In this conversational podcast episode, Sandy Farquharson and Tom discuss the upcoming London Premier Padel event at Olympia, a new 5,000‑seat show court, and why it matters for the UK padel scene. They explain how live attendance offers players a chance to see elite performance, sportsmanship, and on‑court communication, which is harder to grasp from broadcast alone. The hosts outline the broadcast partnership with Red Bull TV, the schedule of studio commentary, and the importance of watching both qualifying rounds and later stages. They highlight the growth of padel in the UK, noting increased awareness of top players like Tapia‑Coelho, Bela, and Chingalan, and anticipate strong local support and potential upsets due to differing playing conditions (high‑altitude speed in South Africa versus the indoor Olympia venue). Practical advice is given for spectators: watch men’s matches for excitement, women’s matches for strategic learning, focus on a preferred side player, observe shot selection, positioning, and pair dynamics. Finally, they recommend specific pairs to watch—Paula & Bea in the women’s draw and Chingalan in the men’s—while promoting The Paddle School’s social channels for further updates and clinics.
Chapters
Yeah, and I would say probably, like, if you're watching for entertainment, you might watch the men's side. It's faster, more explosive. But if you're watching to learn, like, the strategy and the setting up of the point, you might watch the women's side. Like, they're typically longer points. They don't have the firepower of the overheads, so. Tom, we're here talking about the London Premieres, our second episode on the subject. This episode we're gonna talk about the event, the players competing, who to look out for, and what it means for the UK to have this event on their grounds. If you haven't seen the first episode, I highly recommend going back, watching that episode. We talk about the wild cards, the British players, you know, the setup to the tournament. But now let's, let's talk a little bit about this event for the UK.
Yeah, it's so exciting for so many players out there because we're always saying to players when, whenever we, we coach players or players join our clinics, is go and watch Pro Padel Live and you can learn so much from it. And I think this is really the first opportunity for a lot of UK-based players that maybe perhaps can't travel to some of the other premier events to actually see padel live. So it's, it's really exciting for them. I think there's going to be so many players out there that come away just amazed at the level that is on show.
And it's so different live, isn't it? Like the speed of the play, like if you watch it on the screen you think, oh wow, that's impressive, but then when you watch it live you think, wow, what incredible athletes they are. And you're also aware of other things like we've talked before about sportsmanship, but also communication is a big one. We're always teaching players communication, and if you watch it live, you see they're talking the whole way through. It's very active. The energy both on the court and off the court is, is really impressive.
Yeah, and if you're perhaps a player watching this or listening to this and you haven't got a ticket yet, if you go and watch the pros live, you'll come away, it'll be such an amazing experience. But if you are passionate about your paddle and looking to improve, like, it's, it's just one of those experiences that you'll come away and it will just have such a big impact on you and your padel game. So highly recommend, go and get a ticket, go and watch.
And it doesn't have to be the final or the semifinals. I think players get caught up in getting a finals ticket or a semifinal ticket. I mean, if you go to the qualifying, you will see an amazing level of padel, like right the way from the first match, from the Sunday or the Monday, whenever they start that qualifying, right the way through the week. So Yeah, watch as much as you can, I think.
And you're going to be in the Red Bull TV commentary box back in the studio?
Yeah, so we'll do a live broadcast at some of the events around the year. We're doing a broadcast, so we have a studio, so we do the in-between match studios and the hype before the games, and then also I do the commentary. So from the Friday onwards, so quarterfinals onwards, we will have the broadcast. We typically go on the Thursday, we do a dress rehearsal, we do a mic and sound check and all of that, and then, you know, the rest of the the tournament will be covered by Red Bull.
And how do you think this tournament is going to be different to some of the other tournaments? Obviously for you it's local, which is nice. In your hometown. But how do you think that the tournament is going to be different?
I think it's going to be really interesting to see because the last few years, like we've been in the UK, we've been doing our best to help support the development of the sport over here. And every club we go to, there's there's such an enthusiasm for the game. And I think 4 years ago or 3 years ago, players didn't know the top players. No one would have known Tapia Coelho. They didn't know Bela. They didn't know any of these top players. But I'd say in the last year, 1 to 2 years, there's been a real kind of improvement in the awareness, the knowledge of what's going on with Premier. So I think we're going to see like really strong support for it. And I think it's going to be a lot of new watchers of the game. Like, I think a lot of the people we've spoken to that have tickets, have never seen live padel before. Like, they may go to the Hexagon or they may have watched it online, but they've not seen a proper Premier event. And so I think this is, it's going to be really exciting and I think we're going to get a great crowd and atmosphere for it.
Yeah, and I think almost a bit like you just said there, but for me it's showing what good looks like. I think so many players around the country have picked up padel, maybe they're new to the sport, maybe they've seen some of their better players at their club play, but I think that a lot of players don't really see what I say, what good looks like, what amazing looks like, what are the pros, how the pros actually playing the game. I think that there are still in the UK so many ex-tennis players playing padel, which is great, and those are in a lot of clubs some of the better players. But we know because we've got experience of watching the pros live and training with the pros what amazing looks like. But I think that for so many players out there to see it live, a big part of this is go, ah, okay, that's how the pros are playing padel.
Yeah, well, I mean, the GB players as an example, most of them don't train in this country. So most of the club players don't even see our GB players play. And these pros are, you know, a step up from that. And really when you get to the main draw and really quarterfinals onwards, I mean, the level of play nowadays, the physicality is incredible. And I think like looking on, you know, the different games and we're not going to necessarily dive into the exact like players, but you've got Tapia Coello in the men's, Chingalan on the men's side, you know, they are going to be both you know, the amazing top 2 pairs to watch, but there's so many others that, that will play really well, and it's, it's exciting. The players will be running out, they'll be playing all of these highlight trick shots that we see, you know, the level of, of defense in the game is also like incredibly impressive too.
And this is the first time that Premier Padel players are going to be coming to London for a tournament. We've actually just come back from South Africa where we've worked with our academy in Johannesburg, but actually a lot of the players when it comes to the Premier League are going to be coming from a tournament in South Africa where the conditions are going to be super, super fast, aren't they? So they're going to be coming from the P1 there and they're going to be coming back to London and the conditions are going to be very, very different.
Yeah, so we, we were in Joburg, which is at altitude, but they're going to be playing in Pretoria, which is also at altitude. And being at altitude, it means that it's faster, it's going to be a lot faster. So, you know, the smashes are going to have more power, more rebound, you know, all of the shots are going to be a lot faster and they're going to travel from there to here. Now, it's at the Olympia, like, kind of conference hall. It's the first time the event is being held in, in this country, La Première. But also, you know, it's a very new venue, like, last few months, 5,000-seater stadium for that show court. It's hard to know exactly the speed it's going to play. I can almost guarantee it won't play as fast as Pretoria. But if it's hot in there, it may play quickly, or you might find that the turf and the colder— maybe there's AC— it plays slightly slower. But that's something that the players are going to have to adapt to, you know, really when they turn up.
Yeah, we might see some, some potentially some upsets in terms of the draw. We talked about in the first part of this episode around some of the GB pairs, and like you said at the start of this, if you haven't listened to that yet, do go and check that out because there's some really interesting discussions we had, but there's, there's going to be some potential upsets with that, right? Because players coming from such fast conditions back to potentially slower conditions, maybe not getting that much time to practice on the court those few rounds, I think we always see some, some results that I think, yeah, can, can sort of be a bit of an upset.
Yeah, well, we definitely see even the top pros, the top seeds, they end up having to battle their way through. They end up often winning in 3 sets, but some of the lower seeds end up dropping out and, and That's why I really highly recommend anyone going on, you know, the Tuesday, Wednesday, even the Thursday, for example, is like try and watch as many of the contentious or exciting games as you can because you probably will see an upset in those early days because, you know, the top teams may not be used to playing in these conditions and, you know, it's also midway through the season, like some are more fatigued, they will have traveled, it's a long, okay, we're on the same similar time zone, but it's a long travel. Back from South Africa. So all of these are factors that play into their performance.
Yeah, and if you're, if you're a player listening to this or watching this and you are, and you have got tickets to go, what would be your advice for them to watch specifically when they watch the pros? Because I think sometimes when you, when you see that level, it can be a little bit overwhelming there, especially on the men's side. They're running out, they're kicking smashes, I mean, they're coming out with all these incredible shots. But I think there's also a side to watching live where if you can really zone in on some of the the fundamentals that the pros are doing, you can pick up insights in your own game, right?
Yeah, and I would say probably like if you're watching for entertainment, you might watch the men's side. It's faster, more explosive. But if you're watching to learn like the strategy and the setting up of the point, you might watch the women's side. Like they're typically longer points. They don't have the firepower of the overhead, so it's more difficult to finish. So they need to do a bit more strategically to finish the points. And I would also say for a player, like, if you're a right side player, try and find a right side player that you like, that you think plays a nice style of game that you would want to emulate, and, and almost just, just watch them. Like, watch them, how they move, watch their shot selection, where they are on the court, how they make their decisions. And that can be something that really, like, can help you visualize what you need to do within your own game, you know. And then almost watch them as a pair, so see how they move together as a pair and And that's something that you could watch with your partner as well and be like, oh hey, you see how those guys are moving back together or they're moving very fast up in this position or, you know, these are all like little tactical insights that they could get from watching these guys.
I'm gonna put you on the spot here. Who are the, which pair from the men's and which pair from the women's are the ones to watch this week?
Oh, I'm a big fan, like in the women's if I was gonna start with Paula and Bea, like, you know, I just really enjoy that explosivity, the way that Beyer plays and Paula. I mean, they've had a great season so far, but they would be my pair to watch. And I'm going to go controversially with Chingalan. Tapia-Cuevas have won the last few, but I feel like this could be a little resurgence for Chingalan.
You heard it here first.
So it's going to be an amazing week. We're going to be involved in different capacity, whether it's giving clinics or we're going to be there spectating or the broadcast. Make sure you follow our social media channels, The Paddle School across the board, and we will do our best to keep you up to date and give you insights of the tournament.
Yeah, and we're going to be there all week, so if you do see us, come say hi, and hopefully we'll see you there.
