If in France, the padel is expanding, what about our dear English neighbor? Who better than Peter Vann, the President of the British Federation of padel to answer questions from Kristina Clément? Inventory of the padel English:

Can you tell how you discovered the padel and how you became President of the British Federation Padel ?

I discovered tennis from padel in 2002 when I saw the courts of padel settled at La Manga Club, a well-known tennis and golf resort in Murcia, Spain. At that time I was involved in the life of the Huddersfield Tennis and Squash Club (HLTSC) as a volunteer President.
As a lifelong tennis player (and squash player too), I then started playing padel every time I got off in Spain - often literally I got off the plane and headed straight for the court of padel to play. I found this sport to be very fun, technically very easy compared to tennis or squash, and very sociable with the doubles format like tennis - but much more mentally challenging as it is not a power sport, but more patience and tactics.

In 2005, I discovered that a British championship of padel was held at the Rye Tennis Club in Sussex and I went there to participate. This short was only one of two (very inaccessible) short of padel existing in the UK. A Spaniard who lived in Rye was trying to promote the sport from there.
It was a one-day event with very short format matches. Of the dozen or so teams registered, there were, to my surprise, several Spanish pairs who had made the Spanish trip to participate in the tournament.
I learned from one of them that the padel was experiencing a very significant expansion in their country to become the second most played sport (after football) with more than 4 million regular participants - astonishing when tennis in Spain has only 250.000 regular players.
It was a key moment, surely this sport had a future here in the UK.

In 2006, I made a proposal to the board of directors of my club HLTSC to build courts of padel on 2 old unused grass courts that are heavy in maintenance. At the time there weren't many other developments going on at the club for immediate action. But for the next 4 years, as I played more padel and that I had been able to introduce the sport to other members of Huddersfield, there was sufficient momentum to move forward on this project. Then with the combination of private funding, help from interested members, a Spanish coach who had moved to Huddersfield, in addition to a 20K local grant, the HLTSC board gave its agreement to start the project. In March 2011, we installed two courts of padel in my HLTSC club. A UK first, which we were able to promote / tell anyone who was willing to listen to us - and also BBC 1 TV channel spoke about our sport and our achievement at Wimbledon that year.

I had inadvertently become the spokesperson for padel in the UK and I was again surprised by the continued and enduring interest which always ends at my doorstep as a consequence of what has been achieved at HLTSC.

The following year, a dedicated club of padel opened in Canary Wharf, London, then the David Lloyd group (DLL - Editor's note: major sports complex chain in England-) began a serious long-term investment in padel in the United Kingdom by installing the padel in its larger center in Essex. Several other DLL clubs now have padel, and others have planned to integrate it.

2012 in the Padel British Tour has been set up and a UK player ranking system has been created - Each of these tournaments currently attract over 100 participants. For the next 3 years I represented an English team at an international tournament in Spain, which allowed me to discover that the other EU countries like Holland, Germany, Sweden and Portugal were all doing to develop the sport from a low participation base just like the UK and this has allowed me to make a lot of European friends through the sport.

During this event in 2013, I was approached by Tom Murray - who had initiated the Padel British Tour and who asked me to join the organization intended to become the governing body for the Padel in the UK (with at that time 3 people on this committee: myself as chairman, Tim Edwards vice chairman and Tom Murray as director of marketing and development. Since then other people have joined this committee director).
Since then have followed the affiliation to the International Federation Padel, and recognition by the World Padel Tour, plus what has been a meteoric rise in popularity here. There are now 16 clubs and 32 courts of padel in the UK with many other projects underway.

As a player, I regularly participate in the British Padel Tour and I am currently in 20th place in UK in the open ranking system.


* Padel is developing in many countries in Europe (outside Spain) such as Portugal, Italy, Sweden and France. Do you feel the same trend for the UK?

Yes quite ! The padel is growing in the UK as fast or even faster than some countries. Sweden is the leading country because today it has the most courts in Europe apart from Spain. I think UK is similar to Germany, Holland. Portugal is far ahead of the fact that they have attached the padel at the Tennis Federation which has helped a lot… France is also far ahead for the same reasons. Growth in the UK is on the rise and significantly

* Are there many new club projects in the pipes?

Yes, currently, there are many, which could be a long list to mention. In the South Country in Christchurch, there is a demand that has been filed to install 3 courts in a tennis club
in West London, in a very upscale country club, in Stoke Park, there are 2 / 3 short scheduled (this is a project that has existed for a long time but has resurfaced recently)

Also in West London, there is another club that is planning to set up a court, then in Essex, there is a short 2 project in a private club, also 2 extra shorts in the David Lloyds club in this same region. In the north, there is a planned project in Staffordshire, further north in Scotland, there are 3 indoor courts which are under construction at this time plus a short outdoor, and other projects ...

To sum up, this year there will be between 15 and 20 courts of padel additional, when today the United Kingdom has exactly 32 courts (+ 50% increase). By the end of 2016, we should have 50 courts in total, because these are projects that are already well advanced.

* What do you think might help Padel to grow in the UK?

Social networks are the element to expose the sport because the biggest challenge for us as for Germany, Sweden, etc ... is that nobody knows what the sport is. padel. The fastest way to connect people and let people know what the padel, this done through social networks. The countryside #PadelYES has been very successful so far.

http://www.britishpadel.co.uk/Noticia.aspx?id=31&return_url=/index.aspx

The interview with Jamie Murray (Editor's note: brother of Andy Murray, player of double winner of the Davis Cup with England and the Australian Open) has already had more than 10.000 views. How can you get an audience like this outside of social media. Twitter and Facebook are the means to disseminate information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk1vgCuBs88

*The Padel is not recognized today as a sport in your country.

Indeed, it is a challenge for the British federation Padel to have it recognized, and to have it recognized without being linked to another sport. Because we do not want to be attached to tennis as is the case in France or Portugal.

*Why ?

Because the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association, equivalent of the FFT in England) is not interested in us and we are not interested in them. They have much more important things to do than take care of a minority sport like padel.

The main benefit of being recognized as a sport is not having access to subsidies but that local authorities understand that it is a sport that they can support / encourage, so that they can work with interested people. to invest by ceding them, making land available. There are many, many tennis courts in England that are not in use and could easily be turned into tennis courts. padel.

This is our key goal for us. We started working on this topic by having regular contact with Secretary of State for Sport Tracy Crouch and a member of my team contacted Jennie Price who the president of “Sport England”. We are going to have a meeting with her, show her where we are and ask her how it is possible to speed up what is today a ridiculously long procedure for a new sport and especially when this sport is played by 8 million people. worldwide.

* What are the objectives of the Bristish Federation Padel for 2016?

A greater level of participation because the participation of the British circuit Padel has grown steadily BUT when you go to places like Scotland, Huddersfield or Birmingham the turnout is low due to a small Spanish community unlike London, where Spaniards are very numerous and come to play the tournaments.

Lower participation among weaker / intermediate players (Category B & C tournaments). The best players (Cat. A) will still be able to play in the big clubs but the smaller clubs with 1 or 2 courts can also organize a one-day tournament to attract the players and make them play.

Our objective is this: to increase the participation rate in tournaments.

Kristina Clément - Padel Magazine

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.

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