Return on the interview of Fiona Ligi, 143rd player of the World Padel Tour in the Face-to-Face Instagram of Wednesday, April 29.

  • On its containment:

I am in confinement in Perpignan with my family, I do 1h30 / 2h of sport every day, I live it quite well.

My trainer padel send me some programs to do and I also help me from the training I spent last year on physical preparation. Without visibility as to the resumption of tournaments, I am more in the maintenance of my physique and when we have more visibility as to the resumption, it will be necessary to enter into a harder preparation.

I'm lucky to have space at home, my parents send me balls so that I keep in touch with the racquet.

  • His arrival in the padel

I started on padel in 2016 at the Tennis Club du Mas in Perpignan thanks to my tennis trainer that I had since the age of 6. I played until I was 12 when I reached the 15/4 ranking. After hitting my first balls on a field of padel, I immediately hooked.

In 2017, I started playing more and more and I started competitions, I had a great year. It all really started in 2019 with Laura Clergue, I trained more often, once or twice a week no more, because I spent my training at the same time and my trainer was only in Perpignan twice a week. So I decided to think about the plan to go to Spain.

  • His absence from the 2019 French Championships

Last year with Laura, we played very well, reaching the semi-finals each time. Therefore, our objective for France was clear: to be part of the first three pairs. Unfortunately, Laura was injured a few days before the tournament. For me, it was hard to accept because I gave the maximum during the whole year, even if it was not his fault. I'm not going to hide it, I held it against him for a few days but we called each other to explain and put things flat.

The hardest part was when the selection for the European team championships came out. Patrick Fouquet clearly told me: my non participation in France cost me my place. It was his decision and I respected it. It was the way it was done that was hard to digest.

Now the counters are zero, a new year begins with new goals.

  • His departure for Barcelona

My departure took a little time because I have only been in Barcelona since March. The transition went very well because I was used to going back and forth in Spain. I met Paula Eyheraguibel on the Place du Capitole in Toulouse and she suggested I play with a Portuguese girl named Diana Silva. We didn't know each other and despite that, our first two tournaments went very well.

By leaving to train in Barcelona, ​​my goals have evolved compared to previous years: to arrive in the top 100 on the WPT circuit while remaining in the French top 5 as well as to join the French team.

  • The development of padel female

It is true that the development of padel feminine is complicated. There are women more oriented towards leisure and others towards competition. Due to the lack of participants, the number of tournaments is decreasing.

There are now men's tournaments in which women can participate. Before leaving for Spain, I played a lot of P500 / P250 men's tournaments. This allowed me to be able to play matches against very good players. On the other hand, women who are just starting out do not necessarily want to confront men. Tournaments for these women are important to increase the number of players. We are lucky to have many women in our region, I try to motivate them to bring them to tournaments.

For the development of padel in general, there are more and more events promoting the padel like the tournaments taking place in public places. I think that for women, we should also set up events dedicated to women.

  • His side at padel : right left

When I started the padel, I played two years on the left then my coach decided to make me play on the right by my defensive side. At that time there were more players on the left, so he thought that could be an advantage. I got used to it very well, but I lost my aggression playing on the right.

Aggression is something that I miss in my game. I did a lot of weight lifting, weight training and cross-fit, it helped me develop power and muscle mass. However, I am careful because it requires heavy lifting, and the goal is to keep explosiveness.

Currently, I would say that I have a penchant for the game on the left. I can no longer catch the net, physically, I can move everywhere while on the right I feel a little more blocked.

 

 

Find the + / other themes / anecdotes / INSIDE in the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHz0ZC58

Xan is a fan of padel. But also rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel, he unearths atypical posts or deals with topical subjects. It also gives you some tips to develop your physique for the padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the field of padel !

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