We were able to talk to Jean Dumartin, who finished third in the first P2000 of the season, alongside a certain Nicolas Rouanet.

Mini lawn tennis!

My beginnings in padel date back a long time indeed. I remember being invited to my girlfriend's family in Pamplona around 2005, and playing my first match against my in-laws (laughs). I then said to myself: “I don't understand anything about this sport, not even the rules (I was really into tennis at the time), but it's still super fun this mini-tennis on grass ( laughs)!”

Then nothing at all for many years because being from the Basque Country, there was only one indoor court in the whole region so it was extremely difficult to be able to play.

The real boom in padel only arrived with us around 2019. So I would say that my real start in this sport dates from December 2018 with the P500 from Les Bruyères to Pau. Nice anecdote, I had the chance to learn a little lesson for my first tournament against Bastien Blanqué who was already French champion at the time! Suffice to say that I had absolutely no knowledge of the codes of this discipline: I played in futsal shoes, football shorts without a pocket and with a ball in my hand (laughs).

Tennis, football, and padel !

Tennis rocked a large part of my youth. I was in sport-studies from the 6th to the second with the aim of breaking into this sport. The year of my 16 years, I was then ranked 1/6, I had to make the famous choice between studies and tennis. With a teacher father, the meeting of my future wife, and the intimate conviction that it would be very difficult to make it my job, I decided to stop the high level and devote myself to my baccalaureate S then to my school. of engineer. I more or less quit tennis overnight because I didn't want to do it halfway.

I then turned to football for several years, being very curious to discover a team sport, and only then to padel.

Being a born competitor, and with my background in tennis, I went into every activity with the idea of ​​competing. From my start in the padel, I immediately wanted to progress quickly in order to be able to register in tournaments and climb the rankings as quickly as possible (without any real quantifiable objective at the beginning).

A margin of progress on the physical

I would say that I am a fairly regular left-sided player, with a fairly constant level of play, without too many air pockets and above all very combative. I have a visceral need to exteriorize my emotions with legendary “Muchoooo” or even with well-supported “chest bumps” (as my best acolyte in the field: Alex Perilhon can testify) (laughs).

Dumartin Perilhon chest bump
The chest bump of the duo PerilhonDumartin

I also think I have a nice weapon with my smash attack that I manage to trigger very quickly.
On the other hand, my enormous margin of progress is on the physical level... my last jogging must date from more than 10 years ago, and I bear the brunt of it as the matches follow one another and get tougher... It is not with my recent departure to Spain and all its culinary temptations that this is likely to change!

Fewer tournaments since he became a dad

I had to slow down in terms of competitions since October 2021 for family reasons.

I try to maintain one tournament per month but it's getting more and more complicated (I became the father of an adorable little Simón in June 2022).

A preference for left-handers

The fact of playing less and less in France increases my motivation tenfold when I can return. In addition, the idea of ​​being able to play with Nico Rouanet, who is in the thick of it, added a special flavor before starting this marathon of 8 games in 48 hours. When you play for the first time with a new partner, you have this strange feeling of wanting to do things particularly well, this need to prove to each other, and it turns out that our agreement was perfect during this weekend.

Rouanet Dumartin smash P2000 Bordeaux 4Padel 2023

I have a preference for playing with left-handers (I play primarily with Alex Perilhon), because they can relieve me physically, in particular by taking the middle zone as needed, both at the bottom and at the top.

A pleasure to beat Le Panse and Trancart

For the reasons mentioned above, unfortunately I will not be able to invest myself more, my objective is to be a good father and a good husband before being a better player (laughs)…even if I must admit that beating Team Kong (which seemed more like a “Team Pheasants” that day) always does a lot of good for morale and makes me want to get back to a tournament as soon as possible.

Aim for the Top 3-4 of the best pairs of Navarre

In Pamplona, ​​I was lucky enough to be integrated right away with the best players in Navarre and I try to train between once and twice a week.

I even took out a Spanish license so that I could play the Navarre circuit in the first division.
This region is not necessarily famous for having very high level players (note however that Jon Sanz is from Pamplona) but I would say that there are about ten guys who could easily play in the Top 50 or the French Top 20. I hope I can achieve a place among the top 3-4 pairs in Navarre.

Goal achieved !

I had set myself the goal over the years of getting into the French top 50, and to be honest, my departure for Spain at the start of the year, added to the reform of the 15 tournaments taken into account, meant that I did not think not being able to get there. Except that a small miracle happened during the P2000 in Bordeaux and here I am ranked 39th in the March ranking.

Rouanet Dumartin P2000 Bordeaux 2023

It seems quite complicated to me to be able to go higher in the rankings and hope for anything in the padel…however, I received a friend request on Facebook from a certain Pablo Ayma, I will have to find out who this person is and what he wants from me (laughs)

My next tournament will be the P1000 of the Central Sport Club at the beginning of April with a Nico Trancart not resentful a priori! I take this opportunity to warmly thank the Adour club in Tarnos and therefore the Central Sport Club in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, which have greatly contributed to my progress during these few years by allowing me to train in their pregnant.

Finally, our agreement will have been great with Nico Rouanet, but we have to be clear, he will soon join the academy of the Big Padel, will dedicate himself fully to this sport, and our trajectories will be diametrically opposed. I would be delighted to be able to do an "ultimo baile" with him soon, but projecting myself over a whole season is obviously not an option!

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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