On the Joy of Padel podcast, host Minter Dial sits down with David García, a pure Padel player turned coach who reached the top 60 in world rankings before retiring four years ago. Now serving as director and head coach at M3 Padel Academy, García shares fascinating insights about his journey from playing Padel at age four to running one of the world’s largest Padel academies. The episode reveals the unique culture of Padel, coaching methodologies, and a remarkable story of how one neighbourhood in Madrid produced multiple professional players.
García’s origin story reads like a sports fairytale. Growing up in a Madrid neighbourhood, he was one of five kids who would later become professional Padel players, including the renowned Galán brothers, Ale and Álvaro. García lived on the third floor of their building, while the Galáns lived on the fourth. This close-knit community of future pros started playing as toddlers, with Ale Galán famously captured on video playing Padel at just two years old.
Unlike many top players who transition from tennis, García is what he calls a “pure Padel player,” having never played tennis competitively. Standing at 172 centimetres, he compensated for his smaller stature with speed and tactical play, describing his style as “fox-like,” quick and clever rather than powerful. His signature shot, the Bajada de Pared (a back wall shot), became his winning weapon, though he admits he still wants to improve his basic forehand, a common weakness among pure Padel players compared to tennis converts.
The conversation takes an interesting turn when García discusses his role at M3 Padel Academy, which is about to make history. In September, they’ll open the world’s first academy-owned Padel club dedicated to competition and training. The facility will feature 18 indoor courts, including five centre courts with 15-meter-high roofs, tall enough for even the highest lobs and specialised shots like the “pinchado” to never touch the ceiling.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of García’s work is M3’s unique coaching system. With over 35 coaches and 1,200 regular students, the academy has developed a standardised methodology where coaches don’t “invent” their training sessions. Instead, they follow a carefully planned programme, ensuring consistency across all lessons. This approach solved a common problem in Padel instruction where students traditionally became loyal to individual coaches rather than the training system itself.
The academy’s reach extends far beyond Spain, attracting players from unexpected locations like South Africa, the Philippines, and Kuwait. However, García identifies a critical challenge facing the sport’s global expansion: the shortage of qualified coaches. He explains that while it’s possible to teach basic Padel techniques quickly, developing truly competent coaches requires years of experience and countless hours of court time, a problem that he believes will affect the sport’s growth for the next 5-10 years.
García shares a powerful lesson from his early training days that applies to both coaches and players. His first trainer told him he needed to learn how to lose before he could win, first losing in straight sets, then winning one set before losing, then coming close in three sets, all before finally achieving victory. This methodical approach to handling pressure and learning from failure resonates with stories of other champions, including American Padel player Luisito Estrada, who deliberately spent a year losing to improve his game.
As Padel continues its explosive global growth, García’s insights reveal both the sport’s rich culture and the challenges it faces in maintaining quality instruction while expanding worldwide. The M3 Academy’s innovative approach to standardised coaching could provide a blueprint for Padel’s development in new markets, though García emphasises there are no shortcuts to developing expertise in this unique sport.
For those interested in learning more about Padel’s evolution from a neighbourhood game to a global sport or understanding how one of the world’s leading academies develops both recreational and professional players, the full episode offers valuable insights into this rapidly growing sport’s past, present, and future.
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