When talking about a tennis player, you have to differentiate between licensed and unlicensed. We base ourselves on the tennis licensees, since all actions put in place by the federation directly concern the licensees.

To explain who these tennis licensees are, we relied on the BVA survey[1] conducted for the tennis federation. This survey was conducted in 2014 with 1500 practicing members of FFT clubs.

First of all, the licensees play tennis in priority to talk to each other physically, but also to share a good time and to progress. However when we look at why they join a club, the main reason is to be well supervised and able to progress.

Then, it should be noted, according to this study, that 91% of the 2014 members were satisfied. When asked about the negatives, we find the lack of availability of heated land, the high price of outdoor invitations, the lack of diversity of types of surface. One in four would have preferred another membership formula. They would have liked such formulas as a semester, quarter, weekend, etc. This shows that people are not necessarily very available.

Finally, the licensees put a lot forward that they would like to benefit from preferential rates during a renewal of subscription and also a facility of reservation of ground via the smartphone. Having taken dues in different clubs since I was young, I was able to observe the evolution of the reservation. In recent years, all the different clubs in which I played, offered online booking and I feel that many clubs currently offer it.

To summarize this study, several points stand out; practitioners lack free time or do not necessarily have a regular schedule. This ties in with the fact that modern society loves free and autonomous practice. Practitioners no longer necessarily want a practice punctuated by regular training and matches, they want flexibility in their practice, which is in line with the offer of padel current. Finally, the fact of sharing a good time through sport stands out a lot. The club thus appears as a place of sociability.

[1] http://www.fft.fr/sites/default/files/pdf/20170809152328.pdfThe 12 / 06 / 2018.

Pierre Lemonnier

Pierre studied STAPS, and validated a master's degree in sports management, after studying in Reims, Frankfurt and Lille. I discovered the padel in 2014 during my Erasmus year in Frankfurt thanks to a Spanish friend. Damn it is good padel !

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