What Is Padel?

Four players, one enclosed court of 20 by 10 metres, scoring taken straight from tennis. The serve is underarm, the net is low, and the walls behind and beside you are part of the game rather than the boundary of it.

Two things do most of the work. The bat is short and stringless, so there is no technical barrier the way a tennis racket has one — you can make clean contact in your first few minutes. And because the walls keep the ball alive, rallies last far longer than a beginner could sustain on an open court.

The result is that a group of complete beginners can have genuinely competitive, enjoyable rallies on day one. Very few racket sports offer that.

Padel began in Acapulco, Mexico, in the late 1960s, and spread to Spain and Argentina, which remain its heartlands. Spain in particular has the deepest club infrastructure and the largest playing population of any country.

Its recent growth outside those countries has been rapid, with new clubs opening across the UK, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United States and the Gulf.

Almost nothing. Most clubs rent bats by the hour, balls are usually included in the court fee, and ordinary court shoes are fine to begin with. You need three other people, or a club session that will place you in one.

If you do buy a bat, start with a round-shaped, lighter model — it has the largest and most forgiving sweet spot. Diamond-shaped bats hit harder but punish off-centre contact, which is not what you want while you are learning.

Against tennis: smaller enclosed court, solid bat, underarm serve, walls in play, and doubles by default. Against squash: you play over a net rather than against a front wall, and the ball must bounce on the floor before the walls come into it. Against pickleball: padel has walls and a much larger court, and uses tennis scoring rather than scoring to 11.