Walk around Panama City today and you may notice something that would have seemed strange only a few years ago: glass courts surrounded by metal fencing, four people chasing a strange little ball around what looks like a miniature tennis court, and groups of friends heading out for a game of pádel after work. The sport has gone from something relatively obscure in Panama to one of the country’s most fashionable recreational activities, and its growth has been remarkably fast.
Pádel actually arrived in Panama much earlier than the current craze. The sport began appearing in Panama around 2012, when the first three courts were opened. According to a 2023 report in La Prensa, the number had already grown to more than 100 courts and the number of players was reported at more than 18,000. But the really spectacular acceleration came later. In the roughly two years leading up to 2023, reports described Panama City going from around 10 courts to more than 200, illustrating just how quickly the sport was being adopted.
That helps explain why many Panamanians describe pádel as something that seemed to appear almost overnight. There was a small community playing it for years, but then suddenly clubs began appearing everywhere, friends started organizing matches, businesses began sponsoring tournaments and social media filled with photographs from glass courts.
So what exactly is pádel?
Pádel is often described as a combination of tennis and squash, which is actually a pretty good starting point. It was invented in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1969 and subsequently became particularly popular in Spain and Argentina before spreading internationally.
The standard court measures 20 metres by 10 metres and is surrounded by glass and mesh walls. Four people play, normally in two teams of two. The scoring is essentially tennis scoring, using 15, 30, 40, games and sets, but the way you actually play the ball is completely different.
The walls are part of the game.
That is the feature that changes everything.
In tennis, if you hit the ball past your opponent and it lands outside the court, the point is over. In pádel, the ball can bounce and then rebound off the glass walls, allowing players to chase it down and return it. Suddenly a shot that looks like a winner can come back at you from behind.
It creates a fascinating mixture of anticipation, positioning and improvisation.
You aren't simply trying to hit the ball harder than the other person. Sometimes the best shot is the one that looks completely harmless.
Why did pádel explode in Panama?
There isn't one single reason, but Panama is almost perfectly suited to the social side of pádel.
First, you don't need to be a great athlete to have fun immediately.
Someone who has never played tennis can walk onto a pádel court and start hitting the ball fairly quickly. The court is smaller, the serve is underhand, the racket is compact and the walls keep many balls in play. You can have an entertaining rally without possessing the technique required to play competent tennis.
That is extremely important for a social sport.
Tennis can sometimes be frustrating for beginners. You can spend your first session chasing balls into the fence while your friend serves things at you that you can't return. Pádel is much more forgiving. You can be terrible at it and still have fun.
And then something happens.
You start getting better.
Suddenly you are thinking about where your partner is standing, whether you should attack the net, whether to let the ball bounce off the back glass and what angle you can create. The game becomes surprisingly addictive.
It is as much a social activity as a sport
This may be the biggest reason for pádel's popularity in Panama.
Pádel is fundamentally a four person social game. You aren't simply going somewhere to exercise. You are going somewhere to meet three other people.
That makes it particularly attractive in a city like Panama City, where there is a large professional, international and expatriate population and where social life often revolves around restaurants, shopping centres, gyms, clubs and after work activities.
A pádel club can become a meeting place.
You play for an hour or two, sit down afterward, have something to eat or drink and talk about the match. People meet through the sport, organize WhatsApp groups, find substitute players and arrange games with people they didn't previously know.
This social component was also noted in reporting surrounding the sport's growth in Panama. When the A1 Pádel Adidas Panamá Open was held in 2023, tournament organizers described the sport as having grown internationally after the pandemic partly because people who had never played before could see it as entertainment as well as exercise.
That is an important distinction.
Pádel isn't just asking, "Do you want to play a sport?"
It is effectively asking, "Do you want to go hang out with three people and happen to play a sport while you're there?"
Pádel versus tennis
At first glance, pádel looks like miniature tennis.
It isn't.
Tennis has a much larger playing area, can be played singles or doubles, uses a long strung racket and normally involves much more movement over open space. Tennis also permits powerful overhead serves.
Pádel is normally played as doubles on a 20 by 10 metre enclosed court. The racket is solid and perforated rather than strung, and the serve is made underhand after the ball has bounced.
But the biggest difference is the walls.
A tennis player is primarily thinking about where the ball will land.
A pádel player has to think about where the ball will land and what happens afterward.
The ball can bounce off the back glass, come off a side wall, change the angle of the rally and give the opponent another opportunity to attack. The result is a game where positioning and teamwork can sometimes matter more than raw power.
A brilliant tennis player can dominate with speed and powerful strokes.
In pádel, you can sometimes beat the harder hitter simply by making better decisions.
And then there is pickleball
This is where the confusion really starts.
Someone sees pádel and pickleball and thinks, Aren't those basically the same thing?
Not at all.
They share some characteristics. Both are social racket sports, both are particularly popular in doubles and both are relatively accessible to beginners.
But the playing experience is dramatically different.
A pádel court is 20 by 10 metres and enclosed by glass and fencing. A pickleball court is only 13.41 by 6.10 metres and is open, without walls forming part of normal play. Pádel uses a pressurized rubber ball similar to a tennis ball and a solid perforated racket. Pickleball uses a lightweight perforated plastic ball and a solid paddle.
The scoring is different too.
Pádel uses the familiar tennis system of 15, 30, 40, games and sets. Pickleball traditionally uses scoring to 11, with games generally needing to be won by two points.
And the famous pickleball kitchen, the non volley zone around the net, has no equivalent in pádel.
The simplest way to remember the difference is this:
Pádel is tennis with walls and a very different tactical game.
Pickleball is a much smaller paddle sport with a plastic perforated ball and no walls.
The walls are the magic
Once you understand the walls, you understand why pádel becomes addictive.
Imagine your opponent hits a shot that seems to be heading directly toward the back of your court. In tennis, you would normally position yourself to hit it before it goes out.
In pádel, you can let it bounce.
It hits the glass.
You turn.
You wait for the ball to come back toward you.
Then you hit it.
That creates a strange psychological element. Beginners often spend their first game trying desperately to hit everything immediately. Experienced players learn to wait.
The glass becomes another teammate.
A shot that appears to have beaten you may actually be exactly the shot you wanted.
This also produces much longer and more dramatic rallies than a beginner might expect.
You don't necessarily have to be the strongest player
Another reason pádel has attracted so many people is that it rewards positioning and cooperation.
You and your partner need to move together. If one player charges forward while the other stays at the back, an enormous gap opens between you. Good teams move laterally, defend together and attack together.
There is also a huge tactical difference between simply hitting the ball hard and hitting it intelligently.
You can play a soft shot.
You can lob.
You can use the glass.
You can attack the net.
You can try to force an opponent into an awkward position.
And because the court is enclosed, the point can continue after shots that would have ended a tennis rally.
It makes the sport feel complicated enough to remain interesting while still being accessible enough for a newcomer to enjoy.
Why Panama was particularly receptive
Panama has several characteristics that help explain the explosion.
It has a large urban population concentrated around Panama City, substantial international business activity, a strong restaurant and nightlife culture and a climate where indoor or covered sports facilities are attractive.
There is also a strong appetite for new social activities.
Pádel fits beautifully into that environment because a court doesn't need to occupy the enormous amount of land required for multiple traditional tennis courts, while four people can share a relatively compact playing space.
And the business model is attractive too.
A pádel club isn't simply selling court time. It can sell memberships, lessons, tournaments, equipment, food and drinks and social events.
That turns the court into a destination rather than simply a piece of sporting infrastructure.
The pandemic helped accelerate the phenomenon
The timing also matters.
The worldwide pádel boom accelerated dramatically after the pandemic. People were looking for activities that allowed them to exercise while still being social, and pádel was unusually well suited to that desire.
Panama followed the international trend.
By 2023, the country's growth was already dramatic enough to generate headlines about a "pádel fever," with courts multiplying rapidly and the sport attracting both younger and older players.
The arrival of major professional competition helped push the sport further into the public consciousness. The 2023 A1 Pádel Adidas Panamá Open brought internationally recognized professional players to Panama City and demonstrated that this wasn't simply a recreational fad happening at local clubs.
And the sport's institutional presence has continued developing. The International Padel Federation currently lists the Asociación Panameña de Padel as Panama's national federation, with its affiliation dated January 1, 2026.
The strange thing about pádel is how quickly people become obsessed
There is a particular progression that seems to happen.
First you think it looks ridiculous.
Then somebody convinces you to play.
You spend the first ten minutes figuring out why the ball keeps bouncing off the glass.
Then you discover that you can actually return it.
Then you win a point.
Then you win another.
Then somebody tells you that you should try playing closer to the net.
Suddenly you're discussing tactics.
A few weeks later you're buying a pádel racket.
And eventually you are sending messages asking four people what evening they're available.
That social progression is probably one of the biggest secrets behind the sport's success.
Pádel doesn't demand that you become a serious athlete before you can enjoy it. It lets you enjoy yourself first and become competitive afterward.
And that is a powerful combination.
For Panama, what started with a handful of courts in the early 2010s has developed into a substantial sporting and social phenomenon. The explosive expansion really became visible in the early 2020s, particularly around 2022 and 2023, when the number of courts multiplied and major tournaments arrived.
So if you are travelling through Panama and suddenly notice that everybody seems to be talking about pádel, you aren't imagining it.
The country caught the pádel bug.
And judging by the glass courts appearing all over Panama City, it doesn't look like many people are looking for a cure.