Earlier this year, we ran a community survey asking padel players in Cyprus about their injury experiences, how they manage pain, and what kind of support they'd actually find useful. Over 50 players responded. This page presents the key findings.
This is not a clinical study. It's a snapshot — early insights from a self-selected group of players who wanted to share their experience. The numbers aren't statistically representative of all padel players in Cyprus, but they do reveal clear patterns worth paying attention to.
Who Responded
The majority of respondents were aged 26–45, playing at an intermediate level, with 1–3 years of padel experience. Most were based in Cyprus. This is a relatively young, active group — not beginners, but not long-term veterans either.
Key Finding: How Common Is Pain Among Players?
Nearly 9 in 10 players said they'd experienced pain or injury related to padel in the past year. This doesn't mean 87% had a serious injury — but it does mean that playing through some level of discomfort is the norm, not the exception.
Of those who reported pain or injury:
- 65% kept playing at the same level
- 27% reduced their playing time
- 8% stopped playing entirely
In other words, the vast majority of injured players simply continued. Whether that's resilience or avoidance is a fair question — but the pattern is clear.
Top Injury Areas
When asked where they experienced pain or injury, the most common areas were:
Most reported injury sites
- Elbow / tennis elbow — 12 responses
- Shoulder — 10 responses
- Knee — 10 responses
- Lower back — 9 responses
- Ankle / foot — 8 responses
Elbow pain — often called padel elbow or tennis elbow — was the most commonly reported injury. This aligns with published research on padel injury patterns, where upper limb overuse injuries are consistently among the top concerns.
Multi-site injuries were common. Many players reported pain in more than one area, suggesting that padel places demands across the whole body — not just the arm that holds the racket.
How Players Manage Pain
When we asked what players did about their pain or injury, the responses split roughly into three groups:
- Did nothing / kept playing — a significant portion simply continued without any intervention
- Self-treatment — rest, ice, over-the-counter painkillers, YouTube exercises
- Professional help — visited a physiotherapist, doctor, or other clinician
Self-treatment and professional visits were roughly similar in size. But the most striking finding was the main reason players didn't seek professional help:
This is a perception gap. Many of the injury types reported — elbow tendinopathy, shoulder impingement, recurring ankle sprains — tend to get worse without proper management. The fact that something doesn't feel "serious enough" doesn't mean it won't become serious if left unaddressed.
Warm-Up and Cool-Down Habits
The warm-up and cool-down data told a clear story:
- 50% warm up only sometimes
- Nearly half never cool down after playing
- Most warm-up routines were self-made — not based on any structured protocol
If you're one of those players who walks onto the court cold and finishes by walking straight to the car, you're in the majority. But the evidence is clear that a structured warm-up routine significantly reduces injury risk — particularly for the kinds of injuries padel players reported most.
What Players Actually Want Help With
We asked players what kind of support they'd find most useful. The responses were consistent:
Most requested features
- 73% — "I have pain in X — what should I do?" (symptom-specific guidance)
- 67% — Padel-specific warm-up/cool-down routines and performance exercises
- 50% — Injury prevention programmes
The top request — "I have pain in X, what should I do?" — is essentially the question every physiotherapist hears daily. Players don't want generic health content. They want specific, actionable guidance that starts from where they are: in pain, on the court, wondering whether to stop or push through.
It's also worth noting that 70% of respondents currently pay for zero health or sport-related apps. The appetite for help is there, but the willingness to pay for digital tools is low. Players want access to guidance — ideally free, practical, and sport-specific.
What This Means
Even with the caveats of a small, self-selected sample, several patterns came through clearly:
- Pain and injury appear to be very common. An 87% rate over 12 months is high, even accounting for self-selection bias among respondents.
- Most players self-manage. Whether that's ignoring the problem or doing their own rehab, professional help is underused.
- The "it's not serious enough" barrier is real. Players wait until injuries become limiting, rather than addressing them early.
- Warm-up and cool-down habits are weak. This is low-hanging fruit for injury prevention.
- Players want padel-specific guidance, not generic fitness advice. There's a clear gap between what players need and what's currently available.
At Right Track Physiotherapy, we see these patterns in our clinic every week. Padel players coming in with elbow pain they've been playing through for months. Shoulder issues that started small and became chronic. Ankle sprains that keep recurring because no one addressed the underlying instability.
These findings reinforce what we already see clinically — and they're part of the reason we've been building padel-specific resources for the Cyprus community.
Padel Resources We've Built Based on These Insights
If you're currently dealing with elbow, shoulder or back pain from padel, these are a good place to start:
- Padel Warm-Up Routine: 10-Minute Guide to Prevent Injuries — an evidence-based protocol addressing the warm-up gap
- Padel Elbow: Causes, Prevention and Treatment — the most commonly reported injury in our survey
We're continuing to develop content based on what this community has told us they need. If there's a specific topic you'd like us to cover, reach out — we listen.