So you have decided to make padel your career. You have your LTA qualification, you have been playing for a couple of years and you are ready to apply for your first coaching role at a venue. But what are hiring managers actually looking for when they open your CV? We spoke to venue owners and centre managers across the UK to find out exactly what makes a padel CV stand out — and what gets it put straight in the bin.

1. Your racket sport background, not just your padel experience

Here is something most candidates do not realise. The majority of UK padel venues are not looking for someone who has played padel for ten years. They are looking for someone with a strong racket sport foundation — tennis, squash, badminton — who understands how to coach movement, technique and tactical thinking. Padel-specific skills can be taught on the job. The ability to coach cannot.

If you have an LTA tennis coaching qualification, years of experience running junior programmes or a background in competitive racket sport, lead with that. Do not bury it. It is your strongest selling point and experienced hiring managers will spot it immediately.

2. Evidence of programme delivery, not just playing ability

Being a good padel player and being a good padel coach are two entirely different things. Venues are not hiring you to play — they are hiring you to deliver programmes, retain members, develop junior pathways and contribute to the commercial performance of the centre.

Your CV needs to show evidence of programme delivery. How many players did your junior programme have? What was your retention rate? Did you design a beginner course from scratch? Did you run a ladies group that grew from six to twenty players? These are the numbers and outcomes that make a hiring manager sit up. Playing in tournaments is interesting. Growing a programme is what gets you hired.

3. Commercial awareness

This one surprises a lot of candidates. Padel venues are businesses. Court time needs to be sold, lessons need to be booked, members need to be retained and revenue targets need to be hit. The best padel coaches understand this and the best CVs show it.

Have you ever been responsible for selling lesson packages? Have you managed a booking system? Have you contributed to social media content that drove new enquiries? Have you worked towards occupancy targets or helped launch a new programme that generated revenue? Any evidence that you understand the commercial side of running a padel operation — however small — will set you apart from candidates who only talk about their on-court skills.

4. Safeguarding and relevant certifications

This is non-negotiable and yet a surprising number of candidates either leave it off their CV entirely or mention it so briefly that a hiring manager has to hunt for it. If you work with juniors — and most padel coaching roles involve some junior work — you need a current DBS check, a valid safeguarding qualification and ideally a first aid certificate.

Put these front and centre. List the qualification, the issuing body and the expiry date. Do not make a hiring manager ask whether your DBS is current. If it has expired, renew it before you apply. Venues take their safeguarding responsibilities seriously and any CV that makes them uncertain on this point goes straight to the bottom of the pile.

5. A genuine connection to padel as a growing sport

The padel industry in the UK is still young. Venues are not just hiring coaches — they are hiring advocates. People who are genuinely excited about where the sport is going, who talk about padel to their friends, who bring new players into the game and who understand the community-building side of what a great padel centre looks like.

Your CV does not need to be a love letter to the sport. But a short personal statement that shows you understand where padel is heading — the court growth, the LTA investment, the global explosion of the sport — tells a hiring manager that you are not just looking for any coaching job. You are specifically interested in building a career in padel. That matters more than most candidates realise, particularly at the smaller independent venues where culture and attitude fit is everything.

The bottom line

A great padel CV is not about listing every tournament you have played in or every padel club you have been a member of. It is about showing a hiring manager that you can coach, you can deliver programmes, you understand the commercial realities of running a centre and you take your professional responsibilities seriously. Get those four things right and you will stand out in a market where most candidates are still learning what a good padel CV looks like.Browse our latest padel coaching roles at padeltalent.co/jobs — new positions added every Monday.