Padel: What's all this racquet about?

Padel-tennis, or simply “padel”, is taking the world by storm. The world’s fastest growing sport is adding thousands of new players every month and the party's just getting started in South Africa. 

But what is padel, and what’s the big deal?

In 1969, Enrique Corcuera got fed up with having to fetch tennis balls that got belted off the court. He adapted his squash court at home in Acapulco, Mexico, to create "Paddle Corcuera", the ancestor of modern padel. Enrique's Spanish friend, Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe, fell in love with this new sport at Enrique's home and built the first two padel courts at a tennis club in Marbella, Spain, in 1974. Spain has been the world's padel capital ever since, where it has overtaken tennis and lies second only to football in popularity.

Padel is half tennis, half squash, and all fun. The scoring system is identical to tennis but the rallies are 60 - 70% longer because of the smaller court and the player’s ability to return off the glass walls. Tennis players take to the volleys and smashes quickly, but squash players have a knack for reading the bounce off the walls. But even if you've played no racquet sports before, padel is easy to get into and very forgiving of all sporting abilities. What’s more, padel is almost exclusively played in doubles format, making it a social sport too. Watch this video for a crash-course on how to play.

Don’t mistake it for just a casual game, though. You only need to spend five minutes watching clips from The World Padel Tour to admire the athleticism and skill on display. There is big money up for grabs and TV coverage of the big tournaments is expanding rapidly.

Playing padel works up a sweat. You’ll burn anything between 700 and 1000 calories per hour! That’s more than tennis but a little less than squash. Play two 90-minute padel games every week and you’ll easily achieve the WHO weekly exercise recommendations (remember to wear a heart rate monitor to grab up to 90 Strove Points per hour!). Padel improves aerobic capacity too, lowering your risk of diseases like heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and dementia. And let’s not forget the powerful stress-relieving effect of a social game of padel after a long day in the office. Swap your stress hormones for some feel-good endorphins. You’ll even sleep better at night on days you’ve played padel unless, of course, you keep replaying that easy smash you missed in your head! 

I’ve been playing once or twice per week for the past month or two now. Courts are springing up all over the place, but it is still impossible to get a court at short notice during peak times. From 6 am, all the way to 10 pm, people are out there enjoying padel and getting active. What thrills me is that many of these players would otherwise have been on the couch, flicking channels. Padel is a fitness craze but players don’t even realise they are taking a fitness class, they are just too busy having fun.

What are you waiting for? Grab a buddy and get padeling!