An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
Yesterday I expressed skepticism that the reason that junior players do not transition directly into adult tournaments is because they are confused about the structure. I believe that the real point of uncertainty is understanding how they fit within the NTRP system. That difficulty arises both when looking for an event to play as well as during the self-rating process.
I am not originally from the DFW area. I was born and raised in Wichita Falls, Texas. Every once in a while, as I contemplate my options as I near retirement from my day job, the idea pops into my head to consider moving back to my childhood hometown. The complete absence of organized adult competitive tennis always quickly dispatches that option. I simply cannot live in a tennis wasteland.
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As I wrote about yesterday in “Surveying Borders USTA Texas Style,” players who live in the DFW area have a lot of opportunities to play tennis by virtue of being classified as local within both the Dallas and the Fort Worth playing areas. To emphasize this point, today’s post enumerates those opportunities. It is truly an embarrassment of riches.
As the USTA works through the ongoing effort that re-imagines the structure of the organization to get closer to players at the local level, I think that the concept of “encourage and foster” has to be one of the primary guiding principles.
Yesterday we discussed that USTA National league regulations enable the local sections to create residency rules to encourage and foster local league play. We wound up on a rule from the Texas Section regulations that I believe was created under that general umbrella. It should come as no surprise to anyone who regularly follows this site, that I have some questions about this rule. Today we are going to focus on the definition and determination of a city center.
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From Warren Kimball’s Raising the Game USTA history book, it is apparent that USTA League tennis blossomed despite an absence of attention from the USTA National office. As I examine the rules and regulations of league play, I am doing so with the understanding that the popularity of leagues preceded the national structure and regulation. I think that is critical to understanding the relationships.
Last week on Sport’s Illustrated podcast “Beyond the Baseline,” host Jon Wertheim interviewed Donald Dell. Dell is a former professional player, broadcaster, and agent. He is also a former US Davis Cup Captain and represented Michael Jordan. Dell made a bold statement that caught my attention given my current exploration on growing the game. The context was in attracting young athletes to the sport of tennis.
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As I wrote about yesterday in “Mowing the Grassroots of the USTA House”, I have been thinking a lot about the relationship between the USTA national office, the individual USTA sections, the local USTA Community Tennis Associations (CTAs), and the local league players. Today I want to focus very specifically on the CTAs. I suspect that a lot of players are only vaguely aware of CTAs and the purpose they serve in the USTA ecosystem.
The USTA is in the midst of a restructuring effort that has been accelerated due to financial strains brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic. Currently the USTA is re-imagining the structure of the organization to get closer to players at the local level. The restructuring of the USTA was previously covered in “Job Cuts at the USTA.”
The word “grievance” appears 196 times in the 2020 USTA league regulations. I feel like that is a reflection that something has gone sideways with league tennis. Today I am sharing a league match horror story. I think the events described in this account were precipitated by issues with the NTRP system.
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