While we generally only focus on the U.S. padel landscape here at The Padel State, if you’re an American padel addict who has ever combed through YouTube looking for quality guidance on how to improve your game, then you’ve almost assuredly come across Sandy and Tom Farquharson, the two U.K.-based brothers whose padel coaching videos and app are second to none.
And if you somehow haven’t come across them yet, here are a few quick things you should know about their unique padel coaching platform and app, The Padel School:
- It is the largest English-speaking social media platform for padel training and tips in the world, with over 440,000 followers across their various social media channels…
- Their content gets between five and 10 million views per month across the globe, and…
- Their stated mission is to help every player who picks up a padel racket unlock their full potential on the court.
While that right there might be more than enough of a reason to download The Padel School app right away, the brothers’ unique backstory will almost assuredly make what they are doing even more intriguing and valuable to most up-and-coming U.S. padel players.
Serious Padel Pedigree (With a Tennis Twist)
Like so many of us in the padel world, both Farquharson brothers have tennis backgrounds. But unlike hardly any of us, Tom actually won a junior Wimbledon doubles title… played on the pro tennis tour.. and was ranked in the top 400 in the world at one point. Meanwhile, Sandy also played and coached on the pro tennis tour after playing D1 college tennis at the University of Texas at Arlington.
In other words, the brothers Farquharson know how to handle a racket.
As was first reported by our friends at The Padel Paper, Sandy’s eventual transition to handling a padel racket came rather unexpectedly while coaching at a tennis clinic in Dubai. As Mike Dale’s article recalls:
“Sandy had decided he wanted to leave the academy and it was a week before his flight home. At that time, one of the few public padel venues in Dubai hosted a competition, which someone dropped out of. Sandy took his place – and won the tournament.
On the day of the final, his suitcases were by the side of the court ready to dash for his flight back to the U.K. But on the journey to the airport, he received a phone call from the Crown Prince of Dubai, who had watched the final. He offered Sandy a job as Head of Racquet Sports at the NAS Sports Complex.
NAS had five padel courts, as well as squash, badminton and other facilities – but no tennis courts. Taking the job would mean a total career switch for Sandy.”
First Dubai, Then the World
To improve his game as much and as quickly as possibly, Sandy began traveling to Spain to train with padel legends like Fernando “Bela” BelasteguÃn, Pablo Lima, and “the Godfather of Padel” Horacio Clementi — and before long he was selected to represent the U.K. national padel team.
Meanwhile, back in Dubai, Sandy ran tournaments, coached the U.A.E. padel team, and personally coached HH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum.
Sandy says many people had doubts about his new career path at first. And given that very few people around the world outside of padel hot spots like Spain and Argentina had ever played — or even heard of — the sport at the time, he admits he may have even had a few of his own.
But then padel starting taking off in Europe, the U.K., the Middle East, and elsewhere around the globe and he sensed a golden opportunity. So, along with his brother Tom, they launched The Padel School in 2019 to capitalize on the hours of video coaching footage Sandy had already recorded while in Dubai — and as evidenced by the numbers mentioned earlier things quickly took off.
Yet as impressive as the growth of The Padel School audience has been, Tom tells me their platform and padel coaching app is just now starting to gain some meaningful traction here in the U.S.
He explains, “At the moment, our social media analytics [show that] less than 5% of our audience is from the U.S. Our biggest audiences are where padel has boomed or is firmly established already (the Middle East, Western Europe, Scandinavia), but we expect that to change as the U.S. sees padel grow.”
Why the U.S. Padel Market Needs Something Like This Right Now
Of the need for a platform like The Padel School in the U.S., where so many new players are just starting to discover the sport but don’t necessarily know how to play padel (or even pronounce it) properly, Tom says, “Playing tennis or squash on a padel court is super common in almost all emerging padel markets, and the key is for players to get high quality coaching to teach them how to play padel the right way and also for players to see what great padel looks like (such as watching pro events live or on television).”
He adds that if there’s anything his brother Sandy learned from his unique baptism-by-fire in the padel world it’s that, “[You should] get coaching as early as possible in your padel journey. It’s easy to just play matches with friends because it’s so fun to play and relatively easy to pick up, but if you can get coaching early in your journey, you will learn the fundamentals and avoid improvement plateaus.”
When I ask him what was the single best piece of advice he or his brother ever got from a professional padel coach, without hesitation he responds, “Tactics and accuracy win you padel points, not power and speed. For players coming from squash and tennis, power has always been considered effective. In padel this isn’t the case. The most effective, attacking shots can be slow and accurate shots.”
As someone who comes from both a squash and tennis background — and could definitely use far more coaching in both, as well — I take particular note of Tom’s response and realize I am really the perfect candidate for something like The Padel School as I currently play most of my padel in Charleston, SC and Columbia, SC, neither of which has any proper padel coaches to speak of yet.
Ultimately, Tom sums up our conversation about The Padel School and what their padel coaching app has to offer aspiring U.S. players by telling me, “Our online coaching platform has been designed for padel players looking to unlock their potential on the court and offers the highest quality padel coaching with personalized coaching feedback from our coaching team on your game.
We have hundreds of students across the globe who are already transforming their game through the platform and [The Padel School] is a great resource for every aspiring padel player.”
Curious to try out The Padel School for yourself? Right now you can sign up for a seven-day free trial on their site.
