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In order to not present you with the secrets alone, but provide you with some context I have weaved in these secrets when discussing the following topics:
- How do you take care of your padel racket?
- Can a padel racket get wet?
- How do I protect my padel racket?
- When to replace the grip of your padel racket?
To round it up, we will look at the biggest mistakes that people make that can significantly reduce the lifespan of your padel racket.
How Do You Take Care Of Your Padel Racket?
In general, storing your racket dry and cool environment, while avoiding hitting anything else than the ball with your racket is a good rule of thumb to take care of your padel racket.
Personally, I like to rinse the cord of my padel racket when I get home to ensure that it will not remain fully absorbed by sweat. Let’s say it would not ‘age well’ if I did not do that. That is, I have yet to meet someone that likes the smell of old sweat. Too much information? well, too bad!
Secret #1 : Let your racket dry at room temperature with sufficient airflow
Secret #2 : Quickly dry your racket using a hair dryer
In order to ensure your racket (including the cord) is not staying wet I let it dry at room temperature with sufficient airflow. In a hurry? Well, then you can use a hair dryer as long as you don’t blow at full heat directly onto the racket. This can cause the glued materials to melt and can potentially warp your precious padel racket. If you want to know more about the optimal storing conditions for your padel racket, check out my other article covering this topic in more depth.
Secret #3 : Store your racket in a bag with a cooling compartment
The cooling compartment protects the rackets from big swings in temperature and therefore regulates the temperature. If you are not familiar with a cooling compartment for your padel bag, you might recognize the concept.
Remember these isothermal food bags in which you could bring your food and drinks while keeping them cool?
In both cases, the cooling compartment is made out of aluminum foil and plastic. The plastic foil regulates the temperature while the plastic layer makes it more durable. Although you might gain some of the benefits by making your own cooling compartment by placing insulating foil inside one of the compartments of your backpack. You can even put a thermal shopping bag in your backpack to keep your racket cool. However, make sure that your racket is not wet, because these bags are sealed and the moisture can’t get out. And of course, this nicely ties into our next topic.
Can A Padel Racket Get Wet?
In general, rackets can get wet as they are made to be played on both outdoor and indoor courts. However, the more times you let your racket get wet, the higher the likelihood it reduces the lifespan.
No bueno!
This is of course because we are focused on improving the lifespan of your racket.
Secret #4 : Don’t play in the rain with your (favourite) padel racket
Personally, I use an older racket when I am playing in the rain, especially if it is a friendly game. This way I don’t negatively affect the lifespan of my racket. Well, this is nice advice in theory, but you know sometimes, life happens. Whether you are surprised by a nice shower from mother nature or you forgot to bring another racket, now your racket is wet. So now, what?
If your racket is really wet from the rain you can try to wipe your racket face dry with a towel. Oh, and I don’t mean you get the one that you’ve just used to wipe the sweat off your body during the match.
Secret #5 : Wipe the face of your padel racket dry with a fresh towel
The towel will absorb the moisture on the surface of the racket, however, this alone might not be sufficient. When you get home and your racket is still very wet, you can put paper towels inside the holes of the racket face in order to absorb the moisture.
Secret #6 : Put paper towels in the holes of your padel racket face to absorb excess moisture.
Another trick can be to treat your racket as your phone that you just dropped in water. For the ones not familiar with this trick, the rice will fully encapsulate the object and can therefore absorb any moisture. Well, I don’t think it is the most convenient trick, you can put your racket in a large bucket of rice. You probably need between 5 to 10 kg of uncooked rice in order to fully cover your racket with rice.
Secret #7 : Put your racket in a bowl with uncooked rice to absorb excess moisture.
Pro tip : Use unflavoured rice unless you want your racket to smell like jasmine. In that case, be my guest and use jasmine rice. You might throw your opponents off their game with your flavoured racket.
Remember the advice on how to take care of your racket? If not, let me refresh your memory :
In general, storing your racket dry and cool environment, while avoiding hitting anything else than the ball with your racket is a good rule of thumb to take care of your padel racket.
Therefore let’s look at how to protect your padel racket and avoid damaging it.
How Do I Protect My Padel Racket?
In general, you can protect your racket from impact and exposure to environmental conditions by reducing the risk of occurrence or reducing the damage upon occurrence.
Although this is a great shorthand and covers the ways to protect your racket, you are probably looking for more practical and tactical advice. To make this more concrete, you can protect your padel racket by implementing these secrets:
First of all, remember Secret #3 : Store your racket in a bag with a cooling compartment since it is a great way to protect your racket from big swings in temperature.
Secret #8 : Use a padel racket protector/bumper
While some rackets come with a protector, they are also sold separately. A protector is an adhesive strip made from flexible plastic (Thermoplastic polyurethane aka TPU) that is put on top of the racket for additional protection.
Even though you play with the face of the racket, there are many situations where you might hit something with the side or top of your racket. This is especially true when you try to hit the ball near the glass wall or fence. Therefore the additional cushioning of the protector can absorb some of the impacts and reduce the risk of visible racket damage.
Not sure whether your racket needs to be replaced? Well .. then just read my other article, where I cover the durability of padel rackets and when to replace YOURS.
Secret #9 : Wear the cord of the padel racket around your wrist
All padel rackets do come with a cord attached at the end of the handle. Although it is officially mandatory to wear the cord, there are some players that don’t do this. As a result, you run the risk of letting the racket slip out of your hand and damage the racket. Not to mention the risk of hitting someone else with your racket.
Secret #10 : Change your (over)grip in time
It is easier to hold your racket with a freshly gripped padel racket because the grip has that sticky feel to it. If you lose that sticky feel to your racket, it is more likely that you let the racket slip out of your hand.
Needless to say, but you can seriously damage your racket (or others) as a result and therefore shorten the lifespan of your padel racket. Want to know more about grips and their function? Feel free to learn all about it here.
When To Replace The Grip Of Your Padel Racket?
But you might wonder what changing your grip in time means. First of all, this is mainly dependent on personal preferences because some players need more of that sticky feeling from their grip compared to others.
While the feeling itself is hard to describe, I have a more practical rule of thumb. My visual cue to determine when I should replace my overgrip is when my grip looks ‘smudgy’. In that case, the color of the grip starts to fade. In my experience, this works bests with white grips, since fresh grips look pristine, while worn-out grips look dirty.
In the picture below you see the difference between a fresh grip and one that is worn out and needs to be replaced :
Besides the visual, I have come to notice that fresh grips do make a different sound when you rub them compared to worn-out grips. The question is, do you notice the difference too in my clip below?
Avoid These Mistakes To Improve The Lifespan Of YOUR Padel Racket
To live up to this big promise let us look at the 8 biggest mistakes (in no particular order) that in my estimation can reduce the lifespan of your racket:
Mistake #1 : Leave racket in the car
As you know by now, it is important to store your racket dry and at room temperature. While you can regulate the temperature in a running car, the temperature in a car can quickly rise or fall (depending on the climate in your region).
If I need to pick between leaving your racket in the car while it is freezing cold or burning hot, then I would go for the cold. The heat makes the racket softer and the glue between the materials can melt, causing your racket to warp. You can read more in this article if you are interested in the impact of environmental exposure on your racket.
In any case, leaving your racket in your car can hurt the lifespan of your racket.
Mistake #2 : Leave your racket (in)directly exposed to sunlight
While this feels the same, it covers more situations where your racket might get too hot. This also includes leaving your racket behind a glass window.
Mistake #3 : Leave the racket in your (closed) bag
While this is especially important to avoid when the racket is wet, letting your racket breathe a bit is always a good idea if you’d ask me. Therefore I would advise you to take your racket out of your bag after your padel match or at a minimum open the bag and let some fresh air in. This way any moisture that might not be visible to you at first glance can still dry. Oh, and I hope you already took your clothes and shoes out of your padel bag …
Mistake #4 : Throw your racket
Well, do I really need to explain this one? Throwing can damage your racket, so just don’t do it. Oh, and hurting other players is not a good idea anyways. Guess that’s all I want to say about that.
Mistake #5 : Smack rackets against each other
While this may not sound too bad, doing this repeatedly can definitely damage your racket. Also, the reason why you are doing doesn’t matter. Whether you do this out of frustration or you are trying to get yourself and your partner focused again. Even if you do it as an act of celebration after winning an important point, it doesn’t reduce the risk of damaging your racket (and your partner’s racket for that sake).
Mistake #6 : Not using a protector/bumper
While using a protector/bumper is part of Secret #8, I do feel that not using them is also a mistake. Especially when the protector/bumper comes along with your racket.
However, there are some people that just don’t know the purpose of the protector/bumper or how to apply it correctly on your racket.
If I can speak some words of wisdom into you, it would be this : Don’t let ignorance be the determining factor of your actions. Therefore inform yourself by reading up on the topic. The sheer act of you reading my articles is already a testament that you are following the advice.
Mistake #7 : Not changing grips when they are worn out
While using an overgrip is useful, these grips do not last forever. If you don’t change it in time, it loses its function. Therefore not taking advantage of Secret #10 is also a mistake, in my humble opinion.
Again, worn-out (overgrips) lose their sticky feeling and increase the risk of your racket slipping out of your hands. But YOU don’t need to make the mistake since you know (from Secret #10) how a grip looks like that needs to be replaced.
Mistake #8 : Dry your padel racket too close to a heating source
As we know you can let your racket dry at room temperature (Secret #1) or speed it up using a hard dryer (Secret #2). However, you do need to make sure that you don’t place the racket too close to the heating source.
This is true whether you let the racket dry on top of the radiator or place it next to another type of heating source (hairdryer). In case the racket is too close, you can melt the glued materials and even warp your racket.
Well, I don’t need to explain why a warped racket is bad for any player that wants to improve their game.
