Silvia Storari, vice senior world champion, and Claudia Noemi Cascella, European team champion, have created an inspirational padel academy for the entire movement nationwide.
Tell us about yourself: who are you?
Silvia: I am Silvia Storari and I am a competitive padel player. If I had to describe myself briefly, I would start by saying that I live for sports and of sports since even before I was born: my mother always says that even when she was pregnant with me and my twin brother Marco (also a sportsman, former soccer player), we never stood still! Since I was a child, therefore, I have always loved movement and have been involved in various sports that have taken me all over Italy: in my life there has been tennis, five-a-side soccer, beach tennis, and finally padel, which has become a great passion and is giving me enormous satisfaction. In 2013, in fact, I moved to Versilia, and two years ago, together with my partner Claudia Noemi Cascella, we opened a padel school in Marina di Massa; since then I have crossed the eyes of so many students of all ages, and through the clinics we hold all over Italy, I have shared my love for padel with colleagues and enthusiasts. In the meantime, I also became a vice world and European champion with the Over national team.
Claudia: I am Claudia Noemi Cascella, born in ’92, and I am a padel player. I graduated with a degree in Sports Activities Science and then specialized in Sports Management. Subsequently I acquired all the titles of the Italian Tennis Federation; from National Tennis and Wheelchair Tennis Coach to National Padel Coach, from Physical Trainer grade 2 to Sports Manager grade 2. In about 13 years I have taught different sports (tennis, soccer, padel) and for a while I also taught motor activities to preschool children. For the past few years, however, I have been devoting my heart and soul to padel, a sport that has literally won me over.
Why padel?
Silvia: I have always loved paddle sports, and thanks to Roberto Agnini – former national team coach – I went all the way to become a national coach. I find that padel is really a spectacular sport from the point of view of the actions, and then it is beautiful because it is aggregating and brings you to meet and know a thousand other realities.
Claudia: After 15 years of tennis, I decided to devote myself completely to padel by moving to Spain to speed up my training and became number 7 in Italy and 144th in the World Padel Tour rankings. After two years of intense activity, however, due to some physical problems that slowed down my competitive activity, I devoted myself to teaching by running a Padel school in Puglia for a year. And finally came the friendship with Silvia and together we decided to open a padel school in Versilia, precisely at Padel Marina di Massa where we train and follow students of all age groups, from children to professional players. In addition, we collaborate with other realities such as La Spezia and Parma, where we try to export the Storari-Cascella methodology, based on individualized programming, and set goals to be achieved.
What’s in your future?
Silvia: There is a desire to grow the school and make it a national padel benchmark. We have developed our own methodology for learning this discipline and aim to export our method and collaborate with other centers. At the same time, every new occasion of collaboration for us represents a moment of exchange and enrichment, because in every new reality there is always something to learn as well as to teach. This is the engine that moves me and that I want to feed: curiosity and the desire to study in order to always improve.
Claudia: Our dream is to become the Italian point of reference because we believe a lot in what we do, we know that we put our heart and soul into it and we try to follow each student at 360 degrees, on and off the field, also making use of the support of other professionals such as nutritionists, physiotherapists, and physical trainers. There is also a desire to return to Spain to further specialize, because you never stop learning. Betting on two women is not easy, but on our part, there is deep conviction in our abilities; in short, we know what we are worth because playing padel is easy, but playing well is not!
What is Made in Italy for you?
Silvia: Made in Italy for me is life. It is feeling part of a way of living and thinking, it is loving Italy in everything and enriching it more and more with beautiful and important things. It is also looking at the strongest nations in padel like Spain and Argentina and feeling the need to bring that quid to Italy, to make it grow even more.
Claudia: To me Made in Italy as a hallmark in everything we do: it lies in the quality of the offer, in the scrupulous adherence to certain principles, in the passion that animates the creative process. Italy is a country full of positive aspects and sometimes we struggle to recognize it, living there, but from the outside they
