Premier Padel London: Inside the Action

Tom, in this episode we're going to talk about the London Premier Padel, which happened last week, what we did during the week, what we're involved with, the things we did with the, the players, the coaches, and give a bit of insight for any of those that either couldn't go or for those that did go and they just want to know more about behind the scenes at these type of events.

Well, you were commentating, weren't you, at the— with the Red Bull TV team, which I think is, uh, well, Well, it was nice for you to be home. Normally you're, you're in different parts of the world, and I think for the first time you were, you were home in London today.

Yeah, it was, it was nice. I mean, we being home, we probably put more on our plate than we would normally. We, we gave ourselves a very busy week. We ran 2 clinics at Rocket Battersea at the start of the week. We did some live podcasts with Christian. We did some content with Sven from Otro Nivel. And then we also did the ball paddle house, which I really enjoyed, by the way. Like, I really liked that. That was a kind of special moment where we got access to those players in a more, like, relaxed setting, and we could ask them questions about their game. And they were, I would say, less tense than you normally see them in, like, the media room where they're responding to lots of questions from reporters. And then Yeah, and then the tournament kicked off and you did a bit of practice on court with some of the pros. You were around, you did a bit of a coach education session, didn't you? Well, not education, it was a coach tournament, wasn't it? The Clash of the Coaches. And yeah, and then the commentary kicked off and that was full on as well.

When you started that list of what we did this week, I felt like a long time ago. That'd be the whole podcast, just listing. I mean, it was a, it was a whirlwind week, wasn't it? And, um, a bit of a groundbreaking week for I think padel in the UK really, to have a tournament, to have a Premier Padel tournament in London in the UK for the first time. I think that there was, there was an interesting build-up to it because I feel like some, some people were unsure whether it was gonna take off. They're unsure if it was gonna be popular. There's always that worry, I think, that you put on a tournament like this and everyone in the padel world feels like it's going to be a massive success, and then you actually put it on and perhaps the stadium doesn't fill and you think, oh well, maybe, maybe that London or UK isn't ready for, for a Premier. And I think the overarching, um, summary was that it is. And I know that the last 2 days were sold out, and obviously you were, you were commentating, you were right on the ground seeing all of that. But I think it was, it was definitely a moment in, in the UK padel scene which I think we'll look back on. First Premier and hopefully the first of many.

Well, let's, let's finish with what we thought about the actual event. We can finish with that. And let's start with almost the start of the week and what we learned from behind the scenes. We spent some time with some of the British players that got the wildcards and Christian, as an example, he won his first round match and the other players, you know, had tough draws, obviously, like it's a, a premier, and that they didn't. Um, let's, let, let's almost start with that. Did you see any of the, the wildcards? Like any of them play, or did you watch some of that? I mean, I just feel like it's difficult to close the gap. Like, it's the big question, right? Of like, how do we close the gap between the UK and Spain and Argentina? But all of the countries are asking this, right? So it's not, it's not just the UK, but there was a significant, I think, level gap between the players entering, which is normal, right?

I mean, it's, it's, uh, I got asked this the whole week of when are we going to see a British champion, or when are we going to see a Brit? And it's a bit like saying, well, when I go to Madrid and when I train there, you're training 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon, you're doing that 5 days a week, then you're going to play a tournament, then you're coming back and doing the same. And for us Brits, we're just not— now Christian is based in Spain, so I think his schedule is similar to that, but you just can't compare. It's, it's, it It's difficult to expect players to go up against players that are professional and doing that kind of setup and not just doing it for a short time. I mean, those guys have been having that kind of schedule probably since they were 15, 16, and now they're in their mid-20s, and these are the guys that the British pairs are going up against. So I think that it was a great experience. I think that the Brits put in a good showing and it was a good effort, but I think that, yeah, when it comes to when are we going to see a Brit directly in Premier Padel or, or a champion. We're, yeah, we're, we're a long way away.

And it's not just like them going and, and doing that for tennis. It's also the, the sheer number of people doing that, right? Like if you look at, you know, our, our top ladies, we've got a couple of ladies that are playing full-time, playing pro, like, you know, really kind of pushing it. But in Spain, Argentina, there are thousands that are doing that, right? And, and that's the difference really, is that You know, just the sheer volume. It's why you like to go to the academies in Spain to train.

It's—

you get lots of sparring with really good, like, peer-level players.

But also they've been doing it— if you think of the British top pairs now, they've transitioned from tennis. If you go to the academies in Spain, I mean, I said 15, 16, but really they're starting, they're starting at those academies even younger. They might not be on a full schedule by then, but yeah, they're probably in those academies at 10 years old. already training to, to play at the level that we see in London. So it's, it's, it's going to take time. It was, it was a tough ask for the British pairs.

Yeah. And, and we had Amy actually in the Red Bull studio at one point. We were talking, she's only been playing the last 3 and a half years. So like—

Which is pretty incredible.

Which is great. I mean, she's done an amazing job to, to become British number 1, to get to that point, to come to compete, but they've been doing it for 15 years. You, so it's, it's just, uh, you know, it's, it's gonna be a lot of time. And I think as well, like the, the support of the, the nation really, like juniors, like, I mean, we'll get onto our thoughts about the, the tournament, but the British players competed pretty well, I would say. Like they gave it their best shot. There, there's obviously a gap there. Um, you know, we had that conversation with Christian that's really echoing his thoughts as well. We did a couple of clinics with our, our members. Um, at the start of the week, and it was great to see so many members at the event. Like, it was nice, you know, lots of them sending us photos, and I saw lots of them on the ground there. And it was great that the audience for Premier was very, um, padel playing. Do you know what I mean? Like, when you go to Wimbledon, the majority of the players, the people watching, sorry, are not tennis players. Whereas here, you felt like the majority of the people watching are definitely padel players and padel enthusiasts.

And I really love that about padel because that— I, I always think with Wimbledon that a lot of it is, is corporate, and you go for the Pimm's and the champagne and the strawberries and cream or whatever you, you go for. But you, you go— lots of businesses buy a lot of the seats at not just Wimbledon but at the other slams as well. And it's— and it feels like it's become quite, quite corporate, quite commercial. And, um, Obviously all of these events need to, need to make money to, to, to host the next event. But, but what I really liked about the padel this year at Premier was that, like you say, so many avid fans there that are playing themselves, and, and for, for a lot of them, the first time that they've actually seen padel live. And, and for us, we, we give clinics all over the world, and a lot of the teaching we do— for example, I'm thinking of topics such as communication Uh, tactics, court positioning, all of these, all of these aspects of padel, which when you watch the pros live and you see it, I think it has a different impact on players because you, you can watch it on television or if you stream Red Bull TV, but it's not quite the same. So I think, yeah, for, for all those players out there that, that went to go and see London Premier for the first time, see the pros live, I think that was like a real moment for them and hopefully will help them with their game.

And I think one of the best moments is like when you walk into the sports village was the practice courts right there.

Yeah.

Like, that's amazing. Like, and, and for anyone that went and watched London, like, it's not always like that. Like, often you can't go to the practice courts or you can see them from a distance, but you can't really get that close. I mean, the, you could go like right behind the glass and, and watch the pros warming up. And I just felt like that was so valuable for players that are wanting to learn to understand what they're working on. Like every one of the top players, they went to those courts and they did drills with their coaches. Right. And actually you were part of it as well. Like you did a bit of training, the diagonal coaches, they brought you on and you were doing some training with some of the girls. And I think it's just, it was so good for the public to be able to see that, to see actually what the pros do to prepare for their games.

Yeah. To, to see it that close, I think I spoke to a lot of a lot of our members and a lot of players that have joined us on clinics at the practice courts. And every conversation I have was just how, how amazing it was to see the pros up close. And, and just generally, like, the atmosphere at those practice courts and, you know, throughout, it's just, it's so, it's so kind of like friendly and, and warm, isn't it? When the pros are playing, there's, there's not a sense of— there's not really a sense of ego. Or sometimes when I know, for example, in tennis or other places, they're big celebrities and it feels a little bit like they're, I don't know, there's a celebrity factor.

Uncelebratable almost.

Whereas this is just so accessible, so friendly. The coaches are so welcoming. I mean, I really hope that padel stays that way. And I think for everyone involved in the sport now, I hope that that would be a goal, is to keep padel accessible, friendly, and And, and open to all, like, like, like we saw in London.

I think that's also partly like the Spanish personality, isn't it? Like, and Argentinian as well. Like, they're, they're sociable people and they're quite laid back. And so, you know, I think that when, when they're there, they, they bring that atmosphere to the, to the courts and, and it's a really nice atmosphere. It's part of the reason that you go and, and the sport is so welcoming around the world. When you go to academies in Spain or you go into, to clubs, you, you, you feel that and you feel it like top down. You feel it from, from the pros and those coaches and You know, quite often we would be there and they'd come over and say hi and, you know, they would like get, get us involved in, in some of the practice. And I, yeah, I agree. I really hope they're able to keep that. And I also hope that coaches are able to kind of pass that on as well. Because I mean, you went to an event for coaches, didn't you, at Racquetear During the Week? And it was a, it was kind of a social event for coaches. Now we've, we've done that in the past in, in various places.

Yeah.

And I think sometimes when it's a, A new nation of coaches, they aren't used to that experience from the Spanish. And so I think that there's probably a little bit of work there and you tell us about the experience there, but I think there's a bit of work there in order to kind of show coaches that that's how it is. It's not like, these are my drills, those are your drills, I'm not going to share. It's more like, like, hey, openly, how can we progress the sport together?

Right? Yeah. The event was, it was, hosted by the World Padel Network, and I think we brought about 60 coaches from across the UK and international together, which I think already is an amazing thing to do. And it was a great chance to, to meet other coaches and network and, um, yeah, like share ideas. And I, I really liked the initiative. I think the more events we can do like that to bring coaches together, the better for the sport. And I think that, like, like you were saying there, I think that the challenge will be that a lot of coaches are coming over from tennis. And I think that when you've spent your whole life in tennis and now you're coming into padel coaching, it's very easy to carry over the, the— I want to say the mindset of, of coaching that you had in tennis into padel. And, and I speak to a lot of tennis coaches that come over to padel and they feel like padel is like we've just talked about, it's, it's a lot more open It's a lot warmer. Coaches are more happily to, happily to collaborate and to share ideas, whereas tennis can feel quite isolated. You feel like you're on your own with tennis. Everyone is a bit protective. And so I think the challenge for us as we grow padel is how can we transition tennis coaches over, but also understand or help them to understand that padel is a new sport and we can do something different here. We don't have to, bring over those traits from tennis. Like, we can, we can change that. We can, as coaches, we can be warmer, we can be more open, we can, we can collaborate more. And now's a chance for us to do that. And I think that, um, yeah, the, the World Padel Network did a great job of doing that. And I think for all of us, there's a job to do that, to, to— there's a chance here with padel to, to make it different.

Yeah. And I think that particularly for us, like, at the Padel School, it's something that We are going to go into coach education. Like we do it with our academy coaches and we we do it within our teams there, but it's something that we want to help coaches. And it's not just help coaches. You know, here is a bunch of drills. It's more like like how can you create a brand around your coaching and how can you support the club and how can you essentially build a business from from your coaching as well as how can you organize great group lessons and and build the soft skills? And I think that. There is probably not enough out there for coaches. I think there's almost a double thing at the moment. There's almost not enough out there for coaches to to help them, added to the fact that at the moment, depending on which country you're in, it's quite easy to get a coaching job because people are desperately looking for coaches. And so when you get a coaching job, it's almost like you don't want to think of that as the end of your coaching journey, right? Like that's just the start. Like you want to think how can we learn the whole way up? Like what could you learn that could improve your coaching and take you to that next level? And maybe you do. recreational adults right now and, and you want to progress to doing juniors or a performance pathway, or you want to learn how to do great corporate days or whatever it might be, like there's, there's always ways they— people can learn. Like coaches, you and I are always learning, right? Like whenever we go and deliver clinics, we learn something from the, the people we're working with, players, but also coaches. And I think that if you are someone that wants to develop your coaching, you're interested in finding out about more what we're doing, like DM us on any of the social platforms and just, you know, say you're, you're wanting to keep updated with the coach education because that's something that we are definitely going to push into and, and look for as, as time goes on. And, and very soon we will have a course for, for people.

Yeah, exactly. And, and I think as well for, for tennis coaches that become padel coaches, and like you say, not to, not to necessarily think that journey is over and to keep on learning. I think that we've come from, from tennis, and, and padel is a very different environment to tennis. I think typically in tennis there isn't that community feel to it, and, and it probably is quite hard to reach out to other coaches and say, hey, how can I develop my, my coaching further? Could you recommend anything, or do you have any resources? Or, I mean, padel is, is a different sport. And I think that for tennis coaches to be more, more open to this idea of actually there are coaches out there, i.e., the Padel School, but there's lots of other coaches out there that will help, will help you on your journey. This is, is, is not the case where perhaps in tennis you've gone through your coach and you feel a bit isolated and you're like, okay, well, actually I've, I've got my certification, that's it. Like, you know, everyone is— has their own coaching protection. And, you know, so I think, I think for a lot of coaches out there, do, do try to speak to other padel coaches because it's different. And typically, like, padel coaches will help each other progress.

Now let's move on to the tournament. So we were fortunate to do that Ball Padel House where we sat down, we sat down with Gemma and Delphi and Paquito and Martín Di Nenno, and that was pretty much the day before the, the main draw. And we, you know, we obviously learned a lot from them. Those, those clips will be coming out in our podcast, in our YouTube channel over, you know, over the next period anyway. Um, and then the tournament started really, which was, you know, what could we learn from the pros? And a lot of what they said in the Ball Paddle House, you could really see it evidently in the game. And I think a lot of them talked about teamwork and, you know, the mental side of padel, which. I think everyone can resonate with, even at the beginner and club level. It's like so much of this is, is mental and, and teamwork. It's like if you were to say one point that resonated for you during the week, like watching the pros, what would, what would that be, do you think?

Well, I think the court was very slow, so I think that a lot of pros had to adapt the conditions. So for me, patience and decision-making, so probably those 2 combined were My biggest takeaways from the week and, and what comes into that. I know you said one thing, but it then comes into the tactical side, court positioning, strategy. All of those things branch off from, from the fact that the court was a bit slower, and it was, it was really interesting to see. But as I think the, the Ball Paddle House was, was great to speak to the pros, and almost on the other side of that, I had so many conversations this week with recreational players, and we just chatted about what, what they were noticing from, from the games. And, and a big thing that they took away was how the players have such control of the ball. They're always in the right position. They don't look like they're moving. They're always, they're always early to the ball. They're always on balance. All of these aspects that they notice from a recreational level. And yet for the pro players in the Ball Paddle House, like you said, it was a lot about the mental side and teamwork. And I think that That's a fair reflection, isn't it? Because as you go up the levels, the focus changes. For the pros, they've already trained footwork, ball control, uh, accuracy on their shots— like all of these fundamentals that perhaps the recreational players need to train, the pros already have ingrained. And so they're more looking at the mental side, whereas for recreational players, I think the ones— the, the players that I, I spoke to at the event, a lot of them were looking at The foundations that the pros showed in their matches.

Yeah, it's interesting. It reminds me of a quote from Christian, because Christian at the beginning of the week said, my game is 80% mechanical. As in, as in 80% of what he plays has been trained in drills, has been trained in footwork patterns, has been trained in, you know, the, like you say, the con— like the ball control, things like that. And it's only 20% that is essentially on the day that he needs to adapt or improve. And actually, when you watch the pros, even part of their warm-up, like their warm-up is very footwork-based and it's very control-based. I mean, this is almost exactly why we made that Instant Advantage bundle, is so that players can do footwork off court, they can do their control, ball control off court, so they get better at that, so that when you get on court, more of their game is mechanical. I mean, that's, that is the whole point of it, right? So you can go on and you don't have to think about Those things, and you can focus on the tactics within the game. That 20% that is probably going to make a difference. And my takeaway from the week of watching and commentating the games was how momentum can shift so quickly and easily, and the teams that progressed are the ones that were the least fazed by it. Like, and if I think of the whether it's the ladies' games or the men's games, they would. know, win a set 6-2, and then they would lose a set 6-2, and then it would go into the third and it would be— there was no, like, frustration or disappointment or throwing the racket. I think this is where it's quite different to tennis as well. Like, if you go a set and 3-love down, in your mind you're thinking they're just going to hold out and I'm going to lose this, going to lose this match. Whereas in padel, that's at least what I was thinking. In padel, in padel, it can shift so So quickly just by making more balls, fighting a little bit harder, being faster and more active with your feet, like higher energy. And I think that, you know, that, that for me, and this is something that club players can do themselves, is like, if you are just a bit more active and you fight a bit harder and you have a bit more energy with your footwork, like you can win matches that you are currently losing at the time.

Oh, definitely. And. When, when you talk about the, the top pairs, so the ones that semis, finals, for me, it'll be interesting to get your thoughts on this, but I feel like their base level is just at a higher, at a higher level than all the others.

Mm-hmm.

So the others might be able to be on a, a momentum swing and they might be able to play well for half a set, a set, but then they drop again and then they drop below that base level. And those top guys are just able to to keep that level, and then they're able to raise it. But if they don't, they can still go back to that base, which is generally higher than all the other pairs, which is why they're so consistent. And I— for me, you talked about there the, the fundamentals and why we have the Instant Advantage Bundle. And, and if you're interested, there's a 7-day free trial. You can check out the link in the description. But the reason we, we created that in the first place is because, like you say, we're Christian. The training that you do, those foundations, you need those in your game before you go out onto the match court.

Mm-hmm.

And for so many recreational players, they're, they're just playing matches and then they're expecting that it, they're, they're just, it's just gonna work on the court. And actually that you need to get that training in. And it's the reason why in, in those courses that we have on the bundle, there's, there's at-home exercises, exercise that you can train at home in just a few minutes. Little and often. I've got members messaging us. I know as well for you that they're seeing results literally the next day. They go and do the exercises from the bundle and the next day they play a match and they see a difference already. And our response to them is, well, let's do that for the next few months and imagine the difference you're going to see. But those top players, they have that base of fundamentals, don't they? Or they're just, they're just better at that base. And that is all through training. Yeah.

Yeah, and like you talk about the foundation, but I think this is the big pain point for people with like, let's go for the PlayTomic rating, is like one day they play like a 3.5, the next day they play like a 2.5, the next day they play like a 4, the next day they play like a 1, like, and it's so up and down. And they'll always say, oh well, it's based off who I play with, but it's not, but it's not really. It's based off that foundation and having 80% of your game mechanical with good Habits and, and good skills. And that, that's the difference.

Or, or the players that say, if I play with better players, I can play at that level. If I play with worse players, then I play terrible. Like, like, and again, it's, it's, it's got nothing to do with that actually. It's, it's, it's your own level. If, if you don't have those foundations, you're going, you're going to get dragged, dragged up and down the levels.

And that's what we see with the pros is that they are, they have those foundations. And so even if Gemma and Delphi, for example, don't play at their best, they still play a high enough level that they get to the final, right?

Yeah.

And, and they, they compete well. And, and that's what we want for the club players, really. We want them to be able to, to compete at a consistent level so that they can improve their game and they can work on their, their game and things like that. Let's just, just moving into, you know, the, the final stages of the tournament, we saw some, some great matches. So excited to see Martina Calvo and Claudia Fernandez winning. Like they, for me, they put in such a gutsy, determined performance and and really like I couldn't be happier for them to win. And you know they they they fully deserve that. So I'm sure we're going to see much more of of them. You know throughout the the rest of this season, we then had Tapia Cuello winning, which is amazing. Like men's match again, a little bit of a momentum shifting. match. But I mean, the level was, was absolutely incredible, I think, for, for both finals.

Yeah, it was. And I mean, to, to see it, to see, to see these pairs playing live is, uh, something special. And I know that you've— we've both always said that to go and watch pro, pro padel live is something else. And, and when you go and see it, it really is. And, uh, to see those, the, the level that those, those pros brought Like we said, it was a slow court, so they really had to battle, battle it out and yeah, some, some gutsy performances. Yeah.

And so maybe just a summary overall, the event, I think it was a brilliant first event for, for London. Cella did a fantastic job.

Yeah.

I think that, you know, I love the, the setup with the, the sports village and the practice courts and, you know, the activations going on around there. The, the Brits consume live sport in a, In a funny way, do you know what I mean? Like the tickets were sold out, but the stands weren't always full. And I think that that's how like the Brits have like if you see Wimbledon or you see events, it's almost like they go and watch a bit, then they go for a drink in the sports village and go for a bite, then they'll come back. And and you know, I think that that's almost why you saw a few empty seats. There weren't really many empty seats for for the men's final, but you know, that's something. And I think probably next year they. They could even have a larger stand, right? More capacity potentially. But but really Friday, Saturday, Sunday was was pretty full. I think areas probably for improvement would be the F and B. I think that probably there needed to be a few more options, a bit a bit more healthier options as well for any of those playing. And I think probably also like using of the courts, like the activation. I mean, we've got those you know the the Practice courts were available. There were 3 courts in the other side. You know, I don't, I don't think I saw like a single British player other than us that got involved with the practice of the pros. I don't think I saw a single British player or British junior on any of the courts.

Well, the one, the one court that was, I suppose it was open for activations, uh, was, was that the, the mini?

The mini.

The mini. And that was, that was packed. Yeah. There was always people playing on it. So. Yeah, I agree. I suppose you've got to find a balance, haven't you, between allowing players— you don't want to have players not being able to practice because there's activations. I don't know if that maybe is a reason, but there's also those other courts out the back that could have been used for activations. So, but yeah, I agree. I think that, I mean, this first one, there's always going to be improvements, but yeah, I think hopefully next year it'll be bigger and better.

Yeah, I think I have no doubt. the enthusiasm from everyone watching. I think it's just, you know, the start of, the start of this journey for Premier Paddle London. So, um, if you're watching this either on YouTube or on the social media, let us know how you found it. I'd love to get your, your comments and, and feedback. And Tom, we'll definitely be going next year as well.