All good things must come to an end, it’s time for Game4Padel to say “Goodbye!” to one of our most popular instructors.
When Alejandro De La Caba takes over at our Thistle Padel Club in Edinburgh in January 2022, after succeeding Jorge Martinez as head coach, Will continue to move forward.
Now, however, as the San Sebastian man prepares to return to his sunny homeland, Alejandro has seen incredible growth, surpassing 1,000 player registrations on Thistle Close, while at our flagship Edinburgh Parks facility, we have now crossed the 500 enrollment mark.
Looking back on it all, Alejandro exudes pride in a job well done: “So when I took over padel, padel was in the UK’s first stage, and when someone asked me what padel was, I always had to explain! That’s not the case now .
“I would say that we are still in the first phase of padel, because it is not like Spain, where there are more padel players than tennis players, but for sure padel is gaining momentum every day in England.
“Actually, my first goal was to try and get as many people as possible to play padel, not just to make it a few times a week, but to make it a living experience. What I wanted was , when they’re in the office and they’re stressed all they want to do is get out on the cricket ground. That’s what I hope to achieve with a lot of the guys who are now playing at the Thistle and Edinburgh Park.
“Now we have players from all over the world coming to Thistle for training and we have registered over 1200 players. When I first took over we changed the booking platform from ClubSpark to MATCHi and we had just under 700 players , so I’m very pleased with the growth at Thistle. And in Edinburgh Park, which just opened in October, we’ve also finished 500 Players are now registered, which is also a nice achievement. “
However, Alejandro’s stellar performance is not only due to the increasing level of participation at our Edinburgh facility, he reveals: “One of my greatest achievements was being two teams in the finals of the last LTA National League, Thistle FC and Edinburgh Sporting Club, both teams have players that I have coached. It makes me very happy, seeing progress as a coach, there is nothing better than that. But as a Game4Padel coach, it is very I am delighted that the folks at Edinburgh Sporting Club have taken on my mentorship.”
Alejandro also benefits from our partnership with the world’s leading platform for padel MBA coaching education, and he is keen to extol its virtues: “It was very important for me to complete the Padel MBA CPC (Certified Padel Coach) course to gain tactical knowledge. I would love to Coaching intermediate players, but what really impressed me was how Padel MBA made the course and how they motivated the players and made the course so much fun,” says Alejandro.
He continued: “So, these are some great skills that I have learned in the padel MBA course, and of course there are many more, but the coaches just make it very attractive – there is so much involved, they The level of interaction with the students who are always looking for feedback on the field is excellent. I would really recommend it to anyone who wants to coach padel.”
Before returning to his beautiful hometown on the picturesque Bay of Biscay in the Basque Country, Alejandro has one final goal to achieve. The gentleman from San Sebastian will compete in the final match of the Game4Padel Circuit LTA Padel Regional Men’s 3rd competition at Edinburgh Park on the weekend of 8th/9th July and he is determined to get out with a ‘W’.
Game4Padel Thistle head coach said: “The G4P Championship will be my last competition in Scotland and I hope to compete with Antonio Fernandez, who has been my partner for the past two years. We always laugh and say we are” King of consolation” because I’ve won four of them in the last year or so, and although my best finish at the LTA tournament was a secondary final and I’ve also made two junior finals, I haven’t won yet !”
Despite Alejandro’s near misses, for those as far away as Aberdeen, the Game4Padel tour of Edinburgh brings unique benefits to ‘paddlers’ across Scotland.
He said: “The great thing about the G4P Championship is the ease of participation. As a one-day event, a father can play one day and a mother another, it’s a really family-friendly event. When parents and children are in the same place, Seeing mums and dads on the pitch encourages children to play cricket. The benefits of sport are huge in terms of health and physicality, but also the values of the players and their mindset help people grow in a positive way.”
The good news is that we will see Alejandro again, who admitted: “I will miss my Game4Padel family very much, but it is not a goodbye, it is a ‘see you later’. I will definitely be back in Edinburgh for the G4P Championship, Now that G4P has a pitch in Oliva Nova near Valencia, my family and I will definitely be visiting!”
If you would like to take part in the LTA Level 3 Men’s or Women’s competition on July 8th/9th, please click on the link below.
https://competitions.lta.org.uk/tournament/B210A06F-9129-405C-87D1-5E4E591C7808
