Starting point
Generally speaking, the quality of balls has been declining over the last few years: they don't last as long, lose pressure more quickly and are more expensive!
The directors of Rueil Athletic Club (RAC), based in Rueil-Malmaison in the Ile-de-France region, are aware of the budgetary and ecological challenges posed by this situation, and are actively seeking solutions to remedy the situation. After all, tennis is one of the most polluting sports, and most of the pollution is caused by tennis balls.
Carole Dussaix, a member of the RAC board responsible for infrastructure and CSR, and Jérôme Simbozel, director of the tennis section, bear witness to this commitment, particularly through the search for innovative solutions such as the Bounce Pro, which would enable the club to make savings on balls while improving the quality of the balls offered to members and pupils and reducing their environmental impact.
The RAC Tennis Club in figures:
- Number of courts: 20
- Number of members: 1,300
- Number of students: 600
- Number of instructors: 10
- Number of balls used per year: 6,400
The objectives of the Bounce mission at the RAC
- Reduce ball consumption
- Support the RAC academy in ball management and organization
- Offer a better quality of game to members
- Raise members' awareness of the need to sort their balls so that they can be recycled
- Continue to make progress in ball recycling
What is the Bounce Pro?
The Bounce Pro is an innovative solution that can hold up to 400 balls of any type and enable them to be repressurised by recreating a pressurised environment of new balls.
This innovation was enthusiastically welcomed by the RAC, leading to a three-month trial period (= 2 ball cycles for the RAC). This initial stage, highlighted by Jérôme Simbozel, director of the tennis section, enabled the team to get to grips with the solution, to find the best way of organizing it to optimize results, and finally to confirm the effectiveness of the Bounce Pro, particularly on clay, where the increase in ball life is almost 40%.
The practical application of Bounce Pro
As well as significantly extending the lifespan of the balls, the adoption of Bounce Pro has led to an internal reorganization around the balls, orchestrated by the academy's managers.
Today, each teacher has 2 personal sets of balls: one set of balls with which he or she teaches for a week and which he or she returns to his or her personal locked locker at the end of the day, and one set of balls which is repressurized in the Bounce Pro for 1 week.
The two Bounce Pro referees, using their "universal pass" keys, replace the balls in all the teachers' lockers once a week with those that are being repressurised in the Bounce Pro. This operation, which only takes a few minutes a week for the 2 referees (and therefore has no impact on the rest of the teachers), consists of depressurising the Bounce Pro, swapping the sets of balls, repressurising the Bounce Pro, and putting the pressurised sets of balls back into each teacher's locker.
The results speak for themselves
Enthusiastic reactions
Teachers and members are unanimous in their satisfaction. The former emphasise the efficiency of the process. They can now train players of all levels with better balls, although this is not a constraint for them.
From the members' point of view, "the absence of negative feedback on the balls since the adoption of Bounce Pro is the best indicator of this success", explains Jérôme Symbozel. This initiative has considerably improved their quality of play.
What about recycling?
Although already involved in the FFT's Operation Yellow Ball, the RAC has decided to go one step further by setting up a system enabling them to collect (and therefore recycle) more of the balls used at the club. To do this, Bounce sorting bins have been installed at strategic points around the club.
In addition, to maximise the impact, a communication campaign (posters and emails) was set up in collaboration with Bounce to raise members' awareness of the need to reduce their environmental impact by adopting good practice.
In conclusion, a fruitful partnership
The RAC's experience with the Bounce Pro and the Bounce sorting bins is a perfect illustration of how innovation can transform sporting practices by making them more sustainable and economical. The positive feedback from teachers and members reinforces the club's belief in the potential of these new technologies for sport. Thanks to its successful collaboration with Bounce, Rueil Athletic Club is now a benchmark for environmental commitment in the world of tennis.
In the coming weeks, the club will be offering a Bounce Tube to certain members so that they too can benefit from the triple gain - economical, ecological, quality of play - during their individual games. Bounce Tubes will also be on sale in the club's new Pro Shop.
We are proud to welcome Rueil Athletic Club to the #BounceTeam, demonstrating once again the positive impact of our innovative solutions on the tennis community.
Watch the full RAC feedback in the video below