USTA Player Development Takes Too Much Heat

[stotty]

I'm British.

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) over here controls tennis: They train the coaches through their coach license scheme, they publish the national magazine, they dictate (as far as possible) what clubs cannot and can do; they do this by giving grants and interest-free loans to clubs in return for compliance over key issues, such as what court surfaces clubs must install, etc.

In a sense, the LTA has become a massive employment agency. Many people working within the organisation are well paid, and some highly paid. Herein lies a big problem. Those within the LTA are keen to protect their jobs and their salary and do so with great vigour. It's highly complex how the system sustains itself; far too ineffable for me to condense to a few paragraphs necessary for a forum, but clearly the LTA's system is flawed. The LTA is the wealthiest tennis organisation in the world yet it cannot produce a tennis player, not one.

All-controlling governing bodies like the LTA are seldom capable of producing top-class athletes. Passionate coaches produce tennis players, not coaches who are employed and paid a salary...or worse, those with the freedom to work privately as well as draw a salary.

Many people over here are coming to the view that the LTA would be better concentrating their efforts towards promoting the game - and nothing else. And that the huge revenues gained from staging the Wimbledon should be ploughed into funding private centres that show a capability to produce good junior players. Probably this is right. From what I have been told, this is what happens in Spain.

It's complex though. Was Nick Bollettieri ever that good? Or did he did he just have a lucky era? Why is no one coming out his academy now? You guys tell me. I have no idea the story behind that one? There are plenty of substandard private centres, too, no doubt. I'm not saying Nick's place is substandard or ever was...just wondered why things have dried up of late?

It seems the USTA has become another LTA. You should be extremely worried about that. You can look to Spain, as we have, but it won't necessarily solve your problems. They have clay courts for a start. Their school system is different; kids finish school at 1pm. The Spanish climate is ideal. The five top academies around Barcelona are ideally located to receive the wealthiest middle class children of Spain; let's face it, it costs a fortune to produce great tennis players...parents need to be wealthy! But, yes, it's the Spanish private centres that produce the tennis players, not the governing body.

Once a country gets something going it tends to perpetuate...look at Spain...look at the great era the Aussies had in the 50's, 60's and 70's. It's getting excellence going that's the problem...then making sure nothing silly happens to break the self-perpetuating cycle.

It might be worth noting that coaching in Spain is not particularly well payed as it is in the UK or the US. But the job has great status in Spain. Coaching in the UK is almost not considered a proper job...not sure how it is viewed in the US. Maybe one of you can tell me?

[julian1]

Under 10 tournaments

Licensedcoach,
if you have 45 seconds to spare I would suggest reading

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=422352

post #13
see as well the reference to the ITF effort

http://iof3.idrottonline.se/ImageVaultFiles/id_11931/cf_104/TMC%20B%C3%A5stad%20program%2029%20March.pdf

[stotty]

Who's more to blame?

Licensedcoach,
if you have 45 seconds to spare I would suggest reading

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=422352

post #13
see as well the reference to the ITF effort
http://iof3.idrottonline.se/ImageVau...29%20March.pdf

Not quite sure what you are referring to with the links you posted for my viewing, but I can tell you I am 100% in favour of mini tennis.

Governing bodies are always sitting ducks for criticism when things are going wrong. People deem them responsible. Over here the LTA get a terrible press from just about everyone. Some of it well deserved, but not all of it.

One thing the LTA do very well is organise. They market the game well in many ways. The produce wonderful documentation and make the game look really glossy and attractive. That's what they are good at. They are not good at training coaches. But coaches don't have to rely the LTA or the USTA to get better. Coaches can take more responsibility for themselves.

If players aren't being produced, then look at the coaching...what else can it be? Coaches need to be honest and look at themselves. Why aren't we producing better tennis players? Because we aren't good enough, that's why! Spend more time on this website and we are all sure to learn more about the game, understand technique better, and improve as coaches. The buck stops here boys. The Brits and the US aren't producing tennis players right now...and that's maybe, just maybe, more our fault than the LTA's and the USTA's.

[julian1]

Green ball

Not quite sure what you are referring to with the links you posted for my viewing, but I can tell you I am 100% in favour of mini tennis.

Governing bodies are always sitting ducks for criticism when things are going wrong. People deem them responsible. Over here the LTA get a terrible press from just about everyone. Some of it well deserved, but not all of it.

One thing the LTA do very well is organise. They market the game well in many ways. The produce wonderful documentation and make the game look really glossy and attractive. That's what they are good at. They are not good at training coaches. But coaches don't have to rely the LTA or the USTA to get better. Coaches can take more responsibility for themselves.

If players aren't being produced, then look at the coaching...what else can it be? Coaches need to be honest and look at themselves. Why aren't we producing better tennis players? Because we aren't good enough, that's why! Spend more time on this website and we are all sure to learn more about the game, understand technique better, and improve as coaches. The buck stops here boys. The Brits and the US aren't producing tennis players right now...and that's maybe, just maybe, more our fault than the LTA's and the USTA's.

Hi,
couple of things to be clarified:
the post in the FIRST link above was addressing the very simple issue:
quality of ten under tournaments played green ball
Whether it relates to the original post-I do NOT know
Whether you have similar problems in Britain-I do NOT know
Whether it relates to the issue of transition from the green ball to the regular ball-I do NOT know
Whether issues like described above are proper place to discuss HERE-I do NOT know

Switching gears a bit:
the quote from http://www.tennisplayandstay.com/site/
"The ITF’s Tennis Play and Stay campaign centres around the slogan “serve, rally and score” and the recommendation that starter players play the game from the first lesson."
How to achieve that with something resembling tennis technique-I do NOT know
From http://tennisinsiders.com/?post_type...ed_story&p=407
-----> the beginning of the quote
Reply
Harold Gardner says:
April 28, 2012 at 10:04 am

Why do you think so many teaching pros oppose TAUT?
--->the end of quote
regards,
Julian

[johnyandell]

Stotty,

That is a great post that speaks to so many of the key issues. And you ask a lot of questions that no one really has answers to. I think when you count it up there are less than 20 players in the Open era who have won multiple slams. So that's over 40 years now. Think about it. 20 guys worldwide that emerged from somewhere, somehow. If it was just coaching Robert Landorp would have had 50 instead of just 50 who made the top 100.

Obviously that elite grand slam animal is a rarity and whether that animal can be manufactured by any combination of external forces is the biggest mystery of all. You can win the Super Bowl by having a collection of great players and none who are the absolute best at each position. In tennis, different deal.

Great players will always need help, inspiration, coaching, etc and I am sure some that could have been have been knocked off the track and we never heard of them. But still if you look at the US, look at the athletes and the personalities and drive they all had--all different, all some notch above: Mac, Connors, Pete, Andre--all outsiders from any tennis establishment...

[lobndropshot]

Why is the USTA trying to produce pros?

It makes more sense to me to be concerned with D1 tennis players first. Does anyone have the percentage of foreign players taking up the scholarships in D1 tennis schools?

[DougEng]

Developing Players

It makes more sense to me to be concerned with D1 tennis players first. Does anyone have the percentage of foreign players taking up the scholarships in D1 tennis schools?

The percentage of foreign college players reflects the quality of junior tennis but also is a political parameter. That is, it won't necessary be proportional to quality since it is a matter of policy decision-making. NCAA, Title IX and different university policies will dictate what the school will or can do. Academics and financial aid are additional factors. For example, Division II schools are considerably weaker academically than many Division I and III schools, therefore a great number of foreign players are on Division II teams (at least at the top). American players tend to be better off financially which allows them to choose better schools which don't offer athletic scholarships and instead primarily focus on academics.

In a sense, now, that is what USTA and foreign academies are actually promoting. Playing college tennis helps future pros to develop, get a balanced perspective and avoid early burnout. A talented player with or without college enters the top 100 rankings generally at 22 years and only a few months later if he/she played college tennis. Good examples are Irina Falconi and John Isner.
Sam Querrey and Donald Young, by contrast, turned pro earlier and are not as successful as Isner. It is rare a 19-20 year gets into the top 100 since the game is physically much more demanding than 25 years ago (when it was more about pushing and running the ball down so teenagers in the top 100 were more frequent).

In any event, if one choose to focus on developing college players, part of the formula is late in coming so USTA prefers to develop earlier on. That is, if a supermarket is selling oranges that aren't good, maybe you can grow your own. Often college players are 80-90% "grown", meaning you can usually tell which one will excel professionally and which ones can't. Tackling the problem earlier is more far-reaching and visionary. There were 10,000 children under 10 playing tournaments in the US in about 2010 (or USTA memberships). I believe the number is around 30,000+ right now. It may mushroom to 100,000 perhaps in another 2-3 years. France has maybe 400,000 Under10 playing. Of course, there are thousands more kids playing unorganized tennis in the US. However, from a child's perspective, playing with orange or green balls is more enjoyable. Surveys worldwide indicate children prefer the red/orange/green balls. Often parents think differently and try to rush to yellow but forget children need a bit of time to develop. For example, while an adult thinks a math problem is easy, a child finds it difficult. With yellow balls, children are more likely to quit tennis. Even many adults are now being taught with green or even red balls.

If the US can get 200,000 9 year olds children playing competitively and staying with the game, it is far more likely to have a couple future #1 players. So that's USTA's reasoning (as well as other NGBs trying the same thing). However, as a caution it should be noted, number of players doesn't necessarily translate to number of elite players. That fails happens in sports more often that we think.

[don_budge]

Weighing in...

To be honest...for a change. I really have no idea what the USTA does or anything about the organization. At least that makes me unbiased. I recommend the following reorganization...without knowing what the current one is.

I think that the USTA's sole function should be facilitating the competition structure in USA tennis. It would be nice to see a center piece national center and perhaps five regional centers throughout the country. Somehow without knowing this it has to already be in place. Surrounding those five regional centers should be countless satellite centers in every town, city and community. Start utilizing the schools and the parks into the big picture. Make use of all those public courts available. Organize.

I don't believe that it is so necessary to have a doctrine or core philosophy when it comes to developing tennis players. It seems to me that the diverse programs in the past pretty well served the United States Tennis in pretty good order. When it comes down to it...it is a numbers game. If you put enough monkeys in a room with enough typewriters sooner or later one of them is going to type out the King James version of the Bible.

What has eroded the level of tennis in the United States is the same thing that has eroded much of the other things that were traditionally dear to the country. It has been the systematic demolition of the family. Tennis used to be a family activity. Families were brought together in communities by the sport of tennis and it became more or less traditional for a certain segment of the population to participate. My biggest influence in tennis was my father and my tennis coach who was the unofficial community leader in the tennis program.

What is needed is more grass roots tennis programs that will feed off each other by creating more competitions and more diversity in programs. Community pride used to be the thing that fueled programs. Once a program established a tradition it attracted new players on a routine basis. It was more of a natural process instead of trying to force things with a USTA authority...as if they are qualified. The current leadership espouses that we should be following the Spanish. This is the last thing that I would recommend. I recommend that we return to the past to seek the answers to the questions that currently plague the current state of tennis today in the USA. The infrastructure may be in need of some repair but the foundation is there if there is some vision for the future. Unfortunately that may be a large part of the problem...a lack of vision.

A good start would be to start organizing within the schools and within the communities. Perhaps winding down some of the foolish wars that the country is currently waging and appropriate some of that foolishly spent military money on something that will pay dividends in the future...the future of the young people. Realistically we can see that the values of the country have eroded as well as the tennis programs. What is more important? Fighting the boogie man abroad or giving our children something constructive to do at home?

Which brings to another good question. How young? In my opinion it isn't so necessary to start players at such a young age. Learning the skills that are needed to play all court tennis usually do not come with the average nine year old. Kids up to several years older learn much quicker and have more skills and resources at their command. So what if their actualization is a couple of years later...perhaps we could make use of our colleges to extend the training period so that it isn't viewed as so imperative to start children to play an adult game.

[DougEng]

To be honest...for a change. I really have no idea what the USTA does or anything about the organization. At least that makes me unbiased. I recommend the following reorganization...without knowing what the current one is.

I think that the USTA's sole function should be facilitating the competition structure in USA tennis. It would be nice to see a center piece national center and perhaps five regional centers throughout the country. Somehow without knowing this it has to already be in place. Surrounding those five regional centers should be countless satellite centers in every town, city and community. Start utilizing the schools and the parks into the big picture. Make use of all those public courts available. Organize.

I don't believe that it is so necessary to have a doctrine or core philosophy when it comes to developing tennis players. It seems to me that the diverse programs in the past pretty well served the United States Tennis in pretty good order. When it comes down to it...it is a numbers game. If you put enough monkeys in a room with enough typewriters sooner or later one of them is going to type out the King James version of the Bible.

What has eroded the level of tennis in the United States is the same thing that has eroded much of the other things that were traditionally dear to the country. It has been the systematic demolition of the family. Tennis used to be a family activity. Families were brought together in communities by the sport of tennis and it became more or less traditional for a certain segment of the population to participate. My biggest influence in tennis was my father and my tennis coach who was the unofficial community leader in the tennis program.

What is needed is more grass roots tennis programs that will feed off each other by creating more competitions and more diversity in programs. Community pride used to be the thing that fueled programs. Once a program established a tradition it attracted new players on a routine basis. It was more of a natural process instead of trying to force things with a USTA authority...as if they are qualified. The current leadership espouses that we should be following the Spanish. This is the last thing that I would recommend. I recommend that we return to the past to seek the answers to the questions that currently plague the current state of tennis today in the USA. The infrastructure may be in need of some repair but the foundation is there if there is some vision for the future. Unfortunately that may be a large part of the problem...a lack of vision.

A good start would be to start organizing within the schools and within the communities. Perhaps winding down some of the foolish wars that the country is currently waging and appropriate some of that foolishly spent military money on something that will pay dividends in the future...the future of the young people. Realistically we can see that the values of the country have eroded as well as the tennis programs. What is more important? Fighting the boogie man abroad or giving our children something constructive to do at home?

Which brings to another good question. How young? In my opinion it isn't so necessary to start players at such a young age. Learning the skills that are needed to play all court tennis usually do not come with the average nine year old. Kids up to several years older learn much quicker and have more skills and resources at their command. So what if their actualization is a couple of years later...perhaps we could make use of our colleges to extend the training period so that it isn't viewed as so imperative to start children to play an adult game.

Good points.

Largely USTA has been trying to foster the growth and competition of tennis at early ages. They are spending $80 million on TAUT (10andUnderTennis). Introduction of competition at age 6-8 with red balls and 36 ft courts is more realistic than trying to get 7 year olds playing on a 78 ft court.

Most American sports are on the decline. No Americans can win a marathon, the best baseball sluggers are from Latin America, etc.

I'm not sure if the decline of family is the issue. I think it's the Information Age extended to the Social Media Age. People are more interested in listening to their iPod, texting a friend or perusing the internet rather than play sports. It's the nearly full-blown obesity epidemic.

For young children, early exposure to general sports is important to develop athleticism. Specialization (e.g, playing 4-5 times a week) does not need to occur until the age of 12-14. Serious off-court training might start at 15-16.

[bman]

So I'm innocently reading this thread, and I come upon a thinly veiled suggestion two posts ago that the USTA's problems are George Bush's fault. Now I have read it all.

[bman]

I think Doug makes some good points...but I would add something else. Tennis is not cool in the U.S. On a nightly newscast, they will not even mention a tennis match result unless it is the finals of a Grand Slam. Because of this, the best athletes do not play tennis, because they would rather go for the glory of basketball, football, etc. I think this was also the case when Sampras was winning slams, but it is even worse now. Not sure what the media attention was in the McEnroe/Borg/Connors era. All i know is that this year, the Wimbledon finals will not even be on network tv..it has moved to ESPN. The biggest tennis match of the year.

Why is tennis not cool? Because tennis is, to some degree, an elitist sport, because the masses don't have access to it and hence don't understand it.

Then again, you could say that was always the case.

[don_budge]

Sorry about that...bman

So I'm innocently reading this thread, and I come upon a thinly veiled suggestion two posts ago that the USTA's problems are George Bush's fault. Now I have read it all.

Gee sorry...bman. I sort of got distracted there for a moment. Not that I don't have my most innocent moments myself.

I was only thinking of the big picture and not just the little vacuum that has become American tennis. In fact, I was thinking of more innocent days. That is, pre 9/11/2001. It wasn't so thinly veiled as it was a broad sweeping stroke of the brush.

It was just a bit of a knock on American culture. An outside joke as it is. After living outside the country for a while one becomes a bit more objective. Doug's points are excellent of course. Especially the one about the children being led into cyber space at a very young age leaving physical activities seeming to be less attractive than the world of virtual reality. You make a great point about the elitist nature of the sport. I just happen to think that it is all connected somehow...if you connect the dots.

My comment was sort of a broad statement about American values and culture. To put it a bit more succinctly...it is too bad we are not more nurturing of our young people in order that the future may be a bit brighter. What if all of the military escapades were retooled in order to advance the greater good of the young in our society instead of marching them into harms way. I sort of muse about the military bases becoming tennis camps and wonder how long it would take for our tennis program to march to the lead in the worlds perspective.

I think that organizations such as the USTA could be utilized in even greater capacities if they had more funds and better organization. This may require a greater vision of the big picture...this is what I was alluding to.

That being said bman...I know myself. I was either dreaming or hallucinating.

[GeoffWilliams]

It's also about motivation of the young. Is fun enough? Not for the Spaniards. Is a free ride required? They cut off their young at 18. We don't have a Barcelona. Bolletiere was the closest to it, when Andre, Pete, and Michael/Jim were there. The Spaniards were coming here then. Now, Murray goes there as a junior. The writing is on the wall. Send our young to Spain. Our guys are not cutting it, not just due to coaching, but psychology, injuries, video, and most important of all: practice partners who are top notch.

Who is in the same boat I am, that you can't get partners who can take the beating, for even three days of seven? No one wants to see a lot of winners flying by, or be served a dinner of winners to eat yourself.

The score card is more important than improving. What did Pete Fischer tell Sampras when pistol lost 19 times in a row? "You are improving. Look to that as your score card, not the short term loss." Now we have Ryan Harrison losing to everyone out there, due to his consistency issues. Powerful consistency is not a matter of will. It's a matter of extreme will.

It does not matter how good our players are. It's too easy for the great athletes to win at other sports, and make a better living doing it than tennis. Musicians, painter, actors, all have a better chance to buy a house than tennis players do. How much mortgage can $35/hr. for lessons pay for? Zero here in California. John is lucky to have this site to pay the bills.