Smash. Blog
Data, coaching opinion, and founder notes on padel in the GCC. Written by the team building SmashIQ.
Most Padel YouTubers Will Actually Hurt Your Game
The padel tutorial ecosystem was built for Spanish academy players practicing 20 hours a week. If you are a recreational GCC player with 3 hours, it is pointing you in the wrong direction.
10 May 2026
We Built an AI Shot-Classification System for Padel [Show HN]
What we built, how it works, the technical stack, and the lessons from building a sports computer vision product that runs on mobile hardware.
8 May 2026
What Rackets the UAE's Top 50 Players Actually Use
We surveyed active ranked players across Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The brand story is not what you see in advertising.
6 May 2026
P3 to A1: The Brutal Truth Nobody Tells You
It takes longer than you think, shorter than you fear, and the bottleneck is almost never what you think it is.
4 May 2026
3 Reasons Your Bandeja Isn't Working (And How to Fix Each One)
The bandeja is the shot that separates P3 from A1. Most players are making the same three mistakes. Data from 10,000 GCC matches tells us which one is most common.
3 May 2026
200 Hours with an AI Coach: What I Actually Learned
I built SmashIQ and have been the primary test subject for two years. Here is the honest account of what changed in my game — and what the AI cannot do.
2 May 2026
Why Dubai Padel Got Hard in 2026
Court availability is the new problem. Here is why, and what to do about it.
1 May 2026
We Analysed 10,000 GCC Padel Matches. Here's What We Found.
Level distribution by city, peak court times, the most-played shot types — and a few things that surprised even us.
30 April 2026
SmashIQ — AI match analysis for padel
Launching June 2026. Join the waitlist for early access.
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