Few watches are designed by and for padel players. This is one of them, and I have tried it

What will we have to do as padel players so that smart watches do not allow us to monitor our matches. That same question I did it to myself back in 2021, five years ago, and the film is not very different from today. Although paddle tennis is an extremely popular sport, few, almost none, are the brands that remember those of us who enjoy this sport, and those that do remember have paddle modes that do not provide any useful information.

Then MWC arrived and there I discovered Mibroa Chinese brand of smart watches that seeks to differentiate itself right there, in paddle tennis. They openly acknowledged that it is not that padel is gaining popularity in China, but that they want to use this sport to enter Europe. And of course, as someone who has been playing paddle tennis since I was little, I was curious, so I decided to try one of their watches on my own wrist.

During these last weeks I have been using the Mibro GS Pro2 during my matches and padel classes, and this has been my experience.

Forehand, backhand, layup, small to the foot

As a smartwatch, the Mibro GS 2 Pro ticks almost every box. It’s big, but comfortable; The screen looks good, the battery lasts two weeks with complete peace of mind and allows you to receive notifications, calls, etc. It has, however, three problems:

• The operating system, which is an RTOS, moves somewhat lazily and responds a little slowly to touches and gestures.
• You have a connectivity problem with your mobile phone that causes notifications to stop coming in at specific times.
• It lacks advanced functions such as ECG or mobile payments, something that cannot be criticized since it costs 140 euros.
• It has serious translation problems into Spanish, both in the app and on the watch.

Positive part? The problem of performance, connectivity and the app could be fixed with a software updateit’s not something that worries me at all. Be that as it may, we have come here to talk about paddle tennis, so let’s get down to business.

When we enter the court and activate the paddle mode, the first thing we have to do is put the watch on the same wrist as the hand with which we hold the paddle. I always wear the watch on my left wrist, but since I am right-handed, I hold the paddle with my right. This has no relevance in tennis, since the racket has no wrist ties, but in padel it is different.

A paddle tennis racket has a wrist support that prevents it from flying away if our hand gets sweaty, if it slips due to a strong blow, etc. That support goes to the wrist, right where we have the watch. If it’s just a little rope, nothing happens, but if the grip is larger, as is my case, it can be a little uncomfortable. This, however, will depend on each person’s shovel.

During the session, the watch measures in real time the type of stroke and the speed with which we execute it. You can actually see it live as you play. This is quite useful, especially when the hit defines the point. It helps you know if, perhaps, you have come forward with force in a defensive blow. This information, well managed, is useful, and you are going to allow me to go into coffee mode for coffee lovers.

Although paddle tennis seems like a sport where you hit the ball very hard, the truth is that it is not like that at all. As a general rule, a looser, well-defined stroke is more useful What a very strong blow. The weak and well-placed blow, hitting the wall or the mesh, creates more difficulty for the opponent. The strong hit, however, usually gives more opportunities.

It all depends on the case, needless to say, but if you watch a professional padel game you will realize that they only hit the ball when they know very well that they are going to hit it for four (over the rear glass), for three (through the side glass) or that they are going to bring it back (the ball hits the opposite glass and returns to our court). And in fact, there is no need to spank him because, again, it is more a question of technique than strength. For the rest, they tend to use “weaker” and intentional blows.

And why am I telling you this? Because I, who go to weekly classes, have found it very useful review the speed applied to the blows to discover what I do well and what I do wrong. If I am volleying on the backhand and I want the ball to go to the cross net or deep to the double wall, a strong hit is of little use to me. Better a weak one. Reviewing the speed at which I hit the shot when it went well (or badly) helps me adjust future shots and memorize gestures. Coupled with the teacher’s feedback regarding posture, position and rhythm, it is valuable information.

The watch detects the type of blow and its direction quite accurately. In the screenshots above you can see on the left a paddle tennis class focused on layups alternating turns of forehand and backhand; and on the right a game (which we lost, unfortunately) in which I played backhand, ergo the proportion of forehand shots is higher, the proportion of layups is too low and the proportion of lobs is too high. What does that mean? They took us out of the net very easily, they always kept us at the back and, therefore, we had little attacking capacity.

The lack of context

This information is useful, but if you know how to play you will know, with complete certainty, why you have won or why you have lost. It’s a matter of sensations. Knowing that you have hit more or less is fine, but what is really interesting would be cross that information with heart rate and its evolution throughout the game. I return to coffee mode for coffee lovers.

Paddle tennis is a very technical sport. Anyone who tells you that paddle tennis is not tiring is because they don’t know how to play, because in paddle tennis you never stop moving. It is not a sport of arms, but of legs. Having a good position, making good gestures and knowing how and where to position yourself is vital when playing. And that sounds very good as soon as the game starts, but when you have been entrenched in a 6-5 6-5 for 40 minutes with an advantage, equal, advantage, equal, I tell you that you send your technique to fry asparagus for a simple reason: fatigue.

It would be useful to cross-check the type of stroke information with the heart rate to, in this way, see what stroke we usually do when we are freshest and most tired. This allows us to see from when we make mistakes and improve from there.

Knowing that you won the first set because you made more slow volleys and that you lost the second because you made too many shots gives you a clue that you were getting too high and that, being tired, you lose control, you try to win the points quickly and you choose to hit the ball that goes into the glass or stays in the net.

That is to say, the watch is capable of collecting useful information, but it needs to finish digesting it for its representation to truly be useful. The way I see it, a graph where you can see the duration of the match on the I’ll leave it there as an idea.

In conclusion

If we are looking for a watch to control paddle tennis sessions, this is one of the few capable of collecting valuable information. It lacks, as I said, that little point of finally representing it in a more useful way, but the bases are solid and they are there.

As a smart watch, it seems solvent to me for its price range. It’s not the best watch by any means, but it checks almost all the boxes. By 140 euros There are interesting devices from brands like Amazfit and Xiaomi that should be taken into consideration, although of course, without a dedicated padel mode.

Images | Xataka

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This device has been provided for testing by Mibro. You can consult how we do reviews in Xataka and our relations policy with companies.