The Medical Stadium is a 6000 m complex2 à Bordeaux-Merignac, at the heart of Euro-Pôle Santé. In this infrastructure are hidden 2 padel courts, which have specific purpose.
At the Medical Stadium, we work on the rehabilitation of high-level athletes, but also on getting certain people back into sport. Sonia Baudot, co-founder of the establishment, returned to the very principle of this infrastructure and the place of padel within it.
Above all, a rehabilitation center
Why Medical Stadium? It's before all a rehabilitation center, for a return to the best form after an injury. In this case, it is rather professional athletes that we are addressing. It is the last phase before returning to the field, with the same skills as before the injury.
The objective is to get athletes back on their feet as quickly as possible, avoiding recurrences. In reathletics, we are really on 1 1 to. We are not a rehabilitation center with one physiotherapist for three or four patients. That's the difference.
We work with certain professional clubs, which have physiotherapists, doctors, because behind them, we are able to provide truly individualized care.
The Stan Wawrinka case
It is within the framework of a re-athleticization that Stan Wawrinka had come. Following his surgeries, he had done a lot of rehabilitation. He started doing reathletics in Switzerland, then in Paris, then he came to the Medical Stadium. As he is a tennis player, we actually put him on our padel courts.
On the other hand, it is an operating company that today has these two padel courts and the three futsal courts. The entities work together therefore the rehabilitation center uses or may use the land padel depending on the athletes.
In Stan's case, he's a tennis player. Even if it's padel courts, we had him hit the ball on the tracks. When we have football or rugby players for example, we have partnerships with structures that have grass fields.
The second function of the Medical Stadium: health sport
The reathletics part, this is the core business of the Médical Stadium. But behind that, we also have sport-health. Today, we have a teacher in adapted physical activity, with around fifteen years of experience behind him, who works with large medical centers. We rather talk about exercise reconditioning.
So, that means that the objective of the Medical Stadium is also to maintain either movement and performance, or acquiring movement habits. And it goes from the professional player to the chronically ill.
So it's true that in the case of the Medical Stadium, sport is our medicine. We may be required to conduct assessments for business leaders, prevention assessments, and introduce them to padel courts. We show that playing padel today is accessible to almost all ages. Whether you're a man or a woman, you don't have to be a super tennis or squash player to have fun.
The usefulness of padel
We see it in the business world, we recommend physical activity. For what ? Because today, physical activity helps maintain your muscles. When business leaders, for example, do less physical activity, their muscle mass drops. And there, they disrupt their organism. A sedentary lifestyle today is nothing new, but it leads to heart problems.
Padel has this advantage, that when you have lost the habit of doing sports, you only need three friends. You can mix ages, genders… And above all, it's very fun. And when you have lost this habit, it is not always a pleasure to return to sport. Walking is no fun. Padel is fun.
A system that pleases?
Today, we are best known for word of mouth. Players who come and talk about it to those around them. We are not a big factory, with a lot of traffic. We prefer quality over quantity. We do a bit of goldsmith work.
We also have the idea of increasing our padel offer. Go from two courts to four, by sacrificing a futsal field. Today it's easier to find four players for a padel than ten for a futsal.
It was her brother who one day told her to accompany him to a padel court, since then, Gwenaëlle has never left the court. Except when it comes to going to watch the retransmission of Padel Magazine, World Padel Tour… or Premier Padel…or the French Championships. In short, she is a fan of this sport.