Become a padel coach in Thailand: the Local Talent Program

Padel in Thailand is young enough that most of its coaches learned the game somewhere else. That is simply where the sport is in its first years here, but Pad Thai Padel does not think it should stay that way. The Local Talent Program is the academy's answer: a structured, three-month pathway that trains local players to become Pad Thai Padel coaches, with a job at the end of it.

The programme runs at the Pad Thai Padel Academy in Bangkok, with flexible start dates and a small intake. It is taught in person and nowhere else. This guide explains what the programme involves, how the three months are structured, what the contract covers and how to apply.

The programme does two things at once, and you never stop doing either.

• You become a better player. You train inside the academy method, the same system the academy's strongest players come through, alongside the academy team and the coaches who built it. Your own game is the work, week after week, and the aim is to come out competing at a higher level than you went in.
• You become a professional coach. You learn the same method from the other side, as the person teaching it. You are on court coaching from day one, you qualify to coach across Pad Thai Padel clubs, and you start earning from the game while you are still improving at it.

Both tracks run in parallel for the full three months. As the programme puts it, you never stop being a player here; you simply add coaching to it.

From day one you are working, not observing. You are in the academy helping with sessions, around the students and part of the team from the first week, while your own training runs alongside.

As a player, the first two months begin with a full assessment of your game: level, side, strengths and what to fix first. You train with the academy squad, receive individual coaching each week, and write a development plan for the three months with your coach. You start playing local tournaments, guided by the academy, with preparation and review around each one.

As a coach, you are on court with academy sessions from week one, across every level. You learn how a session is built from warm-up to close, the technique fundamentals and the exact vocabulary the academy uses to teach them, and court management and safety. You are then activated as a coach under supervision: leading drills and whole parts of a session with a senior coach present, giving individual feedback, sitting in on player interviews and getting feedback on every session you touch, straight afterwards.

From the start of month three you are an official Pad Thai Padel coach. You are on the team, coaching sessions across the clubs with the academy's coaches alongside you, and support steps back as you settle in.

In practice that means running your own group: coaching academy sessions as part of the team, putting session plans together with your mentor coach, and handling what a plan cannot cover, such as a no-show, a mixed-level group or an injury. You also take part in parents' and players' check-ins. Your own training as a player carries on exactly as before, including local tournaments with the academy behind you.

The programme finishes with a session of your own and an honest conversation about how it went. If three months turns out not to be quite enough, the academy simply carries on. There is no deadline to be ready by.

The terms are deliberately simple. The academy trains you free: every hour of mentoring, every court hour and every session you shadow or run is covered, as a player and as a coach. No fee changes hands.

The job, the conditions and the terms are agreed and signed before your first session, so you know from day one what you are training towards and what you will be paid. There is no second negotiation and nothing left to be decided later. From month three you are an official coach working across the clubs, and you stay there once the three months are up, still an academy player, still training, still competing.

In return the academy asks for three months of full commitment, working from day one, turning up ready, a few notes after each session, an open mind when feedback comes, and treating the players as yours.

Pad Thai Padel runs academies in Bangkok and Bali, and they use one method: the same system, the same session structure and the same level framework. A coach trained in one can walk onto a court in the other and take a session on day one.

That is what qualifying to coach across Pad Thai Padel clubs means in practice. As the group grows, with Cloud 11 in Bangkok opening in November 2026 and a Phuket club targeted for 2027, coaches who came through the programme are the people the academy expects to staff those courts. The programme provides a named mentor, academy materials including session plans, a drill library and the level framework, and filming and review of your own sessions.

The programme exists to build Thai players who coach Thai players, and Thai players who compete at the top of Thai padel. The academy already backs local talent beyond the programme: most of the Thailand national team trains at Pad Thai Padel, the academy supports the majority of them, and it enters, kits and travels with Thai players at events such as the Asia Pacific Padel Cup.

You do not need padel experience to start. If you come from tennis, racket skills, footwork and court sense carry straight over, and the academy teaches you the walls, the positioning and the soft game. What matters is commitment: three months of full-time focus, on both tracks, followed by your place on the team.

The steps are short.

• Apply with the form on the Local Talent Program page. It asks for a few details and, if you have one, your CV. There is no account to create and no deadline.
• Meet the academy. The team reads every application and replies personally. The next step is a conversation in person, on court if that suits you, so both sides can see whether it fits.
• Sign before your first session. The job, the conditions and the terms are agreed and signed with you in person, not on a website.
• Start on both tracks. Your training as a player and your work as a coach begin together, from the first week.

Padel in Thailand is growing quickly, and it needs coaches who grew up here. The Local Talent Program is a way in for local players who want to keep improving their own game while learning to teach it, with the training paid for and a contract in hand before the first session. Read about the academy and its guides, then apply on the programme page.