Nothing pulls more than padel

In the nation of fans that must also become a nation of practitioners – this is the objective of the public policies for sport launched by the Italian state in recent years – padel is therefore proving to be one of the most effective movement cultures, especially in the age groups medians of the population, because they are easy to learn, easily available in terms of logistics, and finally because getting lost in the competitive seriousness of the game, based on the socialization of the defeated couple’s gnawing that turns into revenge to be obtained and therefore into an infinite chain of matches, is far more captivating than the prescriptions of a medical flavor that the various fast walks carry with them, or with an aesthetic taste-fitness test typical of many gym memberships (among other things, scientific studies also demonstrate the benefits of this “gnawing socialization” for longevity). Soccer, for decades a protagonist in Italian popular culture, today seems almost a prehistoric relic, as well as lacking another attractive factor of padel: gender mixing. No matter how many efforts the new inclusive marketing pedagogy of the large sportswear companies may make, it is in fact difficult to imagine five-a-side football fully and equally mixed, otherwise one of the identity factors that promoted its development will disappear. In padel, on the other hand, there is a strong female and mixed game component. Obviously, in this impetuous growth there are also contradictions: playing sports is not always good regardless, especially if there is no adequate culture of prevention, and the expansive power of padel must therefore also be interpreted as the expansive power of bursitis and epicondylitis.

What has been told so far is part of the truth, but not the whole truth. In the development we are analyzing, there is a dimension not confined only to the recreational and gymnastic aspects, a strong desire to think of this sport not only as a culture of movement, but also as a competitive expression, capable of gathering the public through its shows and the challenges between its champions. This is the strong sense of the book Padelmania (Cairo editore) released last September, a very useful guide for understanding the aspects just analyzed and for having a smattering of regulations and technical gestures, but also and above all for trying to question this second trajectory. Gianluigi Bagnulo and Dario Massara wrote it, appreciated voices of the Sky Sport football story who for some time have also embraced the padel one, in a non-random union between the two disciplines that forms the background to many of the aspects of the shovel boom.

One of the most profound thoughts ever thought about the plurality of sports, which serves for example to frame the difficulties of an Italian football fan in understanding the charm of cricket for the indians, is what invites us to treat the approach to the various disciplines along the lines of the study and deepening of languages: the initial shock and disorientation typical of those who begin learning languages ​​other than their native one, are then accompanied, for those that do not stop at the initial threshold, an important enrichment, in a logic of variety, curiosity and discovery. This should also apply to sports knowledge. Almost always, however, the common opinion is dominated by less nuanced and more simplistic visions. Let’s think about baseball, the first sports language of the States, which in Italy can be treated as a ridiculous, boring, incomprehensible sport, perhaps making those who support this position gain sympathy in the public debate, and not instead reproach or embarrassment. The language of padel understood as a spectacular sport follows similar paths, in which the image of “sports for tennis blowjobs”according to the now well-known Pietrangelian definition, has a strong hold on public opinion and is combined with a more technical and sophisticated vision, which through the category of sports derived from tennis (such as futsal compared to football), relegates this discipline to hierarchical inferiority.
The bet of the authors is that this is not the case, and in fact in the book we find a long and well-documented “Vasari” gallery of portraits of the champions and female champions of the professional circuit, in a mix of experiences and technical explanations of their favorite strokes, starting from the strongest of all, the Argentine Fernando Belasteguín. It is also the bet of Luigi Carraro, who has been at the helm of the International Padel Federation since 2018, who through the creation of the Premier Padel circuit and the related business marriage with a highly influential actor such as Qatar Sport Investments led by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi is revolutionizing the growth and competitive professionalization of this sport, in the sense indicated above. A managerial story with an Italian heart that seeks global expansion horizons, a non-trivial attempt. Last May, the Roman stage held at the Foro Italico recorded a large number of visitorsand some scenes of enthusiasm seen during and at the end of the final between the Lebron/Galan and Di Nenno/Navarro pairs brought to mind that illuminating phrase by David Foster Wallace in Infinite Jest on the peculiarity of the Italian sports public, so excited that they wanted to “fucking” the champions of the racket (or, in this case, the shovel).

The impression is of witnessing a phase that closely resembles the embryonic moments that we find told in historical works on the nineteenth-century origin of football in England or of other sports, contrasts and conflicts between acronyms included. A large part of the discussion on the competitive future of padel focuses on Olympic recognition, which however is an ambiguous topic, because the swirl of new disciplines recently introduced in the program, and their change between one edition and another, currently contributes more to a Games without frontiers effect than to full universal legitimacy. On the other hand, for well-known historical reasons, tennis, which is the model and logistic link of padel, has never needed the presence in the Olympic arena to establish itself.

The current growth of padel also allows us to look differently at sporting globalization, and in particular to question ourselves about its regionalization. The gallery of champions contained in Padelmania is almost entirely made up of Argentine and Spanish players, all very passionate about football, many of them originally from Seville and Betis fans. The geo-philosophical strangeness of this sportwhich, due to the compression of spaces and aspects of coordinative dexterity, would ideally be much more Asian, it is precisely that of its umbilical link with the Hispanosphere, due to its particular genesis (also in this case we refer to Padelmania). Here is the real crux. Can we expand without proposing samples of various geographical origins, and without penetrating the heart of the two great global empires? In China, padel currently has a residual presence, while in the United States it suffers from overwhelming competition from pickleball, a sort of mini-tennis without sides that is spreading with the same mechanisms of padel expansion from which we started, support of including celebrities. The most realistic scenario lies in the possibility of becoming a major regional sport, intensely practiced and followed only in some areas and countries (which is why it is incorrect to speak of sports fashion or bubble), as happens on different scales in cricket, badminton, rugby or volleyball, because globalization is made up of layers, and only a small number of sports are granted the status of full globality.