English
Padel, the racket sport that is rocking Holland, continues its march and spreads around the country. From the six locations available only three years ago, Hollands counts today more than twenty. Every month several new courts are built. The rage has finally reached Friesland, with the addition of TV Joure.
The story of this project resembles the situation of many tennis clubs in the country, as explained by one of the pioneers of padel in Friesland, Jan Zeilstra. Jan, together with his colleague, Robert den Dunnen, were in great part responsible for convincing others to invest in a padel court.
Why padel?
Indeed, like many other tennis centers TV Joure needed renovation. Some of their tennis courts were not being utilized. The amount of members was much lower than during its former years of glory. Could a renovation come to solve the decline in members?, wondered Jan and Robert. And so, they started developing a project that would include the construction of new facilities. Some of the additions are suitable for a younger target, for example, colorful mini-tennis courts.
As the project evolved, having had contact with padel in the past and seeing the positive experiences in Holland, they decided to include one padel court in the project. Bringing a new racket sport to the center would attract a new target group. It would make a new sport available to their existing members as well. They were clever in thinking that it is both important to please existing members as well as attracting new ones that are not interested in tennis. Thou padel will probably not attract more people to play tennis, it will surely add new life, energy and enthusiasm to the club. And they are thinking even further; building a second court and replacing the lava surface by a harder concrete layer is something for them to consider.
Today TV Joure is getting ready for its opening event. It will take place on 25th of June at 13.30 hrs, featuring players from the National Padel Team -Cindy Huberts and Sabine Schuttelaar- and former tennis pro John van Lottum.
