Humans of Padel
Join your host Max Marsh Pickard, General Manager of Padel Art & Co founder of The Padel Outlet in a weekly entertaining dive into the world of Padel and the people involved in the industry
Humans of Padel
From Argentina to Dubai | Melina Bois Journey as a Padel Coach in the United Arab Emirates
What does it take to transition from a small town in Argentina to becoming a groundbreaking padel coach in Dubai? Melina Bois shares her incredible journey from Catamarca, where she was immersed in sports by her parents, to Dubai, where she has become a pioneering female padel coach. Her powerful smash technique and her progression from volleyball to padel are just the beginning of this inspiring story. Learn how a simple conversation opened doors to new opportunities and propelled Melina to new heights in her career.
Explore the unique challenges Melina has faced as a female padel coach in both Argentina and the UAE. We discuss the scarcity of female coaches, potential prejudices, and the physical demands of the job. Discover the differences in coaching demographics between Sharjah and Dubai, and the cultural nuances of guiding local Emiratis versus expats. Melina also provides insights into managing split shifts and adapting to life in a new country, all while staying at the top of her game.
The conversation also dives into the evolving landscape of paddle sports. Melina recounts the journey from basic courts in Spain and Argentina to the luxurious facilities in Dubai, and how COVID-19 played a role in boosting the sport's popularity. Hear personal anecdotes about funding tournaments and overcoming obstacles, and enjoy a vibrant discussion on the joys of expat life in Dubai. Melina’s story is one of passion, perseverance, and an unwavering commitment to the sport of padel. Join us for an episode filled with inspiration and valuable insights into the world of padel coaching.
Hi guys, welcome to the Max Plays Paddle podcast. In this episode, I'm joined by Melina Boyce, coach at Paddle Arts in Dubai. It's a very interesting conversation between Melina and myself. We go through her journey of how she got to Dubai, her inspiration behind coaching and many other interesting anecdotes of paddle in Argentina. Enjoy the episode. Do let us know your feedback on Instagram. Drop me a DM at MaxPlaysPaddle. I'd love to hear from you. Enjoy the episode. So, marina, I'm so happy to have you here with me. This is a conversation that's long overdue, both on a personal level and for the podcast, because I've known you since you pretty much got here in the UAE when you're working in Sharjah, and yet we haven't really had the chance to dive deep into how you got here and how you got to the UAE and the whole story behind. So that's what we're going to be discussing today. So tell me, melina, how does a girl who lives in Katamarka, 22 hours by bus from Buenos Aires, get to Dubai?
Speaker 2:Well, this is really interesting because it was not an easy decision. It was not an easy decision to come to Dubai because it's a long, long way far from home. But well, as I think I told you once, my parents were playing all their life paddle and then they were taking me, when I was a kid, to all the courts and the clubs where they were going. My mother was playing tournaments and everything, so I was following them. So let's say that I grew up all my life with a racket in my hand and nothing happened, that I was playing a lot in Argentina with friends. I was training. I started when I was 14 years old to take it a little bit more seriously, because before I was playing volleyball and before that hockey, so it wasn't at all paddle, but after that I got interested in it.
Speaker 2:And the thing is that one day I was playing one of these tournaments with a girl and she told me hey, you know, I have a friend in Dubai, she's working there. And I said Dubai. At the beginning I said, OK, wait, let me find it in the map. And then she explained to me it's there, it's there. And at that moment I think the people started to talk about Dubai and Dubai and the Arabs, and all the technology and the buildings and everything. What?
Speaker 1:was the image that you had of Dubai at that time.
Speaker 2:And at that time it was like just a big city with buildings and a lot of technology and just people wearing white and black.
Speaker 1:That's partially true, some of it at least. You've obviously come to learn a lot more about the UAE since then, but why did you choose padel over hockey or volleyball?
Speaker 2:Well, I chose padel because… I think, yes, it was because of my parents. I was looking pretty much all day padel, padel, pad paddle tournaments one place another. We were traveling around Buenos Aires when I was a kid with my mother for her to play tournaments because she was quite good in it, and one day I said, ok, I should try. Maybe I am good so, because in volleyball we have a really really hard, hard smash, I could do it also in padel. So when I was playing I saw that I could kick many, many guys asses. So I said, okay, this is my sport it's true, you do have an amazing smash.
Speaker 1:If you've never seen Melina play a paddle, she has an incredible, incredible smash and this is the show that I love the most. So I do.
Speaker 2:I do, especially when I go against men, so they see also women, we can do it.
Speaker 1:In regards to the smash, though, how much of that smash do you think is technique, and how much of it do you think is power?
Speaker 2:I discovered that when I started, because I used to come from volleyball and I had the power from volleyball. I thought it was power. But then with the time I realized that doing it with technique it's much, much easier and better, because when you just know how to do the technique and you do your back and you go forward, the ball goes out easily without yeah, the brush of the wrists any much effort and your back is going to long last longer yeah, I think I've lost my shoulder a few times over the over the fence from trying to hit the ball yeah, that's true, that's true so so back to your story.
Speaker 1:At what point did you start coaching?
Speaker 2:pedal Well because I was doing quite well in a high category. In Argentina you have third, second and first, which are the highest levels, and I was doing quite well in the third category and some of my friends started to tell me me listen, I would like to train a little bit. I saw you are winning a lot of tournaments, you become really good and after that, one club saw me playing a tournament I actually was champion on that and they called me to represent all Argentina and they say do you want to come to join us team and would you like to be a female coach? Because we don't have female coach in the club and this was something really not common in Argentina. There was not so many female coaches. So I said, ok, why not? I would like to try. But, as everyone, I was really scared of how to do it. You know it's when you start something from scratch, you don't know. So I started there and I said OK.
Speaker 1:Why do you think there's so few female coaches in Argentina? I mean, not even in Argentina alone. Actually, there are so few female coaches in the UAE as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's why they brought me here too, because there was no female coaches at that time, not that much. I think there was something like five or seven girls.
Speaker 1:But why do you think that is that there's not as many female paddle coaches?
Speaker 2:Well, I think in all the sports is like this there is more amount of guys playing any sport than girls, and I think it's something that we should push, and this is one of my really the things that I want to work on. And I said I have to come to Dubai to try to push the female paddle.
Speaker 1:Is there prejudice in Argentina against female coaches? For example, if I'm a man in Argentina and I want to take paddle lessons, are there a lot of people who think well, I'm not going to train with a woman because she's a woman. Or do you think?
Speaker 2:No, actually no, Actually, no. I think sometimes I have a lot of much more guys than girls. Yeah, and here too, it's a little bit girls. Yeah, and here, here too, it's a little bit mixed yeah.
Speaker 1:So you've never faced any sexism within you know, coaching and someone telling you oh, you can't tell me what to do, you're a woman, because there's always people like this somewhere, you know, there's always someone who thinks this way.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks God. No, I didn't have that, and you know I'm very simple. If you don't like it, you have the door there. So this is it. It's true, they have other options as coaches, we also have the option to choose who we want to train and who we don't, so that's a good thing.
Speaker 1:That makes sense. I mean as a coach, and now you've been doing this. How many years have you been coaching?
Speaker 2:Already nine years.
Speaker 1:Okay, what do you think is the biggest challenge of being a paddle coach?
Speaker 2:The biggest challenge is, I think, dealing with your own body. When you work a lot, many hours, I think you stop doing what before was your hobby, now it is your job and you are spending a lot of hours doing it. And many people think, oh, being a coach is really easy because you are just inside the court with a basket and throwing balls and balls, and balls. And actually having this arm already using all the time and holding 350 or 360 grams is it is a lot yeah, you're doing 150 up to 200 hours a month, right, and that's a lot of hours on a court.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of balls hit, and so how do you manage your body?
Speaker 2:well, I think the first thing is you have to sleep well, sleep well, eat well and, if you have time, go to the gym, because you have to reinforce your muscles, to have power and to handle with all the pains that you have. And well, if you have an injury, you are really unlucky because you have to stop working and that's one of the things. That's not easy, but, yes, I think all of us we learn how to live with the pain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of the biggest challenges I faced with coaching more tennis than paddle was the split shift. So you know you're working, you're on court at 7 o'clock in the morning for a few hours and then you go home and then you've got to come back at 4 o'clock. So, having that split shift, split shit, having that split shift, having that split shift from 4 pm and until 9 pm and then going back to bed, and then I struggled initially to manage that time. I became a master of naps.
Speaker 2:That's true, you know, actually, I never, never knew what was a nap, because that was my time with my friends and everything in Argentina. And when I came here I said, oh my God, I love naps. Yes, that's true, Because you work in the morning and then you go home, you have lunch, you take a nap, you have some rest, like no more than a half hour, and then you are back in court. So, it's uh, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:I became my lover too, so how long have you been in the ueno? Uh, already three years three years three years you like it uh, I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love the place. At the beginning it was quite hard for me to adapt. I was in sharshaah and it was all my friends were here in Dubai, so I was going and coming all the weekends and after, when I decided to come to Dubai, I think it was easier because I had more things to do. But anyways, I loved Sharjah and the place is really nice. The people are very kind, local people. Once they allow you to be their friend, they are really really generous, kind and they are very good friends. I can say that I have really good friends here, and especially from Sharjah.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Yeah, the people you're coaching. Obviously Sharjah is a more local Emir. Yeah, the people you're coaching obviously Sharjah is a more local Emirati-based population than Dubai. Here and where you're in Paddle Art, you coach a lot more expats and Europeans, I imagine.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's true. Actually, for me it was a new world when I started to work here, because when I was in Sharjah, you could see all I didn't have any single student that was expat. All of them were locals, all of them. So when I came here and I realized that there was just a few locals, I said, oh, this is different.
Speaker 1:So let's go back to your very first lesson in Sharjah, when you first got to the UAE and you started coaching. What was the difference for you between coaching someone from Sharjah, from the UAE and Emirati compared to coaching someone like you, an Argentinian?
Speaker 2:Oh, difficult question, but okay, Can I be honest.
Speaker 1:Of course we like honesty.
Speaker 2:Well, the things that I had to face the most here it was to work with the coordination thing, because here you have to teach a lot at the beginning coordination movements, which I was working much more here with cones and teaching the people the movements than in Argentina. I think in Argentina everyone comes from these different sports like football. There is a lot of football players, hockey players, basketball players, that they bring all those things already with them, and here I didn't have it so much. So this was my I had to focus, or to prepare my lessons with another. You know another way of like I was doing for yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think you hit it on the head. Is that a lot of people here paddle was their first sport ever and they're playing it as an adult, whereas most people in Argentina, europe, have played other sports before Any racket sport, football, whatever. It is. Like you say, you're used to seeing a ball move. You understand the movement of you, know your legs, your arms, the coordination, like you mentioned, whereas it's true, if you're an adult and you've never played any sports before, to try and hit a ball with a racket bouncing off of the ground and then off a wall.
Speaker 2:It is very difficult, I mean yeah, for us it looks really easy, right? You say, okay, the ball comes, I put my body sideways, I prepare my racket and hit, but for them at the beginning it's difficult. As you said, padel is quite new here and everyone got super excited about padel, didn't they?
Speaker 2:I mean, everyone started playing, even those, like we said, who've never done any sports in their life, and that's great, because that's allowed the sport to grow in the UAE and to keep growing yeah, and constantly new people are trying and they're bringing their friends and their families, and the sport is still booming today yes, and that that makes us, the coaches me, uh, it makes me really happy uh, to teach something, uh from scratch it. Uh, I think I'm really good on that. I I love to teach people from zero because I like to see the progress in them. It's a challenge for me, so I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great. I mean, that's the great thing about beginners. I mean there are certain people who love coaching high-level players and there are certain people who enjoy beginners. I agree with you. I like coaching beginners because you also see a very quick progression. Yeah, once they see something, you see their faces light up, they're happy, they're smiling and you know that progression is there. Whereas the higher in level that you're coaching, the more it's repetition and it's fine tuning and changing smaller and smaller things and I don't know I find for me that's not as attractive yes, the same thing.
Speaker 2:For me, the same, the same. Uh, as you said, there is coaches that they love to teach people that they already know how to play, but for me it's a challenge to see the improvement in short period in the people yeah, and we mentioned some other sports.
Speaker 1:Which sport do you think is Is the easiest to transition from to paddle?
Speaker 2:Why? Clearly tennis. Tennis is the easiest one but only good tennis players.
Speaker 1:If you if you're an average tennis player and you start playing paddle. I find people really struggle to break those habits.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at a certain point there they get a little bit DC and they start doing a lot of things that they do in a tennis court. But, yes, the people that come from a high level in tennis, they and wait, I have to say also the ones that are capable to change their mind. If they change their, we say the SIM card like okay, now I'm playing paddle and I'm not playing tennis, because they start to play tennis inside the paddle court and they forget that the court is much more smaller and that you have the wall at the back. So the thing is, yes, the ones that are capable to change their mindset.
Speaker 1:I mean, you must see a completely different sport when you see people playing paddle here and you see people playing paddle in Argentina, Because I guess people in Argentina a lot of them have played pure paddle and only paddle as a racket sport. And then everyone here is coming from every other different sport and you see this hybrid game. Right, it's not the same paddle in Argentina as you see here.
Speaker 2:You know, talking about that is something that we talk a lot between the coaches and, yes, sometimes we struggle to get to get used or to adapt to the rhythm of the games here, because the boss comes suddenly here, suddenly there, so you don't know where it's going to go, so you don't know what to do. You know. So, as you said, padel, there is pure padel. So you read the movements and you know what the player is going to do. But here, yes, it's completely different. You have people from squash, people coming from badminton, from cricket, and it's a mix of everything. So their movements are inside the court. So it's a mix of all of that plus padel. But that's why we are here and we are trying to help them to get used and to change from their sport to others.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so if you were let's say we go back to the day you got to the UAE what would you wish that you'd known then, that you know now? If this is advice, maybe that we'd be giving to some young coaches in Argentina or somewhere else around the world who are looking to move to this part of the world to get into coaching.
Speaker 2:Well, I would say always English, always English. Go and learn English, take as many lessons as you can, because English here gives you a target. I think it's an extra point. If we talk about being professional, uh, the english it matters. There is many people that thinks that not, but having a good communication with your student and could express what you, what is your knowledge, to them, uh, in clear way, it's really important. And also, when you want to communicate with the people that you work with, I think it creates a different view from your career and how professional you are.
Speaker 1:How did you improve your English? Because I met you. I think it was a week after you got into the UAE and your English was not good Because of you Because I said one day I have to understand the British English. And here you are now, three years later, recording a podcast episode with me. I mean, look at that.
Speaker 2:And I understand everything that Max is saying now.
Speaker 1:Hopefully everyone understands what you're saying as well in this podcast, I hope the same. I'm sure they do.
Speaker 2:Before coming here, I was driving my car and I was saying yes, I hope my English is great today.
Speaker 1:So how did you improve the English?
Speaker 2:Well, I guess you don't have another option. Here you sleep talking in English and you wake up talking in English. Here you sleep talking in English and you wake up talking in English. Your friends, most of them, they talk in English. Also, I did the effort to have friends that are not Spanish speakers. If they were all of them Spanish talkers, it would be a little bit difficult for me to really learn their language.
Speaker 1:It's true, you're naturally drawn towards your community, right, and you're going to be drawn towards people who are like you, so who speak your language, and people who understand you. So, people who are paddle coaches and you do see it a lot here A lot of the paddle coaches do tend to stick together and they're maybe not benefiting from adventuring out into the world and improving their English and connecting and building their network as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I think you have to. As you said, you have to just be capable to try to learn different cultures, different cultures, different. Listen to news stories from friends, and for me it's not from now, it's from before. I travel a lot and I always liked to know different people, you know. So if you are not willing to open to other people, you would never learn new things, and this is one of the things the language.
Speaker 1:That's true. I mean speaking of level of English. What amazes me is how bad the English of the professional paddle players is. There's hardly any of them. That's very honest. It's true, none of them speak English. There's hardly any of them. That's very honest. It's true. None of them speak English.
Speaker 2:That's true, you know. Yeah, yeah, you're right, and actually this was one of the things why I was brought here is because I could speak English at that time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean there's a lot of people that don't exactly in Argentina Zero, zero. Because I mean there's a lot of people that don't exactly in Argentina, zero, zero.
Speaker 2:Because, yeah, unfortunately our school system is not that good in languages. We have English since we are in kindergarten, but it's just one hour per day and that's not enough and we don't have conversation, and also we are surrounded by countries that are all spanish and everything on tv is in spanish, right, it's not english everything is in spanish.
Speaker 2:So I learned my english because I went for I did an a program for like an student exchange in holland and because I had been living there for one year was how I learned. But if you don't have that opportunity, you won't face another.
Speaker 1:I mean the next generation of paddle players. They have to learn English because the sport is becoming more and more international and the tournaments are now all around the world it's not just in Spain and in Argentina and also even for them financially, if they want to get the brand deals, if they want to build on themselves, they have to speak English to come to these parts of the world. I mean, you see a lot of the players. They do come here, they do the clinics, they do the exhibition matches, but the interaction with the people is zero because I mean, obviously, the people here don't speak Spanish and then their English is next to none. So I mean, I'm hoping, obviously, that in the next few years we see a lot of effort from them to speak English. I mean, I understand, all these players are Argentinian and Spanish and the sport has grown very quickly. But where we are now, it's easy for me to say because I'm an English speaker right, obviously, exactly Currently, it's still the international language and it will benefit them immensely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, from that point of view, yes, you're, you're right, uh, I think. Well, english is the, the language that the world is speaking, uh, so, uh, we should be able to to, yeah, just learn it, and it is a way of, uh, as I said, uh, being more professional and, at the same time, bringing more status for yourself in anything that you want to do. It's not just being a padel coach, it's also, if you want to do business, if you want to create an academy, anything that you want to do, I don't know be a manager, put a club or anything you have to speak English. And, as you said, it's grown so fast, so fast, that it's time for the Spanish talkers to turn to English, learn a little bit so they can communicate, because there are many people interested in investing in puzzles, of course.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's huge opportunity, and I say that not just for myself, I say that for them, because I want them to learn English, so they can benefit from this growth of the sport as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And obviously we said how much the sport has grown. But how much has the sport changed, in your opinion, since you started playing on court, as in in-game, how people play, how much has that changed in the past 15, 20 years?
Speaker 2:oh, it changed a lot. Starting starting from the rackets I I reached to to the point that I saw, uh, rackets made of wood. My parents were using it, the rack racket made of wood, but I wasn't using it. I used the next ones that were like more or less like the ones that we have today, but a little bit thinner, and it was pretty funny because they used to play a lot with all the slice, a lot of yeah, it was the slice. The shots were totally different. There was not the same thought about now, about, I don't know, when you play with a partner moving together, coming to the net. I think in that time there was one at the back and one front. I was too young, but I remember that I saw many things.
Speaker 1:So even the tactics have changed.
Speaker 2:The tactics had changed a lot, a lot.
Speaker 1:The court has changed as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, the court also.
Speaker 1:Because I was watching videos on YouTube. Obviously, there was the concrete walls. Yes, but then I actually had the experience in Spain. I was playing on a court where there wasn't a door.
Speaker 1:It was a gate so I wanted to go out. Someone hit a smash times three and I wanted to run out and I ran straight into the gate. So that was a cultural experience. Yeah, I still have my teeth, it's still there, and so even the sport, obviously, and the surface has changed as well. I mean, they were playing on a hard surface and the balls were harder, I believe, as well.
Speaker 2:Well, this is how I started to play. I'd grown playing in the court of a friend. I had one of my neighbors. He had a court in his house and we were coming all the time to play there, but it was made of concrete the floor, the walls at the same time too. So the ball was bouncing and it was summer worst. So the thing that was that with the time that court became older because they were not doing nothing for it. But the thing is that it had holes. So we learned how to avoid those holes because we had to play or we were trying to put the balls in the holes to make the point. So it was yeah.
Speaker 2:And now when we come here in Dubai and we see these courts, you know the carpets are amazing, the floor, the glass is amazing, the cages are really good, because the cage is there. I can't explain to you what they are. The ball bounces and you have to measure how it's going to bounce and where the ball is going to go. It's really difficult and every court is different and the lights here are really good, and that is something that surprised me here how the people complain about everything. This is luxury compared to what we have still. Nowadays, our courts are really really, really bad, but we learned to play there.
Speaker 1:I'm sure everyone here is used to this. Everyone has panoramic courts and Mondo turf, brand new stainless steel cages and all these kinds of things. I mean, obviously, the sport's new as well. Right, we don't have any courts that are 20, 30 years old and it's all privately funded. So, people, it's a business, right, people are putting money into it. But, yeah, we're extremely lucky here.
Speaker 2:I think this is one of the things why we appreciate a lot what we have. Because we come from a place where you struggle to continue your career. You always think, ok, I should stop. Now I'm spending so much money, I cannot afford this tournament, not afford this tournament. Well, also, I have a very interesting story about how I was going to participate to those tournaments. I used to sell food to go to the tournaments because it was really expensive, so my mother was helping me every weekend to sell food so I could participate.
Speaker 1:What food were you selling?
Speaker 2:We were selling pasta and some other cupcakes and these kind of things like sweets and everything that pops out in our mind that was like trendy to eat in that moment empanadas and things like that.
Speaker 1:So you were funding your paddle tournaments through making food, yes, and you had no support from the government, from the federation.
Speaker 2:No, inina, there is so many people that is talented that you, you can't help everyone. Uh, there is people and like kids, kids that I'm telling you, uh, I used to see, for example, do you know, um tejo. He was every morning at 6 am in Cordoba it's another province waiting in the bus stop to go to train and he was going after that to a school and then he was coming back to train in the evenings and he was a kid, you know, and these kind kind of things is is people that really wants to reach I mean that's amazing commitment.
Speaker 1:Especially at that time the sport wasn't even that big right. I mean, as a professional paddle player I mean I guess he would have been doing this. What in the early 2000s it wasn't really a big career. Now there's obviously money in the sport, but that's.
Speaker 2:That's love and passion and dedication yes, exactly, at exactly At that moment, it was a really, really big sport for us. Argentina was very known. You had first football, basketball, hockey, and then was coming padel. But nowadays, as you said, there is money involved in this, where you see, okay, we never expected this is going to happen to Paddle, you know, but you still carry on, carry on and you say, okay, maybe it was worth it all the time that I spent in my life inside the Paddle Corps.
Speaker 1:I mean, you would have never thought right that you'd be here in Dubai coaching, paddle with the living life.
Speaker 2:No, and I think it is thanks to COVID. Covid made this because it was the only sport and tennis, I think tennis also and paddle that could be played, and people started to choose more paddle because it was more social. You know, it's like it's a sport that you can play with four people and still you have, uh, I don't know, like I gather with people and you can chat a little bit, even if at those times you could not. But uh, yeah it's, I think it's thanks to covid so you could play paddle during covid in argentina uh, there was a time at the beginning that you could not.
Speaker 2:You could not go out, nothing at all. But when they started to open, the sports was a paddle and tennis okay that you could play did they have any weird rules?
Speaker 1:uh no because my parents were telling me that in france you had to write your name on the ball and you could only touch that ball, so no one else could pick up your ball yes, well, in our court they were asking us to put a glove in our left hand, so we were picking the that ball with the left hand I mean, that seems like a lifetime ago, that seems like a movie.
Speaker 1:We've all just completely moved past that now and we just live our lives normally, whereas that was the norm for a year, over a year. Yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 2:It was crazy, it was a thing, it was a thing. But we were so happy when we started to play.
Speaker 1:All the courts, all the padel courts, were full full and we were crazy trying to find courts at that moment I mean it's like here I mean it was just after covid that really picked up as well and the amount of you couldn't book a court for weeks, weeks and weeks anywhere in the ua. And then obviously, more and more clubs opened, and it continues to do so. More clubs are coming, yeah yeah, that's unbelievable.
Speaker 2:People doesn't believe me in argentina when I said every month opens a new court, maybe one or two. In Dubai there is something that is impossible to open a court. It takes you years and years of work, but here it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Are clubs still opening in Argentina? Yeah, so there's like a second wave of paddle that's come back. Yes, exactly unbelievable. So I hope.
Speaker 2:Are clubs still opening in Argentina, or is it?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, yeah, still yeah so there's like a second wave of paddle that's come back yes, exactly now they even well, like here.
Speaker 2:I heard that they are changing tennis courts for paddle courts, which I find a pity, but yes, I mean, even Djokovic actually talked about this yes.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you saw during Wimbledon and he was saying that tennis is in danger because of paddle and pickleball, because they are more accessible sports well, I find it's a pity because I feel that tennis is the mother of all the the racket sports and wouldn't be a good thing if it disappear or it is, like he said, in danger. But uh, you know, tennis had been always known as a very expensive sport. So if they also don't do nothing, uh, it's, maybe they have to think in reducing the prices so they can get more people, because, as we know, tennis always had been very, a little bit classicist.
Speaker 1:I mean, they've done it to themselves. I kind of compare it to. I don't know if it was you can really relate this to Argentina or not but I remember. I'll always remember this. I was trying to take a taxi in Paris and it was six o'clock in the morning and I had to go to a train station and a whole bunch of taxis refused to take me at six o'clock in the morning because the distance wasn't long enough and I ended up missing the train. This was before Uber and all of the other ones.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And then when Uber came in, they never say no right, you book it, they come and they take you. And because all of these taxi drivers were so mean to me and they were refusing thing, and uber came in as a service because that people weren't happy and I think I'm obviously not comparing I don't really want to compare tennis to that, but you know, tennis had a barrier to entry for a lot of people. Yeah, and put people off and told people oh, you're not good enough to play tennis or you don't have enough money to play tennis. And now paddle, pickleball and more accessible sports have come along.
Speaker 1:And now tennis is like oh, come back, we miss you, you know.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think. Well, the main reason also this is one of the things. What we were talking that is very classicist, but also is the same thing is that I feel this is quite, quite technical. If you don't know the technique of tennis, you can't play. Or if you are going to play I don't know a match like we do here, people can't register to play with other people. But in tennis, if you do that, that the opponent is going to get bored with you. If you don't know how to properly hit the ball, you know. So this is something that is really like good from padel, because you don't have to have an amazing technique to play and everyone can play. People from I don't know seven years old to 70. Everyone can play.
Speaker 1:You know it's yeah, you can cross the levels a lot easier. I think it's uh, it doesn't make as big a difference. But I think the main reason that tennis is losing out to pickleball and to paddle is because it is so hard and we're getting lazier and lazier and we like easier and easier things and pickleball and paddle are easier than tennis.
Speaker 1:That is a that is a fact yes, yes, yes and I think people don't want to work as hard anymore. You know, we like to go with what's easy and we like instant success yeah, you're right, you said it the other day. The court is quite big, so yeah, I mean, last time I played tennis I felt like I was playing golf. You hit the ball, you're looking at the other side of the court and by the time, the ball comes back again.
Speaker 2:I have to go there.
Speaker 1:I have to run 10 meters over there, 10 meters there. I can't even play three games of singles anymore.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's many reasons for that, and if you no chance yeah. I know, yeah, it's so difficult. Well, this is a good thing for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, I mean the future of paddle, I think, is relatively safe. I remember when I decided to fully invest into paddle and become, you know, full time in this industry, I was thinking maybe this is a bit of a you know a trend and it will die off, and then, you know, people go back to other things. But it looks like Paddle is here to stay.
Speaker 2:All of us, we thought the same it will grow, grow, grow, grow and at a certain point it will stop. And no, luckily you are seeing still a lot of courts, a lot of clubs opening, more coaches coming and coming, calling friends come here or start to study English because there's going to be a job here for you, and this kind of thing.
Speaker 1:so yeah, Before we end this enjoyable conversation that I've had with you, and it's been an absolute pleasure. Going back to coaching, if you give one tip to the new coaches that are becoming paddle coaches, how do you plan your lessons?
Speaker 2:How do I plan my lessons? Well, first of all, I have already an instructor. How to give my lessons, how to start when you start from the beginning with one student, you have to read what are the skills of that person, what are the main mistakes that they are doing at that time, and try to start working with that, because that is the urgency. You know, is that what you have to change so they can improve in the next ones. So what I have to do every day is just read my student, take the skills that he has and the main mistakes that we have to work on, and I analyze that and see what kind of dreams I can do for him to improve on it.
Speaker 2:Or, if I have, I have to work a single shot, for example, the backhand okay, his backhand. He's preparing too high and he is hitting the ball all the time under the ball, so it goes with the slice okay. How we can correct that and I work on that it depends how long it they come per week and based on that, I work on the lessons that they are going to have. But always it's one day previous to the lesson, Okay.
Speaker 1:Is there anything else that you would like to discuss?
Speaker 2:No, okay. Is there anything else that you would like to discuss? No, I think. Maybe just give some advices to the new coaches that are coming, and it was that about what we were talking. Learning English is really important. Work on that a lot. Prepare your license, your driving license, because all of the coaches that are coming here they have problems with the driving license. It's something that you really need if you want to come to Dubai, because to make it here it costs a lot and, at the same time, you cannot drive if you don't have an international license. So you recommend doing the license in Argentina first. At the same time, you cannot drive if you don't have an international license, and this is something that.
Speaker 1:So you recommend doing the license in Argentina first.
Speaker 2:Yes, do it. First, come here and then, when you come here, if you have to change it for the UA1, you do it, but come with your international license and just that. And don't be afraid that Dubai is very open to all the expats, all the culture. Here we are respected and this is something that I really love from this country and appreciate, and yeah, that's all. That is a really nice life here.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad you enjoy it. Melina, thank you so much for taking the time having this conversation with me. I look forward to having you come back again on the podcast very soon. I'm sure we'll find many more things to discuss.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for inviting me.
Speaker 1:Anytime, you're always welcome. Have a lovely day.
Speaker 2:You too you.