The Centenary Tennis Clubs Association held its fourth colloquium on Tuesday 10 October. The online presentation for member clubs focused on the topic of the growth of padel and its inclusion in tennis clubs. The colloquium delved into the ideas and experiences of Abigail Tordoff, Elisabeth Fletcher and Michael Grandon.
Ms. Abigail Tordoff, member of Team Great Britain in padel and the founder of SET Padel in the United Kingdom talked about her club’s experience, the popularity of padel and how the sport has been growing in the country. Nowadays, padel is played in over 90 countries with the number increasing steadily. Comparing European countries such as Uk France, Holland, Belgium, Italy and Spain. Spain is the country with more than 20.000 courts and has more than 2.700 venues. In Spain, padel is the number 2 sport today. In contrast, the UK has 330 courts and 120 venues. With the benefits of padel, Set Padel have been able to improve and innovate the club’s services to attract more players to the sport.
Ms. Elisabeth Fletcher, Great Britain’s Women Padel Coach and Head Coach at Middlesbrough Tennis & Padel Club, explained how they implemented padel in the Club and how they’ve grown over the years to become one of the clubs representing the growth of padel in the North East of England.
Mr. Michael Gradon, Co-Founder and CEO of Game4Padel Ltd., explained the innovative approach he took with padel promotion and gave first-hand advice on how to introduce padel successfully.
After delving into the experience of each of the three speakers, delegates from CTC member clubs attending this online meeting were given the opportunity for a question and answer session, in which the speakers provided answers.
One of the questions asked by a member of the Real Club Tennis of Barcelona was whether Spanish coaches were well recognised in UK. The answer was yes, and that in the future they would like to look at establishing collaboration with Spanish coaches.
To end the colloquium, the President of the RCTB-1899, Jordi Cambra, declared: «Padle should not be a problem but an opportunity for tennis clubs».
