the 6am club.
By the middle of February, things were already getting slightly out of hand.
I’d gone on a little winning streak and somewhere along the way I’d realised I wanted more.
More pace.
More aggressive matches.
More mixed games.
Partly because of my tennis background. Partly because my love life was, and remains, beyond frustrating.
Either way, padel had become my new outlet.
By this point I was checking Playtomic constantly looking for my next fix. Any match. Any time. Anywhere.
Which is how I ended up staring at a match that started at 6am.
This is when you know you’ve got a genuine problem.
Who is voluntarily getting out of bed at that time to play sport?
To be fair, I had briefly been one of those people before. I used to run in the mornings occasionally. Mostly in summer. There had also been the odd early bird swim era.
And I do genuinely think there’s something nice about doing something for yourself before the rest of the world wakes up.
Still.
6am felt excessive.
There was only one player booked onto the match. A 2.1.
At this point I’d never even seen a level 2+ player before, so naturally I became obsessed with the idea immediately.
I convinced Jen to come with me. She’s a genuine morning person anyway, which I still don’t fully trust.
Then another guy joined called Ivo.
One of my new padel friends warned me he was really good.
So good, apparently, that my original partner suddenly couldn’t make it anymore.
Fortunately the WhatsApp group worked its magic and a girl called Joke stepped in so the match could still go ahead.
Both Ivo and Joke have since become some of my favourite people in padel.
That morning was freezing. The kind of cold where you can literally see your own breath between points.
But we had such fun.
There was loads of laughter. Good rallies. Good energy. No ego.
Ivo is honestly the epitome of addicted to padel. A ridiculously smart player who regularly plays with one hand in his pocket. His whole approach is about enjoying the game. It’s never too serious and he’s incredibly supportive to play with.
The next morning we got invited to play again with what I can only describe as the proper big boys.
Another 5am alarm.
Completely normal behaviour.
After matches we’d all stand around chatting and it became very clear that we were all equally addicted.
Ivo mentioned he couldn’t remember the last day he’d had where he hadn’t played padel. There was even one day that week where he’d played three times.
Honestly, this made me feel significantly better about myself.
Then, as we were leaving, he made a completely throwaway comment.
“Not like us addicts.”
That was it.
The entire drive home my brain was whirring.
The cogs were turning.
I remember thinking:
surely “addicted to padel” isn’t available as a domain name.
By the time I got into work that morning, I was completely wired.
I bought it immediately.
And the weird thing was, I could already see it.
Not just the name. The feeling.
The people.
The behaviour.
The obsession.
The support group.
I was living it already.
Addicted to Padel was born x