REPORTAGE.Around Caen, the Padel "revived the whole life of our club"

Almost two weeks before the start of Roland-Garros and while the sports centers will soon reopen, padel continues to grow in France. All this week, Prolongation makes you discover this funny discipline that drives racket sports lovers crazy.

EPISODE 1. Sports match: padel vs tennis, what's the hardest part?

EPISODE 2. CROSSOVER INTERVIEW. Alix Collombon and Jérémy Scatena, the French n°1 in padel, present their discipline

EPISODE 3. Report in padel clubs in France

EPISODE 4.INTERVIEW. Arnaud Di Pasquale, the new strong man of padel in France

EPISODE 5. The incredible enthusiasm around padel in Spain

Five years ago, in Caen and its surroundings, padel enthusiasts would not have been able to find a shoe that suited them, unless they had an oar and agreed to write this word differently . The landscape has changed a lot since then, with eleven courts available on three different sites, a sign of an ever-increasing demand and an offer that capitalizes on the great potential of this fashionable discipline.

If Démouville soccer was the first to install a Plexiglas cube, two other structures have since taken over to see things bigger. With a common denominator, that of coming from the world of tennis, like three quarters of practitioners today in France. From one yellow ball to another, they discovered a new passion for a sport that was "fun, very accessible, collective (it is necessarily played in doubles) and friendly".

For the private structure of Biéville-Beuville, it was also an absolute necessity. Known and recognized in regional tennis, one of the first clubs in Calvados, born in 1968 and in which "people from Deauville came to play at the start", seized this opportunity to gain new momentum. “We installed the first padel court in September 2017, because by remaining 100% tennis, it was guaranteed closure, explains Damien Jean, who manages the structure as a family with his dad Olivier and his sister Clara. We removed a first tennis court. Very quickly, after four months, you had to book two weeks before to play in the evening on the only padel court. So we had the project to move to three pitches and that materialized in May 2019.”

A significant investment

Making room for padel tennis to the detriment of tennis, without forgetting the latter, is the balance that allowed the Calvados club to find its way there before the health crisis. Covering an area of ​​2,600 m², the building in Biéville now sports several colors: the midnight blue of its three padel courts, the surface of which has recently been refurbished, and the pale green of its two tennis courts and its two badminton courts.

Before the two successive administrative closures, some 150 different players practiced padel every month. The investment was significant (25 to 30,000 € per court and earthworks), but it was paying off until the beginning of last year. A third racket sport has interfered in the life of the club, to the delight of managers, tennis teachers who have also become padel teachers, and regulars or novices. “We are far from the hushed side of tennis, we are more in a Hispanic sport, in joy and good humor, even during tournaments, whose format promotes a good atmosphere, supports Damien Jean. This revived the whole life of our club. There is no photo. There was a rather exceptional alignment of the planets and the crisis cut us off in our tracks. Today, we have a light at the end of a tunnel that has been going on for eight months. It helps to get back into it. »

I'd liked to see the Eiffel tower from my bed, and I have an idea on how to make that happen. https://t.co/T3tWsLCcd9

— Big Little Sighs Sun Mar 07 04:14:01 +0000 2021

On May 19, tennis and padel schools for minors will be able to resume their rights, before reopening to the general public on June 9. Of this field surrounded by glass, of this racket with multiple holes, tennis teachers Olivier Jean and Gaspard Olivier-Martin had never heard of before receiving a training offer from Padel Arena, already established in Rouen in 2017. “They went there and they thought it was great, super fun and accessible. »

The charm worked and since then, year-round collective courts for young people and adults have been launched, a third teacher has been recruited. Also from tennis, Marc Durieux is part of the French top 50 in the discipline and "has brought a great dynamic". “It is not enough to put land for it to work, continues Damien Jean. This sport deserves to be known, the structure of Mondeville has just arrived and is not in the same area as us, it will continue to develop. This will create emulation, it can only be positive. »

In Mondeville, other tennis enthusiasts have seized the ball to experience a different adventure. In two hangars of 2100 m² and 900 m², the almost simultaneous departure of two companies paved the way for Padelshot. “We were introduced to the three investors, it matched right away, says Alexandre Maes, manager of the structure with his partner Déborah Joao. They needed managers and premises, we needed investments (€600,000 for a Padelshot club). We immediately agreed on the project. »

"People should stop confusing padel and paddle"

In a country and, what's more, a region where padel is just taking off, ambition is all there. "To discover it to as many people as possible and that people stop confusing padel and paddle," says Alexandre. The more we will democratize it, the more people will know that it is not a sport on the water. It's a goal to achieve (laughs). » « The bankers did not understand why we needed 3,000 m² with ten meters high ceilings. They asked us what the size of our boards was, continues Déborah. We had been together on the phone for an hour and we weren't talking about the same thing. »

Since then, a complex has been born and it looks great, with six padel courts, four badminton courts, two ping-pong tables, a pétanque court, a billiards area and a 300 m² club house. A friendly place, in line with the image reflected by this discipline, at the heart of the Padelshot Mondeville project. "When we see that people are smiling, that they tell us "it's great" when they enter our house before saying "it was really great" when they leave, we have won everything", summarizes Déborah. “Today, there is the before, the after, the exchange with people and that is really what has changed our life, continues Alexandre, a former tennis coach who wants to turn to something else. That's what we came for. We found it over three weeks but from June 9, we left for good years. »

Barely opened, already stopped, Padelshot only had a sample last October to estimate the potential of its project. Enough to see that the craze exists and that padel can grow exponentially, here and elsewhere (1). “During the last two weeks, the six pitches were reserved from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., while the communication had not been launched, our flyers had not yet left. It was just word of mouth. We didn't expect it and we can't wait for it to start again on the same basis. The padel arrived and the progression seemed to me more obvious in this sport than in tennis. What attracts me is that it is accessible to everyone, that it is very easy to play. Being a tennis teacher, I can see that some people take two or three years to make several exchanges. In padel, after an hour, the exchange is engaged. We are in a mixed sport, which is played by two. You can play with your girlfriend, your sister, your parents. All the new practitioners who came to play told us that they loved it and would come back. This motivates even more for the reopening. We built a club and a friendly living space, we want people to want to come back after walking through the door for the first time. We really believe in this sport and its development. »

"Once you get in, you can't get out"

Charlotte Villeminot won't say anything else. The left-hander now divides her time between tennis and padel courts. Recruited as a teacher by Padelshot, she saw this sport as "a breath of fresh air", is fully invested in it and will experience her first meeting with the French team in Perpignan at the end of May, in the hope of participate in the European Championships in Marbella (Spain), where padel is king, at the end of June and the beginning of July. "I discovered this sport five years ago when I was taking the BE (State Patent) tennis training in Lille. I did not know at all. It was a bit of our escape after the big technical-tactical day on tennis. The padel has taken a big place. Once you get in, you can't get out. »

While padel is now well established in the south of France, closer to Spain, which has 4 to 5 million players, the territory still suffers from white areas. Normandy no longer falls into this category, but there is still considerable room for improvement in this sport. “The idea is to make people want to, to pass on things to them so that they are passionate about it, to promote this sport through competition, develops Charlotte Villeminot. I am part of the Pad'Elles association and there is really a big lack of tournaments at the moment for girls, because female practitioners have trouble coming to tournaments. My mission here is also that. The objective of Padelshot is to mix leisure and competition on one side, women and men on the other. And why not develop a padel school in the future, that's what we want. We are trying to develop this sport starting with young people. »

The objective is also to develop the competition through tournaments over a weekend. Biéville-Beuville has already organized a dozen since 2018, Padelshot Mondeville intends to launch in the coming weeks. Largely in the majority today, these private clubs also hope for increased support from the FFT, whose new federal team has sent several positive signals to a discipline which is gaining in licensees and which it keeps under its control. “I am lucky to have been able to play in the past with Arnaud Di Pasquale (new Director of the padel mission at the French Tennis Federation) in Biéville-Beuville, says Charlotte Villeminot. With Arnaud Clément, we found them in padel competitions from the start. They are still in the French top 50 and they got on well. They are tennis players who have completely fallen into padel and who have decided to push this discipline. They saw what was happening in clubs and in competitions, and therefore also saw the potential to be developed. They work hard to make this discipline known, because we always have one out of two people talking to us about oars and water. Thanks to them, I think padel will be better known in France, at least in the world of tennis. “In the meantime, life on the courts will resume its course on June 9.

Almost two weeks before the start of Roland-Garros and while the sports centers will soon reopen, padel tennis continues to boom in France. All this week, Prolongation makes you discover this funny discipline that drives racket sports lovers crazy.

EPISODE 1. Sports match: padel vs tennis, what's the hardest part?

EPISODE 2. CROSSOVER INTERVIEW. Alix Collombon and Jérémy Scatena, the French n°1 in padel, present their discipline

EPISODE 3. Report in padel clubs in France

EPISODE 4.INTERVIEW. Arnaud Di Pasquale, the new strong man of padel in France

EPISODE 5. The incredible enthusiasm around padel in Spain

(1) Padelshot Caen was the first to open, before Padelshot Saint-Etienne which will open its doors in early June. Eventually, a dozen Padelshot clubs will exist in France.