Tennis in America is not run right, or taught right, and so not doing well.
Did you ever wonder who gave the AMA the right to license doctors? I mean, who are they? Did you ever wonder who gave the USTA it's power? I mean, who are they? It is a private enterprise, who with its sidekicks like USPTA etc, run tennis in America.
And if tennis in America was doing well, you wouldn't listen to me complained. But we all know it isn't.
Are there any women in the top 50 except the Williams sisters, who by the way, avoided the USTA in their formative years?
And the men... Roddick, if he couldn't serve he'd never win a match. Okay, not that bad. Eisner is that bad. Blake, now there's a bright guy who plays dumb tennis. Fish? Not worth mentioniing. Ginepri, okay I mentioned him, Donald Young, trained by his parents.
So what's wrong. Like everything else in America, the money is all at the top. In Spain, you can play in a local money tournament almost every week, and since Spain isn't large, the upcoming kids get to make enough to support themselves. In America, if you aren't rich or get support (corporate or USTA) you are finished. College? Don't be ridiculous. Tennis graveyard. Eisner learned to serve in 4 years (hopefully got an education). Name all the other great pros to come out of college. College is like advanced juniors.
In the past 3 weeks there have been 17 futures played in Europe. In the US ZERO! How is someone suppose to rise if their country has no futures? By corporate means! Who wants some young kid to come out of nowhere, who is under contract to no one? Not the sponsors. Not the USTA.
As for instruction, I am trained (phd) in sports psychology, and I can tell you that other nations are beating us because their mental training is superior. I have offered to teach a traiining workshop for the USPTA and somehow everytime my application was sent in, it got lost. Finally, I was told (secretly) that those workshops are "the goose that lays the golden eggs" and only higher ups and the well connected get to teach them. Well, that's one way to stifle the sport.
So in conclusion, American tennis will continue to struggle until it is truly opened up to everyone. If 1 million dollars of prize money from the US open was spread around to maybe 50 tournaments with $20,000 prize money each, then maybe some kid from nowhere could find his way to one and show the world what he can do. (Do you think anyone would skip the US open if it cut the winner's money to JUST A MILLION?)
Concentration of wealth and power has struck at every fiber of this society, and tennis has not escaped.
And if tennis in America was doing well, you wouldn't listen to me complained. But we all know it isn't.
Are there any women in the top 50 except the Williams sisters, who by the way, avoided the USTA in their formative years?
And the men... Roddick, if he couldn't serve he'd never win a match. Okay, not that bad. Eisner is that bad. Blake, now there's a bright guy who plays dumb tennis. Fish? Not worth mentioniing. Ginepri, okay I mentioned him, Donald Young, trained by his parents.
So what's wrong. Like everything else in America, the money is all at the top. In Spain, you can play in a local money tournament almost every week, and since Spain isn't large, the upcoming kids get to make enough to support themselves. In America, if you aren't rich or get support (corporate or USTA) you are finished. College? Don't be ridiculous. Tennis graveyard. Eisner learned to serve in 4 years (hopefully got an education). Name all the other great pros to come out of college. College is like advanced juniors.
In the past 3 weeks there have been 17 futures played in Europe. In the US ZERO! How is someone suppose to rise if their country has no futures? By corporate means! Who wants some young kid to come out of nowhere, who is under contract to no one? Not the sponsors. Not the USTA.
As for instruction, I am trained (phd) in sports psychology, and I can tell you that other nations are beating us because their mental training is superior. I have offered to teach a traiining workshop for the USPTA and somehow everytime my application was sent in, it got lost. Finally, I was told (secretly) that those workshops are "the goose that lays the golden eggs" and only higher ups and the well connected get to teach them. Well, that's one way to stifle the sport.
So in conclusion, American tennis will continue to struggle until it is truly opened up to everyone. If 1 million dollars of prize money from the US open was spread around to maybe 50 tournaments with $20,000 prize money each, then maybe some kid from nowhere could find his way to one and show the world what he can do. (Do you think anyone would skip the US open if it cut the winner's money to JUST A MILLION?)
Concentration of wealth and power has struck at every fiber of this society, and tennis has not escaped.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clint Boling on
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very true....I could not agree more. and I would go a step further add around 200 tournaments with $5000 total prize money.
And a personal story that adds to the problem of tennis in america. This winter I was practicing in Paris, and I went into the Tennis Club of Paris, one of the best clubs in Paris and all of france. And I asked one of the coaches there if he knew of anyone I can hit some balls with. He Invited me to practice in the training of the kids FREE of charge. and the kids were a notch below my level, but still gave me good practice. And then I also practiced with some guys a little better then me, but that was set up outside of the training lessons.
So I am back here in the states, and I went into a club and I asked a pro if he knew a place I could practice for the week...I was only there Dallas for 2 weeks. Some idiot told me I was going to have to pay the hourly charge for the court time, a guest fee, and, on top of this I had to pay an extra fee for a group lesson.
My point, tennis is run by dickhead coaches, and basically people that have a bad attitude and dont want to help anyone get better in this country. How is it that I can go into a club in Paris, the club that Grosjean, Tsonga, Loit, and about 10-15 men and women in the top 500 ATP and WTA and I can get to practice for free. ANd a local club in Dallas where nobody has ever been good, and he is telling me to pay???
HELP!! hahah
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Permalink Reply by ini ghidirmic on
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"My point, tennis is run by dickhead coaches, and basically people that have a bad attitude and dont want to help anyone get better in this country."
So true... dickhead coaches who are all about the money, have no passion for the game and no vision for the future.
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Permalink Reply by Andy Forsyth on -
There are many problems with the U.S. tennis system when it comes to training players. Unfortunately there are no easy answers. The USTA and USPTA are not going away and the idea of starting an alternative tennis organizational body to the USTA is about as good as the Green Party is to politics. Of course there's the PTR as opposed to the USPTA but I am far from an insider to compare the two.
In the U.S. the tennis system at the club level is as we all know is mostly privatized. Sure there is some public parks with good tennis programs but that the exception. The USTA although open to the public is privately run as well. Thus there becomes the need for some underfunded players to be picked up on scholarship by academies or secure corporate sponsors to be able to train at the highest levels. Also privatization may be part of the reason for exclusionary behavior, sometimes. Those who have the financial wherewithal can go it alone without the USTA, i.e. Roddick. As mentioned earlier, only a chosen few get access to subsidized training as selected by the USTA or an academy. Being privately backed I believe limits the resources available to the USTA (less cash to spend/bugetary constraints) thus limiting the amount of players who get the free ride. With fewer players sponsored by the USTA I believe that has increased the chance to pick the wrong kid more often. Outside the U.S. governing tennis bodies are often run by Federations that are connected to and or subsidized on various levels by their government. Maybe this has something to do with creating more and better tennis players than the U.S. currently.
Since I started wrting this, here's a few cheap thoughts that come to mind. Do foreign systems like the French have more kids training in their elite level academy type programs than in the U.S.? Could the aggregate of all kids training at forgien acadamies be greater than the number of kids training at acadamies in the U.S.? Could it be as simple as playing more on clay makes for a better and more well rounded pro? Maybe tennis is so global it's just a down time for the U.S. pro tennis success and it will come back on it's own. Could the next great tennis country to come along since Serbia be Moldova or Georgia?
Keep in mind like Roddick and the Williams who avoided the USTA there are foreign examples as well. Santoro and Bartolli avoided the French Federation, Dockic moved to Australia (I know, that's a strange case) and Andy Murray, Svetlana Kuznetsova and the Safin's trained in Spain to name a few. They all ditched supposed great national training grounds for greener pastures outside their home countries boarders. For all the flaws we in the U.S. find with our own system I am sure the other countries have their own.
In many countries outside the U.S. tennis may be the 2nd, 3rd or 4th most popular sport. In the U.S. what's tennis popularity, 16th? Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the USTA or the U.S. tennis system, it has problems. Some of them are fixable and some of them we don't have the answer for yet.
At the end of the day if any one person or country had a proven the "roadmap to tennis stardom" we'd all know exactly who they are and how to do it by now. If I had that roadmap I’d be on the pro tour now, not writing this.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Soloway on -
Thanks for your comment.
One of the keys is that in many other countries, there are frequent tournaments that pay real prize money. The kids get to be "semi-pro" or maybe "minor league" but what ever you call it, it pays for them to be tennis players by profession, until they break into the biggies. If we took just 2 million dollars and held 100 tournamants with $20000 prize money , a kid who could win a couple, or maybe finish in the money several times, could stay "out there". It is the perfect "weeding out" technique. Picking kids as juniors and hoping you got the right ones is statistically ridiculous.
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I wonder how long it would take for the USTA to claim Ryan Harrison as their own development/creation?
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Permalink Reply by Robert Soloway on
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I don't know Ryan Harrison. Can you enlighten me?
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Well, I'm not an expert on the Harrison family. I believe that West knows more than I do about his situation. However, Ryan Harrison is 15 years old and just qualied for the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship. Not just that but he also won his first round. Pretty impressive stuff (anyone remeber how many spankings Donald Young got before he actually won a match on the tour?). Briefly, Ryan's dad is a tennis-guy who chose the less-taken path for his kids. It didn't take a million wild cards (USTA's M.O.) to get this kid to compete with the pros. The Harrison's did it the old-fashioned way: long hard work. I'm sure that the USTA is going to throw some wildcards at the kid, slap his face on everything-USTA and pat themselves on the back like "look what we've produced [under Pmac]." That's what I'm asking: how long would it take for the USTA to claim Ryan as the USTA's creation?
As far as I'm concerned Ryan Harrison is a product of Harrison.
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Permalink Reply by Andy Forsyth on
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Who does the USTA take credit for?
Just for a moment imagine Donald Young never existed. And just for a moment imagine Ryan Harrison at 15 (as he is now) is the year end worlds #1 ranked junior (which he isn't). And just imagine all sorts of ATP level tournament directors where begging Ryan Harrison to take their Wild Cards to play in their events. Would they? Maybe. Given the lessons learned from DY it's now easy to say, "they Harrisons did it the right way, long hard work" blah blah blah. They are so much smarter than so and so, blah blah blah.
BTW, Harrison has taken plenty of wildcards in the last year, just not at the ATP level. They only reason he got into qualifying at Houston was there was so few top pros signed up and there was not even a cut off.
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Permalink Reply by CHRIS MICHEALS on -
IM RESPONDING TO CLINTS POST. NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL STORY. QUIT BEING SUCH A CHEAP ASS AND EXPECT TO GET FREE COURT TIME JUST BY SHOWING UP AT SOME RANDOM CLUB IN DALLAS. WHY SHOULD YOU NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR COURT TIME AND EVERY ONE ELSE IN THE COUNTRY DOES. YOU GO TO SCHOOL FOR FREE BECUASE OF TENNIS THATS ABOUT WHAT AT LEAST 20 GS OVER 4 YEARS. QUIT BITCHING ABOUT HAVING TO ACTUALLY PAY FOR SOMETHING. THAT CLUB HAS TO MAKE A LIVING TOO. BELEIVE IT OR NOT THEY ARE NOT BUILT TO CATER TO YOUR SELFISH ASS. MAYBE THE CLUBS AND COACHES WOULDNT BE SUCH DICKS IF THE PEOPLE WHO PLAYED TENNIS ACTUALLY PAYED FOR SOME THINGS EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE. THIS NOTION OF GETTING EVERYTHING PAYED FOR AND FREE RIDES IS REDICULOUS. SHOULD YOU GET SOME HELP YES BUT ALL YOU GUYS DO IS BITCH ABOUT HOW NOBODY HELPS ME. HELP YOURSELF AND STOP FUCKING WHINING
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lol I wake up this morning and I find a message in my email that Chris Michaels has replied to this thread. Because I am bored and I don't have anything more important to in the next hour I clicked the link to see what he has to say.
First of all he writes in all CAPS, he obviously does not know how to make a sentence, or really have an argument. He just knows he does not like me. Who are you kidding Chris, I got free school? hahaha, I wish! too bad I had to hustle off to Germany during the summers to play so I could make extra cash to pay for some of my school. Not that I am complaining, it made me a better player, much better player then ridiculous college tennis helped me. And it was certainly not free.
To the fellow readers of this thread, his attitude, his ignorance is the reason the US is not excelling in tennis as much as the European countries. Yes people with his sort of attitude will always claim we are doing much better, comparing the top 10 in the world, who has won more slams, etc. But what they never mention is the depth that the euro countries have. When I say depth, I don't mean the top 100-500, I'm talking about the depth of players that play in national circuit tournaments. These countries have good players that can easily and consistently out top college players. When you understand the level of competition that the Euros compete with on a daily basis in local money tournaments, then you can understand how our system is really failing us.
All Chris seems to be thinking about is Money, money, money. We have the resources availible from the US Open. Why is it not used correctly? Come on Chris answer that?
I know that anything I say will not change the mind of a person like Chris, because they cannot be told anything progressive. People with his attitude are the people that are messing the whole economy of this country up. Who cares if peoples houses get foreclosed on, those stupid poor people are just whining. Who cares if our currency is becoming more useless by the day (although it seems to be gaining against the euro this week). If people with an attitude like Chris are being unregulated and not required to be accountable for their actions, our country will continue to dig ourselves into a deeper depression, it will have to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
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Permalink Reply by Andy Forsyth on
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Don't let the troll bother you. Anyone who has to swear to make a point shows little intelligence.
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Chris,
I think that you're missing the point - the fact that tennis has turned into a "business" in this country that has resulted in lack of depth. For a country of 400,000,000, we should be cranking out at least 30-40 top 100 players per year. But we're not.
OK, so you're running a tennis club and your policy is to charge for court time in order to pay the bills. I get that. I grew up in MI too and I know how expensive indoor tennis can be. But how about this: use a guy like Clint as motivation for other people (particularly juniors) to play tennis. Kind of like "if you practice hard and get good you too can get your college paid for and play for free anywhere in the world." See if that motivates the juniors to play more tennis and maybe you'll see your bottom line improving as well. However, one thing I keep noticing is that most people who are involved in running tennis clubs would not make it in any other business. The problem is, like any other business (if you think of it at such), you gotta make some investments, grind it out, before you see some dividends.
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