Two pharmacists and a dentist have got together to build Bradford’s first indoor padel centre with the aim of improving the health of the local population.
Clinical practitioners Fahad Quereshi and Mohammed Rashad and dentist Dr Mohammed Usman are co-founders of Strike Padel. All Bradford born and bred, they are childhood friends and driven by shared concern about poor levels of health and fitness in the city.
Their first venue, a five-court padel club at Beckside Business Park in the Lidget Green area of Bradford, is set to open imminently, followed by another facility elsewhere in the city later this year.
Co-founder Fahad told The Padel Paper: “We wanted to do something to get the people of Bradford healthier and moving around! With padel growing so much and being really addictive, we thought we’d bring the health benefits of the sport to our city.
“The local demographic has quite high levels of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, so that gave us our passion for this project. The health aspect was what inspired us.”
The inaugural Strike Padel club will have panoramic courts, free on-site parking, coaching, café, pro shop, onsite physiotherapy suite and changing rooms.
It’s situated on an industrial estate where much of the local units have been converted to leisure use, including a gym, go-karting, trampoline park and a climbing wall.
Strike Padel has partnered with Bradford 2025 City of Culture and intend to link up with local schools and community organisations to hook the local population into the sport.
“We’re Bradford born and bred, we’re really proud of our city and we’re driven to help the local population,” said Fahad.
“The project started as a side hustle but I’ve been here every single day on the construction site and set up my own office. We’ve got no background in construction but we’ve managed to pull it off! We’re absolutely delighted.”
Just been to play this morning and its a great facility – nice bar area, love the show court balcony. The courts have a nice high ceiling and the lighting is great. Good luck and thank you for opening the venue.
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