“Beach and padel, same fight?”

Focus on Frédéric Pamard, the founder of a Beach Tennis school in Reunion. We will see that the path of a beach player and a padel player is quite similar in many cases. This beach tennis enthusiast who has made it his job, shows how complicated the path to achieve one's goals can be.

Can you start by telling us about your tennis course and explain to us how are you getting in Beach tennis?

I was a tennis player at regional level, Reunion champion several times, best 0 ranking. Adult I taught tennis for over 10 years. I created a training structure type pole hope where I took care of 3 young full time with interesting results obtained: a proposal in pole France and integration in the future national group. I was introduced to the beach tennis at the very beginning, when this sport arrived on the island 7-8 years ago I think. Being Reunionese and having grown up in surfing / tennis / beach volleyball, I immediately hooked on this sport but I really looked at it a year ago.

Can you explain your project briefly?

Create a structure 4 XNUMX tennis courts lit in the enclosure of a tennis club with tennis court type reservation system, with the creation of a school ...

Take the beach tennis off the beaches, is it a bet? How do you explain the fact that you are the first to try the experiment?

This is not for me a bet but a logic in the direction of the integration of Beach Tennis in the FFT. Goal :

- Increase the number of FFT licensees while boosting the clubs in distress, avoiding the departure of some players on the beaches.

- Retain the 12-15ans in tennis clubs

- Democratize a snowshoeing sport approaching tennis by offering attractive rates. -

- Make bridges between tennis and beach tennis and vice versa.

How do you see the evolution of Beach at the meeting? What are its weak points? How to cure it ?

Beach Tennis is for me brought grow even more structuring. Many needs are felt in fixed and lit infrastructures. He is also in demand of professionalisation on the part training, need of trainers, of physical and mental preparation.

Weak points: lack of structuring / Lack of coaches and schools / Need for more support from the FFT (LRT): financial aid for the best ... To remedy this, I think it is necessary that players tennis ( coach / players ...) adopt sport, are interested in it and have a desire to develop it.

Which eye do you see the absorption of beach tennis by the FFT? Is this a strong point? What are the negative sides?

For me it is a strong point and this absorption is a good thing, it will (can) bring to this sport a faster structuring if the FFT plays the game.

Negative points: to take away from the freedom / Fun to this sport / to prevent the non DE Tennis to intervene in the formation (ex: volleyball or good players of beach)

The need to have a tennis DE to teach Beach, is it an inconsistency? What changes would be necessary?

Not on the contrary I find it very coherent, what is not it is not to allow the specialists of this sport who are not tennis player but players of national level see international to intervene and to train young people and adults at the beach tennis.

Solutions: integrate in the training of a Beach tennis module and find a scale allowing the good players of Beach to have an equivalence level 15 of tennis to be able to become DE.

Who helped you in your project? Is the league a support? What more will you want from them?

The club in which will be mounted project helps me to achieve this structure. The league is currently not a support but I think will become once the project has grown. Sometimes you have to invest first and take risks and then ask for help.

According to you, where is the French Beach compared to other countries? What examples to follow? What needs to change?

Top 5 I think. It is necessary to structure the activity, more fixed infrastructures, to train trainers, to create schools and training centers, to increase the competitions ...

How do you see the evolution of the Beach in the years to come? (international, national)

Joker, I think this sport will evolve in terms of licensees in terms of level of play why not one day appear at the Olympics ...

What about Padel, have you had the opportunity to test this discipline? Possibility of seeing you invest in it?

Yes at Roland Garros this year. Yes a real desire to get involved in this sport, the only concern: the budget and the cyclones 😉

Author: Alexandre BRUZAUD,” state=”open” ]Graduated with a Master's degree (specialization in sports marketing and management) from ISC Paris Business School. On a permanent contract since the end of my studies at Adidas France as sales manager in charge of the Paris/Nord region. Passionate about sport, I discovered and joined the Padel during my Erasmus in 2013 in Spain.

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.