When for his World Padel Tour Human Padel Open, we were able to discuss with physiotherapist Robin Camman, who worked during the competition.

Preparing players and caring for them after matches

Padel Magazine : Robin, can you introduce yourself. What is your story with the padel ?

Robin Camman: I am 28 years old, I am Albigensian and I work in Albi as a physiotherapist in a private practice specializing in sport and manual therapy.

I practice a lot of sports, but having started with tennis from a very young age, I very quickly got hooked with the padel. It was in Spain that I discovered this sport during my training as a physiotherapist and since 2018, I have been playing in competition, I am currently 173rd in France and I hope to climb the highest
possible ! (laughs)

PM: What was your role during the Human Padel Open?

RC: During the Human Padel Open, I was one of the two referent physiotherapists with a Spanish physiotherapist, Oscar, who has been following the players for six years now, to prepare and treat them before and after the matches, but also during the matches, in case injuries or if they call us for the fitting of a restraint/strap.

All the players come during the week because they know the importance of undergoing physiotherapy care, especially when you are a top athlete.

Fortunately we were not alone to manage so many players because we had seven very competent trainees during this big week. They helped us enormously to follow up on the players and I wanted to thank Cassandra, Rémi, Théo, Alban, Aimeric and Romain.

Lower back pain, plantar fasciitis, epicondylitis…

PM: In general, what problems do players come to you for?

RC: Players spend a lot of time with us actually. It starts during the pre-match where we will rather massage to prepare the body for the effort, work on joint mobility and the fitting of straps / restraints according to the request of each one.

Then, after the match, they come for support of muscle relaxation, reduction of tension, stretching, etc. This is when we keep them the longest, it can last more than an hour!

The main "bobos" that we have seen relate to lumbar pain by overuse of the area. When we see the players arching their backs to smash, we understand better! We also had plantar problems, as there are a lot of jumps which cause impacts in this area. There is also some stiffness in the lower body, which is normal when you see the biomechanics of the padel, the entire lower chain is put under enormous strain: players are constantly crouching or jumping and accelerating.

At the Palais des Sports, they had access to the ice bath, which is great for them so we sent them for a short cryotherapy session of three minutes generally, then they came to see us immediately for recovery (massage/mobilization ) often of the lower body only for the majority but also the whole body for others and for some more specific with inflammatory type injuries such as tendinitis / plantar fasciitis / epicondylitis that we tried to reduce as much as possible because they have to play matches intense the next day and they continue with another tournament only a few days later.

The players of padel professionals are athletes

PM: What are the characteristics of the players of padel ?

RC: There are several morphotypes as in all sports, and each morphotype has a specificity. Everyone therefore plays with the assets that their body gives them. If we take the example of Franco Stupaczuk, who is impressive because he is very explosive: he is not the heaviest or the most muscular on the circuit, on the other hand he develops enormous power in a short time. Hence this enormous capacity in smash that he was able to highlight throughout the week.

There are impressive players with their very developed but at the same time very explosive physique like Ale Galan who has a very dense lower body! We also see a Pablo Lima with a massive upper body: here too, everyone plays to their strengths and adapts their game according to their morphotype.

These are players who are all balanced at this level, they are all athletes. They train several times a day (strengthening/flexibility/mobility), have an adapted diet and regular monitoring. Whether women or men, they leave nothing to chance.

PM: We saw several players go through the cold bath, which one lasted the longest?

RC: It's true that most of the players went through the cryo bath and there was a bit of a challenge for some to try to last as long as possible. And what I can say is that it's not necessarily the youngest who stay there the longest!

PM: Do you have any anecdotes to share with us?

RC: There are a lot of them but we keep them between us out of respect for the players and the organization of the World Padel Tour.

I'll give you one anyway, which is a credit to the player in question. After his defeat, a player left us three rackets: he gave two to physio trainees and one to Enzo, the ball boys' mascot. Guess what his name was!

Xan is a fan of padel. But also rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel, he unearths atypical posts or deals with topical subjects. It also gives you some tips to develop your physique for the padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the field of padel !

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