A look back at the interview with Laurent Imbert, coach of the French boys' padel team, in the “Face-à-Face” Live on Instagram.

  • On containment

I am lucky to be in a house, that no one in my family is sick. It is necessarily complicated at the professional level: I work in real estate development and all the sites are at a standstill, my teams are teleworking. But that's how it is, I especially have a thought for sick people.

  • Regarding his discovery of padel

I discovered padel in 1990: the father of a friend who told me about a court that had just been built in Blagnac, he didn't know the rules, we played with wooden rackets. I had done a bit of all the sports and I became passionate about this sport. It was friendly, there was competition but not too much either, there were few of us. I went to Marbella in the summer to train, and when I played my first tournaments, even when I played against super strong players, we still had a drink together at the end. I was lucky enough in Andalusia to train with Bela, Juan Martin Diaz.

  • On his experience and his arrival in the French team

There weren't many people playing and the coach at the time told us about the world championships in Madrid. I had 8 months of padel, we ended up at La Moraleja, in 1992, in Madrid, I wondered a little what I was doing there. We ended up playing against Horacio Clementi, Bebe Auguste, Roby Gattiker, Alejandro Lasaigues who were superstars at the time, it was incredible. Then I continued, 1994, etc.

  • On the evolution of padel

At the time, the grounds were walled, with wooden rackets, it came out much less from the windows. In addition, the server could not go up. It was the turners who went up to the net. It was a much slower, less aggressive game.

It's much more fun to watch today, much more spectacular. I hope they will just pay attention to the material, to avoid that it becomes “pigeon shooting”.

  • Regarding his role as coach of the French boys' padel team

Today it is complicated in view of the economic situation. The competitions in 2020 are very compromised. I did not have time to see the players. I talked to Sandy Godard, and I got closer to Alexis Salles since he has already taken care of young people. I had followed their journey last year and I was able to benefit from all the information provided to me by Alexis. I will contact them via their parents once we have found a certain normalcy.

When we come out of this complicated period, I think that the FFT will do everything it can to encourage young people and families to play padel.

  • Potential in young boys?

I spoke about it with Alexis, all the players have qualities, but he was particularly impressed by Yohan Boronad, who was only 12 years old, and joined the U14 team in the middle of competition. He is a player on the left, Alexis made him play on the right and he adapted very well to all these circumstances. All the players were up to the event but let's say that if we had to take two who broke away, it would be Yohan and little Arthaud.

Among the hopefuls, of course the one with the most potential is Thomas Leygue. It's a loss for the juniors, but a gain for the seniors for sure. For me, given his level of padel and his age, he is certainly the best equipped to do something in Spain. It won't be easy but he's doing everything he can to get there.

  • On the possibility of playing padel after 40 years

Padel has evolved a lot, today there are still some Martians of padel like Bela, Juan Martin Diaz. But when we see the new generation like Galan, Lebron, I think it will get younger. Padel has become much more professional in recent years and we see more and more physical players. We will always have some exceptions, like Federer in tennis, but if padel continues to develop in the world, if there is a kind of ATP of padel in the world, I think that the profiles of 40-year-old players will no longer exist.

Be careful, you should know that padel is a very physical sport, in Lyon when he played with Robin Haziza, Gaël Monfils had cramps in the locker room.

  • On the past of good French padel players

Almost all of them have a past as “good” tennis players, whether it’s Thomas Leygue, Johan Bergeron, Robin Haziza, Jérémy Scatena, let alone Adrien Maigret. We have the example of Pier Gauthier, a former ATP player, who started padel very late, and who is now a very good player.

  • Regarding Bastien Blanqué

I had already seen Bastien play at Blagnac, he was playing with Clément Arico at the time. Bastien was playing a little better than the others his age, then we started training a bit with him. I knew he wanted to change partners but I told him we could play together for a year or two. I wanted to help him grow in his game, he was 16 at the time. Finally we played two years together, we had a blast, we won the National Padel Cup. At some point he had to play with someone stronger. He played with Alexis, they won the National Padel Cup too.

For those who know him, he is someone who has had a huge physical transformation. He puts in a lot of effort, questions himself a lot, is very involved in what he does. With Alexis we have a privileged relationship with him.

To enter the Top 100 on the WPT, you already need a good partner. I find that the WPT system is very protective of the players who are already in the final tables. There is always this small chance quota in the draw. And I think another track may be the change of side. He can have a right player profile, which is generally a tactical player, especially with his mammoth tusk.

 

Find the + / Internet users' questions / INSIDE in the podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8No9zOk7cI&t=302s

Xan is a fan of padel. But also of rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel players, he finds atypical posts or deals with current topics. He also gives you some advice to develop your physique for padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the padel court!

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