06 Mar 2024
Doha - Aspire Academy has held its first-ever padel open days which attracted more than 300 boys aged between 6 and 15.
The events were held at PadelIN in Aspire Zone on Saturday 24 February and a week later on Saturday 2 March 2024, are the first step in the Academy’s outlook for young talent to join Aspire in the 2024-25 academic year.
Aspire Academy’s Padel Head Coach, Mariano Amat, and his team organised a variety of tests and challenges for the boys.
The afternoons were split into three sessions with the first for boys aged 6 to 8-year-olds, with 34 participants on the first day and 12 participants the following week. For the second group of boys aged 9 to 11-year-olds, there were 33 participants on the first day and 13 participants on the second day. Meanwhile, the last age group was 12 to 15-year-olds and saw the participation of 40 boys on the first day and 22 boys a week later.
To help identify those with potential for Aspire Academy, the coaches observed the boys as they undertook a series of exercises that tested things such as hand-eye coordination, movement on the court as well as their racket skills.
Aspire Academy Director General Ivan Bravo was among those at the first open day, and he explained why the Academy is embracing the sport of padel.
“It is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world and we want to be part of that,” he said.
“Being able to play the game indoors means that it suits the climate here in Qatar as people can play all year round even when the temperature outside is too extreme for most outdoor sports.”
“I am extremely excited that we have attracted one of the world’s foremost padel coaches in Mariano Amat to Aspire Academy so he can build a programme at Aspire to develop Qatar’s top young talent.”
Mariano and his team were delighted by the positive outcomes of the open days.
“It is excellent that we have had a good crowd of participants, a lot of kids showing a lot of eagerness not only to play but also to learn,” he said.
“But it is a long process, and they will need time to be better and to learn, I am seeing kids with lots of desire, but they don’t yet have a full understanding of this sport.”
Mariano is confident that his experience working with some of the world’s top-ranked players can pay dividends in Qatar.
“We need to create a good base of young kids to have a good level of players, it’s not going to be a quick process, but we have all the tools and the facilities to achieve our goals, the first step is identifying kids that we can train,” he explained.
“It is an exciting project and that gives me the motivation to create something from zero, and this is another stage of my life that I am approaching with a lot of enthusiasm.”
Those who impressed at the first open day were invited back for the second day for the coaches to continue to assess.
Aspire Academy’s padel team will now spend time considering which of the boys to invite back for further training and assessment with the ultimate goal of deciding who to invite to the Academy on a full-time basis for the 2024-25 academic year.