Guillaume Lary: "The indoors must hang on, after COVID will be incredible"

William Lary, one of the founders of Sète Padel Club, which has 4 fields and soon 6, tells us about the club's news.

Paradoxically, the Covid-19 will be very beneficial for the padel

“The crisis is hurting a lot of clubs padel. The main victims are the indoor clubs which are totally blocked. But if they manage to hang on, they can enjoy a wave padel exceptional. I'm sure.

At my level, I can only see what is happening: the Covid brought us a lot of people. Today, we see many sportsmen from rugby, football, but also squash, table tennis, badminton, come to test themselves in padel. And necessarily the effect padel fact that they are most often conquered by this sport to the point of returning.

We have never created so many new players from padel in one year. The Covid had a booster effect on the padel. And obviously, France is not the only country to find itself with this new wave of padel. The Sète Padel Club had actually started its work of promoting this sport since its early days by welcoming athletes from all walks of life.

Some athletes use the padel as a way to better prepare sportingly. And They come to play for fun while working for their other sporting activities. ”

You must book a week in advance

“You have to book a week in advance on the Gestions Sports application to play at the club. We are having quite incredible success.

We had to upgrade to 3 reservations per person. That is to say ! We added slots in the morning at 7:30 a.m. on weekends. And the niche is totally taken. We will certainly maintain it this summer. We are thinking for the week too. We are in full reflection.

For the moment, we stop at 18 p.m. with the curfew. But normally we stop at 22:30 p.m. We even think about add evening slots to the Spanish. Why not play until midnight? It's a possibility."

There are no longer any off-peak hours

“It's the evening slots that are always taken. It always has been. The main difference is the daytime slots which are supposed to be off-peak hours. Even today during the day, it's very complicated to have a field.

That's why we decided to add 2 additional lands. We could have by next June a total of 6 courts of padel. It's too complicated to manage now, we need 2 more courts. And the idea would be to have them at the beginning of the summer. The good news is that there is room to do them. ”

155 unlimited players

“We have a subscription system with 155 people who play unlimited at padel all year round and who are therefore FFT licensees. What makes us one of the centers of padel the most active at this level in France. For 300 € a year, you play unlimited at the club off-peak or full hour. This also created a real atmosphere of totally addicted players who spend a good part of their life at the club!

We have to date via the Sports Management software close to 900 players who have registered since last September. This shows how the padel is passing an incredible milestone. This may be the course we were waiting for. So the conditions are unfortunate, for sure, we are perfectly aware of the misfortune in which some of our colleagues may be, but if we had to offer a few words of hope: be patient if you can, after Covid may surprise you very positively."

High schools, schools: it's important

“We welcome high schools, schools. It makes discover the activity. We have many young people who come back to play in person or who come with their parents. Today mentalities have clearly evolved in Sète. Because here, one of the king sports is stand up-paddle. And now people in the city confuse these two sports less and less.

With the Covid, for the moment the snacking part, tournaments and all collective events are prohibited. But so far, all of this has allowed us to grow quickly and have a huge pool of players. I remind you that we are only a year and a half old and we can say that despite the crisis, we are ahead of the initial business plan. We are going 4 times faster compared to our forecast. It's really unbelievable.

Last September we launched the school of padel. Admittedly, the health crisis went through this, but in the end we only closed a month. We blocked our internships with 30 students to prevent us from being too much on our 4 sites ...

We will have a new intern at the club. And we see the FFT pushing more and more to professionalize teaching.

The league will be pilot for the graduated from padel set up by the FFT. Occitanie and Paris were chosen by the FFT as pilot leagues. ”

Tournaments padel missing

“What we miss are the tournaments, because we played almost 40 official tournaments a year in all categories. Concerning the new regulations put in place by the FFT, there are positive things and things a little more amazing and even damaging.

As much with the girls, I find that you have to try everything because indeed, complicated to organize ladies tournaments given the numbers. On the other hand, with the gentlemen it worked very well. It was even a success for the clubs, the players and the FFT.

I was reading on one of the articles of Padel Magazine the success of the FFT with in particular the P100 and P250 which represent more than 80% of the events.

As a club, I confirm that we had succeeded in finding a balance: 250 € of prize-money for the P250s is more of a symbol for everyone, it especially allows to mark the importance of the categories with an evolution each time bearing.

Breaking this marker signs the death sentence for the evolution of the tournament structure. padel. But we will try to maintain it. Now, in fact, we are going to have less P100, and above all an increase in P250 which will no longer have the same flavor. And then we will also have consequences on the level of P500.

I would add that in addition, officially, we can no longer put prize-money on the P250s. In any case, the FFT software does not allow the club to note it. People should at least know when there are some. ”

The end of the P100s and P250s that we knew

“Today, we will find ourselves with P250s which will have different values depending on who will put prices or not, and then also depending on the regions which do not necessarily have a pool of players that corresponds to the level of the old version of the P250.

Clearly, this is definitely the end of the P100s and P250s as we have known them until then. Too bad. In our club, however, we go continue to offer prize money as often as possible and prizes of a value related to the tournament category.

This new formula for tournaments padel in a way breaks this work that the FFT has set up and which was working very well and which is a huge success for the clubs and the FFT, figures to support it. “

More and more female competitors in Sète

This regulation concerning the obligation to hold a ladies' tournament after 3 tournaments of padel consecutive gentlemen seems a little awkward to me.

We must do everything to help the padel feminine to develop. And the clubs are the first to want to develop the padel feminine. But before thinking about tournaments, you have to think about creating players.

At the beginning, we had a lot of trouble getting players in the tournaments. We did not have the necessary breeding ground. We canceled, we postponed the tests. I don't think this gives a good picture of the padel feminine. And in the end, maybe even communicating about ladies' tournaments that are postponed or canceled is counterproductive.

This is why the FFT must trust the clubs and even provide them with real support with a real policy.

We cannot force in France to play ladies' tournaments when in French regions you have almost no female competitor. And in places where there is enough, the clubs are already doing the job.

JI therefore think that for smaller clubs in regions where there are few players, it will be very complicated ...

We must not put the cart before the horse. First it took create the atmosphere to create these players. And they got caught up in the game. And now some of them have become competitors and they participate in tournaments. padel ladies.

This summer, depending on the crisis, we would like to launch our first P1000 men and in parallel a P500 women. Especially since we work very well with Bullpadel. We have a luxury ambassador with Nada Majdoubi who plays at the club regularly. ”

Xan Tafernaberry

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 !