Two years ago, Xavier Dumortier [1], showed that the padel does not fit into the strategy of the clubs project in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, and that there is a lack of culture of padel in clubs. We cannot draw an overall conclusion, but we tend to think that this lack of culture padel is the case of most clubs in France given that this practice is recent on French territory.

In addition, he cites some external criteria that may impact this lack of development of the padel in tennis clubs; he first cites the economic situation which forces tennis clubs, most of the time being associations, to pay attention to their expenses. Then he refers to the certain delay in private commercial competition.

Besides the external criteria, he highlights the fact that the leaders do not feel a particular desire of the practitioners to play the game. padel. This criterion remains to be demonstrated given that the padel succeeds in developing in private commercial structures and that the Tennis Federation has the will to develop this practice. It must have been hard to believe that the Federation wants to give so many subsidies if the demand from the licensees is not present. In addition, it highlights the fact that the most resistant to the arrival of padel in a club are the leaders, or the oldest teachers, the latter wanting to remain in a pure practice of tennis.

In the opposite direction, it indicates that some clubs develop this new activity in order to stand out from other clubs, especially when they are in a geographical area dense in terms of the number of clubs.

Finally, Xavier Dumortier demonstrated that half of the region's teachers are ready to teach padel with the will to train. He thus draws up the profile of the future coach of padel : a young, male tennis teacher practicing padel regularly. However, these future teachers, represented by young tennis teachers, will surely be more attracted to a second, better paid job in a private center.

[1] DUMORTIER Xavier, “The approach of the sports club and its players in new federal disciplines: the example of padel in tennis clubs in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, master's thesis 2, University of Lille 2, 2015-2016

Pierre Lemonnier

Pierre studied STAPS, and validated a master's degree in sports management, after studying in Reims, Frankfurt and Lille. I discovered the padel in 2014 during my Erasmus year in Frankfurt thanks to a Spanish friend. Damn it is good padel !

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