Why are people worrying about Pickleball and Padel?
You will have noticed a flurry of articles in the national and international press about the rise in popularity of a couple of sports perceived as a challenge to the supremacy of Tennis as the leading racket sport worldwide.
Padel is currently a rising star in the UK, with new courts at the LTA HQ in Roehampton, no less. But this is a game which in Spain is considered to be an essential part of life, as well as Tennis of course, with nearly 5 million players mostly based in Clubs where Tennis and Padel are a joint enterprise.
According to an article by Tim Lewis in Esquire, Manu Martin, a Spanish Padel player and coach with a strong social-media presence, found himself becoming an influencer in the Covid era: he now has 185,000 followers on Instagram. “It sounds bad, but the pandemic was good for padel in Spain, in Europe and in many countries,” says Martin. “One reason is that, once you have tried padel for one time, then you’re in love with the sport. “And the second thing is about the business,” he goes on. “In one tennis court, you can install three padel courts. In tennis, people play one versus one, so if you’re a manager of a club, you’ll be earning money from two people. But if you have three padel courts, you have 12 people playing, paying and drinking beer in the cafeteria after the match. This is very common, at least in Spain and the Mediterranean: after Padel, you drink beer. So as a business, it’s more interesting than tennis. And when people put money into a new sport, that’s when it begins to grow up.” I seem to remember that the same was and may still is true of Tennis with Club Doubles being the most popular format, and truth be told Padel is easy to pick up - but then difficult to master. However, Sport England has calculated that the number of tennis players in England dropped from 889,300 in 2016 to 641,800 in 2021, or a 28 per cent dip in five years. (Squash had 425,600 players in England in 2016, but only 105,600 in 2021, so if these stats are accurate there is good reason to think that Padel and Pickleball could rekindle interest in racquet sports and bolster the support for Clubs and public court facilities in the UK, for a new generation of players.
So what about Pickleball?
Hugely popular in the USA and attracting players of all ages and abilities, accessible, straightforward to learn, sociable, fun, fast and can be very competitive, with the added advantage of using a standard UK Badminton court, and giving everyone a good work-out!
Check out this article appearing in the Forbes magazine; Wave of Celebrities Investing in Pickleball
As Tim Lewis points out in his Esquire article; ‘for now, Tennis is keeping an eye on its precocious younger siblings. At the moment, it’s still strong enough to bully them if the fight becomes physical, but padel and pickleball are growing up fast. And, as for squash, it may be too late.’ “Most of the tennis players I know play padel and enjoy it but they wouldn’t give up tennis for padel,” says Andy Murray. “I think the two sports can sit side by side. Padel is a great way for people to start racquet sports because it’s so easy to learn, but the beauty of tennis is the technicality of the game. There will always be a place for that.”
Each game has a clear attraction and value to a range of skills and physical abilities, which can appeal to players from young ages to senior years. It feels that there is room for all and that this is a healthy development for racket sports, which can seem remote and inaccessible to many.
So, no need to be worried about whether one sport will succeed and another fail; in fact just give them all a try, and enjoy them, whatever your experience they all bring friendship, fitness and the opportunity to learn new skills. BTW - Tennis is still king!