Fiend At Court Unplugged
I am in lockstep agreement with first item listed in the USTA Long Term Strategic Plan. “Attract, engage, and retain new generations of diverse tennis participants.” This weekend I have been examining how difficult it is for adult beginning players to engage in the tennis ecosystem. #NationalTennisMonth is a perfect example of how tennis promotion tends to be isolated within a tennis echo chamber. Surely we don’t think that the non-tennis community follows tennis organizations on twitter in any great numbers. Right…?
I printed out the USTA Strategic Priorities on a piece of card stock and tacked it up above my desk. Over the past 6 months I have been looking at it and considering what I, and every other tennis player interested in promoting the game, can personally do in support of those initiatives. “Attract, engage, and retain new generations of diverse tennis participants” is one objective where everybody can make a personal impact.
I am not going to personally construct and fund an effective marketing plan in the support of this initiative. (And apparently neither is the USTA.) However, what can be done on an individual basis is to become an ambassador to the sport. I would propose that the first duty of a tennis ambassador is to be welcoming and encouraging to new players when they show up at the tennis courts. I have been trying to practice this at the public park courts near my house. I strike up conversations. I make positive comments and encouragement about play on adjacent courts. Everyone can and should do the same.
The second duty of a tennis ambassador is to promote tennis to prospective players outside the eco-system. This is probably bad news for my non-tennis playing circle of friends and acquaintances. In fact, the challenge I would like to throw down for the remainder of #NationalTennisMonth is for everyone to invite at least one non tennis playing friend out to the courts to hit a few balls.
Finally, I would also propose that tennis ambassadors must take the time to familiarize themselves with the tennis service providers and programs in their areas so they can effectively steer people in the appropriate direction when the opportunity arises. In the course of those casual conversations I have been having in my local park, a couple of people have asked for my thoughts on the best places in the area for tennis instruction. I was able to point them at the service provider that teaches at the park courts, but probably wasn’t as sharp on the details of the current programming as I should have been.
When one of my kids was in middle school and high school she volunteered at the children’s summer reading program at our local library. Her duties were to engage with prospective participants and guide them through the process of signing up and submitting completion records. A friendly face with information on how to engage with the program probably isn’t strictly necessary, but I feel like it encourages continued engagement and participation. Tennis could benefit from a similar model of engagement.
I would like to encourage and challenge everyone in my orbit to become an Ambassador to Tennis. Invite someone outside of the current tennis community to the courts to play. If every active tennis player engages just one new person this month, that would effectively double the number of people participating, at least for a short while. A few of those players may catch fire and become the tennis ambassadors of tomorrow.
- 2019-2026 Long Term Strategic Plan, USTA National Website, last viewed May 7, 2021.
