 – 27:18]: Answering your question, yes, we are doing certifying coaches. We are doing the coaches formation for the coaches is one of the keys we are doing all over the world because obviously there is a lack of good coaches. But being honest, it’s impossible to teach padel. in two days or in five days or even in 15 days. The biggest problem all over the world is that there is going to be a lack of good coaches for covering the whole world. Perfect. Okay. We need to create coaches. Perfect. How we create good coaches is with experience. There is no other way. Even you study 10 hours a day during one month. You have to be on court doing lessons, learning, studying, watching padel. and making a lot of mistakes during a lot of time. So it takes time. There is not the perfect formula. We are looking for solution and online courses and ebrid courses and doing this and passing tennis players into padding and teaching them because they have the base of how to hit the ball. But it’s going to be impossible to have a lot of good coaches in the next five years because these coaches have to test to do lessons, to make mistakes and to learn about time. The only way to be a good coach is with experience. There’s no other way. This is the biggest lag that is going to happen in the world in the next 510 years, I’m totally sure.

Minter Dial [27:19 – 28:12]: Well, I have two thoughts. One is I’m just thinking about, I played a few days ago in Las Vegas and I was playing with my partner, Netto and a great, lovely man. And I said, well, of course, it’s all about not making mistakes. Mistakes, what do I do? The next point is I make an unforced error like, ah, and by the way, I’m a certified coach as well, so I’m thinking, good lord, I still making stupid mistakes like that. So even that is the challenge there is experiencing the mistake that I said you shouldn’t be doing and I didn’t do it. You know, say what I do and don’t know, say, do what I say, not say what I do. Yeah, right. But in terms of the culture of padel. what would you just, how would you describe the culture padel. and where do you think it’s going? Do you think it’ll be able to stay the same kind of mindset that we’ve always had?

David Garcia [28:13 – 29:35]: Yeah, I think so. Because what you said, if there is a perfect formula about, okay, I don’t have to make mistakes, then I train like this and then I don’t make the mistakes. Everybody would be a professional, everybody would be the top number one. That’s the difference between the top ten players and the top 50 and the top 100, is that in these important moments, the one who deal better with the pressure, with not having to make the ball, with passing the ball as much difficult as I can without making the mistakes, is the difference and how I can improve this training, repeating a lot of time, the same situation. I used to have a trainer, whenever I started that, he sent me in the beginning, okay, first you have to lose the matches in two sets. Then against the same one, you are going to have the opportunity of doing one set. You are going to lose it and you are going to lose again in two sets. Then you are going to win one set, lose the second, and in the third one, you are going to have opportunities to win and you are going to lose again. And then after this, you are going to be able to win something because you have to lose and to learn how to deal with this situation a lot of time before you reach your.

Minter Dial [29:36 – 29:59]: I love that. Luisito Estrada, one of the number one players in the United States, said that he spent one year losing in order to become the padel. player that he is today. And it makes me think also of Roger Federer. Of course, not padel. but a pretty good tennis player. He. Do you know, do you know what percentage of points that he won in his entire career?

David Garcia [29:59 – 30:02]: I’ve seen it. 54%, I think.

Minter Dial [30:03 – 30:10]: Crazy, right? So it’s a great, great speech, I think. Totally appropriate for padel. tennis, right?

David Garcia [30:10 – 31:39]: Yeah, yeah, totally. And also the difference between tennis because, okay, I lose or I win only the 54% of the. Of the point, it’s my fault or the opponent for that place. Perfect. But here in padel. we have to deal with a partner. Partner, okay. Partner. That I can only do a 25% of the job if I. Even if I do the 25, 25% of my part. That is my hundred percent perfect. It doesn’t, it doesn’t. It’s not going to be a result that I’m going to win or I’m going to do a very good match because if my partner plays bad or have a bad day or get injured or whatever, we are going to lose. So that’s why we, whenever we teach padel. we say that you have to train like a team from the beginning because padel. is not one on one, padel. is two against you. And you have to learn how to deal with my. Pardon, mistake with, with my mistakes. And my partner is playing so good and I’m having this, this pressure, everything from the beginning, because if we don’t start here from the beginning, you learn one on one how to play padel during three years. Then you start playing with someone, this someone misses the break ball, you’re going to get angry and you’re going to lose the point because you’re going to not having the focus. You have to. And this is more important than doing the perfect technique of the bandeja or the volley or whatever.

Minter Dial [31:39 – 32:28]: And that, back to your original point, David, is about the inability to learn this overnight because you need to have those experiences to screw up and then see in yourself how you’re reacting to your partner who screwed up, and then to have this relationship and evolving relationship. Hey, listen, David, yesterday I played really well and you didn’t play so well. I got very upset at you. I’m sorry about that. And then, well, let’s try and work on that together right now. And I’m wondering to what extent within the M3 you actually start to talk about these ideas of communication and choosing the right team, a player to play with you. These other elements are so important to the success of any player.

David Garcia [32:29 – 33:36]: Totally agree. And for us is the most important thing. I mean, we don’t give a lot of importance, understand me, to the technique, for example, we believe we give more importance to know how to collocate on court. Depending on where your partner is, to whenever your partner is making a mistake, to go and clap the hand and say it’s okay, let’s go for the next one. To keep being focused when the ball is not coming, for you to know what kind of work to say, to, to have respect to the opponent, to select. I prefer you to play to the perfect place with the perfect speed. Even your technique of the bandeja is not good because it’s more important. This so padel. is not like tennis, that the technique is so, so, so, so important. And it’s more important. All of these kind of things related with psychology and focus, uh, with tactics and with the deals of these emotions, is the most important thing.

Minter Dial [33:36 – 34:03]: I love that you. We’re going to finish on that. And it makes me think, you know, like if you look at Paquito, for example, technically he doesn’t look like, I mean, he doesn’t. He’s not a beautiful, graceful player, but he’s very efficient in his play, and that’s how it suits him, you know? And you think about how different people hit different Vibora or different bandeja, that’s their style. And it’s as long as it’s effective, then that’s totally.

David Garcia [34:03 – 35:41]: If you see the thing, what we say, that technique is not so important, understand me again, is because if you say it’s different player, they have totally different techniques, they don’t do every single one they have a single viewer is totally different, but they make the correct decision, they play the right place, they compete very well, they select better this very good speed. They select the speed not having at all rebound, maybe now change the speed and keeping it strong. And this is the most important thing. The technique is important for passing the ball to the other side. Once you pass, you are able to pass the other side. We need to work in all the other things. You said Paquito. If you see Paquito, it’s not the most beautiful technique, but it’s efficient. And he’s a NaIP competitor and he always take the good decision in every single ball. And the important point, he’s not going to lose the point or he’s not going to miss the ball, he’s going to give the opportunity to the opponent to screw it up. So Paquito, and for example, Paquito is another one that has been Cupid. I know I’ve been in the national team whenever we were young with Paquito Navarro, with Juan LeBron. So we know each other. I have a picture of my brother Galan and LeBron, whenever they were ten years old, they were playing tournaments. So if you start playing tournaments and leave this kind of experience, this kind of bad decision from this young age, whenever you are 18, you’ve been ten years making mistakes. And so you have learned a lot about this.

Minter Dial [35:42 – 36:03]: And that makes me think about when Juan LeBron gets upset with his partner Galan. He was actually probably getting upset that that wasn’t what we had been working on, as opposed to that we actually lost the point. He’s upset that the system isn’t working or you didn’t do what we were supposed to be doing as a plan.

David Garcia [36:04 – 37:18]: Okay. I know LeBron a lot of years ago. We have LeBron in M3 Padel Academy, for four years during the world of number one. And LeBron is a very beautiful guy. Outside the court is super nice, but inside the court, he’s, for me, like in football, in soccer, like Gustavo Ronaldo, his job is to win every single point, to do every single thing perfect. And at the moment, something is not going perfect as he wants. He gets upset. It’s something that he under control because he’s the way he is. He’s working a lot of in the psychological aspect with psychologists in the academy and everything, but sometimes he cannot control this. That’s the weak point of LeBron. And that’s why there are other people that they are kind of this way they play or the way they are, because we are not machines. Okay? LeBron is perfectly technique. He competes very well, tactically very well, and physical, spectacular. But this psychological barking is improved king noise. But not everybody is perfect because we are not machines.

Minter Dial [37:18 – 37:42]: Really, David, I’m shocked. I can’t believe it. I. You know, there I’m mister perfect. We’re going to finish. Last question, David. The joy of padel. is all about spreading the joy. And I always like to ask, what is a funny anecdote or story that you have around padel. on a padel. court that would. That makes you smile?

David Garcia [37:45 – 37:58]: Difficult question. I can have a lot of them. Let me think. 10 seconds, because I have to filter which one.

Minter Dial [37:59 – 38:05]: I know, I know. Because the point is that there’s so many funny times, right? Missing a ball.

David Garcia [38:06 – 39:40]: I have mine, I’m not going to say names, okay. But I used to play with one, with one guy. And if, you know, in the previous of world pile tour and professional tournaments, they were not referees. So it was like the jungle. Okay. So we were playing, we were in the third set looking for the main draw and we were facing the opponents and we, we had some arguments about, this ball is good, it’s not out or whatever. So my partner started to become hot and hot and hot and hot. At the moment, that one very important ball that was totally in. They say, no, it was out, no, start arguing. And my partner goes out to the court, take the backs of the opponents and throw the back away to the other court above the fence and everything. And now I’m going to the referee. But you look for your back. So I was inside the court, like what you’re doing, but. But it was totally crazy. I have been honest. One of the things I didn’t like in competing the players, that if they are not referees, a lot of people stall balls. A lot of people were not being honest while they’re playing. And you have to deal with a lot of things that they are not the perfect ones for professionals. Yeah, it was for me, very fun to see inside the court, throwing my partner, throwing the bags above the fence of the opponent. The opponent was what you are doing. Don’t stall me anymore.

Minter Dial [39:40 – 40:09]: Yeah, that’s crazy. Well, I mean, it does bring up the point, this challenge of being a good sport and the challenge, and of course, I have made bad calls as well. And it’s hard to always get all the calls right. So another case of being imperfect. David, it’s been a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you so much for coming on. Tell us how people can follow you personally as a coach and also get more information about M3.

David Garcia [40:09 – 40:49]: Perfect. Thank you very much. It’s been a totally pleasure. I’ve spent a lot of good time in Instagram. They can follow me at WG campus. Okay. And also entry pile academy. We have Instagram website, we have everything there. And I invite everybody to come in September, October to our new entry pile center. We will publish something soon. Some render, some picture and everything, and nothing. Everything has been super good. Thank you for your time. Inter. And whenever you want, I would love to. To come back.

Minter Dial [40:50 – 40:54]: Oh, I would love that. And so M3, that’s in Madrid, of course, right?

David Garcia [40:54 – 40:59]: Yeah, it’s in Madrid. We are going to be in Leganes. The new club is going to be in Legans.

Minter Dial [41:01 – 41:02]: Many thanks, David.

David Garcia [41:03 – 41:04]: Welcome. It’s been a pleasure.