Yoann Jaumel: from volleyball to padel, a new adventure in Saint-Victoret

Yoann Jaumel, professional volleyball player and manager of the Box-to-Box Tennis club Padel Saint-Victoret alongside Julien Datcharry, Arnaud et Vincent Montagnac, tells us his story around padel and the club's expansion project.

“I've always been into volleyball.”

“I practiced volleyball at a Professional level for 17 years. After a three-year hiatus, I returned to competition and currently play in the second division with the Martigues club, who lost in the semi-final of the championship playoffs against Ajaccio on May 2nd.”

How did your passion for padel begin and how did you become a coach?

“When I was at Nice, the physical trainer had asked me to stay in shape, so I was training in Montpellier, at the national volleyball center, and at the same time, I also practiced other types of sports. For example, with friends we used to play five-a-side football, and one day, one of them suggested to try padel, because a new court had just opened in Palavas. When I was younger, I had played tennis, being ranked, so I wasn't starting from scratch. I already had the fundamentals of tennis, which allowed me to approach padel with a certain ease and to adhere to it immediately. Then, every summer at the end of the season, I played a lot of padel and after 2, 3 years of practice, when I started to think about an idea of reconversion after volleyball, Setting up a padel club seemed obvious to me. In my last season, 3 years ago now, before I started playing volleyball again, I had in the idea of opening a club in the region around Marseille. I then decided to get my TFP diplomas in Aix-en-Provence to be able to have the double cap, both of coach and club manager."

How did you get the club back? What adjustments have been made?

“Since September, at 4 partners, we took over the management of the club which was under municipal control, with Julien Datcharry, founder of HDN Padel Club (WinWin Padel Nîmes) and the brothers, Arnaud and Vincent Montagnac. Vincent manages the Agency Box to Box, a communications agency that represents padel players and football players, and Arnaud was a restaurateur and had restaurants on Carry-Le-Rouet. Currently, we have 6 tennis courtsincluding 4 outdoor and 2 indoor, 2 outdoor padel courts and there, we should begin the work to go up 8 indoor padel courts with an exit for each plot. We had a little delay with the building permit but we hope that the work will be completed by October at the latest. With these future, we plan to organize big tournaments in the future.”

Box to Box Saint Victoret Tennis Padel Pickleball

“The advantage of having covered grounds, is that we will be able to welcome players all year. Even though our region benefits from rather favorable weather conditions, during the winter period it is more complicated. Another important point, we have a ceiling height of 11m on virtually any terrain allowing optimal playing conditions. We also wanted to have a lot of space between the fields as well asan outing on each of the 8 grounds. "

How many licensees do you have?

“Today, we welcome nearly 250 licensees for all the sports offered by the club, and there really is a big craze in padelWe hope to double this number with the arrival of the new complex. We hope to welcome all types of practitioners. "

Does the club offer other services?

“The club is strategically well placed, because we have the big advantage of being 5 minutes from Marseille airport, which is ideal for the organization of training courses and tournamentsWe also benefit from a large catchment area with many businesses nearby, allowing the establishment of a business club, with team building and inter-company tournamentsWe will soon be able to offer great services to user members.”

“Through my experience in high-level sport, I have the conviction and the desire that we can transpose and convey the values of sport to businesses. I also have the ambition to organize a tournament bringing together high-level athletes through my network. This is one of the projects that we will develop and implement gradually to have an impact, both regionally and nationally.”

Are you considering establishing partnerships?

“We already have a few partners who are supporting us. We hope to have a main sponsor for the new courts, with a naming convention and also sponsors for competitions or team building activities. We also want to develop partnerships with sports clubs, whether high-level or amateur, because padel is a sport that lends itself well to this. At the beginning of the year, we already welcomed the Vitrolles volleyball club who is in the second division, for their team building day. The Martigues club will surely come and do a small friendly tournament to finish the season.”

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“For now we are using the software Doinsport, for all the club's activities and it helps us enormously on padel activity. When we have the 8 seats we want to implement and offer many more things, for gain visibility, but for now, we are still at the beginning of the project which is developing little by little.”

What is your view on the development of padel in France?

“More and more clubs are investing in covered grounds, offering optimal ceiling heights, essential facilities to host quality competitions and training sessions. These developments are clear signals that padel is about to take a decisive step forward in the French sporting landscape. Another sign of the rise of padel is the multiplication of specialized academies and the growing number of qualified teachers, allowing better structure training, both for high-level players and for younger ones. We are witnessing the emergence of a real pool of players, whether they are competitors or young talents from padel schools.”

What image do you want to give to your club?

“Our ambition is to structure a club truly focused on three racquet disciplines — padel, tennis and pickleball — and to develop these practices at the regional levelThe first few months have been promising, and we hope to maintain this momentum. The upcoming installation of eight indoor courts represents a major step, which will allow us to take a decisive step in our development.”

Corentin Joab