As Wimbledon draws closer, local tennis courts across the UK are ready to welcome the annual influx of newcomers who will inevitably become inspired to pick up a racquet after watching thrilling professional rallies unfold on TV.
While major tournaments like The Wimbledon Championships play an important role in attracting new players to the sport, Declan Minns, racquets manager at Virgin Active Chiswick Riverside Club, thinks that the social element of racquet sports is what actually keeps people playing for years.
“Racquet sports are typically very sociable sports,” says Minns. “Lots of people will train with us and then will go through to the café together to chat over a coffee.”
Racquet sports also offer an array of mental and physical benefits.
“Racquet sports tend to involves a lot of short, sharp sprints and explosive movements, but there’s also a lot of recovery time within a game too, so it’s really great for both your heart health and muscular health,” says Minns.
“Players also develop great hand-eye and foot-eye coordination.”
The world of racquet sports offers plenty of variety, and in recent years newer formats such as padel and pickleball has exploded in popularity across the UK.
But what exactly sets tennis, padel and pickleball apart? Here are some the key differences to help you choose the best racquet sport for you…
Tennis
“There are tennis courts, coaches and clubs in every corner of the UK, so it’s easy to find somewhere to get started,” says Minns.
To play all you need is a tennis racquet, some tennis balls and a pair of tennis shoes.
“I always recommend tennis shoes rather than running shoes to beginners, because you turn so quickly in racquet sports and tennis shoes offer more ankle support,” says Minns.
He highlights how tennis is a skill that always has room for development.
“There’s so many community clubs that offer beginner classes where you can learn and pick tennis up quickly, but tennis is also a skill where you’ll just keep learning for life,” says Minns. “I teach people that have been playing for 40/50 years, and they’re still learning and improving.”
Beginner classes usually start with rallies and later progress onto match play.
“The first session tends to focus on rallying, which is hitting the ball to and from each other, which helps people start to feel the buzz of tennis,” says Minns. “The next session would be on backhands to hopefully round out what we call your ‘ground strokes’, which is when you’re at the baseline, the ball bounces once, and you hit it to and from each other.”
Serves are another important foundational skill.
“Learning how to serve is super-important because that’s how every single point in tennis starts,” says Minns. “Then we look at vollying, which is when the ball doesn’t bounce and you’re nice and close to the net and take it early.
“After that sessions tend to focus on singles and doubles match play.”
Pickleball
“Pickleball, at entry level, is much more accessible if you’d like to just jump on the court and play a match straight away,” says Minns.
“You can play indoors or outdoors, but I would say there are a lot less pickleball courts in the UK compared to tennis courts because tennis has a much wider history and heritage in the UK.”
The racquets manager adds that pickleball, compared to tennis, is much gentler and easy to learn.
“Pickleball is much more gentle on your body because the court is a lot smaller,” explains Minns.
“So, the main difference is that pickleball involves a lot less movement, but it has a really fun and friendly doubles-led culture.
“Also, the balls you use in pickleball have little holes in so are a lot slower. Therefore, you have a lot more time to see the ball, to wait for it to bounce, and to hit it, which makes it a great entry-level sport.”
Beginners also don’t need to learn how to spin in pickleball.
“In tennis we have racquets with strings, and those strings complicate how we hit the ball which means we have to think about different types of spins. Whereas in pickleball the bat is nice and flat so you don’t have to develop the same understanding of spins. You can just knock the ball straight over the net,” says Minns.
He adds that pickleball is one of the cheapest sports to pick up.
“Most centres will provide bats, but if you’re really keen and you want to play a lot, you can get bats in stores like Decathlon very cheap,” says Minns.
Padel
“One of the biggest difference between padel and pickleball is the walls,” says Minns. “The walls keep the rallies alive because the ball is allowed to bounce off them, which means you have really long rallies.”
He highlights that padel tends to be more dynamic and fast-paced than pickleball.
“The balls are more akin to tennis balls and are little bit faster around the court,” says Minns. “Padel players can hit the ball harder [compared to pickleball] because the bats are a lot bigger and heavier than pickleball bats, so have a little bit more punch to them.”
Padel is predominantly played in doubles, like pickleball.
“Padel is probably a bit more accessible in terms of courts around the UK than pickleball at the moment,” says Minns. “This is because pickleball has only just made it over here from the US, whereas padel has been around in the UK for a few years now and has become really popular.”
Most people hire padel racquets, and you can get padel-specific shoes too.
“I’d recommend playing padel in tennis shoes or padel shoes and you can usually just hire padel racquets from the club or court that you are playing at,” says Minns.
“Padel is a really addictive sport; I played it once and fell in love. So, if you are going regularly you might want get yourself a nice racquet which can range in price. You can get balls for very cheap at various outlets.”
