We recently caught up with Graham Ross to find out about his journey to becoming a padel coach. Impressively, he is currently the only coach in Aberdeen with a Certified Padel Coach qualification.

Graham likes to see himself as different from a stereotypical padel coach; he is 69 years old, left handed and hard of hearing.

Read on to be inspired and find out more about his story.    

How often do you play sports? 

I have been playing tennis since I was about 12 years old, I’ll pretty much play anything with a ball – I enjoy football, tennis, golf, table tennis and in my earlier days, rugby. I played 5-a-side football for more than 25 years up until a few months ago and had played over 1,000 games.

The standing joke in my family is that if I’m bored, they will take a ball and throw it into the back garden, and I will happily chase it around until I have to come in because it is dark.

When did you first start playing padel?

My son lived in Barcelona for three years and when I went to visit, I would see people playing padel and was immediately taken by the sport. When I was there, I would take lessons, play, watch and learn as much as I could – I was taught by one of the top players in Barcelona and the club I went to had 18 tennis courts, 14 padel courts, a swimming pool, fitness centre, a restaurant and bar and endless sunshine.

The more I played padel, the more I wanted to play but, in those days, the only available courts were located in the Central Belt or West of Scotland, so it was a long round trip from Aberdeen to play. Then, as if by magic, four padel courts popped up in Aberdeen in June this year.

When did you do the Certified Padel Coach course?

I always wanted to be a tennis coach, but I was bringing up a family, working and had other stuff going on so never really got myself motivated to do the tennis coaching courses.

I completed the 3-day PadelMBA course in October 2023, delivered by Game4Padel. Prior to the three days, the course had consisted of numerous online training videos which were tested and marked with a minimum pass mark of 80%.

The 3-day face-to-face training in Edinburgh consisted of two days of teaching the PadelMBA methodology followed by an examination of skills learned, demonstrating coaching and the various padel tennis shots and a final online exam with the required pass mark being 70%. The final day was where the fun stopped, and you had to be at the top of your game to get through and pass!

PadelMBA has been around for a long time and the Spanish coach who ran the course was absolutely out of the top drawer when it came to padel coaching. Currently, the PadelMBA course is recognised by the LTA as a coaching qualification.

In November, I completed the second part of the 5-day LTA Padel instructors course in Edinburgh. To attend this course, you have to pass a readiness test and make videos of the various tests to be assessed by an LTA assessor.

This was difficult for me as I needed padel players in the Aberdeen area who could rally with me proficiently in order to demonstrate the required standard of padel for the readiness test – after a few false starts, I passed the readiness test. I found it very tough, but it was a personal achievement for myself. For the LTA course, I have four videos to make and be assessed and that should be me with an LTA Padel coaching qualification as well.

As far as I am aware, I am the only qualified Padel coach in Aberdeen with this qualification so far.

How often do you coach padel at Westburn Park?

At the moment, I coach three times per week for roughly a total of 7.5 hours on a Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The classes I coach are for all levels of padel players.

I still currently work fulltime in an onshore oil and gas role working 2 weeks on and 3 weeks off – lucky me! I plan to retire at some point in 2024 and do more padel coaching.  

The other week an 81-year-old came along to my Tuesday class, she had played tennis and wanted to give padel a try, and she was able to play… marvellous!

When people come to the over 55’s class, I say it’s over 55cm… haha.

I am always keen to inspire older adults and individuals with physical disabilities to give it a go. I have never witnessed someone come off the padel court without a smile on their face, first and foremost it is a fun game to play and people enjoy it!

I see the regulars at my classes get better and better as time goes on and I see it as my responsibility to feed that improvement and for me to continue to improve my own personal coaching skills likewise.

Early next year, I plan to go back to Barcelona and take some more lessons from the best coaches who will be willing to train “the old guy”. 

Tell us a bit about the winter padel league

There is a winter padel league with weekly games on a Sunday evening; these take place at Sport Aberdeen’s courts in Westburn Park and at Strikers Indoor Football padel courts. There are 8 teams in the league, and this is the first year of the league.

The coaches at Aberdeen Tennis Centre have a team and I play in this team when selected. Other clubs playing in the league include Strikers, Cults, Stonehaven, Albury and University of Aberdeen. We are sitting mid table currently, but I think if we were a bit better tactically, we could improve that league position, but we are only learning this year – look out for Westburn next season!

What are your words of inspiration?

I always look at myself and think there are not many things I haven’t tried over the years. What I do know is that good health is key to everything, so I am very lucky as I am very fit for my age to be honest. I am not one for sitting around, that’s for sure, I remain as competitive as I ever was and to quote the famous phrase “Nobody puts Babe in the corner”.

In mid-January, there are padel trials for the Padel Super Seniors to play for Scotland, so I am going to give that a try – watch this space!

I think my best words of inspiration would be to have the curiosity to try new things! And to absolutely not sit around, keep active for as long as you can, learn to play a new sport, make new friends – there will be plenty time to watch television when the time comes. 

Sometimes being deaf can be a challenge, but I just laugh it off – if people have a bit of fun and say, “Is your hearing aid on today?” then I’ll say to them “I’ve turned it down as I’m sick of listening to you.”

Any final thoughts?

I hope now to create as many groups as possible of people who are keen to learn to play padel at all levels, whether socially or competitively.

If you are new to the game, go online and watch some video clips of the top men and women playing and think “I could do that”.

As they say, “the ball is in your court” – see you at Westburn!

If you fancy giving padel a go, then you can book your court here.