Throwing it out there.

[CraigC]

So, the latest information:
USTA elite player development coach Pat Mac has enlisted Bolletieri to work with the top American juniors.

Now maybe I can ask the question with a little hint of "I told you so."

When you finally bring in a top coach and the first thing he does is take the top US players away from the USTA coaches and put them with an academy coach, doesn't it send a strong message about the level of ineptitude on the part of the USTA national coaching staff? Shouldn't we just take the $2,000,000 in salaries paid to these coaches and re-invest it in 20 $50,000 events for the men, and 20 $50,000 events for the women. This would give our players a better chance to earn points locally and to compete against the world's best without having to find the funds to travel the world. Or better yet, make it 10 events for each gender, and take the other million and fund 100 $10,000 tournaments across the country to get more people involved in the sport.
Geez, you might even find a way to give more player's a chance to play professional tennis. You might even entice more people to give it a shot since they can earn a living without needing to start in the top 100. You might increase your talent pool by showing players that there is a "minor leagues for player development that allows ones game to mature before reaching the tour level. You might find a few diamonds that drop out because they can't afford world travel long enough to prove their skills. You might garner more crowds to the courts when you host events all over the nation instead of just the big cities of LA and DelRay. Often times these events bring out the local communities and they definitely allow kids to touch pro tennis in a way that is impossible through the television. You might, for once, get away from "big government, big administration" and allow the dollars to flow to the players and the developmental coaches. C'mon you higher up's...take a chance... for once in your life, INNOVATE. Don't you think 20 years of failure is enough? Go Pat Mac. Great call on pulling the kids from the current failing scheme and getting them into a better training situation.
It's obvious that the top elite player development coach has no faith in the current staff, so why should we continue subsidizing them? Alas, another argument lost in the air on its way to White Plains.

[lukman41985]

Craig,
Sorry for my confusion, but it seems to me that you're tournament based scenario is better than outsourcing the work to Nick B, correct? Even though your idea sounds fantastic, you still seem to be endorsing Patrick McEnroe's move, correct? Thanks for your thoughts.

[CraigC]

Response

Should the players be sent to the academy? Probably not. We are paying a fortune in membership dues to the USTA and they are now paying Nick and his staff to develop players while their own salaried coaches sit in their offices and wonder why people don't come to workout at the Carson facility in Southern California.
I support PMac's decision only because it removes the players from a failing system. He is showing that he understands the current system stinks.

Is it too difficult to ask the "high performance coaches" to go out to the private clubs and work with the coaches and their players? If the high performance coaches are so good, wouldn't it be beneficial to the tennis industry to have them educate the private coaches AS WELL AS the players? This would bring their knowledge to a greater population of development coaches and ultimately give them a larger pool of skilled athletes to work with. Instead, they sit at the office and wait for kids to show up, or they call the kids and tell them to come to the facility and ignore the private coaches. This causes animosity between private coaches and the USTA because the private coaches don't want to lose their players to the national staff. Consequently, the private coaches don't allow their kids to go, and the staff is forced to sit and wait while they earn their paychecks for doing nothing. Meanwhile the kids are caught in the middle of developmental coaches who know their game, and USTA coaches who offer them training, money, wild cards. Ultimately the kids go where they are being given handouts, and then fall apart because those coaches aren't familiar with their developmental path. This is proven by 25 years of USTA player development failures. This continues the cycle and now the private coaches don't even tell their players about the USTA training facility because they don't want the kids to go there and ruin their games. It's truly sad!

Alas, I rant too much.
Simply put, cut your high salaried high performance coaches--put the money into tournaments to give the kids exposure to pro tennis and a chance to get points--include private coaches in player development--educate your private coaches so you raise the level of coaching and players at the same time--oh yea, and obligate your top players to play the damn Fed Cup when you give them their first wildcard, or risk that event falling into oblivion. Nice choices to compete against Russia in the biggest team event of our sport ! (note sarcasm)