GB Men’s Team National Coach John Leach believes that the LTA’S involvement as the domestic padel game’s governing body can help propel his players to the top of the game.
In the first of a two-part Padel Paper exclusive, Leach – who was appointed Men’s National Coach last year after a stellar playing career which saw him captain his country at multiple World Cups – admits that the challenges of bringing his eight-man squad together on a meaningful regular basis can pose challenges.
The 43-year-old has not been helped by the fact that FIP only announced in May that the 2022 World Cup will once again be held at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Qatar from November 1 to November 6.
A lack of notice has been compounded by the fact that a month later, there is still no further information of when, how, or where the qualification process will take place for the 16 European countries battling it out for potentially as few as two slots in Doha.
Yet Leach remains confident that the exciting talent in his squad, which includes Spanish-based GB No.1 Christian Murphy, will eventually achieve top-100 rankings.
Talking to The Padel Paper, he underlined just how excited he is about padel’s future in the UK now it is under the all-weather protection of the LTA’S organisational umbrella.
The GB Men’s team coach said: “It is important for GB to be at the World Cup as we want to be involved in these competitions and experience them as a GB side. We still have a lot of ground to make up as we are still so new to padel, and we don’t have the depth in terms of our playing pool that other nations do.
“But now that the LTA have come on board that is something we are looking to change over the next couple of years, so we have the chance to broaden the number of people playing padel and develop more competition and all of that will improve the team itself.
“We are in the position now where padel is seen as an exciting sport in its own right, and everywhere you go people are talking about padel and picking up a bat and getting on court and perhaps that wouldn’t be the case if we didn’t have that LTA involvement. So it is very exciting to see the potential padel has in the UK.
“That said, our players are based around the world: Christian (Murphy) is in Spain, Sam (Jones) in Dubai, and Louie (Harris) also in Spain so these individual players work with their coaches in their individual set-ups.
“When we get together as a team we try to make sure they build relationships with each other, improve technical aspects of their game and point structure, and really make sure that the partnership is gelled for the next major championship.
“That is all difficult when you don’t have these players together a lot, and you have to remember this is all very new and that we didn’t have a lot of funding before the LTA got involved.
“One aspect we hope to make sure of is that these players have more access to coaching and more training weekends when we can get them together – and build the team from there. The LTA’s involvement in making that all happen is vital.
“Our highest ranked players are Christian Murphy and Sam Jones, and they are both inside the top 200. The great thing is they are still young guys in their early 20s with their padel careers in front of them, while we have plenty others also pushing up and that makes it an exciting time for GB padel.
“So it is good times ahead as they all have a lot of growth in front of them and I can definitely see us getting players in the top-100. It may take a couple of years but I believe it will happen.”
Leach’s excitement at leading his squad into a second World Cup after last year’s creditable 11th placed finish, which came despite Team GB being drawn with World Champions Spain in the opening group sections, is tempered by the fact that FIP have, amazingly, so far failed to post the route map for the qualifying tournament – less than five months before it is scheduled to happen.
Indeed in this respect it is worth asking: ‘Can you imagine the outrage if that happened in other sports like football, rugby or even squash or tennis?
Leach explained: “The World Championships are every two years but last year’s tournament was pushed back from the pandemic in 2020 and so there is another World Championship in Qatar later this year in November which will comprise the top 16 nations.
“So even to qualify for these events is a huge task as the top nine from the previous world championships qualify automatically and the remaining spots are fought for through European qualification, American qualification and Asian qualification.
“Now there are so many countries that are pushing and developing padel that is making qualifying for a World Cup tougher and tougher and given we finished 11th we have to qualify for Qatar.
“At present they haven’t released any details of when qualifying will be as we have only just had the information that there will be another World Cup in Qatar in the first week of November.
“So we are in June now and we don’t have a lot of time to prepare or get our heads round what the process is for us to get to Qatar.
“There are 16 European nations who have entered the qualification process and there will be maybe two or three qualifying slots but we await confirmation on that.
“That said it’s a huge event and really exciting for British players to be part of a World Cup. It was an unbelievable experience going to Qatar in 2021 because of the show they put on, as it was perfect. Really we were looked after like superstars.”
Reflecting on 2021, when Team GB recorded a victory over the USA in the pool sections and then defeated Qatar before losing to Germany 2-1 in the positional play-offs, Leach said: “We have a team of eight players and in each match against another country you pick six of the eight and play three matches and you need to win two of these three to win the tie.
“Our first match against Spain was a huge challenge as they were the reigning world champions, so in our group we finished third and qualified for the next stage, finishing 11th,, but it was really pleasing to get the wins over the USA and Qatar.
“So, we are in the middle section and not nearly as developed as some of the other nations and I would say that making the top eight would be a huge achievement, although we managed that back in 2016.”
The Team GB men’s coach also has an interesting take on ‘the difference’ between his charges and the padel superstars like World No.1 Juan Lebrón Chincoa.
He said: “The first thing you have to remember is most of the players in the UK are new to padel and started off as tennis players before progressing to padel, whereas if you are looking at guys like Lebrón they would have started off playing padel. So that makes for a different learning curve straight away.
“But when you look at these top players you can see how physical they are. I was at Rome a few weeks back at the Italy Major and that was really apparent to me. They are never out of position and they are so strong with their lower body, defend so well, and transition from defence to attack when they get the opportunity.
“So the physical aspect is something that is really apparent when you look at the very top level.”
