In a series of articles we will share with you parts of the research dissertation dedicated to the development of paddle tennis Paulo Dornberger. This is the first episode dedicated to the study work of this French amateur player, supported in April 2024 as part of his Master’s degree in Sports Management at UFR STAPS in Nantes.
To begin this series, we present one of the topics Paul explores in his research work: the favorable context of the post-Covid period for the exponential growth of padel.
A time of change for sport
At the end of 2019, China fell victim to the spread of a virus that quickly spread from territory to territory and across the world: the COVID-19 crisis. In France, this health crisis assumed major proportions, provoking political intervention. In fact, following an exponential increase in the number of cases in France, the President Emmanuel Macron made the decision to implement a confinement of the population on March 17, 2020 in order to limit social interactions and therefore the risk of contamination.
It’s mainly that Social aspect what’s interesting here. During this period we observed a restriction on the social life of the population, who must then live isolated at home, only opening up to the outside world through precise and regulated tests. This process of social distancing has been talked about in the field of sport. Sports infrastructures were closed,canceled sporting events, sanctioned outdoor sports groups.
The cessation of the population’s sporting life impacted institutions with go to sleep of the activity of sports associations and commercial structures during this long period. In May 2020, CNOSF summarized the impact of the crisis on the sports field. The numbers are therefore interesting and show to what extent the practice of physical activity and sports has become more complex. These are, therefore, “ 76% of associations and 50% of commercial organizations » who interrupted their activity.
We then ask ourselves here whether the confinement and sporting restrictions caused by the Covid-19 health crisis also had the consequence a transformation of sporting desires Population. If some enthusiasts remained faithful to their favorite sport(s), others discovered other forms of practice in which they wanted to continue their path.
Le padel, a new way of doing sports
This period gave rise to the diffusion of innovative practices, popular abroad and which became even more integrated in this social context, such as padel. Indeed, after confinement, the sporting desires of practitioners are evolving towards less traditional practices and the popularity of padel experienced a boom during this period in Spain, which meant that the sport became more widespread in France and more generally. in the world after the crisis.
But then, is it legitimate to ask why padel didn’t become popular sooner? Or even why padel became democratized even though it was a sport that could not be practiced during the health crisis?
Le padel, in the aftermath of this crisis, is a sporting discipline that met the new expectations of athletes for its main qualities: conviviality, accessibility, fun… From 2015, Patrick Mignon (author of “ Reference point – Sports practice in France: evolution, structuring and new trends “) tells us about the emergence of new search criteria for athletes : well-being, personal balance and sociability. We must, therefore, believe that in a context of crisis where sociability has been considerably reduced, this research criterion has developed strongly with the resumption of physical and sporting activity in France.
This is also what we can see in the responses to the questionnaire given to professionals in the metropolitan area of Orléans, where the most reported criteria for practicing padel are the fun and spectacular appearance (85.1%), but also sympathy (79.2%). We noticed that sociability is mentioned by half of the interviewees.
If we push the place of padel in the context of Covid-19, Padel Magazine published a study by Lorenzo Lecci Lopez demonstrating that le padel could be an anti-covid sport. The Covid crisis has affected the mental health of athletes, and padel, with the qualities it knows, would benefit in this area: the fight against isolation, anxiety and depression.
The padel growth factors
Despite a complicated context, the company Monitor Deloitte takes stock in 2023 of what allowed, according to them, in the aftermath of the health crisis, to guarantee the good development of padel. Firstly, household purchasing power in sport would have remained stable and spending on sports would increase by up to 8% per year.
Furthermore, we observe the evolution of modernized sporting practices and increasingly developed media coverage of events. Thus, the report notes that by 2023, three out of four French people practice some sport, half of them at least once a week. We therefore have here proof of a revival of sports in France after the Covid period, which is beneficial for the development of youth sports such as padel.
The study then distinguishes several padel growth factors such as the the strong interest of tennis players, the sociability of practice, increased visibility by public figuresor the importance of private actors.
