A year ago I discovered a new game I had never heard of – padel. We had our monthly “championship” with friends and this time it was proposed to go and try it out. After the first 30 minutes you start understanding what’s going on and after that it’s difficult to stop :).
Basically it’s like a combination of standard tennis and squash (neither of which I like very much or have played). You play on a tennis court (smaller version of it) but it’s surrounded with a strong plexiglass barrier which you can use for your advantage. The ball can only hit the court once but the number of times hitting the “wall” is not limited. That makes it much more flexible and continuous experience in my opinion.
Tennis balls also have less pressure in them, the racket is totally different and the net is also lower. And at least as an amateur player all these things are really beneficial – you can reach to a certain level and enjoy the game much quickly compared to std tennis for example.
In Estonia there’s currently only one place you can play it (plus one outside court that’s mainly used during summertime) but you can tell it’s really catching up and probably it’s just a matter of time when other places will be built. The game has been here only 3 years although the history of it actually dates back more than 50 years.
BTW while writing this post I just discovered that padel and paddle tennis are actually 2 different games although I thought they were the same. I guess you learn something new every day :). Either way I suggest that you get 4 friends together with you and try it out at least once!
All the best!
Lauri
The World As It Is 