Next Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES Next Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES
Padel Clubs
You might keep hearing that Padel is going to be huge in the UK. That it is the must play new fitness trend, and the most famous footballers in the world are playing it and owning it. David Beckham’s playing it, Jurgen Klopp has a court at Liverpool FC’s AXA training ground, and 5 aside football pitches being converted to padel courts are popping up everywhere from the Point at Polzeath in Cornwall and as far north as Stirling, a mere 10 hour journey between the two.
The tale of the tape is slightly different, there are just over 200 padel courts in the UK at the end of 2022. The LTA’s projection was for there to be 400 by 2021, which was pandemic affected but it is still predicting a further 200 courts to emerge in 2023. Chiswick London has a 10 court facility, Derby has 12 in one centre, but places such as Edinburgh and Harrogate and parts of Surrey are responsible for starting to create a buzz in the padel scene with multiple 1-3 court clubs.
To give this some context, just to paint a little picture of how popular Padel is in Spain, there are more Padel courts and padel players in Spain than there are tennis courts and tennis players. And you would be right in thinking of Spain as a major tennis playing nation. It’s the second most popular sport in Spain behind football with over 20,000 padel courts and around 6 million active players.
According to FIP, Padel is now played in over 100 countries, there are over 25 million players and an estimated 40-50,000 padel courts in the world and most of them are in Southern Europe.
The French Tennis Federation and Premier Padel held the Paris premier Padel Major at the same venue as the French open tennis, Roland Garros, and the most startling transformation was in Italy who came out of the pandemic into a Padel addiction with an estimated 5,000 courts in the country, popping up after contact sports were still banned. An increase of courts five-fold according to this data https://www.mrpadelpaddle.com/en/.
And it’s spreading. Sweden is just a few years ahead of the UK in terms of Padel evolution, and in Sweden it’s not even really a niche sport, as there were over 3,000 padel centres alone in Sweden in 2022.
But with the latest global stats showing the game is booming, the UK is behind the curve, it’s basically the fastest growing sport that most people have not heard of. There are some growth stats available from the LTA, pre pandemic in 2019 there were about 6,000 active padel players in the UK and 115 padel courts. The last active player data count in November 2021 captured around 89,000 padel players across the UK.
Why? Perhaps because the British generally enjoy playing games that they invented, and whilst there is no doubt that Padel is a form of games played on British cruise liners in the early 20th century, there has been little room until recently for what was seen by tennis purists as secondary. Once described in some circles as the tennis equivalent of crazy golf, we at UK Padel think of this game as more of the T20 of Tennis (and we are world champions at that). Now some of the bastions of tennis clubs; Hurlingham, Edgbaston, and even Queen’s has Padel it means the inexorable truth is that the old guard agree. Padel is probably going to be huge in the UK.
Clubs in Wales
Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULESExplore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES
Clubs in Northern Ireland
Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULESExplore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES
Clubs in Scotland
Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULESExplore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES
Clubs in the Channel Islands
Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULESExplore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES
LATEST NEWS
LTA and UK PADEL partner to elevate Padel County Championships
The LTA, the national governing body for tennis and padel in Britain, and UK PADEL, national padel competition provider, have today announced a strategic partnership to support and expand the UK PADEL County Championships. As part of this new partnership, the LTA will...
The UK PADEL Four Nations Championship was a great success!
The UK PADEL Four Nations saw 8 events happen across the weekend as England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland took to the charcoal courts of Slazenger Padel in Leeds. The overall winners were England, but it wasn’t a whitewash with plenty of depth on show from Ireland,...
UK Padel breaks new ground in Universities Championships
A record breaking 143 student padel players competed in thirty-seven teams in the first ever UK PADEL Universities Championships at Rocket Padel Bristol 1-2nd February “We hope that next year it can be at least double the size” says Nick Baker CEO of UK PADEL. “The...
AmplifyME Sponsors the UK PADEL Universities and University Alumni Championships
UK PADEL is delighted to announce that AmplifyME, the world’s leading provider of simulation-based experiences in finance, is a sponsor of the UK PADEL Universities and University Alumni Championships. The first-ever UK Padel University Championships are being held at...
RULES
What Is a Padel Court?
What Is a Padel Court? A Padel court sits somewhere between a tennis court and a squash court. The ground-markings are similar to those of tennis with two service boxes on each side of a tennis-like net, and another zone at the back of the court. This zone is,...
Who and what is a Bandeja?
Who or what is a Bandeja? I hear you ask… Bandeja is the Spanish translation for the word ‘tray’. I know confusing, right? Well, actually it’s not, you see in Padel terms Bandeja means a sliced volley. In Padel, a player's aim is to keep their opponent at the back of...
The Racket
The Racket Almost uniquely among racket sports, the Padel racket has no strings. Instead, the impact surface is generally made of fiberglass or carbon fiber, resting above a rubber core in a carbon or fiberglass frame. But, as with most sport equipment, there is quite...
The Ball – What’s the difference between Tennis balls and Padel balls
The Ball. What’s the difference between Tennis balls and Padel balls? Padel balls and tennis balls have a lot in common. For a start, they are a pretty similar size, and they are both essentially an air-filled rubber bladder with fuzz on the outside, each that same...
You might keep hearing that Padel is going to be huge in the UK. That it is the must play new fitness trend, and the most famous footballers in the world are playing it and owning it. David Beckham’s playing it, Jurgen Klopp has a court at Liverpool FC’s AXA training ground, and 5 aside football pitches being converted to padel courts are popping up everywhere from the Point at Polzeath in Cornwall and as far north as Stirling, a mere 10 hour journey between the two.
The tale of the tape is slightly different, there are just over 200 padel courts in the UK at the end of 2022. The LTA’s projection was for there to be 400 by 2021, which was pandemic affected but it is still predicting a further 200 courts to emerge in 2023. Chiswick London has a 10 court facility, Derby has 12 in one centre, but places such as Edinburgh and Harrogate and parts of Surrey are responsible for starting to create a buzz in the padel scene with multiple 1-3 court clubs.
To give this some context, just to paint a little picture of how popular Padel is in Spain, there are more Padel courts and padel players in Spain than there are tennis courts and tennis players. And you would be right in thinking of Spain as a major tennis playing nation. It’s the second most popular sport in Spain behind football with over 20,000 padel courts and around 6 million active players.
According to FIP, Padel is now played in over 100 countries, there are over 25 million players and an estimated 40-50,000 padel courts in the world and most of them are in Southern Europe.
The French Tennis Federation and Premier Padel held the Paris premier Padel Major at the same venue as the French open tennis, Roland Garros, and the most startling transformation was in Italy who came out of the pandemic into a Padel addiction with an estimated 5,000 courts in the country, popping up after contact sports were still banned. An increase of courts five-fold according to this data https://www.mrpadelpaddle.com/en/.
And it’s spreading. Sweden is just a few years ahead of the UK in terms of Padel evolution, and in Sweden it’s not even really a niche sport, as there were over 3,000 padel centres alone in Sweden in 2022.
But with the latest global stats showing the game is booming, the UK is behind the curve, it’s basically the fastest growing sport that most people have not heard of. There are some growth stats available from the LTA, pre pandemic in 2019 there were about 6,000 active padel players in the UK and 115 padel courts. The last active player data count in November 2021 captured around 89,000 padel players across the UK.
Why? Perhaps because the British generally enjoy playing games that they invented, and whilst there is no doubt that Padel is a form of games played on British cruise liners in the early 20th century, there has been little room until recently for what was seen by tennis purists as secondary. Once described in some circles as the tennis equivalent of crazy golf, we at UK Padel think of this game as more of the T20 of Tennis (and we are world champions at that). Now some of the bastions of tennis clubs; Hurlingham, Edgbaston, and even Queen’s has Padel it means the inexorable truth is that the old guard agree. Padel is probably going to be huge in the UK.
Clubs in England
Next Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES Next Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES
Clubs in Wales
Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULESExplore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES
Clubs in Northern Ireland
Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULESExplore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES
Clubs in Wales
Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULESExplore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES
Clubs in Scotland
Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULESExplore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES
Clubs in the Channel Islands
Explore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULESExplore the map feature to easily find Padel clubs accross the UKLATEST NEWSRULES
LATEST NEWS
LTA and UK PADEL partner to elevate Padel County Championships
The LTA, the national governing body for tennis and padel in Britain, and UK PADEL, national padel competition provider, have today announced a strategic partnership to support and expand the UK PADEL County Championships. As part of this new partnership, the LTA will...
The UK PADEL Four Nations Championship was a great success!
The UK PADEL Four Nations saw 8 events happen across the weekend as England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland took to the charcoal courts of Slazenger Padel in Leeds. The overall winners were England, but it wasn’t a whitewash with plenty of depth on show from Ireland,...
UK Padel breaks new ground in Universities Championships
A record breaking 143 student padel players competed in thirty-seven teams in the first ever UK PADEL Universities Championships at Rocket Padel Bristol 1-2nd February “We hope that next year it can be at least double the size” says Nick Baker CEO of UK PADEL. “The...
AmplifyME Sponsors the UK PADEL Universities and University Alumni Championships
UK PADEL is delighted to announce that AmplifyME, the world’s leading provider of simulation-based experiences in finance, is a sponsor of the UK PADEL Universities and University Alumni Championships. The first-ever UK Padel University Championships are being held at...
RULES
What Is a Padel Court?
What Is a Padel Court? A Padel court sits somewhere between a tennis court and a squash court. The ground-markings are similar to those of tennis with two service boxes on each side of a tennis-like net, and another zone at the back of the court. This zone is,...
Who and what is a Bandeja?
Who or what is a Bandeja? I hear you ask… Bandeja is the Spanish translation for the word ‘tray’. I know confusing, right? Well, actually it’s not, you see in Padel terms Bandeja means a sliced volley. In Padel, a player's aim is to keep their opponent at the back of...
The Racket
The Racket Almost uniquely among racket sports, the Padel racket has no strings. Instead, the impact surface is generally made of fiberglass or carbon fiber, resting above a rubber core in a carbon or fiberglass frame. But, as with most sport equipment, there is quite...
The Ball – What’s the difference between Tennis balls and Padel balls
The Ball. What’s the difference between Tennis balls and Padel balls? Padel balls and tennis balls have a lot in common. For a start, they are a pretty similar size, and they are both essentially an air-filled rubber bladder with fuzz on the outside, each that same...