The Joy of Padel podcast with Calle Åkesson

In this episode of “The Joy of Padel,” I have the pleasure of speaking with Calle Åkesson, the General Secretary of the Swedish Padel Federation. Calle shares his personal journey from being a sports enthusiast to playing a pivotal role in the development of padel in Sweden. He talks about the sport’s rapid growth during the pandemic and the current phase of consolidation. Calle emphasizes the importance of collaboration between commercial venues and nonprofit clubs to promote padel effectively. We also discuss Sweden’s efforts to nurture top players and the unique culture of padel, which combines individual skill with teamwork. Calle’s insights provide a fascinating look into the evolving landscape of padel in Sweden and the federation’s mission to expand the sport at all levels.

To find out more about Calle Åkesson:

• Find or follow on Instagram: Calleak
• Find or follow Calle Åkesson on Linkedin
• Find or follow on YouTube

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Send in your questions or reactions:

Please send me your questions — as an audio file if you’d like — to nminterdial@gmail.com. Otherwise, below, you’ll find the show notes and, of course, you are invited to comment. If you liked the podcast, please take a moment to review and/or rate it! ¡VAMOS!

Further resources for The Joy of Padel:

Calle Åkesson | Calle Akesson | grassroots padel | non-profit padel clubs | padel broadcasting | padel business | padel centers | padel Championships | padel clubs | Padel Coaching | padel Competitions | padel Culture | padel development | padel education | padel entrepreneurship | padel federation | padel growth | padel Partnerships | padel players | padel rankings | padel streaming | padel team sport | padel Tournaments | Padel Training | padel venues | professional padel | Swedish padel | youth padel

This transcription comes courtesy of Flowsend.ai, an AI service for podcasters.

Minter Dial: Calle Akesson. Great to have you on the Joy of Padel. You are, as I understand it, the general secretary of the Swedish Padel Federation since 2020, the first employee of the organization of the federation. And you have seen the rise and let’s say consolidation of the Swedish padel industry in your own words. Let’s start with who is Calle?

Calle Åkesson: Well, I am, I’m. I’m turned 50 this year. So.

Minter Dial: Congratulations.

Calle Åkesson: Been long for a while.

Minter Dial: Yeah.

Calle Åkesson: Thank you. And I like sports. I like almost everything and I like Padel of course. Have a background of tennis, football, blowball, tried almost everything. Table tennis. Been studying sport management. I have been working for quite a long time before this job as a management consult. So, I, I like to develop organizations but I have developed a lot of others, other organizations and after a while I thought I really want to develop my own organization. No, this is not my own organization but this is an opportunity for me to be a. Be a big part of the Swedish Padel Federation and develop the organization and the sport and non-profit clubs. We have non-profit clubs in Sweden and I think it’s a great mission. I live in a small town called V south of Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden. Yeah. And that’s the short story.

Minter Dial: And Gothenburg is where you started playing your padel as I understand it?

Calle Åkesson: Yeah, it is. It was. I played there too before we had any Santos in. So, we went up to one hour to get them by and we played maybe for three or four years in Gotham. Yeah.

Minter Dial: So, you’re a left-handed player and how would you describe for you or why did you get into Padel? What was it that your journey that really attracted you at the very beginning?

Calle Åkesson: Well, actually it was one of my best friends that told me, Calle, do you know it’s a new sport in Sweden. You have to test it because when we were playing tennis I liked the angles and you know, the playing soft.

Minter Dial: And the crafty left hander.

Calle Åkesson: Yeah, classic. So, we started to play and I loved it from the first beginning. And when, when a sport is that new, it’s. You can see so many things you can do with it. So. Well, that’s, that’s, that was the start. So.

Minter Dial: And plus when you get in at the beginning you can get high ranking.

Calle Åkesson: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I haven’t been that high ranked in Sweden, but top 50 I think. But now I don’t play that many tournaments so I think I have the worst minus development or what you Say in English. So, maybe 3 or 4,000 in the Swedish ranking right now.

Minter Dial: Well and plus we’re not getting younger, are we, Calle? Yeah. Your favorite player. Do you watch a lot of the pro padel or not?

Calle Åkesson: Well, quite a lot. We had a couple of world padel tournaments in Sweden and I’ve been watching them and watching on YouTube and TV. So, yeah maybe that. Maybe so much don’t so much that I’m the real, the biggest fan but because I don’t have that a lot of time but sometimes I’m watching and. And then I’ve been joining Sweden in quite many championships.

Minter Dial: So, yeah and they are true competitors at the international level. The reason why I ask or is that Vienna Dubois was on my show and he talked about how there might be 35 million players in the world but there are only a million or so people watching padel. So, it’s a rare spot where there are more players than fans and we need to revert, we need to help that up so that the pros can get paid what they deserve for the high entertainment that they provide.

Calle Åkesson: Yeah, yeah. Well that’s a big challenge and it’s the same in Sweden. If I can give you a couple of numbers. We are maybe 600,000 party players in Sweden and we have. Our mission is to work with a non-profit clubs and I think it’s about between 30 and 40,000 players that are a member in a non Profit clubs of 600,000 that plays Padel and that’s one thing. And how many watching Padel? I think if, if we having a tournament the Swedish Padel Tour we are about maybe between 2 and 5,000 people watching and that’s that that can be so much better than when we were on this, the Swedish champion week when they gathering a lot of sports like the Olympics. But in Sweden we had almost 300,000 viewers and that’s quite good for us. But we have to be on that level every tournament. But well, we have a journey to do to, to come down.

Minter Dial: Well, speaking of journeys, the Swedish Padel Federation is a standalone unit. I had recently Tom Murray on my show and Tom who runs the padel within the Tennis Federation, which is a very different path and it seems to be there are maybe 28 or so countries that have within the tennis fed existing federation. What was. How did the Swedish Padel Federation get started by itself? Was that a shoe in or was there at the very beginning some ideas that it should be part of the Tennis Federation?

Calle Åkesson: Well, in the beginning I think it was a couple of players that wanted to play tournaments and maybe play for the national team and championships. So, the Padel Federation started 2010, I think, and then we have. We had a big goal that to be a member of the Swedish Sport Association. I think we are maybe 70. More than 70 sports that are a member in the. In that association. And just before we became a member, it was. I think it was three years ago now and we were doing quite big work with the Swedish Tennis Federation. If we’re going to be a part of the Tennis Federation or if we’re going to stand by ourselves to be a member in the Swedish Sport Association. And we are both tennis and Padel agreed that we should be our own sport. So, it wasn’t a big issue for us. But I know it may be working quite different in other countries. I think the UK, I think it’s good. And the Netherlands, I think it’s good for them and. And some other countries, it’s good to be apart. So, I don’t think it’s one way to go. I think it’s important to look into it in that country and make the decision for what’s best. And we think it’s the best way in Sweden.

Minter Dial: But yeah, well, you know, it’s interesting because Italy, one of the other huge adopters of padel, has it within the Tennis Federation and they changed the name. So, it’s the Italian Federation of Tennis and Padel in the name, which is maybe where England or Britain has to go one day. But let’s talk about the Swedish market. Of course. I’ve had Danny Windall. Hey, Danny. On the show and we talked a little bit about Sweden. I expect to have more players from Sweden because you guys are on the rise. You grew in a very special way through the pandemic. Then it seems that we’re in a consolidation phase. Talk us through what the rise in let’s say now consolidation period that we are now having in Sweden in Padel.

Calle Åkesson: Well, I think there was quite many entrepreneurs that thought they could do quick money in the. In parallel. And I think they. Many of them. I have a big respect for every entrepreneur that trying to help us to develop the sport in. In. In. In. In Sweden. But you have to. You, you. You have to do the analyze of the market. Maybe it’s not a good business case to build Palestine Padel Center on the other side of the road if they already on the other side. So, I think during the pandemic there were so many people that could play Padel and to think that’s the way we’re going to have it here in Sweden. That was quite naive I think but many of the entrepreneurs have done a great job and thanks to them we, the non-profit clubs can also develop in. And if we are looking at the non-profit clubs that are a member in the Swedish Party Federation during the pandemic we went from 106 clubs to almost 200 and now we are 240 maybe. So, our group have been great. Our mission. The non-profit clubs and the members in the club and the players that play have a competition license. It’s it, it has it, it have been great. But, but the paddy centers and the venues, it’s it have been, it’s it, it have been very tough. So, I know the Europe are looking at Sweden and what happened. But I think, I think it’s something like that. You have to do the analyze and do a big do a good business case and everyone didn’t do that well.

Minter Dial: I think to their, in their defense they were in the midst of a completely atypical situation with the pandemic and so it was quite hard to know what the analysis on which benchmarks you should be describing whether it’s going to work or not. And you know, I have so many have talked to me about padel being a safety or a method to combat mental health and where you know, the whole thing of death and pandemic and lockdowns which Sweden didn’t have so much of, I’d say in your honor. But the mental health issues are so prevalent. Padel seems to be such a way to combat mental health. Can you, can you explain the way that with the clubs closing down. I know there’s the big one that’s in Salon Salonen or I can’t remember how you pronounce it north of Stockholm, that big club that closed down. Is it because it gives you access in the nonprofit clubs to second-hand courts? Is that how it’s benefiting you?

Calle Åkesson: Well, I, I, I don’t, I first want to say big. I also have a big respect for, for everyone who tried to, to develop and develop the sport. It was, I think it was very, very good. But for us I think I’ve been struggling for quite a long time to have a good cooperation with the palace centers and I think it’s very important that non-profit clubs are having competition and training and everything in the venues and the venues have to. You can hire the Padel Court but I think many, many companies are trying to do the same thing as the non-profit clubs. The mission of the non-profits club. They, they’re gonna have training and competition and everything. So, it was a kind of quite a big struggle to who is going to do what in a Palo Santa? Are we going to go the commercial way? Are we going to go the non-profit club way or the federation? The mission of the federation. So, it’s so important that we can work together the clubs and the companies. But to have a success in that we have to talk who’s going to do what. So, if we can work together, the company can, the venues can rent the pedal courts and they can have some kind of networking. But I think it’s good for the non-profit clubs to have some their training and the competition and develop the sport. So, I think, I don’t know if that’s the answer of the question, but that is my, my analysis about that thing.

Minter Dial: Yeah, your analysis. The, the question I want to go into now is development. Sweden is on the, on the map as being one of the premier non-Hispanic countries. You’ve got Danne Windahl who’s I think in the top 50 now representing Sweden. How are you at the Swedish Padel Federation trying to cultivate the players? Do you have ambitions to have five people in the top 100 or how are you organizing, orchestrating the development of your players? And do you have a junior program as well?

Calle Åkesson: Well, we are in that process right now. We have just hired one elite head of. Elite, is that the right word? To work with the top players and the national team. But to be successful in that mission we have to work with grassroots and everyone that wants to play Padel, the children and the youth. And we have to make much more players in the clubs and players that want to compete, want to participate in competitions so we can build it from the beginning. And one important thing is our mission for the education so we can have a good, good trainers that can train every player. So, I think even though we are making good results on the, on the championships and we have a couple of players that are struggling now and Premier Padel and FIFA, it’s just in the beginning for us. So, we, we want to set everything that you, you were talking about and with, with the program and make you know, you know, in Sweden I think the whole world are talking about it. But go from a triangle to a rectangle. Do you know what I mean with that?

Minter Dial: Well, the triangle, the top of the pyramid is there’s a small amount. But if a rectangle it means you have more people at the top, more people in the middle, more people at the bottom.

Calle Åkesson: Yeah, and part of everyone for their whole life. So, we have to do things for every player, every age, in every age and in for everyone. So, of course we, we want to fight about the medals in the championships. We. We want to have top players in Premier Padel. But to come down we have to work with everyone from the grassroots. So, I think that’s very important.

Minter Dial: Getting the right coaching in is going to be of course an important part of that. Do you have, I assume you have some kind of formation training program to bring in Padel players. The challenge being if you weren’t sort of born in Padel and you weren’t living in Spain, you might just be transferring tennis players into Padel as opposed to building pure padel coaches.

Calle Åkesson: Yeah, we have a couple of players now that started to play Padel from the beginning and it’s great to see them. And we have one player now going to the World Championship and actually we have. We. We have more than one. We have a couple of players that really started to play Padel and don’t started with tennis. But it’s a challenge to work with a good training program and I think it’s going to take a lot of years to be successful. It’s so easy to just try to get a good trainer from. From Spain. Can you come to Sweden and help us? But I think it’s maybe a short. It’s. It’s good for the. In. In the short term, but. Well, we have a couple of really, really good Swedish trainers and I think it has to take the time to make everything to come in place to come in. If we are rushing, maybe we’re going the wrong path and we really have to do it from the beginning because like we were talking about in the beginning of the federation, it was because a couple of players wanted to play competition and the national team, we didn’t really start to work with nonprofit clubs until maybe five, six, seven years ago. So, it’s still so early for us and to compete with Spain. It’s. Well, it. Give us 20 more years, please.

Minter Dial: Totally. And some good son. You know, when you think about Sweden, the. It’s a very much a tennis country. You obviously have huge Bjorn Borg, Stephan Edberg and so many others. Mats Vielander. What happens in tennis, which perhaps is not quite as obvious in Padel, is tennis is watched by many, many people. So, Borg winning Wimbledon, maybe there were many people who discovered the power of tennis and became attracted by him and then he by himself probably brought the whole next generation of padel players. I know in Sweden the Abramovich plays. You’ve obviously got some tennis players involved, but because Padel isn’t watched by so many, it’s hard to have that as a. As a way to pull the entire country with you. So, how. There’s no lessons one can learn from tennis in Sweden to help build padel.

Calle Åkesson: One of the most important thing is to have the top players in the world. And we had that in tennis and we had it in table tennis. And we are successful in a lot of sports. But I think media have so much power. So, if we are not in the top of the world, it’s not interesting for our broadcasting companies to broadcast the competitions. So, we are now struggling with that kind of question, the streaming and broadcasting, and we are struggling with success. If, if. If we are success, successful in the European Championship or in the World Championship, it’s going to be another thing. But when, when tennis and table tennis have their success, they had. Their federation has. Have a history of maybe, I don’t know, 50 years. So, I think it’s a little bit unfair to compare, but it’s a challenge also. We like the motivation to come at the same spot and the same place, the tennis and table tennis and some other sports in Sweden. So. But give us, like I said, a couple of more years and we. We’re gonna be there, I think.

Minter Dial: Well, I hope so.

Calle Åkesson: That’s the mission.

Minter Dial: Yeah. So, one last question for you, Calle. Padel culture. So, I’ve been playing for a long time. I. I have a strong personal conviction that padel has its unique culture. However, that is a biased opinion. It is basically because I spent so much time playing it in Spain at the roots, if you will. So, I think that there is something, and I’m wondering to what extent you believe there is a specific culture to padel, I. E. Some sort of pan International, you know. So, it’s a. It’s a one culture that every country should have, or there is a Swedish culture to padel. And, and if. So, what is that? And how is it different from the Spanish culture?

Calle Åkesson: Wow. You cannot prepare me for that question. Well, we are talking a lot of. One thing. We are talking a lot of in Sweden. It’s. It’s if Padel is a individual sport or if it’s a team sport.

Minter Dial: Great question.

Calle Åkesson: Yeah. And I think that’s one. One big thing when we are talking about the culture. If it’s like tennis players, they are playing a lot of single and one player and. And then they have to play a double in pairs, and then we have the championships and in, In Sweden, we have a Swedish party league when the, when the clubs are playing against the clubs.

Minter Dial: I’ve, I’ve seen, by the way, I’ve, I’ve seen some of those club matches. I’ve attended them, so I seen how competitive they are.

Calle Åkesson: Yeah. So, I think it’s important for us to build a culture that you have to be an individual player, but you have to play together in a pair for every match, but also be a member of a team. And what’s important to be a member in a team? Well, it’s maybe the team before myself and that culture, I think it’s very important here in Sweden and of course it’s important for every country that are participating in the World Championship or European Championship. So, that’s something we are talking a lot about.

Minter Dial: That’s a really interesting question to be debating because indeed you look at San Jo Gutierrez, he, he talks very much about how it’s an individual sport and you know, how the pairs are constantly changing. They’re jettisoning a pair, another a partner because they’re not getting the results right away and having that long term idea, creating the team like Danny’s doing with his partner. They’ve been together now quite a while and then they now learn each other, they know each other. And that complicity, that sense of teamwork on the court, you can see it how well they, they manage it together. And on the other side you can see how some pairs are always, you know, slumping shoulders and giving bad body language when the other guy makes a mistake or the other woman, whatever makes a mistake. And having that ability to be complicitous, have complicity with your partner is so important.

Calle Åkesson: Yeah. And we have, I like, I love this expression, what can I do to make my partner better? And, and we are talking about it in the organization. We are. And I think it’s so important to talk about it when you are playing. We’re in, in Paris and in, in a club for a national team. And so can, can you be that player that doing your partner better? Maybe that’s the main thing for success.

Minter Dial: I just love that. And in the little question I sent you beforehand, you wrote in that Chingotto is your favorite player. I have to believe that he is wired that way.

Calle Åkesson: Yeah, I think so too. I saw him the first time in Bosta, in Sweden. The first time the World Padel Tour came to Sweden. I think it’s six years ago maybe. I think he was playing with LeBron in that time. I don’t remember. But he, he was such a great player and now he’s even greater player. So, I love him. I love the. What’s in English? The. The head.

Minter Dial: The mindset. The mindset.

Calle Åkesson: The mindset. Yes. Yes.

Minter Dial: Well, you know, Kennedy said. John F. Kennedy, he said, you know us, not what the country can do for you, but what you can do for the country. Ask not what I should do on this padel court or what padel’s should do for me. Ask what can you do to help your partner on these. Wonderful insight. Really, Kelly, That’s a really gorgeous way to finish. How can anybody contact you? Learn more about what you’re doing at the Federation. What would you like them to do in terms of actionable steps after listening to your interview?

Calle Åkesson: And if they want to contact us, they can search for our website. It’s in Swedish, so it’s www.SvenskPadel.Se. And that’s one thing you can do. But if you’re in Sweden now and playing Padel and want to be a part of this fantastic sport and be a member in a club, please. And that’s the. It’s very important for us to get more funding from the government and the Swedish Sport association. And. Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking about.

Minter Dial: Beautiful. Tack så mycket. Vamos Padel. Thank you.

Calle Åkesson: Thank you very much.