English
Ever since my youth I liked playing padel. Padel made me feel happy, confident and self fulfilled. Further, as an adult, I got the feeling of getting hooked to it. I enjoyed playing longer sessions and more often. I did not want to stop playing padel! I started wondering about his. I am getting addicted to Padel? Would that be possible? Would adrenaline have something to do with this? Apparently somebody was wondering about the same.
The Chemistry of your Brain
Recently, Dr. Fery Kovács, neuro-psicologist from The Hague, published a nice article proposing an answer to the question: Why do we like playing padel so much? In his article Dr. Kovács explains that Padel, due to its particular dynamic of play (small space, long rallies, ease to learn, visuo-spatial challenges, social interactions, etc) invites your body to generate higher levels of adrenaline, dopamine and endorphins than in tennis or squash. To this nice cocktail we can probably add serotonin. If you don’t know what these mabo-jambo substances are, let’s basically say that these substances produced by your own body during a padel match are responsible for making you feel stronger, happy, confident and pain free. And who would not like that? Certainly, you want more of that!
As Dr. Kovácz explains: “Padel is a ball game and that means the sport contains speed. The speed of the ball, the speed of tactical changes between players, the speed of different ball changes. All much more than in tennis…”. “…Padel clearly is more dynamic than tennis but less so than squash. Your brain is challenged more than in tennis…. So there are more challenges in Padel… More challenges means more adrenaline in your brain. More challenges means more dopamine (reward center) and endorphin in your brain: you will get more rewards in Padel than with other ball games which are technically more difficult”.
On top of these nice cocktail of substances, add the fact that by playing padel you make new friends and get in shape. Thus, why would you even consider stopping playing padel? Certainly, you want more!
So, there you go. Now you know what to tell when you come back home late, tired but happy after a long session of padel with friends. This is the explanation you can give your parents or partner when they ask you why is that you like Padel so much.
* Norberto Nesi is Head Coach and President of the Padel Federation of Holland
* Dr. Fery Kovács is a Dutch neuro-psicologist based in The Hague
