On the Road with Padel: Which Racket Sports Transition Best to Padel?

What are the best racket sports in terms of transitioning to Padel? Like which sports do we see those players come from that can pick up Padel the fastest?

Tom, we're here with another episode of the podcast. It has been a little while. We missed last week and I felt it.

Yeah, I missed it as well.

We both missed it. Yeah. And I think that's partly because we were both away. Like you were training in Madrid for a bit. I've been on a long training trip to the US but we're back now.

So, Paul, stuff. I'm looking forward to hearing how your trip to the US went. It was quite a long time, wasn't it? Quite a few weeks you were away.

Yeah. It ended up being a three week road trip essentially. And it was started in Charlotte, North Carolina at Charlotte Paddle Club and then went to Philadelphia. Padelphia, the club there, then did a day in Paddle House in Dumbo in New York and then finished with Boston. Paddle Boston. In Boston, obviously. So good, good little tour.

How is paddle in America? Because I feel like that's a topic that always comes up, particularly in the paddle industry. Everyone looks over at the US and thinks that that's the place that Padel is going to take off. I know we've talked about the US in our podcasts and our content previously. What was your feeling? I know you went to lots of different places, so probably quite an interesting feel of where Padel is at in the U.S. yeah.

And I think normally I go to Miami. I've been to LA a few times, but I go to a hotbed of Padel because there's so many Padel players there. And so intentionally on this trip I wanted to be at places that I've not been before and I wanted to see what the setup was like. And it was really interesting because all the clubs were at very different stages in terms of their development. And I think, you know, really I came away with a couple of takeaways. One like the US is massive.

Is this purely from your flight?

It was just like the flight across and even I thought, oh, maybe I go to LA and like to fly from east coast to west coast. Yeah, it's like seven hour flight. It's ridiculous. It's like flying across the whole of Europe. And so it's quite interesting when you go to these places because, you know, starting with Charlotte. I love Charlotte, by the way. Like a real fan of the city, the people there, the community, the club, everything like that. But it's the only club at the moment. In that location for hours. I mean there were some people that had a call an hour and a half, two hour drive and they would drive up for the clinics. But it was one outdoor court. But in terms of clubs, it was the only one in that whole location. And I was trying to explain to them because they're on a similar number of courts in the US to us in the uk, but because our geography is so much smaller, the network is all much closer. So you and I, within an hour's drive could probably go to five or six different clubs and we're not necessarily in a huge hub. It would be the same in. It's only two hours for us to drive to Bristol or maybe two and a half, three to get up to Manchester where there's more. And on that drive we pass loads of them. Well, I mean Charlotte to drive to the next, like proper indoor club is, I mean hours and hours and hours. And it was the same in these different areas. Like Pedelphia has progressed quite a lot in terms of the number of courts and now there's a handful of places that have courts. New York the same, Boston is another one. It's the only club in its area. And it's, it's just really interesting to see because although it is growing in terms of courts and players at a similar rate to the uk, because it is all so spread out, it feels like they're separate pockets, if you know what I mean. Like in the UK we're growing as a, as a landmass together, you know, so if you. And I said, right, let's visit, you know, the furthest club from us might be up in Scotland if we take the whole of the UK and that's seven or eight hour drive, like maximum. Whereas you know, in, in the US it's a seven or eight hour flight to go. So it's, it's quite an interesting kind of observation in terms of, you know, how that affects the growth and what.

Are the challenges as a club that is a first mover. Because in the US we're going to see lots of these clubs, right, because it's such a new sport there. New clubs are going to be first movers in their area, I mean, I was going to say in their state, but I mean the US is so huge that probably there's going to be lots of clubs popping up that there aren't going to be any other clubs for at least an hour or so drive from them. So what are the challenges there? Because I think speaking to a lot of club Owners in Europe, there's always this feeling around being first mover is such an advantage, therefore they've got the space and no one else has. And there's also competition now between emerging countries where people are getting worried when other clubs are popping up quite near them because they're no longer first mover. So it's, yeah, like you say, an interesting challenge, I guess, for these clubs that are first. There are literally no course hours from there.

Yeah, I think there's almost. When you said that, I thought one thing that constantly pops up and people thinking that they're in a saturated area, which, I mean, if you're in the UK or somewhere that is emerging, okay, potentially in spaces in Italy, you could probably say that, right? They got 10,000 courts. I mean, there's nowhere, not a single place in the UK that has hit saturation point, like, in terms of courts for geography. So almost just to. To put that out there, like straight away. But to be a first mover is really difficult because how it often works with clubs is they go, oh, I played with my friend in Marbella or wherever, and I've come back to my location and I really want to play Padel. And so I built a club. And that often how it gets started.

As you do.

Yeah, as you do. But, I mean, that's how it started in the uk, right? Like, all of these ones are starting in the uk, or you get your Swedes that come across and have seen it in Sweden and know it's a, you know, a game on the rise. And so they, they build. But often it's someone who's not seen it before and they say, oh, I'm gonna. I'm gonna just build my club. But in the uk, even if they go through a learning curve, courts will open up around them. And I think that's a huge advantage when courts open up around them, because they are now spreading the awareness together. Whereas if you're the only club in that area, you've got to do all of the awareness piece yourself. And that means teaching them what the game is and what the rules are and how you play and how you can join a social circle that can play together. And it's a lot of work to be able to do that effectively. That's work from the club, the organisation, but it's also work from the coach. And you're doing a lot of. Of bringing new players into the game. And that's part of the difficulty with the big geography in the US is that these new clubs have to do that. And there's still eight or nine states that don't have a paddle club in them. That's states, not cities, states. So it's like there's still loads of territory out there that, you know, will have to do this work. You know, cities out there, you know, there's, there's big sport playing cities, you know, like Portland, Oregon or Seattle or these places like that that still don't have. Don't have a club. So, yeah, I mean, it's a lot of work to do that. People often think it's easy. Oh, I love the game and it's really easy to play. People, you know, people come build it and they will come and then they build it and they're like, wow. Actually, you know, we're struggling to fill course, particularly off peak, but just generally because there is a lot of work involved.

If you want to get coaching advice from myself and Sandy and have access to personalised training plans that are specific to your level, you should check out the paddle school membership. If you go to the paddleschool.com, you can check out everything that's included in there and we'd love to see you in the community. The US is a really exciting market, isn't it? But I do think that with these other racket sports that already established there, racket sports that are quite big, Pickleball, I know, is talked about a lot, but they've also got other types of racket sports there. Platform tennis, Padel tennis. I believe Hova got that right. And we're going to talk about that today, aren't we, in terms of what are the best racket sports in terms of transitioning to Padel? Like, which sports do we see those players come from that can pick up Padel the fastest?

Yeah. So it's interesting. I mean, on the trip I had arrived at Charlotte, and Charlotte, the indoor courts are part of a pickleball club. So it's 10 indoor pickle courts and then the indoor Padel. And first of all, the noise it makes is insane. Like when I'm coaching over that. My voice was hoarse in a day or two, but it was interesting. Loads of pickleball players from there. And then I went to Philadelphia and there were almost no Pickle. I didn't get almost anyone from Pickle, but loads from squash. Like there's a big squash community in there. And then almost as I moved across, like New York to Boston, we saw a lot more platform being played and there were lots of platform players coming across and obviously all of these locations, you Got tennis as well. Like, you know, tennis is pretty widespread, so you're seeing that everywhere. And it was, it was interesting to see the way that, that players come across. And we often say that at the beginning, the easiest is from tennis because it's almost the hardest technically to learn. And you have to learn complex techniques often from a young age in tennis in order to be a good player. And so when you go to paddle, it's almost like you level down. And I think squash to some extent is similar technically, probably not as hard as, as tennis, but physically up there as well. But again, you level down for paddle. Whereas what I found really interesting with pickleball is you have to level up. So pickleball is even easier than paddling. And you watch it and loads of people having fun. And those 10 courts were full, like the whole time they were pretty much full. But people would walk past, look at Padel and go, oh, that looks quite physical. Or that glass looks really difficult. I don't think I could play that. Whereas everyone from a tennis and squash background is looking down at paddle and they, they find it so much easier. And it's relaxing and it's more relaxing. Yeah. And more sociable. But you see, pickleball is already really sociable. It's already small courses, really easy to play. And so I don't know whether we're going to see a huge uptake from pickleball players to paddle. I think we will. For the more athletic ones, the people that like to compete more, the ones that are maybe ex college tennis players, or the ones that like to be more at athletic, I think they will come across when there is access to courts. But there's also a big price differential. Like often pickleball is either free or $5 a person to play, and you're looking at the paddle being $40 per person. That's a big jump to go into a new sport when you already have a sport that kind of ticks that social box. And what you often find in pickleball as well is they get quite highly ranked in pickleball. And they, they are. Well, you saw this in Florida as well, that they are quote, unquote pickleball pros. And then they're thinking they're going to be really good at paddle come across. And, and they're actually not that good because the technique is so different. There's a lot of like whipping the wrist in pickleball and trying to hit flat like that. And so they often don't translate as well. I was really impressed with platform like platform, to give you an idea, is like a mini tennis court, but it's enclosed by walls. So it's a mini tennis court. There's runoff space behind the court and. But then you also use the wall as well. But it doesn't bounce like it does in Padillac. It doesn't bounce off the wall and come away.

It's chicken wire, isn't it?

Yeah, it's like chicken wire at the back of the court. And it's often like the flooring is heated, so it kind of melts the ice. And it's played more in that north, north, northeast region. But they are generally an adaptation from tennis to platform tennis. And therefore they. They almost get it. Like, you know, the. The way you play paddle, the patience is required into space, the type of shot you would play. Like, it translates quite well. Platform, I think probably because also they did come from tennis. So they've already adapted from tennis to platform, and now when they adapt from platform to Padel, it's not such a major shift for them.

Yeah. When you talk about pickle coming over to Padel, it actually remind me there of a session I did. Well, I did many sessions in the US when I was there with pickleball players, and I think I ran a. It was learn the basics, a beginner course, and had so many pickleball players coming off and saying, wow, that was an incredible workout. And I mean, we were really just learning the basics. So it did really. You hammered home there around the physical side of it, where I haven't played much pickleball, but paddle is. Is certainly different physically. I've got some interesting stats and I know you like a stat.

I do love a stat.

So I thought I'd come prepared, but I actually thought this was really interesting. Around the percentage of players that come to Padel from different sports. So what that breakdown looks like. As expected, tennis players are the most at 38%. And this is from Padel magazine, so it's come from a kind of established source. So 38% of padel players come from tennis. Then we have an additional 8% come from sports like squash and badminton. And while about 10% come from completely different sports, rugby, running, climbing. So I think that breakdown is quite interesting to see because I think a lot of the time everyone knows that a lot of tennis players come across. But it's interesting to see there is quite a big difference, isn't it? And when we talk about racket sports that come across to Padel, is there just a huge advantage for tennis players. I know we talk about all of the habits that tennis players have to unlearn when coming to Padel. But if someone's listening and they're say a tennis player and someone's listening, or they're maybe a badminton or squash player, who's in the best position, do you think, to transition across?

It's funny, I had some high level squash players while I was in Philadelphia and normally I say the squash, it almost doesn't translate as well because the volley is not natural. The volley is such a massive part of Padel that tennis players pick that up very easily. But these squash players adapted really well in Philadelphia, you know, across to Padel. And part of that is because I think high level squash, one of the most difficult things with Padel is the patience within a point. And high level squash has that. Like tennis doesn't have that. Like tennis, you're always thinking push to finish, you know, you're pushing to finish the point. Whereas squash is very much around placement and patience during the point and almost maneuvering your opponent. So from a tactical perspective, I think squash, high level squash comes across really well. I think from ball striking, tennis is by far the best. You're just, like I said before, it's the technique. You're used to learning it, you know, in terms of the distance from, I know it's shorter, but from hand to middle of racket face, like I think there's just, you know, an easy translation across. And I think anyone starting in Padel now from a good tennis background, like if you could just get lessons on the glass and lessons on the overheads, you're already off to pretty good start in Padel. But what we often see is they don't get lessons because they think they've nailed it. And therefore these non racket sports players or other people catch them up because they need the lessons.

Yeah, exactly. I was just about to say that's our advice, isn't it, to all players is get quality coaching as early on as you can, regardless of what sport you come from.

Yeah, definitely, 100%. And it's like anything, right? If you were going to learn a new sport, you would want to go, you know, you'd want to set the foundation. And I think that's the difficulty with both with pickleball and paddle because you see it as an easier sport and you feel like you are, quote unquote, a natural at it. You don't. And I think it's a big mistake, not only for technique, but also injury. Like I lost count of the number of knee supports and elbow supports I saw in the pickleball, partly the age and I think it's fantastic that we have 10 quarts filled with an age pretty much of, you know, 50 to 70, you know, years old on average. But there are, I'm sure there are loads of injuries and I know there's lots of injuries in Padel and so it's almost like those lessons are not only to get better, it's also to avoid. Avoid injury. Right. And that's also why we put our physio course on as part of our platform is so that we can hopefully reduce the number of injuries.

Yeah. And you can check out our platform the paddleschool.com we'll put put the details in the show notes. Sandy, it's great to have you back back in the uk.

Yeah.

And always interesting to talk about how different racket sports transition over. I'm sure this will come up in future podcast episodes as well.

I have no doubt. Thank you very much, Tom.