Padel is the newest sport that is taking the UK and the world by storm. It is a racquet sport that takes elements of tennis and squash and mixes them together to create an addicting, social game that people can’t stop playing.
The game is similar to tennis, with the same scoring but the difference is players are able to play off of the walls enabling creative shots and adds an extra element of excitement to traditional tennis.
Between 2022 and 2023, there was a 116% increase in new courts built in the UK, and since then even more have been built taking the total to well over 500 courts.
The Padel Club at Gloucester Quays is the newest edition to padel courts in the UK where they have opened nine state of the art indoor courts in the heart of Gloucester.
Just in their first week general manager Hannah Thomas has said they have received over “200 people booked on intro sessions.” which are free sessions that The Padel Club run for beginners looking to get started.
Thomas said their main aim is now to “get them (new players) back in again and getting them booked on the club sessions and start hopefully growing some new padel players in the future as well.”
The Padel Club are just as focused on their more advanced players as they are on their newcomers, in the near future they have plans for events that suit them as well.
Thomas said: “We are going to start hosting tournaments very soon and our head coach Laura is looking at developing that program.
“This upcoming weekend we’re hosting the Team GB LTA camps, which is something you’ll see quite a lot more of in our club.
“Then in the next couple of years as well, we’ll start expanding more in the local area, we’ve got six more clubs on the way and hopefully some in this area as well.”
Padel has boomed in popularity over the last few years and the head coach at Gloucester Quays Laura Jackson attributes its rapid rise in success to the low entry level and ease of play.
She said: “With tennis, you’ve got your different grips, your different shots but with padel it’s very forgiving.
“You can get away with not having the perfect technique. And it’s just so easy to get started. You see people of all different levels just having fun.”
Several padel players started off playing tennis and then made the transition over to padel, there are many transferable skills which make it a smooth transition between the two sports.
Jackson was one of those players who started playing tennis and made the jump over to padel, she said: “Tennis has been my main sport pretty much all of my life, I’ve been a tennis coach for the last seven years, it was about two years ago I started playing padel.”
“For those first six months I played a lot and I sort of learned as I played, then I went and got myself my coaching and I did my LTA coaching course, which helped me pass my knowledge on.”
