Smash Padel may have only been open for six weeks, but it is already starting to realise its ambition to make padel “truly inclusive.”
The three-court outdoor facility in Bicester, Oxfordshire, puts juniors at the heart of the club. Its tournament for under-11s and under-14s on 2 September was over-subscribed and the club’s coaching team is building a pathway to help every young player achieve their individual ambitions in the game.
The club is Smash Padel’s first facility, with six more at the planning stage. The coaching team is headed up by the familiar figure of Rafael Vega Otaolaurruchi, assisted by Gonzalo Almanza Navas and Miguel Caramalho. All are employed on full-time contracts, as is centre manager Andy Dixon.
Smash Padel’s Chief Operating Officer is Carson Russell, former rugby union player, coach and administrator at clubs including Barnes, Bracknell and London Scottish. He transferred from the oval ball game to padel a year ago and says the sport is “a massive breath of fresh air.”
Carson sees padel as the perfect vehicle for giving people of all ages and abilities the opportunity to live a healthier lifestyle. In his view, it is the ideal facilitator for true inclusion – offering sport to anybody, including those who traditionally find it inaccessible due to cost, age, disability, impairment or discrimination.
“A lot of people use the word ‘inclusive’ in their vision, but don’t really understand what it means,” he tells The Padel Paper. “It means you can’t put commercial concerns at the forefront of your business objectives.
“You have to make money to make a business sustainable, but you also need to be able to offer your sports services to anybody – including those who can’t afford to play – and integrate a whole host of community groups into your padel programme.
“We’re not naïve enough to offer free peak-time courts when paying customers will underpin our future business, but we can be more creative and help lots of different people to experience padel. We want to be a truly inclusive business and bring padel to every community that wants to try it.”
Children are uppermost on that list of target demographics. The Padel Paper has previously heard frustration from many parents and coaches at the slow development of coaching and competition infrastructure for juniors in the UK. Smash Padel’s vision is to address these issues.
“Our junior pathway has nine stages and is a key component of our vision and ambition as a business,” Carson states. “The future success of clubs like ours will be underpinned by tomorrow’s players. By not embracing junior players, you’re missing out on a great opportunity.”
Carson is no stranger to nurturing the development of junior athletes on elite pathways. In addition to coaching at national level in rugby, his daughter, Hannah Russell OBE, was a two-time world champion and triple Paralympic Games gold medal-winning swimmer.
However, Carson is well aware that not every junior will aspire to become British No.1. “Our commitment is that our junior pathway is for players of all abilities to achieve the level they want to. They might just want to play or train once a week, but we will also resource and support someone who has the ambition to be GB representative in the future. Our job is to develop them to achieve their ambitions, as well as meet new friends and have fun.”
Even having fun is an individual experience, though. One player might relish being worked to the point of exhaustion on court whereas another may want to just practise volleys and play games.
“It’s not that hard to get a child on court, but if you don’t deliver a rewarding experience then you’ve lost them,” says Carson. “That comes down to the skill of the coach to tailor sessions accordingly. It’s why we’ve recruited our coaching team full-time, not just as contractors. We want everyone to come off court and say, ‘I absolutely loved it.’”
Smash Padel’s first junior tournament, which had 14 entrants at U11 and 20 in the U14 category, was designed with those outcomes in mind. It had a compass format which ensured rotation of opponents and mixture of abilities.
“We designed the tournament so that children and parents would go away saying, ‘That was really enjoyable!’” explains Carson. “The focus wasn’t on finishing positions, it was more about what did you learn and who did you meet? The key benefit was probably resilience; learning from failure and not getting disappointed or disillusioned. It develops them as players but as people too.”
Smash Padel’s next junior tournament is scheduled for 7/8 October with U10, U12 and U14 categories. To enter, contact Andy Dixon at smashbicester@padeltastic.co.uk or 07561 855652
