As padel players, our social media feeds are flooded with videos of matches, coaching tips and challenges. And as the public’s obsession for the game grows, so does the volume of padel content available.
Former England rugby union star Joe Marler, who recently shot to nationwide fame in Celebrity Traitors, has teamed up with Tubes, formerly of Soccer AM, to co-host one of the most entertaining padel channels out there: Big Smash Padel.
The pair started the series in late 2025, and it features them playing and bantering together on court, frequently joined by celebrities and professionals.
The Padel Paper sat down for a chat full of laughs with the pair, about their love for padel and the birth and trajectory of the channel, which begins with Tubes explaining how the pair get along “swimmingly.”
“Swimmingly! Have you ever said swimmingly before?” Marler interrupts. “No, but now that I’ve said it I like it,” Tubes responds. This is very much a typical snapshot.
Tubes continued: “We had Joe on Golf Life [his YouTube channel] and he was one of the best guests we’ve ever had on, and he was also on Soccer AM. Then I kept seeing Joe posting stuff about padel, and I’d just got into it, so I randomly DM’d him saying ‘’Padel Life,’ me and you?’ Joe said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Both have been playing for a similar length of time, with Marler discovering the sport on days off during the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. Both have been well and truly bitten by the bug.
“I got the itch for it,” says Marler. “It feels so easy in that moment when you get it right. When you get that one great rally, you think, ‘Oh my God, I’m really good at this!’ Then you realise it’s going to take you another 90 minutes to actually get that rally again. For me, that’s what I’m always chasing.
“All I know is, when we have a match booked in, it’s one of the days that I look forward to the most. I go, ‘I cannot wait to do this!’ It’s so much fun. We want everyone to feel the love that we’ve got for it as well.”
Both have other successful ventures, Tubes’ Golf Life YouTube channel, which has been running for seven years, has 375,000 subscribers, and Marler’s podcast, Joe Marler Will See You Now, has amassed 84,000 in just a few months.
Four months into Big Smash Padel, the channel has reached almost 15,000 subscribers, which feels pretty good going.
“We bloody love it, [but] we want it to do better,” Tubes explains. “We think everyone loves playing padel, but actually viewing the sport doesn’t seem to be massive at the moment. Even the other padel channels that have been going for years don’t seem to be smashing it.”
Building those numbers for padel is something Tubes and Marler want to spearhead. They enjoy having celebrities on the channel — those include Love Island stars Luca Bish and Casey O’Gorman, pro boxer Chris Billam-Smith and former Tottenham player and talkSPORT presenter Jamie O’Hara — but they also give airtime to professional padel players, including Frankie Langan and Ben Phillips.
“That’s a big part of why we wanted to do it,” Marler explains. “We didn’t want to just rely on celebrity guests. We do enjoy having them on, and it’s important to help grow it, but we also wanted to give padel pros — who are f***ing unbelievable — more of a platform, more of a voice, more of a reach, for people to go ‘Oh my God, look how good these athletes are.’
“Even though padel’s growing and you’re getting clubs popping up left, right and centre, tennis still seems to have a stranglehold on it. I want to see padel on its own, at the Olympics, and it’s a great way to get these pros out there a bit more.”
What’s it been like filming with pros?
“Demoralising,” Tubes jokes. “Frankie [Langan] beat us with a frying pan playing on his own. But amazing to see how good they are. They really help us as well.”
Marler adds: “Humbling. You think you’re really good, and then you get quickly get much more respect and appreciation, like, ‘Oh, there’s loads of levels to this.’”
For both, as mental health ambassadors, it’s important not only to create engaging content, but to build a community, and ensure they stay fit, mentally as well as physically.
Tubes says: “I just love the partnership we’ve got. Understanding each other on court, it’s a cool thing. I know when Joe’s getting the hump, or he can see when I’m flagging a bit, and it’s about encouraging each other. It is a team sport, after all.”
“For me,” Marler says, “It’s as close as I’m going to get to having that sort of sporting interaction that I used to have on a daily basis.
“It helps replace that bit of craic that you had together [in rugby] and also that competitive nature. I love it, it’s really important for me to keep on top of it.
“It’s a great way to keep fit, have a blowout, it’s important for both my body and my mind.”
Tubes has been open about his previous problems with alcoholism, and feels that padel has taken him down a healthier path, whilst feeding his obsessive nature.
“Because of my addictive nature, my mental health [issues] were caused by my alcohol abuse. It was more of an addiction problem, but you can see the way I act on the court, I get so buzzed on a good rally or a good shot,” he explains.
“I need that high, I’m chasing that high, like I do when I’m playing golf. I’m an addictive personality, so I always want to come back and get the win, hit the good shot. I get a buzz when Joe hits a good shot, it’s the addictive nature, it’s massive.”
So, where does the enjoyment for padel rank alongside the other sports both play?
“Right up there,” they say at the same time.
Marler jokes: “It’ll always be second best for me, but it’s very close to rugby. If they chucked in a bit of a throwdown, like in ice hockey, where you take your gloves off and have it out for a little bit and then you carry on, that would take it to no.1 above rugby for me. But in terms of enjoyment, it’s right up there.”
