Padel Playing Foreigner

For those that know me, know that when planning travel - a deciding factor of where I travel isn’t whether I can play Padel there or not, but I also cannot deny that if I can get a game in while there - I will.  So when the first Padel club in Hong Kong, Padel+ opened it's doors in September 2023 and offered free matches during a limited promotional 'soft launch' period - it was kind of a no brainer to visit my mate John in Hong Kong to test it out.  I decided to book a flight from Thursday - Sunday and chose to stay at the  Jen Hong Kong by Shangri-La   near Kennedy Town, which is where John was living at the time. Having not seen my friend in a few months, and this being only my second time to Honkers (and the first since COVID), I was of course looking forward to seeing if much had changed in the 5 years since visiting. John and Anna were nice enough to meet me at the express train station and escorted me to my hotel.  After dropping off my bags, and having a quick &quo

As was mentioned in my first post , Padel is growing at a crazy rate across the world - and Singapore is no exception. It feels like there are clubs opening up every few months which is an exciting prospect for current players, as well as becoming more accessible for those interested in trying the sport.  So when the newest club in Singapore launched a mere 8 minutes bike ride from my house - I made sure I was one of the first to try it out. Prime Padel opened it doors to players on 3 May and I booked my first match for 8:00pm that evening. The club is situated on the 6th Floor of the Grand Copthorne Hotel and offers 3 open air courts of the highest quality. Besides the proximity to my house, another benefit was that during play it felt cooler than most outdoor clubs I have played given how breezy it was on the night, it's location on the river and being so high up.  A few pics of the club, and their iconic club logo featuring the Calao bird The club boasts 2 of it's 3 courts

Back in July 2023 - I woke early on a Thursday morning to an email with the subject title " Marco, Your Role at   XXX Company ". After opening the email  the body went on to inform me that my role had been impacted and I was being laid off . Naturally this   sucked , but once the dust had settled and I had a few days to process the news - I did what any normal, sane and addicted Padel player would do. I booked a week in Bali to go play Padel.  A somewhat of an " Eat, Play, Love (Padel) " trip for me if you will. While in Bali, and not having to worry about emails piling up in my inbox, deadlines and the usual stresses of having a job - I really wanted to take the opportunity to refine my game. So alongside joining a few matches each day, I thought of no better way to do this than to book private lessons with a coach. So I did. That was the day I met  Jesús  - one of the resident coaches at  Jungle Padel  in Canggu, and the person that helped me significantly improve

Hello (Padel) World, my name is Marco - I’m the creator of Play Padel Singapore and it’s safe to say that I’m a Padel enthusiast.  My Padel journey began on 3 July, 2022 where my wife and I attended an open play session at Singapdel . A few weeks before this, we were visiting family and friends in South Africa when someone asked if I was playing padel yet which looking back now - I had never heard of.  Needless to say - it didn’t take me/us long (like most people), to get hooked. Ever since that first session, I now find any reason to play Padel, talk about it, watch Padel content and introduce new people to the sport. I find Padel not only a great way to stay fit, but given the strategy involved, it’s mentally stimulating as well. Above all though, I have made some incredible friendships through the sport, and am also in the fortunate position that my wife is an avid player and as a couple - we often pair together. It’s a really great way for us to spend time together doing something