Christian Collange: “80% of players who learn to play padel then continue”

The chairman of the commission in charge of padel in PACA, Christian Collange, reviews the major advances in padel in 2022 among girls and young people and tells us about the actions that will be implemented in the future.

Focus

“By investing in young people, we train our future nuggets”

“We want to surf on the 2nd title of the French Interleague Championships for boys and girls.

We will continue the rallies and the detections. We should do at least four in 2023.

I remind you that we implemented a policy for young people in barely 6 months at the national level. And we have already succeeded in doing many things.

At the level of the PACA league, on the other hand, we have been working on the development of the padel among young people, which explains the results of our league.

We would like to focus on the U12s, in partnership with the coaches of the region.

The idea is also to set up a club of padel elite for young people with aids for training, young events.

A youth circuit will also be launched for the U16s from March to June 2023 with a final Master scheduled for the end of June.

Finally for the U18s, team matches will be set up from 2023. We are currently working on it. We already have 190 teams registered for this year compared to 120 teams in 2022.

I would like to come back to the success of the Interleague championships in 2022, because we can see that the FFT policy is bearing fruit on the ground. We have seen this for example in the U18s with 12 leagues for boys and 6 for girls (i.e. double compared to 2021). But inevitably, we want more, that's why we're going to accentuate the training part and the gatherings for the U12s, because it starts from there! “

“France already has very good young people”

“During the last European Youth Championships in Valencia, we saw where we needed to strengthen and improve to allow us to compete with the best nations.

The key is training among young people. Our future nuggets will come from this nursery set up in the leagues.

And the good news is that France is already achieving small feats with a 4th place for girls and a 5th place for boys.

"The padel women: a federal priority”

“With only 15% of female players licensed, the padel female is a federal priority in the same way as young people.

Many actions are implemented around Alexia Dechaume, Marianne Vandaele and the mission padel.

According to our survey, 80% of women who learn padel then continue.

At our shows and events padel for women, they are on average about fifty per session to come and try.

I come back to young people for a moment because we see many young players embarking on the padel. I think that the work carried out among young people will have an impact in a few years on seniors.

This year we also have 100% ladies team matches.”

“A huge program in PACA”

“The PACA league has always been at the forefront in setting up events. And in 2023, it will continue and even more with:

U12 U14 U16 U18 rallies
The youth tournament circuit and Master final
The senior circuit plus 45/55 and Master final
The Regional Pairs Championship
Team matches (January to March), men, women and youth
Le tournament Masters padel armchair this week-end
Tournament padel university
The establishment of a “team paca elite” club
Organizing a team weekend padel mixte

And ink other events to expect in 2023.”

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.