On the occasion of Cupra Padel Point Tour held last weekend in La Ciotat, Alice De Caunes interviewed Marianne Vandaele, number 19 in the French rankings. The former player of the French team looks back on her start to the season, her passion for magnetism and her padel mission for the FFT.

The Cupra Padel Point Tour, une réussite!

This Cupra Padel Point Tour makes you want to play! Between the atmosphere, the decor... you really feel in a Cupra universe and it's really fun!

Objective 2023: get off to a flying start

I'm going to try to do all the P2000s, knowing that the last one, in Perpignan, I couldn't do. We are going to add the P1500s which will be added to the calendar, after a few P1000s too, but as we were saying earlier, there are more and more of them, almost every weekend so it won't be possible to do them all, but the objective remains to participate in as many tournaments as possible.

A complicity with Priscilla Heise

We found ourselves well with Priscilla, we “match” well. She is a hypnotherapist and I am a magnetist so we speak the same language, it's rather pleasant!

Combining magnetism and padel

It happened really naturally since I moved to Cassis, just next door. In fact, it was something that was practiced in my family, it's a bit of a hereditary transmission. I was doing it on my entourage and some time ago now, I decided to make the most of it for the people around me.

It would be good to bring that side to the athletes who need it. Magnetism acts on energy, so vital energy, on emotions and also on the physical aspect, so in fact it's a nice package, for example in the face of stress, in the face of the emotions that sometimes take over. on it, in prevention, so as not to injure yourself (everything that is contracture, tendonitis…) and it's super complete.

I'm thinking a bit about a package, about what I could offer because of course mixing my two passions, magnetism and padel, would be extraordinary. So I'm trying to think of a formula that could be interesting for the high level, so watch this space...

In Marbella, during the European championships, we did a meditation on the beach, it was amazing. I think pre-game rituals are super important, whether it's a personal ritual or a team ritual. There, it was in a team, with several people so if we talk about energy, it can be really powerful when there are several people. Me, I recommend it to everyone.

The French team: always a goal

The French team, Team France as we called it, is always a goal that is always in the back of your mind. Afterwards, there are more and more girls, the projects are different, finally there are plenty of things to take into account.

The primary objective, I told myself, was to have fun. We still have to set priorities because if we don't have the pleasure, I think we can't perform and I think we have to reclassify our priorities at the start of the season.

Marianne Vandaele

The development of women's padel at the FFT

We started in January 2022. We took stock of the situation and implemented actions for the development of women's padel, but the target was really initiation, that is to say, introducing the practice to women who have never played it because there are not enough female players at the moment. So here, in PACA, we are still well off, but it's true that if we go elsewhere, it may be less the case.

We propose these actions in the clubs that are interested and that are motivated to have many more female players. At the beginning of last year, we were the ones who proposed and it worked so well that it is the clubs that call me now. It is really encouraging because it means that the clubs want to invest in women's padel.

The objective that we have defined for this year, but which will be a little more in the long term, would be to reach 30% of women licensees, as in tennis, because there we are at a little less, around 15-16%.

Eleonore Coulibaly

What a pleasure to be a journalist in the padel world, an attractive sport in full expansion. I hope you enjoy the content offered. See you soon on the slopes!

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