Choose your coach or internship padel : 4 keys not to be mistaken!

Do you plan to do an internship in France or abroad, but you don't know how to go about it? We give you all the steps to follow thanks to That's itPadel !

Start by not being mistaken about the price paid for a given coach! How to do ?

Establish an exhaustive list of prices and formulas for courses and internships padel in France as in Spain has become an impossible task since the offer explodes with practice.

At That's itPadel, we will find the most exhaustive offer of coaches with 20 cities / clubs spread over 3 French cities and 7 Spanish cities, which allows us to analyze the market objectively. There will be more than 50 coaches from padel who charge different prices ranging from €35 per hour to €100 per hour individually. And that can push up to more than €200 per hour for world-renowned coaches, reminds us of Thibault, director of the site. The price can therefore be multiplied by 6 depending on the person you have in front of you!

Remember that in France as in Spain, you cannot improvise yourself as a coach! The profession is regulated (like doctors, teachers, etc.) but life coaches padel have the freedom to set their prices! The prices therefore generally vary according to their experience or their notoriety (as for some who officiate on Premier Padel and the WPT).

In addition, remember that taking a course with friends allows you to share the costs, even if the most passionate will surely prefer that 100% of the course be dedicated to them to progress on the points that concern them above all!

It is therefore necessary to be vigilant about the advertised price, especially in Spain for a few years, where in tourist areas, prices have soared for foreign customers! So they don't pay the same price as Spanish players... for a lesson of the same duration and with the same coach!

So as not to be fooled, Topadel reminds us of a few basic rules to check that they apply themselves when they decide whether or not to integrate a coach into their network.

Make sure of the number of years of experience of the coach… as a coach!

Indeed, when a coach has an impressive CV and years of teaching on the clock, it is not shocking to pay more per hour for someone who will also surely have already seen many technical / tactical problems among players, and which will have a battery of exercises or examples to provide to help the player in his progress.

In this respect, it is obvious that we generally find more experienced coaches in Spain than in France, where the coaches really make a living from the teaching of padel are rare … and in high demand today! In France, there are therefore many freshly graduated teachers (official diplomas have only recently existed, too…). And many are teachers from tennis, which is, let's remember, another discipline...

But the teacher training of padel for a tennis teacher is reduced and facilitated by sharing a common federation. It is therefore necessary to find the rare exceptions of French coaches with several years of practice. But it is obvious that you will often find for equivalent prices, more seasoned Spanish coaches since the discipline is no longer new there.

Also be careful not to confuse experience as a player… and as a coach. Because if the quality player will undoubtedly know how to do things technically or tactically better than a coach himself, know how to detect concerns and then above all provide a battery of answers, tips or exercises which we know work to get them tested for years is another story. Ultimately, that's what being a good coach is all about!

Also, knowing how to identify when the message has not passed, giving other exercises or other pictorial examples to get a correction from the player, this supposes an important pedagogical liability! A good player is therefore not necessarily a good coach… and vice versa!

Make sure the coach knows how to communicate in foreign languages when my internship is in Spain

Indeed, the Spaniards, like the French, are not always reputed to be the best in Europe in the practice of foreign languages. However, to be a good coach, you have to know how to communicate well.

If you do not necessarily need an excellent level in foreign languages, because many things can be shown with the hands and the pala, you must not be blocked by the language barrier and suddenly the coach has a good example. but fails to articulate it or abandons the idea, as he does not feel comfortable or accustomed to coaching a foreign student. You will then not have all the quintessence of the course when other coaches will do everything to make you understand things even if it is your own language level that blocks.

This is a common problem and the reason why the teams at Topadel meet all the coaches to see in which language(s) and with what ease they are able to teach. It is therefore not shocking to pay more for a coach who is comfortable with English or French (and so much the better for those who master Spanish to perfection!).

Be sure to select a coach involved in your sports project!

What could be worse than a coach watching you pick up the balls or spending time on his cell phone during the lesson. This is probably the most subjective criterion and the most difficult to grasp upstream. When the course is in your city, do a test or two before committing. And when you go to Spain for an internship, choose a professional operator so you don't miss your trip.

Because as a foreign amateur, maybe the coach will be reactive to give you a quote when you contact him on Instagram... but once there, will he be as motivated as you? And if the lessons are outdoors and it rains, is the lesson reimbursed? What happens if you get injured?

"Chez Topadel, we had the opportunity to work with well-known and passionate coaches who we see every weekend on TV. Of course, they were more expensive and made us dream. Only, if they are not as motivated for our students as for their pro players, then despite their notoriety, they will not integrate our network. recalls Thibault, director.

Choose the city where you take your lessons padel !

For the same experience / quality of coaching, there are real differences in pricing often due to geographical location.

In France, we will often pay more for the coach such as the rental of the tracks (generally included in the price of your lessons) in the big cities or in areas where the cost of living is more expensive. A lesson on the Côte d'Azur or in Paris may cost you more than a lesson in Corrèze or Aveyron.

And in Spain, we will note an additional key element to this argument of the cost of living which, in itself, is not only French. In fact, the coaches of padel are more expensive in the tourist towns of padel.

In these cities very popular with enthusiasts of padel coming from abroad, like Barcelona (the most glaring example), the best coaches in the city have until now worked with high-level local players in the best reception structures. In recent years, foreign customers, European or from the Arab peninsula, have flocked to these coaches or to those who have been able to make themselves visible on social networks... They have received a lot of requests and they are much more lucrative for them, because the purchasing power of these new players is not the same!

“A Barcelona coach told us what he could do less than one week what he did before in a month, in particular with Qatari and Arab Emirates customers. Foreign customers want the best, those who have “something more” and are willing to spend lavishly to progress at padel ! As a result, the prices are no longer the historical prices paid by the Spaniards, who are moreover less and less numerous to offer the services of these renowned coaches.His except when they are professionals and have special conditions » tells us Thibault de Topadel.

The prices of good coaches have therefore risen sharply in the cities most in demand with the rise of padel in the world.

But then… where to go to get the best value for money?

The question was posed to Topadel to know the best plans:

" TO equivalent quality of coach, no doubt, Barcelona and Marbella are the most expensive cities ! To a lesser extent, Palma de Mallorca which is an island living mainly from tourism.

Barcelona is not the 1^er market padel Spanish, because Madrid has the highest concentration of quality players and coaches. But Barcelona has an image that attracts more foreign customers. 7 out of 10 requests we receive concern Barcelona! Indeed, in Qatar, in Sweden and in many other countries where the purchasing power is higher than ours, the image of the city and the presence of the beaches lends itself to dreaming. And rightly so! Barcelona is pleasant, well served by many flights, often inexpensive, and the coaches we have referenced there are all incredible. From Ari Sanchez's coach to coaches who are no longer on the pro circuit, we have an offer that is at the top to progress as much as possible in a minimum of time.

More thanks to our unique site in Europe referencing “top” coaches so as not to miss their holiday, players compare the rates … and often, they mostly turn to other destinations when the padel is the No. 1 objective of the trip.

We have a large part of our departures going to Seville, a city which is probably the prettiest in Spain, in the region of Andalusia historically linked to the padel, but which is still preserved… but for how long?

Also in the Madrid suburbs, in Alicante, Valencia or around Malaga, we have unearthed academies, sometimes in town, sometimes further inland and it is on the latter that we find the most economical stays without denying the quality. But conjugate padel and tourism often forces the decision of our European customers, so our destinations in the suburbs of large cities with airports with low-cost companies keep the coast! »

Next month, we will see with Topadel what a good course is: the number of days to plan, the number of hours of play, and the ideal educational formula to progress quickly in your game of padel !

Eleonore Coulibaly

What a pleasure to be a journalist in the middle of the padel, an attractive growing sport. I hope you enjoy the content offered. See you soon perhaps on the slopes!