Carbon Padel Club is a padel Mecca for the lucky denizens of Manchester. Its 17 courts is the most on one site in the country, and all are welcome to enjoy the game, no matter what walk of life they are from.
Regular tournaments, coaching, university socials, academy sessions – including M3 Padel Academy coming soon – and the appearance of big-name players is one thing, but, as put by General Manager Ben Molyneux: “We try to be as inclusive to as many people as possible.”
Multiple times a week, you’ll find a range of different communities partaking in sessions at the Manchester club, based in West Gorton.
“We’ve got a collaboration with MCRActive, where we give out the courts to local Manchester communities,” Ben explains. “They get a special discount on a court for up to an hour.
“We run an over-50s socials and have a Manchester Fire Service league – and we’re in communication with the Police Force as well.
“We’re about to put on off-peak pilates and padel classes, so women who are predominantly mothers at home have got something to come to.
“We have a women’s-themed day with our coach Ellie – we do an introduction to padel, then a social session and we follow it up by group training.”
At the moment, Carbon are exploring what more they can do to bring more communities into the club, including disadvantaged groups.
“We used to have wheelchair padel player Louis Telford coming here regularly with his GB team. We’ve been actively looking to get a coach and get something tailored towards wheelchair users. That’s early stages but we will have wheelchair socials or training in the facility pretty soon,” Ben explains.
Getting local schools in has so far proven tricky due to breakdown of logistics or schools not having the funding for transport.
“We’ve had schools book in and then they’ve cancelled for these sorts of reasons unfortunately, so it’s becoming quite a challenge to get schools within the area to come here.
“We do have kids classes every Saturday but we’re trying to get into primary schools and get that in place.”
Getting kids into sport early on in life obviously has its benefits, and Carbon’s General Manager is testament to the potential upside of that, perhaps partly why he’s eager to offer up court space to schools.
He explains: “That’s how I started doing squash – we did it for a small period at the leisure centre and I progressed and went on to play for the country, actually.”
Who knows if a top-level athlete will begin their journey at Carbon, but with court time being offered up, there’s every chance of that happening, and if not, the club can simply be a place for the youth to enjoy playing the game in a safe and encouraging environment.
