Direction the Padel in South America ! For you, the Swiss Army Knife sacrificed itself for a few weeks to investigate. Back from the Worlds in Paraguay, our two French teams, delighted by their results and atmosphere within the group, showed us a vision of padel of these countries ...
I decided to go further than this showcase to visit other countries and other sites in this same geographical area, and tell you how the development of padel takes place in Bolivia and Argentina.
Welcome to a type of padel from another world.
THEHistory of padel in short
Le padel was born in the late 1960s thanks to a Mexican named Enrique Corcuera. He had a tennis court at his house, surrounded by walls. To facilitate exchanges with his wife, he had the idea of asking her to let the ball pass, and to hit it after the wall ... padel was born !
One of Enrique's best friends, Alfonso de Hohenlohe, falls in love with this new sport and exports it to Spain, in the Costa del Sol. He built the first two courts of padel in Marbella, a sleepy little town at the time.
In the mid-1970s, an Argentinian member of the Marbella club brought back the padel in Argentina and built a club in Mar del Plata (1977): immediate success. The sport is developing very quickly in South America. Today, there are about 5 million occasional or dismissed practitioners.
Le padel is a sport in full expansion, in the whole world… even the Asian continent starts to be interested in this sport.
In France, today, the number of practitioners is estimated at over 50; more than 000 existing fields for 500 private and municipal clubs combined.
¿And in Argentina, thatl ?
A big first for me: every time I chatted with locals, and talked about padel, none made me the gesture of the board and the oar! Vamos! I have found my paradise, I tell myself. It is true that Argentina is the Mecca of padel... However, the first days are hard: no cancha (track) of Padel where I am ! I am not discouraged because they are all wonderful villages, but small. In the meantime, I play the tourist.
Le padel is very developed with the general public. Everyone plays, more or less well, but plays. Some parts are frenzied. It has happened to me several times to see players shouting on the field, just like in France sometimes, many play their lives in a simple match between friends!
Clubs Padel in the city are all indoor, rather hidden but they exist everywhere, around an ordinary front door, you have 3, 4 or more lots. It takes between 15-20 € for the rental of the land for 1h30! Yes, yes, the price of a player in France, but here the references are quite different.
EL partido!
Arriving in Salta, I stumble upon a club with two indoor tracks. So, taking advantage of a relatively calm moment in this journey, I venture into this club of padel. Very friendly welcome, I discuss with the manager to find me a part ... but all are complete. I come back the next day to try my luck again ... nothing :(. So I sit down at a table to watch a game in progress with 4 players. At the end of their game, one of their friends offers me to type with him: rush (you know me!).
The track is very different from those I know: walls to start with. A different mesh, height of 4 meters everywhere… and especially the surface: a sort of gym floor, very slippery and very rapid! A few minutes later, I proved myself in their eyes and 2 other players join us for a frenzied game. My premier padel in the country of padel : what happiness! Then… and just like in France: local cerveza and empanadas until late at night.
I leave the next day for new adventures. Highly Buenos Aires for other parties!
After entering 2-3 clubs and talking to the managers, I realize that it is very complicated to play when you don't know anyone. Here, the managers do not offer the same services as in Europe. If you want to play a game, you have to come to 2 or 4. There is no search for a partner, no really established level scale… the lands are, anyway, occupied. They don't feel the need to “make an effort” to organize games with the occasional visitor… I was very lucky to play in Salta after all!
As for Bolivia, nothing to report for my part. It is true that I did not go to big cities, but after two weeks in this beautiful country, with grandiose and unreal landscapes, I am a white cabbage. Some locals know the sport, but all say it: it is not very developed at home ... next time I try Chile 🙂
Hasta luego chicos y chicas!
Line Meites is one of the best French players in padel. It's the voice of your live on Padel Magazine. But not only, she also hosts the column “Investigations of the Swiss Army Knife”. Every month, she will come back to a controversy or a theme that is close to her heart.
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Hi Line, very your interesting vision about padel here in Argentina. As you say, most of the courts here have walls instead of glass, this is due most of courts was built at the end of the '80s and beginning of the' 90s where glass using for padel (called “paddle” in that time) courts weren't very common, maybe just for professional or exhibition courts. Even this, there lot of glass courts, but most of them have a hard surface because everybody here has learned to play padel with that surface and is not easy for people to get custom to another surface. In my city there are about 20 padel clubs, with about 3-6 courts each one, and there're just 2 courts with glass and carpet (I'm not sure about “carpet” term, I mean the surface as WPT). These 2 courts are probably the only courts outdoor in the city and were built in the last 3 years, the rest are indoor. Outdoor clubs were the first that disappeared when padel went down here at end of '90s.
In my case I play padel twice a week, and I couldn't yet play in a carpet court, but I want to test it and I'm trying to organize a match in on of them.
Regarding match organization in clubs, lot of clubs here call people to organize matches for different levels, in my case some years ago I re-started playing with friends (I had stopped playing at the end of the '90s like most of people here) but later I started going to clubs where they organize matches for me.
Tha's it, I just wanted to give you more info about padel in Argentina and let you know that I'm very happy that this sport is growing up in other countries in addition to spain & argenitna.
Thank you very much, German, for your infos and Very interesting what you've said…
in France, padel is growing a lot indeed (asin many european countries). Hopefully it will continue!
Line