Why is padel so popular?: analysis of the reasons for participation and level of intrinsic satisfaction

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to analyse the motives for sport participation and intrinsic satisfaction in padel players at a general level, according to the sex of the athletes, whether they competed at a federated level or not and their preferred part of the training session. The sample consisted of a total of 104 padel players with a mean age of 31.27 years (± 10.56) years. Two questionnaires were used: the Motives for Sport Participation Questionnaire (PMQ) and the Intrinsic Satisfaction in Sport Questionnaire (ISS). The results obtained show that the most important factor for the sport practice of padel players, among all the variables analysed, is friendship/peer group, while the least valued factor is social status. Moreover, the intrinsic satisfaction of the players is based on the increase of motivation and enjoyment towards the practice of both sports modalities predominating over boredom. Therefore, padel sports schools should carry out pleasant, task-oriented practices and thus achieve an increase in motivation, social relations and enjoyment of the athlete, in order to increase the number of male and female players in this sport discipline.