Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes – Florent Dousset: “Double the number of tracks and practitioners”

Florent Dousset, President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Tennis League, evokes for Padel Magazine the development of our practice within his region.

Padel Magazine : Where is the development of padel in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region?

Florent Dousset: In terms of equipment, we currently have 130 padel courts, including around forty covered ones. These courts are spread over around 50 practice sites, representing around 40 clubs. We estimate the number of players today to be between 15000 and 18000 in the region.

Growth is significant as everywhere in France. Around forty teachers are now trained to teach padel. Regional competitions are developing: championships by pairs, by teams or by categories (under 18s, seniors).

From the point of view of sports monitoring, gatherings / youth detections are being set up in order to advance our current hopes (for the constitution of teams representing the league at youth championships). In mid-May, three young people from the League were invited by the Mission Padel FFT in Perpignan, on the sidelines of the P2000, for an FFT gathering of young U14s.

PM: What policy has been put in place to develop the practice? 

FD: Our development policy is part of our Regional Development Plan, which is the regional version of the FFT's National Development Plan. Several areas are planned with objectives for the end of 2024: doubling the number of padel courts to reach 300 (including 100 covered), reaching 100 practice sites (including 90 clubs), 30 padel practitioners Padel, 100 teachers trained.

To give ourselves every chance of achieving these ambitious objectives, we have taken the strong decision to recruit a padel mission manager, in this case Guillaume Bourgeois, with a cross-functional position covering all padel activities in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of the League.

• On development: strengthen local exchanges with communities, prioritize padel on the ADCP (Aid for the development of clubs and practice), ensure the coherence of the clubs' associative project, develop a coherent territorial network
• On training: organize and coordinate training actions, particularly for teachers with the deployment of the TFP (Professional Purpose Title) and the DFMP (Federal Diploma of Padel)
• On sports and competition: develop competition in the regions, create U18 and +45 pairs championships, promote the development of padel team competitions, deploy a real sports policy in conjunction with technical teams (scouting, training, monitoring, competitions, etc.)
• On marketing and communication: organize an event in the departments: ARA Padel Tour (June/July/September 2022, renewed in 2023), develop communication around invested clubs.

PM: How did you discover padel?

FD: In Spain, during my holidays a few years ago when the slopes were still rare in France.

PM: What is the history between the region and padel? Can you tell us a little more?

FD: A few clubs got into the business very early on, through individual initiatives. Private structures, in particular in the Lyon conurbation, have also seized the opportunity to develop activities.

Our clubs affiliated with the FFT are now gradually being structured, with beautiful facilities and beautiful projects, in a logic of diversification of practices, to attract new audiences or offer new products to regular tennis players.

13 players and 13 players in the Top 100!

PM: What will be the possible future major tournaments?

FD: In 2022, more than 500 tournaments have been approved: 389 men, 93 women, 55 mixed. Among them, seven P1000s: 4 gentlemen and 3 ladies.

PM: How many players are ranked and who are the best in your region?

Among men, there are 3148 ranked as of October 14, 2022, of which thirteen belong to the French top 100:

Among the women, there are 530 ranked as of October 14, 2022, including thirteen members of the top 100:

PM: What are the future event projects?

FD: The major event project will be the ARA Padel Tour. The aim of this meeting will be to organize a promotional padel event in the region in order to meet clubs and communities. In addition, we will promote the practice to decision-makers, by bringing together clubs, practitioners and communities during a day structured around padel with demonstrations and presentations.

The general organization will be managed by the League, and the organization of the stages coordinated by the League, the departmental committee concerned and the host club. Fifteen dates have taken place or are planned from June 2022 to June 2023.

PM: What training is planned in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region?

FD: Overall to date, around forty teachers have been trained in the ARA League to teach padel. The objectives of the training are: to understand the specificities of padel, to teach the necessary elements of padel, from initiation to improvement, to develop the practice within the structure.

Over the past season, several sessions have taken place: concerning professional DEJEPS/DESJEPS teachers who followed the UC1/UC2 blocks, over 14 hours (2 days) over 3 sessions of their choice: 12 trainees each time, allowing them to obtain the DFMP (Federal Padel Instructor Diploma). And for the complete DFMP: 6 days – 40 hours – 17 trainees.

As of this September, we have launched the TFP, which has 240 hours. The TFP padel is a professional padel diploma for 100% padel players who do not necessarily come from tennis. Obtaining this Professional Purpose Title (TFP) allows you to teach padel completely legally for a fee. This title is issued on behalf of the State and is registered in the directory of professional certifications (RNCP). For the 2022-2023 season, 10 trainees are registered.

State tennis graduates can obtain this TFP via a simplified module (Federal Padel Instructor Diploma “DFMP”).

Sebastien Carrasco

Future naturopath and padel enthusiast, Seb is the health/food man of Padel Magazine. He juggles between pala, quinoa and essential oils. For almost two years now he has been dealing with the news of the little yellow ball with the same passion.

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