From squash to padel tennis

Hi all!

I started playing padel last year, but I have been playing squash for some time before. As a hobby (and for exercise reasons) I played squash for about 6 years, quite on and off though, but last year the squash centers became less accessible in my town... I live in Oslo by the way. But this is why I started playing padel tennis instead, as it has gotten super popular the last couple of years and a lot of padel centers have popped up. Now I try to play at least a couple times a month, but with a full time job, and snowy winter, it has been less padel the last few months.. And not to mention the pricing model, which makes it expensive to play often! We have to book a court to play, and it cost money every time you make a booking, either you are member or not of the hall. Not all places offer membership, but some do, and it makes it slightly cheaper to book a court. We are talking about roughly €50-60 per hour for a court depending on what day and time you book.

Anyway, my experience of changing from squash to padel was not bad, but there are many things which I still struggle with!

First of all, the rules are different (of course). I like to say that padel is like table tennis mixed with regular tennis and squash! So, there were many new rules for me to get used to.

Second, it was quite hard for me to adjust my strength in the beginning! I mean, in squash you can use as much and little force you want, as all the surfaces can be played with during a match. In padel however, the ball must bounce the ground of the opposite court first for it to be in play. So, I am still trying to get used to this, during a game I can get a bit excited and lose focus and slam the ball back a liiiiittle bit too hard... Making it go out... But oh well!

Something worth to mention is the fact that you need four players in a regular sized court. This makes it a bit hard to find available friends to play with. In squash it was easier to find someone to play with as you only need two players. So, if your circle is small, try to find some larger interest groups to play with, making it easier to arrange a match.

All in all, I enjoy padel and will continue playing it whenever I have the time! Just saying, I am no expert in ball and racket sports, and am playing just as a hobby. But feel free to ask about padel and my experiences with it if you want!

This is my current new-beginner friendly racket!

That's it for now, I hope you will have a great day!

- PC 🍒