Padel Juniors

I often think and wish, oh how I wish I had started playing padel at the age of 12.

A new sport in Finland, a long bright future ahead and everything to win.

In terms of age, the best development is still ahead, unlike now.

It's a shame that 24 years ago, when I was 12, padel was not played in Kokkola.

I wonder if anyone in Finland had even heard of the sport at that time.

When I think about it more closely, I don't know if it's so easy to be "one of the first" young players in the sport?

No one has cleared the way, everything is a bit experimental and many long for peers as playmates.

This writing is a tribute to young players who do a tremendous job inspiring other young people to engage with padel.

And thanks to them, we will have a completely different situation within a few years when the number of juniors multiplies.

There is a padel community in Vaasa that is so passionate that a Spanish coach came up with the name "padel junkies" for them.

Wilmer Lindholm, 13, is one of Vaasa's top prospects. Wilmer started padel in 2022. It was his father who introduced him to the sport.

Wilmer's situation is familiar to many young players. There are no peers in the area, and playing partners have to be sought elsewhere.

Wilmer has played a lot with Leon Sundqvist from Vaasa.

Leon is only 11 years old, so in the junior classes, for example, he can play in a younger age category. However, Leon is a fighter on the court

and does well also against older opponents!

Wilmer has been actively involved in tournaments all over Finland. He has developed contacts, shown his skills, and in the summer

he participated for the first time in a youth national team camp. He has worked hard, trained well in Vaasa, and succeeded in junior competitions.

I have noticed that padel juniors are really good at networking, partly thanks to social media.

Long distances do not matter, and at competitions, they meet and interact as if they were old friends.

My 14-year-old daughter, Venla, played the Finnish Championship in April with Emma Toivonen, who approached her on Instagram.

They met face-to-face for the first time that competition weekend.

During the competitions, they also befriended their opponents, and thus their own padel community grew again. For the next competitions, there will be

more options, and the competitions won't be missed because they couldn’t find a partner.

The Finnish junior national team heads to Spain next week, where the Junior World Cup will be played from 29.9 to 4.10.

Both the girls' and boys' teams will start with the qualifying phase from 26-28.9.

Coaches Suheil Lizana and Ville Pajakkala are accompanying them on the trip.

They are not only top-notch coaches but also really great examples for the youth.

One thing remained strongly in my mind from the national team camp in the summer.

Yes, I know I didn't participate myself, but I was there as a mother waiting by the court.

But I, of course, followed just as eagerly as those 32 young players who were actually invited to the camp.

It was an exciting day, half would be invited to the World Cup, and the other half would not. Everyone wanted to show their best, and they competed

with friends, but also against them.

What remained so strongly in my memory was how Ville and Suheil gathered the group at the end of the day and said nothing about how they had

played or how they had performed.

Instead, they praised them all for how wonderfully they treated each other, on and off the court.

How they encouraged and cheered each other on.

And this was absolutely true. I eagerly await what great top players our young prospects will become, both on and off the court.

They work hard, and I believe that soon we will see the number of padel juniors explode to completely new levels in Finland!