Andoni Bardasco and Iñaki Loredo, the founders of the academy Padel Stuff, specializing in internships padel for all levels in three languages, give us their vision of the global boom in padel and how to teach this sport to raise the level of trainees.

A lack of visibility on the direction of this growth

Le padel is a fairly new sport, which has been developing globally since it crossed the South American borders, about 40 years ago. At the European level, real growth has arrived in France, Germany, Italy and even in the Nordic countries.

It will be very interesting to see how the growth of this sport will be managed by federations, local public bodies and even private investors who participate in the boom.

To give a slightly more personal opinion, when growing the padel in Spain, there have been actions by the private sector that have greatly helped the padel to become a sport known outside the Spanish borders. Pro players, coaches, racquet brands and even the first two circuits that were created to play padel a professional sport (PPT a few years ago, and WPT now) have played a very important role in the international expansion of padel.

Padel Stuff

Spain did not anticipate the explosion of the padel global

The slightly more negative aspect is perhaps that the development of clubs in Spain took place without anticipating the explosion of padel of recent years.

It would be very good for this sport if our European neighbors could learn from the Spanish model and improve it as the padel will grow in them.

A popular sport all over the world: a guarantee for the future

When the boom only occurs in one country, the very strong desire to practice a sport can dry up, and gradually the number of practitioners may decrease.

The fact that the padel becomes popular all over the world makes this sport much more solid and ensures a large number of practitioners and customers for brands, which find there a good ground to develop and invest.

Padel Stuff

The wave padel arrives everywhere in Europe

An important figure: there are now around 6 million people who practice padel in Spain, i.e. 12% of the population.

It's really huge and, in our opinion, it will also happen in neighboring countries since it is an ideal sport to practice indoors, where the climate does not allow playing outdoors all year round.

In addition, a court does not take up too much space, so it is easier to invest in an indoor track of padel than in other sports where the grounds are much larger.

Europe is Spain 20 years ago

We have visited quite a few places all over Europe, and we have also welcomed many players to our home in Bilbao. These courses showed us a sort of flashback of what the padel in Spain 20 years ago.

At the time, this sport was beginning to become popular but people were not always aware of the tools to be able to play it well. padel.

The big difference was the origin of the padel…for us, it was South America, especially Argentina, a country with which we have a common language. This made it possible to bring in professionals who quickly taught the padel here.

On the other hand, for the other European countries, the origin of the padel, it's Spain… and even if English is a more or less common language for everyone, it is not easy to do training using a language that is not mastered by either the teacher nor by the student.

Most teachers are gifted and new to the sport

Currently, most teachers in padel in Europe are gifted sportsmen and paradoxically who begin to discover this sport at the time of teaching it.

In many countries, we see tennis teachers becoming teachers of padel almost overnight. We should obviously not generalize, but it is true that it is an observation that we can make. And that's quite normal: it is still necessary that the good players of each region give the first lessons to beginners.

The average level of technique among beginners is quite good in Europe. We are not going to make the comparison with Spain, but it is true that the players who arrive in this sport are often athletes, with a past in racket sports. This can help during the first sessions.

For this good basic level to improve, it is really important to have the tools and the tactical knowledge of the padel, which are really different from those of other more well-known racket sports in your countries.

It is on this ground that we want to make our contribution and teach you the knowledge on the padel that we have developed in Spain. And above all we want to do it using your language!

To get information on offers from Padel Stuff :

Inaki Loredo

Iñaki is one of the founders of Padel Stuff, an agency dedicated to internships padel in Europe. The lover of padel allows us to discover or better understand certain facets of padel Europeans.

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