Your Most Important Hire: What to Look for in a Padel Club General Manager

The GM and Head of Padel: one person or two, clear responsibility

Some clubs have a General Manager and a separate Head of Padel. Others combine both roles in one position. Either structure can work, but the owner must be clear about who is responsible for the business, the coaching team and the quality of the programs.

When the roles are separate, the GM leads the overall operation: finances, staffing, hospitality and the member experience. The Head of Padel leads coaching standards, coach assessment and development, programming and player progression. They need to work together on hiring, budgets and the value their programs deliver to members.

When one person fills both roles, that person must have the competence and time to deliver both. Giving a GM the additional title of Head of Padel does not automatically give them the ability to evaluate a coach. Owners need to assess both sets of skills and provide support where it is needed.

What matters is that responsibility is clear. The Head of Padel should lead the practical coaching assessment when that position exists, and the GM should ensure that proper assessment takes place before anyone is hired. Neither should assume the other has checked.

What general management experience needs to mean

A résumé that says ‘managed a facility’ tells you almost nothing. These are the competencies that actually predict whether someone can run your club:

• Proven team leadership. Has personally built, coached, and held accountable a multi-department team across the front desk, coaching, cleaning, and maintenance.
• Culture and mission stewardship. Can translate the club's mission into daily behavior—not merely repeat it in an interview.
• Hospitality and guest-experience command. Service recovery and the member journey must be personal, non-delegable standards.
• Financial literacy. Can build and read a P&L, control labor cost, and understand margin by revenue stream.
• A real local network. Vendors, local players, other clubs, and ideally a roster of micro-influencers who can help build awareness.
• Recruiting instinct. A GM who keeps a bench ensures the club is never one resignation away from a crisis.
• Understanding how padel is played. The GM must understand the rules, positioning, tactics, player levels and how people learn the game. They need enough knowledge to ask informed questions and recognize whether the coaching and programs serve the players. Where there is a separate Head of Padel, that person brings deeper technical assessment, but the GM still needs to understand what good delivery looks like.
• Recognizing coaching quality. Can distinguish a strong coach from a weak one by watching lessons: preparation, clear explanations, useful feedback, appropriate exercises, safety, engagement and visible player progress. Playing ability and a certificate alone do not demonstrate these skills.
• Diagnosing program performance. Can assess attendance, repeat bookings, player progress, member feedback and financial results against the program’s purpose. If a program struggles, investigates the coach, its name and description, the day and time, pricing, promotion, format, target level and demand. Low attendance alone does not tell you which of these is wrong.
• Testing improvements. Sets a clear goal and a review period, then tests one change at a time where practical. For example, try a more suitable time slot or a clearer program name while keeping other factors consistent. Compare results over several sessions and ask participants and nonparticipants for feedback before deciding whether to develop, reschedule or replace the program.
• Developing each coach’s full potential. Uses regular lesson observations, player progression, repeat participation and agreed standards to assess whether a coach is making full use of their abilities. A full schedule alone does not prove excellent coaching, and an empty session does not prove poor coaching. The GM and Head of Padel should identify whether the gap is skill, effort, confidence, workload or support, then agree on specific improvements and review progress.
• Member interaction and coach training. Observes how coaches welcome players, listen, adapt their communication, include quieter members, respond to frustration and follow up. If a coach needs help, provides structured training, mentoring and supervised practice, then observes again to check that the training improves the member experience. Coaches need clear feedback and a real opportunity to develop.
• Systems and AI fluency. Understands the booking platform, POS, CRM and reporting tools, and can use AI thoughtfully throughout club operations.
• Composure under pressure. Sets the emotional tone through double bookings, injuries, and peak-hour staffing problems—not only on easy days.

AI belongs in the GM’s and Head of Padel’s toolbox

Both roles should know how to use AI in their area of responsibility. The GM might use it for operational reporting and staff planning, while the Head of Padel might use it to organize programs, prepare coach development materials and review participation patterns. In a combined role, the same person needs to apply that judgment across both areas.

The landscape of running a padel club is changing by the minute. AI is part of that change, and a great manager needs to understand how to use it across the operation. Being comfortable with a booking system is no longer enough.

I want a manager who can look at the weekly schedule, member feedback, program attendance and team workload, then identify where AI can help the club work better. That could mean preparing staff training, drafting member communications, spotting patterns in court utilization, planning programs or organizing operating procedures.

The important question is what the manager does with the result. Can they check the information, make a sound decision and turn it into better service? They must also know what member information belongs in an approved system and what should never be pasted into a public AI tool. Accountability stays with the manager.

During an interview, ask for a practical example: show me how you would use AI to improve one part of our club this week, how you would check its work, and how you would measure the improvement. You will learn much more than you will from a résumé that simply lists AI as a skill.

You are running a hospitality business

A padel club is a hospitality business. People skills belong at the center of both the GM and Head of Padel roles. Both must know how to motivate their teams, listen to members, handle difficult conversations and make people feel that they belong.

Motivating a team takes clear expectations, regular feedback, recognition and support. A manager should know when a coach needs development, when a front-desk employee needs help and when a standard needs to be enforced. The team watches what the leader does every day.

Creating value for members takes the same attention. Help them find suitable playing partners, give them a clear path to improve, offer programs that fit their level and follow up when something goes wrong. A member should feel that someone at the club knows them and cares about their experience. That is what gives them a reason to return.

A great player is not automatically a great coach

This is one of the mistakes I see most often: managers hire coaches based on playing ability. They watch someone hit a strong víbora or win a match and assume that person can teach. Coaching requires a different set of skills.

Whoever leads coaching recruitment—your GM, Head of Padel or one person doing both jobs—must understand the difference between someone who can play and someone who can develop a player. Can the coach observe, diagnose and explain? Can they adapt a lesson for a beginner, keep a group involved, communicate clearly and help players apply what they learn in a match?

Then there is the desperation hire. A club is short of coaches, someone walks in with a coaching certificate under their arm, and the GM or Head of Padel puts them on court without properly checking their ability to teach. Sometimes that person has no teaching experience at all. In my view, this is one of the worst hiring decisions either leader can make.

A certificate is a starting point. An inexperienced coach can become excellent with mentoring, supervised practice and feedback. The mistake is treating the certificate as proof that the person is ready to deliver your club’s programs independently.

Before making an offer, watch the candidate teach. Give them a realistic lesson situation and evaluate what the players actually learn. A qualified Head of Padel should lead this assessment where the roles are separate. If the person filling both roles cannot assess coaching quality confidently, involve a qualified coach educator. Filling a gap in the schedule is never enough reason to lower the standard.

• Observe a practical lesson with players at the level the candidate will teach.
• Evaluate communication, diagnosis, lesson structure, safety and player engagement.
• Ask how the coach would adapt the same exercise for different abilities.
• Check references and teaching experience, and establish a development plan where needed.
• Review coaching quality regularly after hiring, using lesson observations and player feedback.

Your coaches build your future membership

I consider your coaches the most important asset in the development of your club’s playing community. They introduce people to the sport, help them improve, build their confidence and give them a reason to keep playing.

Those new players can become regular participants, members and customers across the club. Good coaching supports lessons, clinics, leagues, court bookings and the social connections that keep people involved.

Poor coaching can hurt the operation quickly. Players become frustrated, programs lose momentum, repeat bookings decline and revenue suffers. A weak hire can cost far more than the empty lesson slot the manager was trying to fill.

Invest in your coaches. Give them a shared methodology, time to develop, clear standards and a leader who understands their contribution. Then measure player progress, repeat participation and member feedback alongside lesson revenue.

Why this matters even more in a new market

If you're opening in a city with no existing padel community, building one typically takes 10 to 24 months. The right manager can significantly compress that window.

This is why it's often smarter to be the second or third club in a new city rather than the first. Later entrants inherit a community the first club spent years and dollars building. If you are the first mover, your GM's ability to build that community from nothing is the biggest variable in how quickly you reach profitability.

The standard to hold

Club owners: you MUST pay attention to who is running your club. Your GM and Head of Padel set the standard for the team, the member experience and the quality of coaching. Whether those responsibilities sit with one person or two, a beautiful facility cannot compensate for weak leadership indefinitely.

Hire someone who combines people skills, financial judgment, padel knowledge and the ability to use modern tools responsibly. They need to recognize great coaching, develop the team and create value for members every day. Without strong leadership, you put the entire business at risk.

What you can do tomorrow: review your GM and Head of Padel job descriptions, or your combined role, and make the responsibilities explicit. Ask candidates to demonstrate how they would use AI, resolve a member complaint, motivate an underperforming team and assess a coaching candidate within their remit. If one person will do both jobs, assess them for both. Look for evidence in their decisions and actions. Your club’s future depends on the standard you accept.