Julien Bercovici: "French Touch Academy, a great project padel"| Padel Magazine

French Touch Academy, the academy of Cap d'Agde continues to grow. Its development is very inspiring, and many innovative projects for the padel but also for tennis, are emerging. Julien Bercovici explains them to us.

Internships padel from 2021

“We want to continue our momentum with the padel thanks to Robin Haziza. He works alongside us as a mentor, a speaker etc ... We are gradually setting up a project, which will materialize in 2021, through internship weekends. We will offer these courses to adults, but also a few weeks of intensive courses that will take place at the academy. So there will be big, long weekends with good marketing. ”

“These internships will allow to increase notoriety, and to bring a clientele of enthusiasts of different levels.

“At the same time, during the summer, we will invite those passionate about padel to do a few big weeks of preparation. All of this is supervised and developed by Robin. He will have at his side an assistant, or a second coach. ”

New courts to host major events

“Our strategy vis-à-vis padel is limited to 2021, because we have only 4 courts of padel exterior. We are preparing for the future, because at the end of 2021, we will have our new covered structure. So there will be 4 courts of padel indoor, including a center court with clearance on the sides to be able to put stands. It will be a field that can host major events. "

“We are preparing for the future with a real big project in 2022 which consists of creating a much larger offer over all periods of the year, because we will have indoor and outdoor courts.”

Surround yourself with the best to succeed

“I think that with Robin we will succeed in creating one of the most competitive and friendly structures at the same time.”

“We are also continuing our collaboration with Alix Collombon who we help and who helps us. She's a girl I believe in. She has personality, she has everything you need to create these concepts. ”

“There is a problematic conflict of interest”

“Even if the FFT has somehow attributed the licensees of padel, they have taken, or appear to have taken, this responsibility of developing the padel. I think we will stay in a conflict of interest which is very problematic, for the simple reason that the major decision-makers in French tennis (club structures) will always have a protectionist vision. These are people whose average age is high and who experienced this golden era of tennis, who grew up in clubs, who invested a lot. These people are attached to tennis. It is thanks to them that tennis is not doing so badly in France. ”

“There is a paradox, because these“ big voters ”are not negative on the padel, but they're definitely pro-tennis, and that's in their blood. Despite them, there will always be this protectionism which will prevent the padel to enter the tennis association sphere, which will not encourage its development. This is why I believe so much in private structures, and a form of structuring supported, I hope, by the FFT to help these structures. Thus, we will be able to create this new ecosystem of racket sports. It is a waste of time to try to integrate the padel importantly within tennis clubs. A structure of padel who does not have a minimum of 6 courts with indoor courts cannot create a virtuous circle. I absolutely do not see the big voters of tennis putting in neither the budget nor the effort, because they see it at the same time a danger, and at the same time a non-respect of their traditions to them. "

“It's a complicated subject, and I hope that the private sector will be able to structure itself to organize, collaborate with the FFT, find its investors. This will require the padel gets much more media attention. We do not show enough the padel so that it can become a mass sport. The potential of padel is obvious. "

“A sport-studies padel"

“We hope to mount a training center, and why not something that could be closer to our academy activity. Maybe one day a sport-studies padel. This is something that interests us. It's our job, our DNA on tennis since always, so we are also thinking about it for the padel. Why not come up with something for late 2021- early 2022. ”

“Our strategy in relation to padel is quite clear. We are waiting to have more elaborate infrastructures with 8 courts in total. We look forward to having this ideal structure to make all types of products, and all types of developments. We believe in it very strongly. ”

"The padel I care about it"

“I strongly believe in the development of padel, and I care. The sports ecosystem in France needs this kind of sports that bring everything together. We need something in the Spanish style that is still lacking in France. We want to put sport back at the heart of everyday life. In France today, the consumption of sport is very selfish, and little social bond is created. And we really need a social link in France. THE padel for that is really extraordinary. He has the power to address everyone. It has the advantage of giving access to the whole family. The padel can take the place of what tennis was 25 years ago, with that extraordinary atmosphere in the clubs. The padel can make people want to spend their day at the club again. ”

“Tennis suffers from that and I hope we can get it started again, but I think the padel has more assets. ”

Happy new year 2020

“The academy is doing very well despite this difficult context. We had a very positive year 2020 with many interns who helped us. This year, we had a very French clientele, due to the Covid. The foreign clientele who wanted to come could not do so. We still had a great summer season. ”

The novelty of tennis sport-studies

“We attacked September with our sport-studies, which we launched this year. We have a thirty players who follow the sports-studies program with us (schooling, accommodation, training, and the tournament follow-up part). They do everything with us! It’s going really well. We have a family of predominantly French players. We have a few exceptions: Swiss, German and Belgian. A group of 30 players is extraordinary to train. We can take care of it very well. We have time for everything. We have recruited four new coaches. Between coaches, physical trainers and coordinators, there are about ten of us today. ”

Ideal conditions despite the crisis

“We were very afraid with the restrictions of the health crisis and the confinement, but we are lucky to be able to continue our activity, thanks to the infrastructure that the city of Agde makes available to us. Insofar as we are a school, we have had the right, through the prefect, to'' train young people in this public structure. The latter is closed to the public, but it is accessible to us because it is part of our school program. So we have 30 players who train behind closed doors every day. This allows us to approach this land period (September-December) in real conditions of intensive work. And the atmosphere is very good! “

“We created a bubble to protect ourselves”

“Apart from sports and studies, not much will happen in the club until January. We are in a protectionist position. We are trying to protect young people. We decided to stop until further notice all the small events that we could organize, to avoid bringing the public into the bubble. We created this bubble to protect ourselves until further notice. ”

2021, a rich year

“In 2021, we will develop our two tournaments enormously. We are in the process of setting up a fairly important tournament schedule that will take place on the academy site. TMCs for young people, TMCs for adults, and different categories. We will create a lot of things, and at the same time, continue our development to welcome more interns. We also want to increase our sport-studies for the start of the September 2021 school year. We have something very virtuous, and it is ideal for us to work on the background and development of the academy. ”

Rafa Nadal Academy in Kuwait

“We manage the project at the level of the business plan, human resources, day-to-day management. We are in daily contact with them, and we normally spend one week per month in Kuwait. The launch went extremely well, but the Covid resulted in a long shutdown. Hundreds of people are lining up to join our club. There is a great sensibility for tennis in Kuwait. We have between 1000 and 1500 members in Kuwait which is much better than expected. There is more demand than supply. The collaboration with Rafa Academy Mallorca is very good. The project is going very well. It's a great commercial success. ”

Lorenzo Lecci Lopez

From his names, we can guess his Spanish and Italian origins. Lorenzo is a multilingual passionate about sports: journalism by vocation and events by worship are his two legs. He is the international gentleman of Padel Magazine. You will often see it on the various international competitions, but also on the major French events. @eyeofpadel on Instagram to see his best photos of padel !