What Makes a Great Padel Coach?

Sandy, in this episode we're going to talk about something that comes up, I think, a lot around the world at clubs, and it's something discussed by players and coaches, is to be a good coach, do you have to be a good player?

Yeah, I think it's a difficult one, isn't it? Because coaches are learning the game of padel too, right? So usually a coach comes from having played the sport and They have an interest in education, interest in teaching, and if you look at other sports, you can take tennis for example or squash. Often they've played the game for 15, 20 years, and then they decide, you know what? I really enjoy coaching, and they go through the coach qualifications, and then they become a coach. And and I feel like padel at the moment is on a little bit of a fast forward in that padel has grown so quickly, and clubs are springing up all over the the world. And the club managers and owners are going, we need a coach, let's get someone in quick. And they go and do a, a weekend course and suddenly they're the coach for the club. And, and so they haven't had the chance to train their game or their level in order to, to be able to deliver to a high level.

And I also think that for players, it's, it's difficult to judge, isn't it? Because there's lots of new players to the game, and I think that the easiest thing for a player to judge a coach on is, is their playing level. So a coach says, I was this ranking, or I played at this level, or in this tournament, or whatever. For a player, that, that makes them feel like, okay, well, this person must know, must know how to coach then if they've played that level. So there's— it's a challenge for club owners, but, but also for, for players.

Yeah, and I think as well, like, if we talk about level, the, the level at a club is, is growing in pockets, but without actually seeing like what it's like on a national scale. Like if I think about clubs that we've worked at or work with, etc., and, you know, they have their, their advanced group, really, if you look at that group on a, on a national scale, it's probably an intermediate level, right? At best. And, but they, they are advanced for that club. And so when a coach comes from the club and they go, I'm in the advanced group and I'm now going to coach, it's, it's quite difficult because the, that level is not necessarily high enough to lead advanced lessons or performance coaching for juniors, for example. And, you know, we've done a lot of coach education over the years, and very often we have some great coaches, and we, you know, they come through the course and they're really good at communication, demonstration, organization, they're really good at the core coaching principles, and if they wanted to coach at a higher level, the big thing is that they, they need to go and, and work on their game.

I know a lot of tennis coaches— you talked about tennis there earlier around— tennis coaches usually have been tennis players from a young age, and, and padel's in such a unique spot at the moment because, like you said, it's, it's so new. I can't think of another sport like that where the sport is growing so quickly and it needs coaches. And so you've got all these coaches coming into the game. And I think that a lot of tennis coaches actually have a bit of imposter syndrome because if they've come from tennis coaching where they've grown up playing the sport and now they're interested in, in coaching padel, I know loads of tennis coaches that say to me, well, actually, do you know what, I, I actually just want to get to a high level first in padel. I'm not going to coach it, I'm not going to coach padel yet, but I'm actually just going to play and compete and, and try and get to a high level, then I'll think about going into coaching, and they feel like until they can get to a good level that they can't coach padel. And, um, there's lots of other coaches out there that don't have that same mindset, but I think it's interesting that tennis coaches that I've spoken to do have that mindset.

The problem is, is how do they get to that level? Like, that's, that's the hard thing, right? Like, you, when you started padel from tennis, you were in a fortunate position that you had me that had already gone through it, and we looked at yourself and, and other of your contemporaries from tennis Like really good tennis players. And a lot of them have just kind of dropped off padel because there's nowhere they could go to, to get the training and the education, right? And so they end up just being a tennis player on a padel court. And, and so inevitably what happens is you just, they get more and more pressure to be a padel coach. 'Cause at the beginning you say, okay, I, you know, I feel imposter syndrome. I want to improve my game before I go into coaching, but, but where are they going to improve? And 6 months later, they're still playing with their tennis player mates and they're still playing tennis on a padel court. But there's even more pressure because the club are going, look, we desperately need a coach. You are the best player at the club because you're an ex-tennis player and, and we think you should coach. And they, they end up having to coach. And, and I think it's, it's really difficult. And, but on, at the same time.

Yeah.

They, they probably would do a, if they've understood the principles of padel, they probably would do a really good job of transmitting that to, you know, beginner and, and intermediate players. Whereas, you know, you, you know how, how I feel about this, where, you know, you get some really good ex-Spanish or Argentinian players that have played since they're a kid. They play national level. I've like, know lots of ex-World Padel Tour players. They come and, and, but actually they.

Yeah.

They can't coach. Like, they don't have the ability to organise a lesson. They don't communicate well enough for the student to, to come away with key takeaways, key teaching points within the lesson. And, and so they actually do a worse job of, of coaching the, the general club player than the, the tennis coach who maybe has imposter syndrome and maybe doesn't know the game well enough.

Well, let's talk about, I think, the skills for a coach because You touched upon them there about the different skills that a coach will have versus a player. And I think, I almost think playing skills ties into these, these skills that you need as a coach. So let's break them down. Let's, let's talk about the skills that you need as a coach and then let's see where the playing level fits into that.

Yeah. And so most important, and I'll almost do this in order of the type of coaches that we like to work with and that we look for, you know, almost in order is, is communication. Like, are they a good coach, a good communicator on the court? Do they have good, like, body presence? That's not just verbal, right? That's nonverbal as well. Good body presence, good eye contact, good posture, like, you know, on the court. Are they active? Are they energetic? Like, you know, are they good communicators?

Do they care?

Do they care, right? Like, and part of that care is also, like, empathy and understanding for the player. And, you know, that for me is almost the top one. Then we look at, The, the organization, you know, are they able to organize a group? But, you know, I really don't like working with coaches where their version of organizing is queuing people up at the other end and, and then, you know, they stand there feeding a basket and, and they hit 3 shots and rotate around. The players just don't hit, you know, enough repetition on, on the shot. Um, you know, those are, those are kind of 2, 2 key, key areas. And then—

Sorry, that's where, just to say, that's where tennis coaches transitioning over to padel Typically can be strong in that area if they've come from tennis coaching, coaching group lessons, understanding how to organize a group lesson in tennis. It's, it's definitely transferable to padel. It's slightly different, but that's where those skills can, can be transferred easily.

Both of them, right? Communication and organization. Like, generally, like, a tennis coach coming across, they're usually a good communicator because they're used to doing that. They, they usually organize and know how to rotate. They, they have a good presence on the court generally, I would say. I think the area they, they struggle slightly is this idea of demonstration, where they need to demonstrate what good looks like. Like, that, that's the key, I think, for a coach, is to say, right, as part of the lesson, the coach should demonstrate what the players need to do, and, and they need to show what good looks like in terms of the technique. And this is where it's more of an advantage to have a padel background or to have a padel level. to play enough, you know, like padel or be at a level where you can show what good looks like. Um, and that, that obviously means that you do that, right? I see loads of lessons where we have really good players and they don't actually demonstrate, which, which is also a waste, right? So, um, you know, the demonstration bit is, is something where that's an area where, where tennis coaches or squash coaches or other coaches need to to learn those techniques and, and to be able to, to do them well, like to do them well enough that they can actually stand in front of a group and say, this is what the vibra looks like, and they can have a good contact point and they can have a good body position. It doesn't need to be Ali Ghulam's vibra, but, but it needs to be good enough for the level that you're teaching that you can show what good looks like in that context.

Yeah, what they're aspiring to, to play themselves, right? And I think that's an advantage for— we talk about playing level, that's where playing level would tie in, is to, to show what good looks like. And like you say, if, if you are a good player, use it. We're always saying that to, to coaches that have played to a high level. Show, show your students what great looks like, and that's what the students are aspiring to.

Yeah, definitely. And I think just to mention, we'll put something down in the, in the description that If you are a coach or you want to be a coach and you're interested in coach education, we are doing more and more courses throughout the world for coaches to really become complete in terms of their game. And everything that we're mentioning here, we do lots of practice, and part of that practice is the demonstration. So there's a link down in the show notes, in the description, where you can go fill out a form, give us a bit more details about yourself, and then we can keep your details to invite you to those courses. But a lot of that is also practice, like, for the coach. can go and practice those shots so you know how to demonstrate them, and, and also the key teaching points within those shots. So when you're demonstrating the vibora, you're also saying, you know, here's the contact, here's my preparation, this is what you need to focus on, to the players so that they can actually go and work on, on the shots.

We've talked about communication, organization, and showing what good looks like, and that's where playing level comes in. And I think that The other area that playing level comes into is when you start looking at different game situations in a lesson, and for a coach to understand the different tactics that sit within padel, whether that's from a basic level to intermediate to advanced, I think that for a coach that has played to a high level, for them to understand the tactics that sit within games, for me that is perhaps one of the most important aspects for a coach because If you haven't played to a level, it's difficult for coaches to give that, that tactical advice. And padel's such a tactical sport. So for me, that's where playing level is so important, I think, when it comes to coaching.

Yeah, definitely. And not just teaching what works for you in your matches, because hitting your smash as hard as you can may work for you, but it's not going to work for your low intermediate group on a Saturday morning, right? So it's understanding the tactics and what is needed At each of the levels. And, and that can be difficult. Like, that helps if you compete yourself. It helps if you watch Premier Padel and, and you can see how they break the points down, particularly the women's. I think it's easier to watch the women's and understand how they break the points down. But you need to form some tactical structure in order for you to be able to teach the game properly. And, you know, when to come in, what you should be doing, how to transition, what shots. you should be hitting, the shot direction as well, the court positioning. All of those things are, are tactical elements within the game that the coach needs to understand well enough in order to, to teach the players.

And those, those different parts that we talked about, the communication, organization, demonstration, tactical side, in your opinion, what is, what's the most important for being a coach? Because I feel like there's, there's a bit of a discussion around that, right? Because there's different, there's different skills that you need as a coach. But what actually is more important? Is it the demo and the tactics, or is it the communication, organisation?

It's a difficult one because I think communication and organisation, while they can be worked upon, they can be practised, absolutely they can be practised, I think a lot of that is a bit more natural in terms of, you know, naturally as a kid, are you comfortable as a communicator? Do you like communication? Do you like people? You know, is it, are you generally easy with eye contact? Like a lot of that stuff is quite natural. And I think that it is easier, in my opinion, to find a coach that is a good communicator, they're organized, they think with structure, and teach them padel than to find a padel player who maybe is unreliable, unpunctual, like they don't kind of have an open mind to learning rotations and things like that. I, I find that much more difficult to work with. I mean, I've done, I've done this over the years at coach education. I've had both many, many times. And the very good player, but doesn't communicate very well, doesn't organize the sessions very well. Like, that is a, that is hard. Like, it's almost a bad habit for them. You are trying to fix a bad habit within their, their personality and their skills on court. It can be done and it absolutely can be practiced and learned. But, but I think it's easier to teach someone to play and, and get them to a level that they can then teach. And I'm not saying like not everyone is gonna be national level padel coaches, right? Like, you, you know, to get them to their natural potential. Um, I think that's easier.

It's level dependent, I think, as well, right? I think that's what we're saying is that majority of players across the world now are really at a level of beginner and intermediate, aren't they? Even, you said, even at your club, the advanced group really in the grand scheme of things probably is about an intermediate group in emerging, in emerging markets. And so I think that when it comes to your playing level as a coach, I think that beginner-intermediate, your value as a coach to the club, uh, to yourself as a coach, is that communication organization is so important. I think at beginner and intermediate level in particular, I think it's important all the time, but in those 2 levels because I think then you can show what good looks like as well in the beginner intermediate level. If depending on your level as a coach, ideally you want to be at that sort of level where you can show what good looks like at beginner and intermediate level.

Yeah.

But then I think as you go up into advanced, international team, I think that's probably where the understanding of padel, the tactical side, I think you need that if you're going to start coaching those, those top-level players, perhaps players that are aspiring to be professional players one day.

Yeah, it's, it's difficult right now in the emerging countries. Like you said, like 99% of the, the players are intermediate or beginner. And, and I think that this is something for clubs to understand as well. How many clubs have we spoken to where they go, you know, they've got an option for a coach, Miguel or Michael, and they're going, we need Miguel, we need Miguel because our top-level players need someone who has lived and breathed the game. I've heard that like literal quote so many times from a club.

Yeah.

And, you know, you always say to the club, look, 99% of your players are intermediate or beginners. Michael has that, like, organization communication. Yes, he could improve his game. Yes, he could go and train padel for a few weeks and easily be enough for almost all of your audience. But every club wants a Miguel because they, you know, they think that that is the solution. Like, oh, let's bring him in. And then almost inevitably, 2 months down the line, they go, Miguel keeps turning up late, he's not organized, he's basket feeding, he doesn't do, you know, do this, and then, you know, they end up going for Michael in, you know, in the end. But it's, yeah, it's understanding where everyone is, and the playing level that you need in order to teach a beginner level only needs to be high intermediate, right? And if you're teaching an intermediate player, you only need to be advanced, right? You just need to show them what good looks like. And, and I think the limit goes at national level. I think that's difficult. Like, if you're like a national coach, you, it's difficult that you are going to play better than, than the players. You just have to have enough experience to understand and, and have empathy of where the players are at that particular time. And, and even if that's carrying over kind of ex-tennis professional, you know, you know, mentality and, and kind of tips from there that you can then use with the players. But, um, Yeah, I think you just essentially need to play like a paddle playing level above what you are teaching.