Playing padel is easy; playing padel really well is extremely difficult. — Vincent Jülich
It’s fast, it’s fun, and it’s experiencing an unprecedented boom: padel. Vincent Jülich recognized the trend early on and is now one of Germany’s best players. We spoke with the national team player about his love for padel and his life as a professional padel player.
Padel is the Spanish-style sport that originated in Mexico. In some South American countries, as well as in Spain, padel tennis has already surpassed tennis, the sport from which it originated. The trend has now reached Germany and is unstoppable. Vincent Jülich, too, initially played tennis successfully at a club—until a friend took him to try padel. His passion for the new sport was quickly ignited.
“In tennis, I was never the one with the amazing shots or great technique. I was always a good runner and tried to win matches by playing smart. And that’s what makes a good padel doubles team: You have to be able to play in a variety of ways, you have to build up points, and you have to recognize angles,” says Vincent Jülich, adding:
“The combination of agility, fitness, and smart play—that’s what I enjoy so much about padel.”
Exciting rallies guaranteed
Invented by Mexican Enrique Corcuera in the late 1960s, the sport looks at first glance like a mix of tennis and squash. And the racket resembles an oversized, perforated table tennis paddle. But the racket is, of course, a paddle—hence the name “padel.” Obviously. The game is usually played in doubles, two against two. The serve is hit from below, and the ball must clear the net. The ball may only bounce once—just like in tennis. What’s different is that the surrounding fence also serves as part of the playing surface. This opens up many possibilities for variation and, above all, leads to exciting rallies.
What sounds complicated at first isn’t really that complicated. Getting started in padel is especially easy. “Because the serve is hit from below, the rally doesn’t end immediately—as it does in tennis—when you’re playing against a superior opponent. And if the ball flies into your court at high speed, you can let it bounce off the glass first and then return it with a volley,” explains Vincent. Among top-tier padel players, however, the sport becomes much more complex.
“Playing padel is easy. Playing padel really well is extremely hard.”
Pro Player Plus Full-Time Job
But if it were easy, it probably wouldn’t be the right fit for the athlete from Cologne who has made it to the top of the sport in Germany—yet can’t make a living from it alone. He’s a coach, the owner of a padel shop, the developer of a camera system for online training, and on top of that, he holds a full-time job as the managing director of a palliative care service. Vincent always has a lot of balls in the air at once. That requires structure. He builds that structure as the managing director of the care service so that he can, in turn, travel to a training camp in Spain for two weeks every now and then. In the mornings and afternoons, he trains with the world’s best coaches and players to improve his own game. In the evenings, he’s usually still sitting at his laptop, working.
With all this stress, recovery is a fundamental part of Vincent’s training and daily life. And sleep is the most important factor. That’s why the RECOVERY PILLOW is a faithful companion on every trip. To stay fit and healthy, Vincent takes various dietary supplements. Vitamins, omega-3, and magnesium are important to him. For muscle tension and tired legs, he likes to use foam rollers and foam balls—which he uses primarily on trigger points in the hips that are typical for padel—as well as the COMPRESSION BOOTS from BLACKROLL®.
