The Bandeja Magazine Issue 2

club news
Fede smashes compact
coaching weekend
Frustrated by the lack of opportunities to put their coaches through
the LTA padel coaching routes, Neil Percival and Nick Baker, of UK
Padel, sought a way to supplement training at Holmer Green Padel
club, near High Wycombe. Enter stage left Fede Vives, director of the
Royal Padel Academy in Barcelona, who ran an intensive weekend
of coach and player clinics at the club. By Neil Percival
I
arrived at the airport to pick-up
Fede and was looking for a lot
of luggage. I had an image of
him arriving with 10 kit bags and 20
rackets. But he arrived at Stansted
with one modest Royal Padel racket
bag and spent the weekend wearing
our UK Padel kit. Less is definitely more
when it comes to padel and this was
a great no-fuss start to the weekend.
It was quickly obvious that we were
in the company of a classy operator
and were in for an experience. Insight
from Fede not only covered the
technical approach to padel but also
from the running of clubs all the way
through to elite performance.
Coming from his base at the
prestigious Reial Club de Tennis
Barcelona 1899, Fede was wellplaced
to add insight to the fact that
members’ clubs have a key role in
spreading the game in the UK, as
they did in Spain. His club runs an
ATP event each year and makes sure
padel has a similar event on show
alongside it. Now that we are seeing
padel courts going in at Queen’s and
surely Wimbledon in some form, Fede
believes padel will get the kickstart it
needs to be a big participation sport
in the UK.
Fede trained five coaches on day
one, crashing through the equivalent
of four weeks’ of weekend sessions
in eight hours, working shot by shot
and progression by progression. While
we appreciate you can take your
time over these elements this very
much suits the UK padel philosophy
of getting on with it; padel is for many
still slotted in between the gaps in
existing sporting weekends as well
as work and family weekday
schedules so having a compact
timeframe was perfect and all of
the coaches left inspired by Fede’s
approach and brevity.
Photographs Neil Percival / UK Padel.
On day two Fede set about giving
members and guests padel
sessions they will remember, who
knew you could hit a lob with back
spin to die at the back wall, that
the best smash position is a tribute
to Usain Bolt’s victory celebration
and that you can hit the padel
ball even softer than you thought.
A great weekend for Holmer
Green Padel, and thanks to Royal
Padel and Fede for helping expand
our minds.
WINTER 2023
73