Your opinion – Women and the padel : what pleases or displeases

Here is the continuation of our investigation on the padel women, the particular opinions and expectations of women who play or would like to play padel. In the first part of this investigation, we have seen that the ladies fall for the playful side of this sport, the atmosphere and the conviviality that reign there and the type of physical effort that it allows. Conversely, the 197 (!) women who responded to our questionnaire mostly believe that prices that are too high, the number of pitches that are too low and the still insufficient course offer are obstacles to practice.

After a quantified approach, the rest of this file allows us to give ample opportunity to those who have strong opinions and do not hesitate to express them, sometimes vigorously. We did not hesitate to quote certain redundant opinions, proof that they come up very often in your testimonies. This is particularly the case with women's tournaments, which have aroused much criticism, as well as the distribution of roles within couples. Vast debate, which goes beyond the padel...

► What you dislike

In particular, we asked you to specify which aspects you dislike and why. Here are your most salient answers.

■ Discrimination.- “When there is a women's event alongside a men's event, women are discriminated against. For example a tournament where we are given the balls and then we organize ourselves for the pool; a tournament where the worst slopes are necessarily for the girls; a tournament where the short formats are imposed on the girls”.

■ Take or put beatings.- “In some tournaments, we play three matches in two sets of four games, with heterogeneous levels: we beat or take beatings in 20 or 30 minutes. It's been 1h30 padel for 20 or 25€ the registration. Flight! Sometimes the levels of tournaments are heterogeneous. For example when girls from the top 80 or 100 enter in a P250, or players from the top 20 to 30 play in a P500, making the tournament as strong or almost as a P1000. To take beatings in the quarter-finals of a P500 by a top 10 player or in the half of a P250 by a top 30 player in twenty minutes, 4-0, 4-0, it's infuriating and it's a little disgusting... ”
■ Tournaments over several days.- “A two-day tournament is acceptable for a P500 or even three days for a P1000, with qualifying on the first day. But a P250 over two days is a waste of time, energy and money.”
■ Tournament endowment.-“Not offering prize money for P100 and P250, ok. But the clubs should have the obligation to offer gifts, because the players still pay between 15 and 25€! Not receiving anything when you win a P100 or a P250 is outrageous!”

Rates too high

■ Prohibitive prices.- “Prices for learning the padel are sometimes prohibitive: we were lucky enough to evolve in associations and to have cheap and regular access to land, which allowed us to progress a lot thanks to our friends who made us play. We also went alone to do some shopping for free. It doesn't exist in a lot of places and I think it puts off a lot of players. Access prices are far too high. Too few tennis clubs have invested in tennis courts. padel and allow as many people as possible to have access to it at an associative cost: between 2 and 5€ for 1h20 or an annual rate between 150 and 300€. A lot of players don't even play once a week or go to tournaments to keep the money for training.

■ Tennis mentality.- “The tennis mentality is increasingly coming to the padel ! I left tennis because I couldn't take it anymore, and it's starting to rub off on the padel ! Overall I play 95% of the time mixed!”

■ Feminine mentality.- “I don't like the mentality of women. They come for a lot of tennis, only play with each other and play from the baseline… It's not interesting.

■ Create parts.- “There aren't many easy ways to create games by level. There is Facebook by club but it's not great or WhatsApp but we're drowning in requests. So everyone creates his or her Whatsapp… In short, I miss it. There are not enough apps where you can immediately see the level of the games on offer.”

■ Too much waiting or matches.- “The duration of the competitions is a problem: one day is good, but what a wait between games! And there are sometimes too many matches: 4 or even 5 in one day for the classification matches.

■ Not enough tournaments.- “There is a lack of tournaments near my home. I have to give up doing P1000 or P500 tournaments for lack of money… so I do P250 and P500 for men when I find a partner.”

■ Organization difficult.- “When the tournaments are announced late, it's hard to organize: you have to be able to find a solution to watch the children for example.”

■ Too expensive, too crowded, too long.- “What I don't like: the price of renting the land, the lack of a financially attractive subscription; the great difficulty of reserving a pitch during peak hours; interclubs that start at different times; the allocation of a single pitch in competition which means that the waiting time can be very long.”

Too heterogeneous levels

■ Ranking “bought”, players too strong.- “The fact that you “buy” your ranking by doing as many tournaments as possible. The fact that P500 or P250 tournaments are open to top 50 players.”

■ The lack of beginners.- “I was frustrated for several months not being able to find games because I was a beginner and it is by playing that you progress. So I compensated with individual lessons.”

■ Levels issues.- “The self-assessed level of play discourages playing with strangers who overestimate themselves; in tournaments, the ranking does not always reflect the level of the person but above all the fact that he has done a lot of tournaments; during a tournament, it's super hard to play, sometimes stopping for an hour and then playing again...”

■ Padel and tennis.- “A tennis club that has been financed for a tennis court padel and lives only on the rental of the court. A tennis teacher who does not accept the arrival of a tennis teacher padel in the club. So no class!”

■ Heterogeneous levels, prices too expensive.- “There are too few tournaments, and too much heterogeneity of levels in the P250s. Some players find it too easy, others take plates. Tournaments are too expensive: €20 should be a maximum.”

► What should be improved?

After the criticisms, the slightly more constructive criticisms: we asked you about what should be changed so that the padel becomes a sport (almost) as feminine as masculine…

■ 100% female weekends.- “There will never be as many female practitioners as male practitioners. However, offering 100% women's weekends would help in my opinion. And especially pedagogy and communication from the FFT (?) to explain to women who play in P100 that they can also register in P250 and above, so that they have matches of homogeneous level in hens. ”

■ Mixity and federation 100% padel.- “We should maximize mixed tournaments of different levels so that girls can play with men. Organize friendly meetings by level in the departments so that other girls can discover the padel. Expand regionally as the level rises. Avoiding tournaments with a four-hour wait between two matches… Having a mixed team championship, better communication to get girls from other sports or girls who only go to sports halls… And of course, that a federation of padel may see the light of day!”

■ Trainings, gatherings and prizes.- “Internships and regional and departmental training should become more accessible, with less expensive memberships because women play less and are more often in leisure or with their families. Access to monitoring could be less expensive since there is a lack of coaches. We also lack exchange platforms, more frequent sports gatherings and a 100% federation. padel ! Club leaders could get involved for a wider audience of adults because land is often monopolized by schools, which are more profitable… But it's moving and it's on the right track! Even if in all sports there is a minority of women… society is like that.”

Rude and belittling

■ A free initiation or almost.- “Learning should be developed through free or semi-free courses to learn the basics. At the Castres club, the president organized 2 or 3 learning sessions which attracted between 8 and 12 girls: it was friendly, we learned, it was really good, motivating for us who were thirsty for progress. If we had been to Toulouse at the prices charged, I think we would have stopped!”
■ Stop discrimination.- “We must stop discriminating and always put phrases on the announcements of tournaments such as “open to women” or “women welcome”. It always reminds me of the time when black people were beginning to be integrated into our societies and where you could see “open to blacks”. I find it so rude and demeaning that we really need to stop this discriminatory behavior.”

■ More leisure tournaments.- “More women's tournaments, at reasonable times, because we are working. More P25 and P100 because the level of the players is too disparate. The majority of tournaments around us are P250s, unplayable for women who want to get started.

■ It's super expensive.- “We should train young people, that the federation takes care of the best under 20 years old. Review the new point system, totally demotivating, review the prices of tournaments, much too expensive (25 euros for a P100!). Offer annual packages because at the session, it's made for rich people... The equipment is also super expensive, with the racket to be changed every six months or a year...”

■ To change the mentalities.- “It's the mentality of women's sport in general that needs to be changed. The idea that sport is for boys and moms are at home…”

■ Tournaments and visibility.- “We need more mixed and women's tournaments, which are very poorly represented. And more visibility for women who play at a high level, especially in France. And also create mixed or female groups or evenings in clubs, once a month, in order to expand the network of female players.

■ Retaining women, a headache.- “In all sports, it's the same problem. It would have been necessary to carry out a questionnaire to know precisely why women cannot be faithful in their discipline. Depending on the age group, we come back to the fact of becoming a mother and the role of women once a mother. But of course there is something else, the clubs do not encourage women to compete. There are only small tournaments. “It costs too much to make a P500″, that's what we're told. You just have to think like men for one day to change. But we know that we are different and do not have the same priorities.

That men also take care of children

■ Girls and boys.- The girls have to really get into it and all the boys have to agree to play with girls, without prejudice.

■ Internships and prizes.- “There should be one-day refresher courses reserved for women. Preferential rates for tournaments. And no difference in reward between men and women.”

■ Do not hide women.- “We need more female referees, more female tournaments, more equality. And during tournaments, do not relegate women's matches to distant grounds when men are playing at the same time.

■ Do not cancel tournaments.-“I think we need to develop tournaments and possibly reduce the number of compulsory teams rather than canceling them, this would make it possible to meet potential partners, increase the number of licensees and therefore inspire others. .”

■ Sometimes reverse roles.- “Let the wife get into the habit of letting the husband look after the children more often, in the evenings included.”

■ More present men.- "That men are more present and active at home so that women can free themselves to go play."

■ Babysitting.- “Let the men let their wives play and agree to take care of the children so that they can play!”

■ Dream of another world.- “We need another world! In this patriarchal world this is almost impossible. Women are still fighting in tennis to have the same conditions then in padel... "

■ Stop sexism.- “Stopping the almost reflex sexism by giving bigger bags to men than to women or different rackets with pink colors or different shapes… when it changes absolutely nothing.”

Differentiate from tennis

■ Different priorities.- “The girls are less motivated it seems. And the priority of obligations for men and women is not the same. For tournaments, there are significant differences in levels and the girls are disgusted to play three matches losing each time 6/0 6/0. So for me the girls tournaments today are more for levels from 6, which scares people away.

■ More promotion.- “There should be more 100% female events and more promotion of padel feminine. As in all sports and in life in general, women are not put forward…”

■ Tennis = pollution? “We have to stop comparing this sport to tennis. No longer being polluted by female tennis players, because of their mentality and their game. Changing mentalities on the male/female ratio. We live in a very macho country compared to other European countries. We need to further develop the padel in general, to differentiate itself from tennis, by having its own federation.”

■ Make known the padel.- “We should develop the practice as I could see at Asptt Metz. It brought back a lot of women. The goal is already to make this sport known so that the atmosphere of the padel attracts more and more women. I would so much like to participate in the development of the padel feminine in the Grand Est!”

■ The role of clubs.- “Let the clubs play the leading roles themselves. That there is this desire on their part to promote the padel for women and it is not by stopping, for example, to do girls' tournaments because they are not profitable that we will get there.”

A big thank you to all those who expressed themselves, too many for all their contributions to be reproduced here. The ball is now in the court of the leaders and entrepreneurs of the padel in France, so that this sport becomes more feminine than many others.

Read here our other surveys

More Info on the padel female HERE

Jerome Arnoux

After 40 years of tennis, Jérôme falls into the pot of padel in 2018. Since then, he thinks about it every morning while shaving… but never shaves pala in hand! Journalist in Alsace, he has no other ambition than to share his passion with you, whether you speak French, Italian, Spanish or English.