How Planet Padel came to be …
Why is it that we have our best ideas while moving, whether it’s walking, running, biking, or even driving. It probably goes back to our hunter/gatherer ancestors who heard the dawn chorus and either started hunting beasts/gathering fruit and veg, or starved to death.
Then, once we became farmers, we had to walk all day every day, feeding, sowing, and reaping or face famine. It’s only since the industrial revolution turned the latent energy within millions of years of aquatic creatures from coal via the steam engine into usable forms of energy that us cunning homo sapiens created such an abundance of everything that many of us have been able to live largely sedentary lives. And look how disgustingly obese we’ve become.
All of which is an immensely long winded way of saying that Hugo and I came up with Planet Padel while out running. We started running together during that 18 month collective outbreak of madness when the human race (with the immensely honourable exception of Sweden - lowest excess deaths among OECD countries from Jan 2020 onwards) decided to lock itself up to try and avoid a cold. Hugo was one of the few people I knew, who like me, poo poo-ed the whole absurdity from the beginning.
It was while discussing our various business activities, past, present and future, that Hugo (having played and loved padel on holiday) suggested padel tennis as a new venture. At the time I was trying to introduce futsal (indoor 5-a-side football as played by the Brazilians, Argentinians, Spanish and Portuguese) to the UK - I was far too early. So after Hugo introduced my two older sons and I to padel, which we loved and picked up instantly, and after many months of smashing my head against a futsal shaped brick wall I was easily converted to the cause.
Then, while playing tennis (my favorite sport after futsal) I managed to injure my right wrist so badly that I still can’t use it properly. As any keen sportsman knows, getting injured is second only to the death of one’s children. And for several months I could only run, very depressing. Until it occurred to me to try playing padel left handed, and wonder of all wonders I loved it.
The reason that padel is so much more popular than all other racquet sports in every country that tries it, is its immensely cunning design. The rules are the same as tennis but you play doubles in a court one third the size of a tennis court with glass walls at the back and sides, so if you miss the ball you simply turn around and have another go.
In addition, the ball has less pressure and the rackets less power, so the ball travels 30% slower than a tennis ball. Meaning that, I can play left handed without being completely humiliated, and you can step on court for your very first time and have long rallies and an epically good time.
Jack Martin