"Antibes was a temple for me": Rodolphe Bouché, gymnast coach at the Pôle France for 30 years, leaves the Côte d'Azur

This isn't just an adventure; it's a whole part of his life that's closing in. Professional and personal. Thirty years ago, Rodolphe Bouché left his native Maine-et-Loire for the Côte d'Azur.

In his bundle, seven years of experience as a club coach and the thirst to discover a little more about this profession that excites him.

At the time, Antibes and its Pôle France were very much like the theatre of dreams. "If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't go anywhere else," the fifty-year-old confides with a confident voice.

"We were meant to meet"

Thirty years later, it's time to take a step back and look back. Without any bitterness, but rather to take stock of the path we've taken and to relive the memories.

"The culture of the Antibes school suited me," Rodolphe Bouché explains. "There was a closeness to Japanese rigor, an iron fist in a velvet glove. Demanding but not abrupt. People built this fortress of French gymnastics, when you enter it's like a church: you speak quietly, you try to find your place and contribute something. Antibes was a temple for me. That's what I liked; we were meant to meet."

At the Pôle, the technician joined the eleven existing coaches and gradually adapted. "Each coach had a group of individuals to lead and an additional gymnast. My work with individual athletes began in 2014."

The Angevin notably takes on Kévin Dupuis, Samir Ait Said, Loris Frasca and Léo Saladino. The duos form and taste all the major competitions with notable performances, not to mention the titles in the French team championship with the Antibes club.

"I learned another trade and experienced a lot during the Samir years. Léo's European vice-champion title in May was the end of the road we traveled together for five years (Saladino was no longer coached by Rodolphe Bouché during the European championships) . Samir and Léo raised my standards, but it also cost me a lot of energy. I need a break from training."

A more transversal function

A few days ago, Rodolphe Bouché and his family packed up the last boxes and left Antibes for both personal and professional reasons.

The time has come to get closer to family and put on a new suit. " I'm 54 years old, my coaching career is more behind me than ahead. We have to get things back on track, not at any cost."

Its new role will be somewhat hybrid, tailor-made to plug any potential gaps across the territory.

There's a new national technical department in which we've set up an innovation, performance, and support unit, he explains. I'll be a bit like the Swiss Army knife of the staff: we'll cross-reference the demands of national coaches with the weak points of each athlete's training system. The coach has a lot of levers to develop, but he doesn't have the time to be competent everywhere. I'll be there where he can't be. It's no longer possible to leave sectors fallow."

World Mission and Olympics

Still employed by the Ministry of Sports, Bouché will travel around France and aims to build relationships with local experts. "I'm going to try to find local resources who could bring their expertise to the staff. For example, Christophe Keller, who works at the CREPS in Antibes but can contribute to the Pôle. Proximity works better than distance."

All this to best prepare for the 2027 World Championships and the 2028 Olympic Games.

To be found in a podcast

Rodolphe Bouché discussed the coaching profession in a podcast from the Nice-Matin group called "Œil de coach." It can be found on various listening platforms (Spotify, etc.).