Maintenance of padel and tennis courts becomes quick and easy if you use a professional sweeper.
In this article, in fact, we will find out how just one machine can make the cleaning of playing surfaces and the various environments of sports centers more efficient.
Tennis is one of the oldest and most popular sports in the world, so much so that just putting together a court divided by a net, racket and ball is enough to evoke it in anyone’s mind. Padel is derived from tennis and shares many of its characteristics: a racket with a rigid, rather than strung, plate is used; the ball is about the same but with less internal pressure.
Aside from a few rules, what most distinguishes padel from tennis is the court, albeit still with a concrete or artificial turf floor: smaller by about a quarter (10 meters x 20 meters) and surrounded by glass or concrete walls (or rigid wire net) that are used as sides to bounce shots. Like tennis or other sports, sand is spread on the synthetic surface that is essential both to preserve the court and to reduce the risk of falls and to increase sports performance through better control of ball bounce.
Originating in the early 1970s in Latin America, it is only in the last decade that padel has spread widely in Europe and even more recently in Italy, where it has become such a mass phenomenon that most sports centers are converting soccer and tennis courts into padel courts.
The use of padel courts, given their high prevalence, occurs almost on a continuous cycle so cleaning must be as frequent as it is quick, to allow players to move around safely and not have to suspend use for maintenance.
Indeed, there are not a few tasks involved in cleaning padel courts, whether indoor or outdoor. In addition to cleaning the vertical walls - most useful for spectators attending games - and checking the stability of the fencing structures, it is the court surface that requires the most frequent and accurate care.
Outdoor courts need to be continually cleaned of leaves, weeds and other trash that can be carried onto the court by the wind or fall from surrounding trees. For those outdoors as much as for indoor courts, all waste that athletes may accidentally leave on the ground must then be removed.
In such cases, brooms, soft rakes or blowers can be used, but these methods have some drawbacks: in addition to the time and effort involved, there is a risk of over-dispersing the sand and mistakenly depriving some parts of the playing court of it.
Sand distribution, in fact, is another important maintenance task to be performed on padel courts: a medium-hard bristle broom is usually used to spread the grains evenly over the entire court.
All the court cleaning tasks just listed can be done much more easily and quickly by using a professional sweeper instead of manual tools.
This is a machine capable of removing the coarsest debris and finest dust from floors and carpets in a short time and without effort for the operator, thanks to the simultaneous use of rotating side brushes and a central brush.
Thanks to the collection tray equipped with micro-holes, the collected sand is then redistributed evenly over the court without creating troublesome piles. The court, in addition to regaining its original color due to the elimination of dust and ball fluff that can fall to the ground as a result of the racket impact, returns to a homogeneous surface that improves its performance during play.
Sweepers are divided, depending on how they are driven, into two main categories: man-behind or man-on board. In the first case, they are pushed with a handle by an operator walking behind them. Man-on board sweepers, on the other hand, have their own traction and are equipped with a driver’s seat to carry the operator driving them.
Replacing brooms, rakes and blowers with a sweeper, as you can easily guess, eliminates the drudgery of rounding up trash, scooping it up and tossing it in the trash can, zeroing out the time it takes to perform these partial and repeated steps. The main advantage, however, is the better achievable cleanliness and efficiency in redistributing sand on the padel court.
To meet the needs of the industry, Comet has developed the Court sweeper, a sweeper model dedicated to cleaning the padel courts: it is the evolution of the Comet CSW 700 man-behind sweeper, equipped with brushes and collection tray specifically modified for cleaning the playing surface and redistributing sand on the court.
This innovative sweeper allows for the quick and safe maintenance of the padel court, providing players with safety and hygiene: in fact, it is equipped with special filters that allow for the even redistribution of sand but retain the dust and fluff that game balls release on the court.
The central and side brushes, on the other hand, accurately sweep up both the coarse waste and sand that accumulates at the edge of the court, while neatly combing the synthetic turf fibers.
Suitable for both indoor and outdoor synthetic turf or concrete courts, Comet Court’s small size allows it to fit through even the tightest of spaces. In addition, by replacing the special tray for padel courts with the standard collection container without holes (optional), it also becomes practical and effective for cleaning tennis courts and all sports center environments such as clubhouses, bars, locker rooms, offices, driveways and parking lots, which are difficult to keep clean given the size and the significant dirt that usually accumulates due to bad weather.
We had the owners of an Italian padel center and tennis club test Comet Court and got excellent feedback: the surface of both padel and tennis courts immediately changed color, regaining its original look where broom cleaning had served no useful purpose.
The speed and yield per sq.m/hr of the sweeper were incredible, especially as regards the fluff left by the balls: this was almost invisible on the court, but within minutes the collection tank was filled with it. At the same time, the redistribution of the collected sand via the perforated tray worked very well.
The two managers, after the test, were immediately interested in purchasing the Comet Court sweeper: so in order to describe the results achieved, let’s read what they had to say.
“The CSW 700B COURT sweeper was used for a court cleaning test with a synthetic turf surface that presented a dual problem: first, that of removing surface dirt, such as tennis ball fluff or dirt from outside, and second, that of evenly redistributing the sand on the court so as to ensure its proper maintenance and use.
The sweeper performed both tasks extremely well by leaving the surface clean and redistributing the sand evenly, all very quickly and effectively.
The use of this product, in addition to returning an optimal result, greatly speeds up cleaning operations.
What is more, it has the advantage that by quickly replacing the collection tray it can be used to sweep both concrete courts and driveways and outdoor areas of our club, providing our members with a clean and tidy environment at all times."
Marco Brighenti, president of A.S.D.R. Tennis Suzzara and FITP (Italian Tennis and Padel Federation) instructor.
“We usually remove dirt with a broom or vacuum cleaner, but the latter, unfortunately, also removes sand.
After using this machine, I saw noticeable changes both visually and practically: the court surface was clean and the sand evenly distributed, with much less time and effort expended.
With better sand distribution, court performance can of course only improve."
Jessica, manager of La Quercia Sport Village Suzzara.