2 figures of padel French people review their journey and the culmination of their book padel : ''' Discover and understand the padel tennis '':

Cédric CARITE, recent European Champion 2015 with the team of France, specialist and founder of the first French training organization " Padel Tennis Academy »And Alain HENRY, manager of one of the largest and most active clubs in padel French, the MAS Club in Perpignan.

Padel Magazine - Can you tell us about your journey " padelistic ”?

Alain Henry (AH) - My first contact with the padel, it was in Spain since we are only 15 minutes from Perpignan. Back at my tennis club, we decide with my partner to launch the first tennis court. padel of the region. My apprenticeship took place in Southern Catalonia, a large land of padel. My 25 years of experience in tennis have also helped me in learning this sport, the padel. And I think I'm the perfect example of the guy who rocked padel tennis.

My meeting with Cédric also allowed me to evolve and adapt my tennis experience to the padel.

Cédric Carité (CC) - A very long story! I discovered very briefly the padel during my STAPS studies in Toulouse in 1993. I then really took up this sport in 2004 and allowed me to participate in the worlds in Buenos Aires after winning the French championship the same year.

Since 2004, I can say that I am the only person to have occupied all the positions and managed all the possible missions in the padel french:

  • Sportingly, 6 times champion of France; the first European title in padel in 2015 European Champion after having been European vice-champion 3 times in 2005, 2007 and 2009, 5ndat the 2010 Worlds and so on ...
  • Professionally, National Technical Director, Coach and Captain of the French teams with very positive results ...
  • Politically, I created the National League of Padel in 2013 to put an end to the abuses of an ancient federation of padel, and thus create the conditions for the integration of padel within the FFT which was successful in July 2014.
  • The creation of " PADEL TENNIS ACADEMY »Which accompanies the creation of new padel (advice, training, activities, management).

PM - @Alain: Today your club offers 3 more courts. Would you be ready to build more? Did you think that your multi-racket club was going to be so involved in the padel ?

AH - With 6 courts of Padel, 5 squash courts and 2 tennis courts, our structure is one of the few to offer these 3 sports on the same site. We can always develop more, but the construction of padel must be linked to a real desire for development based on passion and hospitality. This sport requires greater involvement than other racket sports because it is necessary to put players in touch, make them discover the activity and teach them the basics of the game. At the Mas we are always concerned with innovating and offering New projects.

PM - You are very involved in the padel. There are a lot of new players starting out. What would be your first tip?

AH - First of all, this sport is a fun game. We must therefore take advantage of the team side. Then, you will have to make the effort to learn to use the structure very quickly to switch in the mind Padel, and finally to face a lot of different opponents to gain experience. Let's not forget that the world n ° 1 at 37 years old.

CC - You have to get closer to a real specialist in padel to avoid taking bad habits. Especially if the player is a tennis player because quickly, we realize that it is a sport in its own right that must be respected as such. Alain and I come from tennis, and we specialized in padel and its teaching.

PM - Your book is a gateway for tennis players who are discovering the padel ? What is the hardest part for a tennis player to move up to padel ?

AH - The originality of the book is to make the transition from tennis to padel. The confirmed tennis player must put his ego aside in order to use his tennis skills to put them at the service of the Padel. The advantage for a tennis player, a squash player or a table tennis player is that he will not start at the padel.

CC - he will have to agree to become a beginner again in certain phases of the game in order to progress better afterwards. Agree not to play tennis on a padel, but putting his tennis skills at the service of building a padel.

PM - The culmination of this book is a long journey. Can you tell us why you wrote this book and how did you approach the approach of this book?

AH - We have worked a year and a half to offer this book. The objective was to create a tool in French for understanding this game. Everything has to be created in terms of pedagogy and training. It is this challenge that is the trigger for this work. Starting from tennis, the big brother of Padel, we show that the Padel is a sport in its own right with its own techniques and strategies.

CC - Since 2009, I am the only person in France to come to all the clubs to help them. First within what we believed to be a federation of padel, then with the National League and now with Padel Tennis Academy.

As time goes by, Alain and I are still in so much demand in terms of pedagogical training, we wanted to respond in a global way by presenting and analyzing the padel compared to tennis, his new home.

PM - Your courses are different even though tennis is a common matrix. Will this book allow those who have never played tennis to help them technically?

Ah of course. Even if it will be easier for a tennis player to walk with us towards the Padel, this book is also aimed at the non-racquet sportsman by also explaining the essential rules, the adequate equipment and of course the techniques and playing patterns necessary for a good practice of the racket. Padel.

CC - Especially to them !!!!

This book will first show them that you don't have to be from tennis to start the game. padel and have fun there.

We regularly see very good tennis players, still in activity, losing against tennis specialists. padel having had a much lower "tennis" level. One plays tennis on a padel, and the other plays padel… And it's a real pleasure for non-tennis players to compete with tennis players…

PM - Finally, last question. How do you see the future of Padel in France. ?

AH - Cédric is one of the people who got involved and campaigned for the Padel integrates the tennis federation. We followed him with other clubs from the start in his fight to make things happen. Today, it is done. The FFT has just welcomed the sport which could allow it to gain 250 to 500 licensees in the next 000 years, if not more. I sincerely believe that the Padel is a chance for tennis. It must be given the means to develop. For this there are solutions, the first of which is to create a license PADEL to accurately measure the evolution of practitioners. The Padel is not beach tennis even if I respect this discipline.

The federation must go faster to structure and train. In 3 years of existence of Padel within my club I have never had a visit from a member of the federation.

Covering and developing Roland Garros is an undeniable necessity, but keeping and increasing the number of its participants is even more so. Suggest, move, innovate to always move forward and progress, the Padel goes in this direction.

With or without federation on Padel will develop and more and more tennis players will go to the Padel while the reverse will be rarer. As in Spain private circuits already exist, sponsors and passionate personalities are already involved in this development.

You can practice tennis without a license and you can practice padel without license in private structures exclusively Padel. The Federation must give new clubs and new players the desire and the need to integrate the great family of tennis.

CC - Indeed, the integration of padel at the FFT was my goal and that of the LNP. The padel has since July 4, 2014 a solid and lasting structural basis which now allows it to project on the medium and long term.

In this, the future of padel is assured and will therefore be positive. As in the rest of the world, its notoriety continues to grow and the number of clubs and players too. And the goal in France is for him to be at the maximum in the FFT, even if the clubs that are set up are private.

Unfortunately, since its integration, the FFT has hardly wished to open up to understand this sport and to be interested in what was happening before in France and abroad. Structurally (National League), sports (French competitions, international formats of games), or educational (training in place). And the decisions taken are debatable and question on the consideration made to this sport.

For example, in sporting terms, France is the only country in the world to use a no-ad and super tie-break game format, or even 9 games (which completely distorts the sport: Does Richard GASQUET would have won his match in Montpellier when he was led 6/1 3/0 by an opponent in a trance if the format of play had been in 9 games?). Even if it is adapted to private circuits which play on a weekend, the search for a license at all costs does not give the example of a sport treated in its own right.

The men's France team was also European champion in December 2015, and the girls vice-champions of Europe, without the slightest interest of the FFT (no financial support, not even team outfits from France , nobody on the spot etc ...).

Even the book has not attracted much interest.

In other countries the padel is developing more alongside federations than within them. It would be a shame if it were like that in France because all the work I did was in the direction of the FFT with the help of the Ministry of Sports.

Interview by Franck Binisti
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.