From tennis to the coaching court
Jamie Guest never set out to coach padel. He started playing socially while working at a local padel centre, with no plans for it to become anything more. A childhood spent playing tennis changed that quickly. His level rose, and he realised he could compete at higher levels.
That realisation led somewhere bigger. After struggling to find steady work, Guest saw that he could teach the sport himself and build a living around it. As he puts it, he realised he could “coach people how to play padel, a sport I now love, and make a life in an industry which can bring me a lot of joy.” He did not hesitate. “I jumped at the opportunity.”
Raising the ceiling from day one
Every first session starts with two things: a player’s technique and their personal goals. Guest is clear about where he puts the work for anyone who wants to improve over time.
“If a player comes to me with long-term goals of being a better player, I focus on their technique and try to raise the ceiling of their game from day one.”
– Jamie Guest
One of his players shows how that works in practice. A former badminton player came to him wanting to improve and start competing. He hit everything as hard as he could – “and he could hit it hard,” Guest says. The first job was to slow his game down, then build spin and consistency into his overheads. “I managed to get him hitting spicy viboras.” Guest also paired him with a friend in the over-40s, and a few weeks ago he won his first tournament. “That made me feel proud.”
Why tennis belongs in padel
Guest pushes back on something some padel coaches teach: that tennis has no part to play in padel. He points to Ale Galán and Arturo Coello, who both came from tennis backgrounds and went on to the top of the sport.
“Tennis players can adapt to padel and potentially improve the sport massively over the next five to ten years, with more starting to play,” he says. It is a view shaped by his own route into the game.
Merseyside’s padel wave
In Guest’s words, the Merseyside padel wave “is booming”. New clubs are about to open across the city and, as he puts it, “every man and his dog” is competing. Local heroes are part of the picture too: he says Steven Gerrard plays regularly in local clubs and has announced plans to open two clubs of his own. The level is rising quickly as more courts and more coaching become available.
The hardest part of coaching right now, for Guest, is court prices and availability. He expects that to ease as the city grows: “Once there are more clubs in Liverpool and there is competition on price and quality, this should make the sport more accessible to everyone.”
He also has a prediction for anyone underestimating the city. “Tennis is not a big sport in Liverpool and never has been, but padel is about to explode, and the next generation of Scouse padel players are going to be a problem.”
Only just getting started
Guest is still a new coach, and he has deliberately started slowly, learning with patience. The next step is bigger. In 2027 he plans to launch his own academy and push up the LTA rankings to see how high he can get.
He has already shown how quickly he can climb. This year he reached 99 in the LTA rankings, less than 18 months after picking up padel and 18 years after he stopped playing tennis. “I’m only just getting started.“
