An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
I am astonished at how frequently the tennis industry references and recycles participation research data from golf. As an example, the 2020 Tennis Industry Forum meeting included a presentation from the Chief Research Officer of the National Golf Foundation. I have arrived at the conclusion that tennis has a weird obsession with golf.
The news that the Director of Digital Application Development is now “TBD” generated spirited discussion last week in the Texas Section tournament discussion social media circles. There is a lot of frustration, anger, and resentment over how poorly the roll out of the new digital engagement platform for USTA tennis tournaments has gone so far.
The overarching theme for the books this site is covering in April are two men who arguably did more in the advancement of Women’s tennis above all others. It might surprise people to see the name of Bobby Riggs thrown out in that context. I can almost hear the “Wait… what?” In order for the epic “Battle of the Sexes” match to occur, a male opponent was required. A lot of men would not have placed themselves into that position. Riggs was willing to take the risk. Additionally, he worked tirelessly on promoting the match before it occurred. Whether he intended to do so or not, Bobby Riggs and the “Battle of the Sexes Match” put women’s tennis into the spotlight. The result was a massive boost in the public interest in women’s professional tennis.
Since early January of this year, the Fiend at Court has covered the wheelchair section of ITF Rules of Tennis in a segment that runs each Wednesday. That march through the Rules of Wheelchair Tennis has been mostly sequential, though there has been a little jumping around to group related topics for a single post. Today I am covering a couple of topics that are loosely related only in the sense that we have largely already touched on both topics.
Tennis Technology and Training Tuesday The “Ask the Experts” column in the April Edition of Racquet Sports Industry magazine carried a segment on replacing theRead More
don’t want to pile on. Issues with the deployment of the USTA’s new digital application development platform continue to roll in. “Harsh Realities Revealed in the USTA Digital Platform Update” which went live on March 8, detailed some to the issues including the fact that players entering doubles events in USTA tournaments under the new platform have no way to indicate who their partner will be. Issues with the new system continue to roll in.
When I originally conceived of the topic of how to best take commercial flights with tennis racquets, I was thinking that it would be a quick “one and done” easy writing session. I even spent some time thinking about what two additional topics for rounding out the rest of the weekend should be. Flying with tennis racquets turned out to be a three part series. This final installment focuses on how to best handle racquets as a carry on item.
Today we are examining the pros and cons of checking tennis racquets in your luggage when taking commercial airline flights. There are some players in my orbit who have strong opinions that racquets should never be checked. That feeling is based on the fact that it can get pretty cold in the cargo hold of a passenger airplane. Most sources place the temperature lows somewhere in the 40 degree Fahrenheit range. We have a word for that in Texas. It is called “January.” I think the word for that in the Northern USTA section is “July.”
A couple of nights ago, the Fiend at Court Spousal Unit and I played a recreational husband-wife mixed doubles match. As we were engaging in the pre-match banter I realized that I was the only person on the court who was not about to travel to the USTA NTRP National Championships later this month. As they were discussing their travel arrangements, the topic of dealing with racquets on commercial flights arose. I have a lot of experience flying with my tennis racquets in tow. Everybody get your shocked face ready. This is yet another topic where my overthinking tendencies prevail.
It’s April 1, which means that the exclusive coverage of books on Women’s tennis during March has concluded. Somehow that month came and went without coverage of a book specifically about Billie Jean King. One reason for that glaring omission is because there are simply so many books and so little time. The other reason for the deferral of the exclusive focus on Billie Jean King is because All In, a new forthcoming autobiography, isn’t scheduled to be released until later this year. I have already pre-ordered my copy.