Playing padel better for longer: POSSIBLE!

Can you work hard at padel and preserve yourself? Can you avoid injuries when playing padel regularly? If the “bobos are part of the life of a high level athlete", You will see that we can nevertheless avoid them or at least mitigate them if we manage to know well / prepare his body.

Are injuries sometimes preventable? Jean-Luc Charrier, Professor of biomechanics (Knowledge of movement) at the Toulouse Institute of Osteopathy (ITO) and osteopath, among others for the French Open of Padel and the Intercontinental Cup of Padel returns to these subjects often discussed between high level players.

Padel Magazine : “Before we get to the heart of the matter, are you a padel player?”

Jean-Luc Charrier: “I played padel at the Hers club and in particular with Laurent Combes, the former coach of the French padel team in the years 2005/2010.

So I took care of the women's padel team about ten years ago.

Meeting Claude Baigts allowed me to get into padel with Laurent. Since then, I have been involved in padel, more or less.

I have resumed work in padel since the French Open of padel on the Place du Capitole in Toulouse. And here I am in Morocco in Dakhla, at the Intercontinental Cup of padel where we try to treat the injuries.”

PM: "Why do players come to you in general?"

JLC: “In general, players complain of lower back pain. But also pain in the shoulders, ankles, hips, and sometimes even the neck. These are most often pains generated by over-stressing the joints, a consequence of the sport itself, since it is a racket sport. We also play on a relatively hard surface, even if in padel we play on grass.

The specificity of padel is that players have more joint problems than pure muscular pain such as strains, contractures, tears.”

PM: "What to do to prevent these pains?"

JLC: “It’s always complicated. These players in these competitions like the French Padel Open or the Intercontinental Padel Cup can be considered high-level athletes. And the problem is that they don’t always have the appropriate medical follow-up. Conclusion: At some point, it gives way.

In the high level: There are no miracles. We need regular support. It is a cost, but if we want to last and hope to evolve, we must put the package on this necessary and essential medical support to prevent a large number of potential injuries.

Many athletes regret most often not having done the necessary earlier hoping to pass between the drops. And in the end, it costs a lot more physically and financially. "

PM: "You speak to us of high level and also of cost. Can you specify? "

JLC: "The high level has nothing to do with the level or results of the player. This is related to the frequency of training, tournaments and the degree of involvement simply of the sportsman in his sport.

This means that the body is more attacked than normal. A high-level athlete trains, hurts himself, regularly plays padel tournaments. The mistake a player can make is to think that he is not a high-level player because he does not have the expected results. But a beginner who trains 4 hours a day, for example, 6 days out of 7 is considered a high-level athlete. His body is attacked in the same way. We speak of high level when a player practices this sport regularly and intensively.

Finally, the cost is a complicated subject. Obviously, if we can have the chance to have a medical staff at the Roger Federer, this is the ideal. His bodily intelligence allows him to continue playing at an extraordinary level despite the extreme roughness / imbalance of the sport. And we notice more and more sportsmen in many sports that play very well longer.

It is thanks to an optimal physical / medical preparation of these athletes.

Those who are not Roger can also anticipate aches and pains by going to the osteopath once a month to examine and rebalance what can be. In the end, it is a moderate cost compared to, for example, the price of a padel racket, a tournament, a court rental, etc.”

Following the interview ... HERE:

Sportsmen: Preserve yourself!

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.