Why Do People Play Padel? What Motivation Research Shows
A comparison of reported enjoyment, friendship and personal goals in padel surveys, with clear limits on what they tell us about long-term participation.
ResearchBy PadelFormat Editorial TeamPublished 9 min read
Quick answer
Enjoyment, playing with other people and personal goals recur in surveys of existing padel players. They are credible reasons to choose a session you want to attend. The research reviewed here does not establish which motives cause long-term participation, because it does not track the same players returning or leaving.
TL;DR
- Friendship and teamwork ranked highly in two surveys of regular players using a Spanish questionnaire.
- Enjoyment also featured in a smaller Spanish study and a Croatian survey using a different motivation scale.
- Use these findings to ask better questions about your sessions. They do not provide a retention rate or a formula that keeps everyone playing.
On this page
What the studies measured
The papers ask related questions, but their questionnaires measure different things. Some ask which reasons players value. Others ask how freely chosen or pressured their participation feels. None of the five studies below follows the same players over time to measure who stays.
| Study and setting | Who took part | What was measured | Finding and limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Courel-Ibáñez and colleagues, 2018, Extremadura, Spain | 77 regular players from five clubs | Enjoyment, appearance, social motives, fitness and competence/performance, using MPAM-R | The authors identified enjoyment as the main motive. A small club sample cannot represent all players. |
| Rodríguez Cayetano and colleagues, 2020, Spain | 146 players training at least two hours weekly | Participation motives and intrinsic satisfaction, using PMQ and SSI | Friendship ranked highest among the motive factors. The sample already consisted of regular participants. |
| Rodríguez Cayetano and colleagues, 2023, club and sports-school recruitment with a Spanish questionnaire | 104 players training at least twice weekly, for at least an hour each time | PMQ and SSI | Friendship again ranked highest. Convenience recruitment limits generalisation beyond these volunteers. |
| Bilić and colleagues, 2025, Croatia | 201 recreational players aged 18–50 | Six forms of motivational regulation, using SMS-II | Intrinsic motivation had the highest average score. This was an online snapshot, without later attendance tracking. |
| Aldabayan and colleagues, 2026, Saudi Arabia | 475 current players recruited online | Sport motivation and self-reported psychological symptoms | This examined associations between questionnaire responses. It did not test a programme or measure subsequent retention. |
Sources: Apunts, 2018, Retos, 2020, Padel Scientific Journal, 2023, Sports, 2025 and Sports, 2026.
Treat the years as publication dates. For example, the Retos paper published in 2020 collected its player data in 2018. A newer publication date does not necessarily mean a newer set of observations.
Friendship, teamwork and personal goals
The two PMQ studies offer a useful comparison because both used a five-point importance scale. Players could rate several motives highly, so these scores are not shares of a vote.
Friendship ranked first, teamwork second and health/fitness third in both samples. The selected factors below also show that improvement and competition mattered to respondents. A social reason for playing does not exclude wanting to get better.
| Selected participation motive | 2020 study, 146 players | 2023 study, 104 players |
|---|---|---|
| Friendship/peer group | 4.53 | 4.62 |
| Cooperation/teamwork | 4.25 | 4.52 |
| Health/fitness | 4.08 | 4.50 |
| Self-improvement | 3.88 | 4.16 |
| Competition | 3.61 | 4.08 |
| Social status | 2.01 | 2.18 |
Reported mean importance scores, from 1, not important, to 5, very important. Selected rows from Table 1 in Rodríguez Cayetano et al., 2020 and Rodríguez Cayetano et al., 2023.
Our calculation from those published means puts friendship ahead of teamwork by 0.28 points in the first sample and 0.10 in the second. Those are descriptive gaps. We have not tested whether the differences are statistically significant, and a narrow lead does not make teamwork unimportant.
The higher scores in the 2023 column do not establish a change in padel culture between 2020 and 2023. These were different samples, rather than repeated measurements of the same people. Nor does a friendship score of 4.62 mean that 92.4% of players play for friendship. Dividing a scale score by its maximum would not answer that question.
For an organiser, I would use the pattern as a reason to ask about the group as well as the drills. Who does the player want to play with? Do they want to meet different partners, practise with a familiar pair or compete against a similar level? The survey averages cannot choose for them.
What enjoyment scores tell us
The Croatian study measured motivation differently. Its 201 volunteers completed SMS-II online between 11 January and 24 March 2025. Intrinsic motivation, meaning participation for the activity's own interest and enjoyment, averaged 6.04 on a scale from 1 to 7. External regulation, participation for outside rewards or pressure, averaged 1.98. These are reported scale scores, not percentages of players. Bilić et al., 2025
That result fits an account of players choosing padel because they like the activity. It does not show that padel created their motivation, or that enjoyment will outweigh every practical obstacle to playing.
The earlier Extremadura paper also described enjoyment as the main motive in its sample of 77 regular players. Its questionnaire covered several motives, including competence/performance and fitness, so enjoyment was part of a broader set of reasons. Courel-Ibáñez et al., 2018
Be careful with demographic shortcuts. The Croatian authors found a sex difference in one motivation dimension, but also acknowledged the risk of false positives from testing several dimensions without adjustment. That is a weak basis for deciding what an individual man or woman wants from a session. Ask the person.
Why motives do not prove retention
A survey of people already on court misses the person who tried padel, disliked it and stopped. It also misses someone who enjoyed playing but could no longer make the booking work. Their reasons could differ from those of the regulars who completed the questionnaire.
This limits the answer to “Why do people keep playing?” The reviewed papers describe motives among current participants. To test retention, researchers would need to measure motives first, follow those players later and record who returned, who left and why.
Comparing beginners with experienced players at one point in time would still leave a gap. The experienced group contains people who remained in the sport. You cannot assume its members once felt the same as the beginners being surveyed now, or infer how an individual player's motives changed.
The Saudi study adds a newer setting, but its survey design does not fill that gap. It measured motivation alongside psychological symptoms at one point in time. Its findings cannot establish that a particular motive keeps someone participating for longer.
I would therefore avoid selling a social tournament, coaching method or new racket as a research-proven way to keep people playing. These studies have not tested those claims.
Choose a session you want to attend
The following suggestions are editorial advice drawn from the questions raised by the research. They have not been tested as a retention programme.
Before booking again, ask yourself what you want from that particular session:
- Familiar company, or a chance to meet different players?
- A competitive match, guided practice or relaxed play?
- One skill to work on, such as using the back glass or placing the return?
- A booking time and total cost you are comfortable repeating?
- A partner who wants the same amount of advice and competition?
Give your organiser a concrete answer. “I want a beginner group where I can practise the glass” tells them more than “I need motivation”. If you are still arranging your first games, the guide to starting padel covers bookings, equipment and a first-session plan.
For organisers, explain the session before people sign up. Say whether partners change, how scoring works and how much of the booking is coaching or match play. If you want a rotating-partner event, the Americano schedule generator can arrange the rounds. Use the format comparison when deciding between rotating partners and fixed pairs. Neither tool has been shown by these surveys to improve retention.
Keep equipment decisions tied to an equipment need. If you are ready to buy, the racket chooser narrows options by your preferences, while the racket catalogue lets you compare specifications and current offers. The motivation research reviewed here does not establish that buying a racket makes you more likely to continue.
How we compared the research
We compared four primary participation studies and checked the methods and limitations of a fifth paper, published in 2026. Sources were checked on 20 October 2026. This is a focused comparison of published research, rather than a systematic review or a new player survey. The 2026 paper is included to show the boundary of its design, without turning its symptom associations into health advice.
The two PMQ tables use the same named participation factors and response range, which lets us show their reported means side by side. We have kept their samples separate. MPAM-R and SMS-II measure different constructs, so we have not pooled their scores with PMQ or calculated an overall motivation score.
The arithmetic above uses the published rounded means. It does not use individual responses, estimate attendance or supply a retention percentage. To understand your own session, write down what you wanted from it and what you would change before booking the next one.
Frequently asked questions
- Do these studies tell us what complete beginners want?
- Only partly. Several samples required regular training or prior playing experience. Their findings should not be treated as a survey of everyone considering a first session, including people who never booked or stopped quickly.
- Can I enjoy competition and still play for social reasons?
- Yes. The questionnaires allowed players to value several motives. Friendship and competition were separate factors, rather than mutually exclusive answers. Tell your group how competitive you want the session to be.
- What should a club measure if it wants to understand repeat attendance?
- Record actual return visits over a stated period and ask both returning and departing players about their experience. Keep an answer such as “I plan to come back” separate from a later booking. That is a proposed approach, not a result from these studies.
- Is wanting to play again evidence of addiction?
- These papers do not establish an addiction diagnosis. Enjoyment or a high motivation score alone does not justify that label. The findings here concern reported motives and associations, with the limits described above.
Sources
- 1. Courel-Ibáñez J, Sánchez-Alcaraz Martínez BJ, Muñoz Marín D, Grijota Pérez FJ, Chaparro Herrera R, Díaz García J. Gender Reasons for Practicing Paddle Tennis. Apunts. Educación Física y Deportes, 133, 116–125. Published 1 July 2018. DOI: 10.5672/apunts.2014-0983.es.(2018/3).133.08.
- 2. Rodríguez Cayetano A, Pérez Muñoz S, de Mena Ramos JM, Codón Beneitez N, Sánchez Muñoz A. Motives for sports participation and intrinsic satisfaction in padel players. Retos, 38, 242–247. Published 1 July 2020. DOI: 10.47197/retos.v38i38.74423.
- 3. Rodríguez Cayetano A, Aliseda García V, Morales Campo PT, Pérez-Muñoz S. Why is padel so popular? Analysis of the reasons for participation and level of intrinsic satisfaction. Padel Scientific Journal, 1(2), 137–156, 2023. DOI: 10.17398/2952-2218.1.137.
- 4. Bilić Z, Barbaros P, Dukarić V, Lovreković T, Petrinović L. Motivational Determinants of Recreational Padel Participation: A Comparative Analysis Across Age and Gender. Sports, 13(11), 377. Published 3 November 2025. DOI: 10.3390/sports13110377.
- 5. Aldabayan YS, Elshaer IA, Kooli Y, Alyahya M, Kooli C. Sport Motivation and Mental Health Outcomes Among Padel Players in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional PLS-SEM Study. Sports, 14(7), 280. Published 3 July 2026. DOI: 10.3390/sports14070280.