Lowri Griffiths on falling for a fifty-club sports festival she had absolutely no business attending
I saw “London Padel Week” advertised somewhere on my phone, fifty events, five clubs, city-wide, and I signed up for a beginner session without doing a single second of research into what padel actually was. I want to be honest about that from the start because everything that follows makes considerably more sense once you know I walked in completely blind.
What I Thought It Would Be
Some vague combination of tennis and squash, I assumed, which turns out to be roughly correct but does absolutely nothing to prepare you for the actual experience of standing on an enclosed court with glass walls, holding a solid paddle that looks nothing like a tennis racket, being told the ball can bounce off the walls and you’re meant to use that.
My First Actual Rally
Did not go well. I mistimed a shot so badly the ball bounced off the back glass, off the side glass, and somehow ended up behind me, at which point my extremely patient instructor gently suggested we “start with the basics” in a tone that made it very clear I had skipped several basics already.
Why It’s Apparently Everywhere Now
Once I actually got the hang of the fundamentals, I understood the appeal instantly. It’s social, it’s fast, the enclosed court means the ball is basically always in play, and there’s a lower barrier to feeling competent than tennis, where I have historically embarrassed myself for decades without ever really improving.
The Five Clubs Situation
Across the week I made it to two of the five participating clubs, which felt like a reasonable achievement given I started the week not knowing padel existed. Both had genuinely lovely atmospheres, more social club than intimidating sports facility, which helped enormously with my confidence given how badly that first rally had gone.
Would I Actually Keep Playing
Yes, genuinely. I’ve already looked into membership options, which is not something I expected to be typing when I started this post. Turns out signing up for things with zero research occasionally works out. I’ll report back once I’ve had a rally that doesn’t end with me apologising to strangers through a glass wall.
