Christian Collange, Chairman of the Committee Padel in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur League and member of the Mission Padel FFT looks back on the French Youth Championships and gives us its impressions before the upcoming Worlds.

The development of padel among young people

The development of padel among young people of course involves creating competitions for them, training centers, following and supporting our best French and regional players... But it is also essential, and essential, to seek out mass in schools, high schools, to continue to set up padel schools, to train our instructors, through the TFP of course, but also regularly by looking for information everywhere and by evolving.

It is with this mass, these schools, everywhere, because today we need to mesh the territory in terms of the number of tracks, that we will be able to detect and prepare our futures top players and our future generations, without specifically forgetting the development of women's padel, young girls.

This is what is being put in place today by the FFT and the leagues, through investments, events such as the Greenweez Paris Major which offered a superb showcase, and the Mission padel which crisscrosses France, for the development of padel among young people.

Successful French Youth Championships

It was a great success despite the punishing record heat. The FFT / PACA League pair organization worked very well, and the feedback from the leagues was excellent. I really want to highlight the unique mobilization of volunteers, elected officials, employees of the PACA league. With more than 20 daily volunteers, we were able to guarantee the smooth running of this competition.

It's a collector's item: it's the first time that a league (with the collaboration of the Country Club Padel Aix) organized a French Padel Championship. And this is the first time that the event was followed, filmed all week by our dear Padel Magazine.

In this new formula this year, Interligues U14 mixed and French Championship by pairs boys and girls, the whole range of the best young French people were able to meet for this beautiful and warm padel festival.

The formula of Mixed U14 interleagues (two boys' teams and one girls' team) is a success and allowed 13 leagues to be present for this fourth edition.

Gaps that are closing

In terms of results, we found the two leagues which launched the youth development process for several years (Paca and Occitanie) in the final, with a great revenge for Occitanie who becomes a great winner.

But above all, what emerges is that the level is tightening: we have witnessed some superb matches, and many leagues have confirmed that their youth projects are being confirmed and are bearing fruit, such as Île-de-France, Hauts-de-France, L'ARA, La Normandie... For us, it is the padel youth that has won, knowing that we have been able to see more than 30 young girls under 14 years old evolve, which is a great step forward, while being aware that among the girls a lot of detection work needs to continue...

league paca youth fft padel collange

In the U18 category in pairs, the level was incredible. The favorites won, and we witnessed some great final games, in a fantastic atmosphere. What emerges is that the leagues helped by the FFT and the Youth Mission have really adhered to the project by developing padel schools, some by appointing padel referents, by creating circuits, detection days, regional gatherings, etc.

The FFT and the Padel Mission are proposing, in line with the work of the leagues, the organisation of national gatherings, national youth tournaments with Master final, French Championships, etc. All this takes time, the road is long, but the path is mapped out!

The Worlds approaching

From November 13 to 18 in Paraguay, it will be the time to measure ourselves with what is best today after our fourth place (girls) and fifth place (boys) at the last European Championships in Valencia last year. Even if we don't have the history of some dinosaur countries, our teams will do their best. Our young people have progressed, it will be a great opportunity to measure themselves against other young internationals.

We know that Paraguay, at home, and reigning World Champion, will be one of the favorites with Argentina of course, without forgetting Spain, reigning European Champion, who was unable to participate in the last Worlds. Brazil is a little behind, but with young people it can go very quickly! France, Italy, Sweden and Portugal will be luxury outsiders…

In any case, we look forward to being there and seeing the evolution of all these countries, which will allow us to measure ourselves against what is best.

Reminder, the French youth team is coordinated by Alexia Dechaume. The captains are:

  • Captain boy Yann Auradou
  • Deputy captain boy Yannick Maurel
  • Girls Captain Géraldine Sorel
  • Deputy captain boy Christian Collange

Xan is a fan of padel. But also of rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel players, he finds atypical posts or deals with current topics. He also gives you some advice to develop your physique for padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the padel court!

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