Ask a UK padel coach what holds them back and the answer is not money. In the UK Padel Coach Survey 2026, an independent survey of padel coaches working in the UK run by World Padel Network, not one coach put low pay among their biggest constraints. Two in three pointed to the courts instead: getting on them, and what it costs to do so.
The results, published today, give a picture of a workforce that barely existed three years ago, earns real money from the sport and is broadly happy in the job, but is working without much of a support structure around it. The full results are free to download.
A new profession
Padel coaching in the UK is young. 85% of the coaches who answered have coached padel for two years or less, and nobody had coached for five years or more. Most are self-employed: 70% work for themselves at one or more venues, and another 12% combine self-employment with a club role.
It is not a hobby. 94% said coaching is their main income or a significant second income, and 82% said a one-hour private lesson costs £50 or more where they coach. Most lessons sit in the £50 to £69 bracket; nearly one in ten cost £70 or more.
Courts, not pay
Asked to pick up to three things holding them back, coaches put court availability and court hire costs joint top, each named by 30%. Add those who said only peak hours are viable, and 64% named at least one court constraint. Behind the courts came the absence of a clear career pathway and limited quality training, each at 24%. Low pay was chosen by nobody.
That ordering matters for clubs and operators. The constraints coaches name are ones venues control: when courts are free, what they charge coaches to use them and whether off-peak hours are workable.
Positive, but not well supported
Two thirds of coaches (67%) feel positive about coaching padel in the UK right now, and none feel negative. Day to day, though, only 36% feel well supported. Nearly half (48%) feel neither supported nor unsupported, which reads less like dissatisfaction than like nobody being there.
What would help
The one thing coaches say would make the biggest difference is ongoing training and development, chosen by 42%. A coach community came second at 24%, with mentoring at 9%.
Of those who named a type of support, 81% said they would definitely or probably pay for it. Nobody said they would not.
In their words
Coaches were also asked, in an open question, what one thing would make the biggest difference to them right now. Twelve answered, and every answer is in the results as written. They range from the practical (“Managing a diary better”, “Less injuries!”) to the structural: calls for a standardised route to becoming a coach, a pay structure that rewards qualifications and experience, access to Spanish coaches and masterclasses, and reasonable off-peak prices.
“Coaches aren’t asking for more money,” said Jamie Rowe, Founder, World Padel Network. “They’re asking for courts at reasonable prices they can teach on and somewhere to get better at the job. That’s a gap clubs, governing bodies and coach educators can close, and the coaches have told us they’d pay to close it.”
About the survey
The UK Padel Coach Survey 2026 ran from 5 to 18 October 2026 and was answered by 33 coaches across England, Scotland and Wales; 73% were men and 27% women. The results are indicative rather than representative, and percentages are rounded to whole numbers. The full results, including every coach’s answer in their own words, are at worldpadelnetwork.com/uk-padel-coach-survey-2026-results. World Padel Network will run the survey again in 2027.
