This article originally appeared on VICE Italy.
Before trying padel, I’d never had any passion for tennis or any other racket sports. I’d never been interested in watching someone grunt while hitting a ball backhanded to an equally grunt-prone opponent. My athleticism, particularly in group sports, has always left something to be desired. Yet for the past six months, I’ve become one of the 18 million people practising the sport, trudging my feet through the freezing cold to put all my frustrations into my local court.
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Padel was invented in 1969 by Mexican millionaire Enrique Corcuera, who didn’t have space for a full tennis court in his Acapulco holiday home and created a new game to fit his needs. The resulting sport mixes tennis and squash – you play with four people, two against two. You hit the ball downwards towards the opposite side of the court, and after bouncing on the ground, the ball can hit the walls several times before being sent back to the other side.
Padel can be played both indoors and outdoors, and the courts are surrounded by walls of glass and metallic mesh. Since a padel court is only a third of the size of a tennis court, many sport venues have opted for opening three courts in the space of one, leading to a boom in the sport. According to the 2022 Global Padel Report, there’s been a 181 percent increase in the number of padel clubs across Europe, and a 169 percent increase in the number of courts, between 2016 and 2021.
Part of why I was sucked into a sport I’d only recently heard about is that padel is like tennis, except without the need for technical prowess. It’s also a bit like squash, but without its intrinsically stressful movements. It has the sustained rhythm of ping pong, but it also makes you sweaty – plus there’s an element of strategy and unpredictability, like in pool. It’s a bit of a mix of everything and that’s why it works.
According to the report, players are mainly men between the ages of 35 and 55, but there’s a lot of variety in the scene. The incognito tennis players are immediately noticeable – they’re all dressed up, wearing sweatbands around their wrists and carrying fancy bags. Then there are the oddballs, who show up in jeans and thermal shirts – they’re most likely to wreak havoc on the courts by landing the ball in the midst of their neighbours’ game. Finally, there’s the noisy but committed crowd who books the time slot between the office and dinner. I’m moving from the second to the third group, but not without shame.
The truth is “padel offers moments of glory for people who suck at sports”, as Italian tennis legend Nicola Pietrangeli explained to TV channel Rai News. “Even bad players can have fun, and being bad at padel is a lot better than being bad at tennis.” That’s all true, especially for me.
The first time I played, I didn’t even know how it worked. I went with friends – none of us had any experience and only one of us had a basic knowledge of tennis, yet we were organising a “tournament” just about 90 minutes after picking up the racket. We made mistakes, had to run after the balls way too many times, and spent a lot of time getting everyone to understand the rules. In the end, I think we only played for 15 minutes – but time after time, we got better and better.
To me, padel is as democratic as it is badass. It has no philosophy or lifestyle you need to subscribe to, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. You don’t need to take lessons, nor to buy a bunch of stuff to feel like you belong. The sport has some entry costs, but it’s not totally unaffordable – a cheap racket will only cost you €50, plus the Global Padel Report puts the average cost of renting out a court at €26 an hour in the UK, or €6.5 per person.
The only people who seem nervous about padel are tennis enthusiasts. In Spain and Switzerland, the report indicates that the number of padel players has already exceeded that of tennis players. In Italy, as of the 1st of January 2023, the Tennis Federation changed its name to Tennis and Padel Federation. The rise of the sport seems unstoppable and I’m totally here for it.
