Focus on the Squash Club Parc Ducup. Located in the east of Perpignan, the club was opened in April 2015 but the party padel was added in April 2016. Mickael Place opens the doors to his multi-sport club with, in particular, squash, padel and a "home" fitness area.

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Can you tell us about your journey?

Well, I'm going to surprise, but I'm not from padelnor a racquet sport, my field is nutrition / fitness / sports coaching. This sports club is in a way the project of my life because I have grouped my passion, my skills and magnificent sports that are the padel and squash.

Yet you did not start by putting in padel...

Indeed the padel came in second. First, I focused on indoor practices: My basic profession, sports coaching, with modern methods and techniques adapted to athletes and squash. We have 4 courts.

Then the premises were released and at the same time I discovered an exciting sport the padel thanks to the Mas club in Perpignan which was at the time the only club to offer padel and to Mathieu Oribes, President of the tennis club of Saint Esteve. Mathieu joined the project padel In the center.

But we were lucky to have a space that became available close to our premises. We jumped at the chance to offer a new activity on padel.

We put the 4 fields of padel. 1 outdoor, 2 semi indoor and 1 indoor.

Soon 1 year of padel...

It is an exploding sport; many squash players pass on the activity padel. We have 2 teachers of padel : Leo Decarli and Laia. He is Argentinian and she Catalan. They both come from Rosas to give lessons in padel 3 days a week.

Are there going to be some changes?

The semi-indoor pitches will soon be fully indoor. No more wind, no rain on these grounds because in Perpignan, it can sometimes scold loudly. On the other hand, our outdoor terrain will remain outdoor. There will be no changes at this level.

The club offers more and more events related to padel ?

We had the Padel Infinity most recently with difficult weather conditions, but we still managed to complete our tournaments. We will offer tournaments of padel at the end of each month.

We offer educational tournaments every Saturday morning. Our teacher is part of this group of 8 to give advice. It works very well.

We also have grill nights in perspective for the summer season.

However, the club remains very focused on the leisure and not on the competition, even if one develops it for some time.

Combine sports coaching with padel, coming soon ?

It is indeed expected. We set up specific physical preparation for padel.

Group preparation starting in April will be planned.

These are groups of 10 people with a coach. We will do this once a week. All the people who participate in competitions will thus be able to have a preparation dedicated to padel with work with the racket.

It will be a big first in the middle of padel and I believe we will have a great return.

Interview by Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.

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