We discover the world of Padel, one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, at the recently-opened Slazenger Padel Club in Seacroft.
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00:00Anyone who does an intro to paddle with us, within the hour they are playing paddle.
00:04They're not learning lots of skills, they're not doing lots of things, they're just playing
00:08and then we can help them enhance their skills to get better as time goes on.
00:11A venue dedicated to the fastest growing sport in the world can now be found in East Leeds.
00:16We met Alan Cutts from Schlesinger Paddle Club in Seacroft to find out all about it.
00:21I've worked in tennis all my life.
00:23About two or three years ago a friend needed a doubles partner for a game of paddle.
00:26I popped along, gave it a go, popped along again and then like everybody else I was hooked.
00:31I was playing constantly all the time, fitting it around my other job and trying to remember
00:36that I've got children and family at home and also there's room for them and room for paddle everywhere.
00:40It looks like tennis, it's got a ball, we've got a net.
00:43The ball is slightly smaller and less compression so it's easier to hit, easier to read.
00:48The paddles are much smaller and easier to use.
00:52And then because you're encaged with the fence and everything round,
00:57you don't have to go pick the ball up as often if you make a mistake.
01:00So generally people are enjoying it because they can just get straight into it and get on with it.
01:04I think the biggest plus is that it's an underarm serve.
01:07So people have not got to learn a complicated way to get started.
01:09They drop a ball, they hit it over the net, them and their friends are playing.
01:12The sport is proving really popular among Leeds locals and the club has already hosted numerous events
01:17with some of paddle's best players, with many more competitions in the pipeline.
01:21In our first three months we've done something like 9,500 matches on these 12 courts in here.
01:26We've got a set of people called Paddle for the People.
01:29They've got two tournaments, three tournaments, three tournaments on the same day.
01:33We've then got some LTA, so working with the Lawn Tennis Association who also run the British rankings.
01:38We've got Grade 2s and Grade 1s which is the top end.
01:42We'll be working with the Britain Paddle Tour again who bring a ÂŁ2,000 prize fund.
01:48We've already had the UK No. 1 and No. 2 come and play here to win that event at the end of last year.
01:53I feel like I could go on about events and events and events.
01:56They're all coming, everybody wants to come and we're quite happy to find a way to get them all in.