It would not be outrageous to call padel the biggest game-changer in sports participation history – and 2024 has been its most momentous year yet. It’s been a period of quite astonishing growth, innovation and achievement in which padel has exploded from a quaint Spanish pursuit into mainstream consciousness.
This remarkable phenomenon has taken over many of our lives, with the local padel club becoming a much-cherished ‘third place’ where we can meet friends, play, get a sweat on, forget the world outside the glass for an hour or two and have quite ludicrous amounts of fun.
The detonation in interest has brought with it commercial opportunity. Club operators joining the scene have very quickly had to negotiate the obstacle course of planning regulations, while pro and amateur tournaments, events, brands, manufacturers and all sorts of off-shoot ventures have begun to battle for their slice of the pie.
This has all made it a very busy year indeed at The Padel Paper HQ. We’ve tried our best to listen, enquire, scrutinise and criticise (where appropriate), but always view every story and development through an objective lens.
Here are some of my highlights from 2024:
Golden Girls
Amidst padel’s increasingly young, beautiful, urbane participation base there are players of a different generation who can hit a vibora with the best of them. What a delight it was to meet Anne Wodhams and Diane Caulkett (combined age 158). “We are fiercely competitive,” said Diane. “My time left might be fairly limited, but I want to get as good as I possibly can.” Read the interview here
GB’s finest
I have loved every conversation with Great Britain’s top two ladies’ players Aimee Gibson and Tia Norton. Both are an interviewer’s dream, combining honesty and open-heartedness with uninhibited ambition and dedication to their craft. They have clocked up many new milestones this year and I can’t wait to follow their achievements in 2025. Tia opened up about her toughest moments here while Aimee was probably best summed up by 11-year junior Ruby Mathias. I also very much enjoyed this conversation with the up-and-coming George Weller.
New directions
It’s always great to hear from the innovators who are spreading padel’s tentacles into new directions. This year, padel made its debut in universities, corporate leagues, an over-60s tour, in the Armed Forces, in housing developments, at a huge multi-rackets festival and in the Corporate Games, among many others. Many of these projects were launched by those who made it on to our (slightly controversial, as it turned out!) Top 25 Influencers in UK Padel series.
Industry innovators
All year, The Padel Paper‘s inbox has been chocka with correspondence from club operators announcing new ventures – some just about to open the doors or brandishing architect’s drawings and a few others making slightly premature promises without having filled in any paperwork or laid a single spade in the ground. All newcomers helping to grow the game are, of course, welcome, but I’ve particularly enjoyed writing about those coming from a fresh angle, such as floating padel, Instantpadel, Game4Padel‘s cross-sport partnerships and (a particular obsessions of mine), junior participation programmes from the likes of Rocks Lane, We Are Padel Derby, Smash Padel, UK Padel, the Pro Am Padel Tour and The LTA.
Hopes for 2025
This time last year, I wrote some hopes for 2024 and, alas, many of them remain unfulfilled 12 months on. GB still has no player inside the world’s top 100 (a target set publicly by the LTA two years ago) and we didn’t qualify for the World Championships, but there is no implied criticism here for anyone involved. It is a reflection of our late start and laboured growth rate compared to other major nations. However, I’ve a sneaking suspicion that 2025 might be the year we see one or two Brits finally hit single figures!
As stated above, there has been progress made in fostering junior participation by the governing body, some clubs and dedicated parents and sponsors, but more of a collective effort is still needed to prevent padel becoming ringfenced for the middle aged, middle classes.
Although there are notable exceptions, padel clubs in general still have a an issue with affordability and connecting with harder-to-reach demographics in their local communities. Accessibility to courts is improving though, as the large gaps on the UK padel map are gradually being filled.
Overall, there is so much to look forward to next year with new competitions, events, initiatives, innovations, characters to meet and places to play. We cannot wait!
Merry Christmas from The Padel Paper and see you for another thrilling year of padel in 2025!
