…Not everything that comes out of Liam Gallagher’s mouth is sensible advice (to say the least), but, for racketlon, these lyrics are. Jules Riss, talented French player from Metz, recently embarked on an epic adventure, a ‘tour of the world of sport’, combining his loves of travel, sports, and meeting people, armed basically only with his bike and wanderlust (and a bit of sponsorship from the city government and Decathlon). His trip was a very old school, romantic approach to travelling; pitching up to people’s places, trying the local sports, and hitchhiking by boat. People’s generosity was incredible – and he found a great interest for racket sports. We (Joel Durston – JD) had a chat to Jules (JR) about his adventure and racketlon.
JD: It’s great to have you here to talk about your amazing trip. Can you explain how the idea came about, what it involved, and which countries you visited?
JR: Basically in September 2023, I made a world tour of sports. I mixed my three pleasures in life: sports, travelling, and meeting people. I left my hometown Metz, northeast France, to Gibraltar, by cycling 3,500 kilometres. Cycling for the first time for a few days in a row.
And sleeping at people’s places or sleeping in my tent. Arriving in Gibraltar, I left my bike, finally, to try to hitchhike by boat across the Atlantic, to get to South America. During all this trip, I would say the red line [common thread] was to try new sports or local sports. All the way, I’ve tried such different sports and multiple racquet sports.
JD: Awesome. What was your favourite sport or favourite sports?
JR: I really loved Basque pelota. You can play in southwest France and in Spain. But you have 17 varieties. You can play with your hands only… you can play with the wooden rackets called pelota…and you can also play with a shistera, a big wooden bucket, I would say, that’s fixed at your end and you play against the wall. So that’s a traditional and very specific sport and there is also another variety that you can play with rackets called frontenis. You play against a wall. It’s a very, very fun game you can play singles or doubles. Courts are different but it can be 50 or 70 metres. Very, very long courts.
JD: Did you find big interest in racquet sports everywhere you went and are there any potential new countries to play racketlon in?
JR: Yeah, honestly, I was quite surprised that in basically every country there was. We [racketlon] have never been in South America and I was quite surprised that badminton and squash were quite popular there. For sure in Colombia. I had the chance to play with Miguel Rodriguez, who is world #18 [in squash]. That was a crazy experience. And I’ve seen there are a lot of good squash facilities in Colombia and a lot of tennis players. Also, Argentina I think would be a good destination for a new tournament because a lot of tennis players for sure. Padel too. Even if it’s not in racketlon, but still – potential for racket sport over there.
JD: Are you on the FIR ambassador’s WhatsApp chat?
JR: I mean always when I’m travelling I always promote racketlon.
JD: I’ll get you on it. It started about a month or two ago, for everybody in racketon to promote it. Mandrin is doing some great work. He’s found, amazing venues in different countries… Singapore, Japan, Colombia. And I noticed recently they have actually started racketlon in Peru. They’ve got an Instagram page. They play padel instead of squash. I guess they haven’t got squash courts, but close enough to call it racketlon I think.
JR: Oh, nice. Great! Good you are checking. I didn’t know they were playing racketlon in Peru. Singapore could be a good place, too. I didn’t go during my trip, but I used to live there and the facilities are crazy. There’s a venue of 25 to 30 badminton courts, with squash courts. That could be a very good place.
JD: Yes, Mandrin was showing some amazing venues, but the one in Singapore is probably the best of all. It has about 21 tennis courts, 12 badminton, 6 squash, and table tennis. It was like a whole sports village.
JR: Yeah, crazy!
JD: So you mentioned you just stayed with strangers. That’s amazing – a really old school way of travelling, which I don’t think people really do anymore. How did that work and what insights did you get about people and humanity from the trip?
JR: To sleep at people’s places is the best way to discover the country, the culture and different people, because it was really random. Like every day I was ringing on the door at different places, different countries. I learned so much from people and I’m just blessed with everything they gave me. I was a bit… I don’t want to say frustrated…but I could not give it back even if I paid some stuff or tried to help people. Sometimes I helped at the farm. But I could not give back what they were giving to me. In this time, we always hear bad news and negativity. And the trip just gave me the face in humanity and just showed people’s kindness all around the world. Even if you have different languages and different cultures, it’s universal. It gave a boost of positivity and I would do it again for sure!
JD: It’s really inspiring. I was very pleasantly surprised that you did it and people responded that way. It’s great.
JR: So a first step you could register on couch surfing. It’s free and you can meet local people or be a host to meet people from around the world. I think I’m going to register in France because I will be able to be to meet people and be the guide for my city.
JD: There is this phrase ‘pass it forward’, where you are paying back a favour from someone by doing a favour or good deed to someone else. So in this way, with Couchsurfing, I think you will actually be paying back people you stayed with on the trip!
JR: Yes, that is the point.
JD: I know it might be hard to judge as there are so many amazing places, but do you have a favourite place you visited and why?
JR: For sure, that’s a difficult question, but I really loved Cape Verde because I didn’t know anything about it and I was really surprised. There are different landscapes. You have different islands, one which is very green where you can do trekking and camping everywhere, another one which is basically a dessert, and finally another one which is a heaven, with heavenly beaches…very blue…very nice. And finally another one with a very musical culture and very good people where they know how to celebrate and party. I was there for New Year’s – one week of music in the streets and good atmosphere. So really a mix of everything. Very nice place that I recommend.
JD: Excellent. Do you got any racketlon trips and tournaments planned?
JR: Unfortunately, I missed the French Championships. I injured my foot playing football, so I should stay focused on racketlon. But for sure I’m going to play the next French championship in July. And I want to plan some adventure, abroad. When I do a racketlon tournament, it’s not only to play racketlon, it’s to meet people. It’s to visit a new country. It’s an excuse to do a new adventure, a new trip.
So maybe Finland. I would really like to go in Finland because I never been there. I saw the pictures last year. Lucas Steyer went there and it looks a very nice venue. Maybe stay a few days to visit Finland because during my trip I met a Finnish guy in in Colombia who invited me to visit his place.
JD: It’s only three hours by ferry to Tallinn in Estonia, for 30 euros I think, and it comes with a buffet.
JR: Nice, and I could visit the Baltic countries because I never been. And also Hamburg. I used to live in Germany and I have friends there. It’s a very nice place that I really appreciate.
JD: Any other comments?
JR: I am very happy to promote racketlon and I’ve seen with my trip there are lots of people passionate about racket sports and who could play racketlon around the world. So for sure we have to develop it, particularly in South America, and continue what we’re doing because we are doing great.
It’s very exciting to meet the racketlon community – always a good moment, not just about sports as you know, but also about gathering, partying, and sightseeing. I love this mix and feeling. It’s very exciting to meet new players – and players I know.
I would love to find ambassadors. At the Olympics, with Josselin Gadé, we went to the bar and met Yannick Noah, a very good French player who won Roland Garros back in the day. He was at our French Championships recently. That’s very good for the image of racketlon to find big names, to promote and develop the sport. I don’t know…one day Nadal could be the godfather for the World Championship…
JD: Yes, there’s lots of great stuff like that going on. Nick Matthew held a tournament in the UK. Alison Waters, a top female squash player, played in an international tournament. She did well – got to the final.
JR: Nice
JD: Tsitsipas was talking about it on Twitter. He was like, ‘What is racketlon?’ randomly? And you probably know some French/Swiss guys got Wawrinka involved. There are lots of bits of interests here and there. Mohammed [Tarik Koubaa] has got some amazing stars. He was at a tournament in Dubai and there was about 15 different pros that he talked to, including Djokovic, Rybakina, and Thiem.
JR: Mohammed, the best ambassador! [Gestures a heart] And it was a good initiative that Jocelyn and French players made a video at the French Championship, to gain visibility with some big sports pages – ‘what is racketlon?’ And this video has reached like 300K now. We received a lot of messages from people that want to try, so I think in each country we should try to feature with the big pages to gain visibility, to explain it’s possible to play racketlon because every time I say I play racketlon nobody knows what it is. But it’s beginning to become more popular.
JD: No one knows what it is in Norway, because we’ve only just started it. But I started playing mostly in 2015 in the UK and when I said then I played racketlon, even if at a tennis club or squash club, most didn’t know what it was. But a few years later I’d say when I said it was about 50/50, which is really promising. 50 percent would be like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got a friend who plays that’ or something.
JR: Nice. Word of mouth can be very fast.
JD: But it’s surprising to hear in France not a lot have heard about racketlon as what you guys are doing is amazing. Six teams at the World Championships…
JR: Yeah the organising team is great. I want to push it on in the future, be more engaged. I really want to congratulate the team.
You can see Jules at a tournament soon or learn more of his trip and what it taught him about people on this recent Tedx talk he did.
