Le paddle is a sport relatively new in comparison to the other racket sports that most closely resemble him, namely tennis and squash.

In France, since 2014 and its incorporation into the French Tennis Federation, its expansion has continued to grow and more and more competitions are taking place.

The president of the French Tennis Federation aims « 1000 padel courts " at the end of his mandate which ends in 2020. Padel even has the ambition of becoming Olympic in 2024.

Sports performance in padel is conditioned by different determinants: physical and physiological qualities, specific sports skills and competitive strategies. Padel, like tennis and squash, is characterized by fast starts, braking, numerous changes of support, repeated hits, where many muscle groups intervene, ranging from submaximal intensities to periods of moderate or low activity.

However, studies on this sport are very few, even more so in our country. That is why I decided to write a dissertation, to determine, based on a precise analysis of the task, the physical demands, that is, the distances covered and the speeds of movement, as well as the physiological demands necessary for padel, that is, the average heart rate, the blood lactate level and the evaluation of the perception of effort. This will allow us to suggest the training and evaluation guidelines that seem best suited to the preparation of the padel player of the coming years.

Matthieu Lebourgeois is a sports physiotherapist and physical trainer. He takes care of amateur padel players from rehabilitation to re-athleticization and regularly plays padel as a hobby. Matthieu intends to test himself in competition and show his talent!

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