LTA Head of Coach Education and Qualifications Jo Ward says padel coaching in the UK is “in a pretty good place” as the governing body builds a workforce to keep pace with the sport’s rapid growth.
With around 275 padel courts in the UK and construction of many more planned this year and next, demand for qualified padel coaches is on the rise.
The LTA’s task since becoming the UK governing body of padel in November 2020 has been to meet that demand by building an entire coaching infrastructure from scratch. This involves creating coaching courses, training tutors, setting up development centres and much more.
In February, The Padel Paper reported some frustration at the slow progress of these developments, but the LTA has since rolled out its first official padel coaching qualification, the five-day LTA Padel Instructor course.
Containing four days of tuition and a one-day elective, the course now enables would-be padel coaches to become officially certified to deliver high-standard group sessions for adults and juniors. So far, around 60 people have enrolled on the course, which includes those who undertook one of the three pilots.
“The course is a very rigorous process and a serious undertaking, because the role of a coach is tough,” Jo tells The Padel Paper. “You need to be skilled in teaching technique, tactics, physiology, psychology – all the essential coaching elements.
“Five days out of their schedule is a big ask and it’s a difficult course to pass. Coaches will only take the course if they’ve got courts or work at a club with planning approval to build them. The more courts there are, the more demand will pick up.
“Some venues have got their own tennis coach doing some padel, while others have imported coaches from Spain or elsewhere. We’re now building our own coaching workforce internally. I think we’re at the beginning of something really exciting.”
In addition to the LTA Padel Instructor course (which is equivalent to an LTA tennis Level 2 qualification), three CPD (Continuing Professional Development) courses are available: Intro to Padel Coaching, How to Coach the Double Glass and Coaching Kids Padel.
These short courses are designed for broadly two types of participant: keen padel players who want to give back to the sport at their club by learning some basic coaching skills to teach others; and tennis or squash coaches who already have fundamental coaching skills and experience and want to diversify into padel.
“The Intro to Padel Coaching course is the most popular CPD across the whole of the LTA coach education menu,” says Jo. “I’ve been delivering coach education for many years, but I’ve never seen such joy as when delivering that course.”
Tutors to deliver the LTA Padel Instructor courses were trained recently at Surge in Harrogate and the delivery of these courses has been outsourced to the LTA’s 10 Coach Development Centres (CDCs) in England and one each in Scotland and Wales.
Each CDC covers its own handful of counties and has responsibility to liaise with tutors and padel venues to put courses on to meet local demand.
Take-up for the LTA Padel Instructor qualification is just getting going, with courses upcoming in Essex, Lancashire and North Yorkshire. Uptake will depend on demand, so the areas with fewer padel venues will naturally take longer to get started.
“We’re in a pretty good place,” says Jo, who captained Great Britain’s Super Seniors squad at last month’s FIP Senior European Team Championships in Alicante. “We really are at the same stage as tennis in terms of what we have in place.
“Each CDC is waiting with excitement for the development of padel courts and venues in their area. As courts are built and demand for coaches goes up, they are all equipped to kick into action.”
Each CDC has traditionally had a ‘home venue’ where its coach education activity has been based. These have exclusively been tennis venues – until last month, when the Avon and Gloucestershire CDC was re-tendered and the contract was awarded to Rocket Padel in Bristol.
“We had the usual conversation, but in reverse!” says Jo. “Historically it would be a tennis coaching venue which would also have to look after padel. We congratulated Rocket Padel, and they now have to look after tennis too!
“Ultimately in the near future each CDC will become a hub for tennis and padel, delivering coach education in multiple padel and tennis venues throughout their own counties.”
The next stage following the roll-out of the Padel Instructors (Level 2) course will be a Padel Coach (Level 3) course next year. Thereafter, it’s intended that padel’s coaching pathway will match that of tennis, extending all the way up to Level 5 (senior and master coaches).
Jo states: “When I started this job four and a half years ago, I inherited a tennis coaching industry and infrastructure which needed evolving and enhancing. With padel, I inherited barely anything – very few courts and a small, but keen, participation base.
“I often get asked whether padel should sit inside or outside the tennis federatrion. At the moment, I can only see positives. We’re a big, well-resourced and experienced machine with a lot of expertise, and we’re throwing that at padel. The sport is only going to benefit.
“We’ve started almost from scratch, but it has been a really exciting and rewarding project so far. Actually, it’s been a privilege.”
