One of the most vexing problems for the USTA is a “bathtub” of participation of players in their 20s and 30s. The stark reality is that a large population of junior players almost completely drop out of the organized tennis ecosystem as they age out of 18s. While some eventually trickle back in starting around the time they turn 40, the majority never return. In fact, a graph mapping age versus participation would look a lot more like a fancy chaise lounge chair than a “bathtub.”
I recently had the revelation that one of the primary root causes of this problem has previously escaped my notice. There is a fundamental disconnect between the prevailing culture of junior tennis and the dominant culture of adult tennis. Trying to address that chasm by tweaking programming or services inevitably fails due to that cultural divide.
Regardless of where they are in junior tennis, players are immersed in a culture centered on performance improvement and achievement. That is true at every level in the USTA junior competitive framework hierarchy. It is also the case even for players who “only” played scholastic tennis. In that context, each lineup has a rank order of players and teams striving to win State Championships.
There seems to be a prevailing idea that former junior players don’t engage with USTA League or the NTRP system because they don’t understand the format or mechanics of play. In fact, when the USTA unveiled the new unified national tournament framework for adults a few years ago, the informational webinar repeatedly touted the benefit that the structure and terminology would be familiar to juniors as they transition into adult tennis. That was the result of a well-intentioned misdiagnosis of the true problem.
What former juniors don’t understand about adult tennis is the predominant culture. It is diametrically opposite of what their parents and coaches demanded of them as they grew up in the sport. It is disorienting and off-putting, leading many to not engage at all. Alternatively, those who dip their toes back into tennis are likely to have bad experiences stemming from that cultural disconnect.
When you drop a former junior player into USTA League, they aren’t just bringing their tennis skills to the court but also a lifetime of cultural beliefs, experiences, and attitudes. The NTRP self-ratings system is the perfect storm for disaster. Their team captain tells them that it is perfectly OK to perhaps rate a little lower than their self-image. Then they go play a match and have the other team accost them with threats of grievances. It’s no wonder young adults think that adult tennis is… effed up.
Culture isn’t truly monolithic, even for adult tennis. For example, there is a dedicated but shrinking population of Adult Senior players who are actively trying to be the best players they can be. These are the people you find competing in National Championship “gold ball” tournaments and vying for spots on the United States international cup teams. It is a struggle because the tournament tennis ecosystem isn’t healthy at all levels. Other fragments of adult tennis culture are similarly also struggling.
The strategists at the USTA need to step back and consider the culture of the overall tennis-playing ecosystem when identifying programming and initiatives that truly fulfill the organization’s core mission: “To promote and develop the growth of tennis.” That should start with an identification of the full range of cultures that should exist and thrive in a healthy tennis ecosystem. Trying to wedge all players into the current USTA League dominant culture has only increased the divide.
Throughout this post, I have intentionally used variations of the phrase “the dominant culture of adult tennis” rather than using language that implies that it is a singular thing. The simple reality is that adult tennis has (or should have) multiple cultures, each with a vital role in the overall ecosystem. That simple reframing of how I characterize the adult tennis culture has led to a shift in my thinking about the problems currently endemic to adult tennis.
USTA League culture incentivizes and rewards players who systemically don’t try to be the best they can be. In isolation, that wouldn’t necessarily be a problem. However, as the dominant force in Adult tennis, it touches everything else. Additionally, there isn’t any enthusiasm for curtailing the influence of USTA League within the ecosystem primarily because its performance is measured by continuous — and unsustainable — growth in participation. The only way to succeed is to continue to cannibalize other parts of adult tennis.
The sandbagging self-entitled culture of USTA League is toxic to the overall adult tennis ecosystem. However, that is only because it has become the overwhelmingly dominant influence on everything else. It isn’t allowing enough room for other vital parts of adult tennis to exist, much less thrive. The fundamental challenge is how to strengthen the other areas to restore some semblance of equilibrium.
This weekend I am spending a few days briefly considering the culture of adult tennis. Tomorrow I am sharing an idea for an experiment that could prove to be a quick fix for revitalizing recreational open tournament tennis within the Texas Section. On Sunday, I am turning my attention to a much overdue profile of one player that illustrates a competitive paradox of tennis that doesn’t happen in any other sport.
I am anticipating that Adult tennis culture will be a recurring theme throughout 2024.
Have actively played league and club tennis years ago when I was a lot younger in two mid size communities and had a long pause due to work commitments then played actively for 12 years in a smaller community and for the last three years in a much larger community. Started at the 3.0 and then moved up to the 3.5 level where I’m pretty much in the middle of the pack. Most seasons I’ve played on three to four different women’s leagues, sometimes also in some mixed doubles. Do not see sandbagging occurring or actively discussed amid the teams I play on which are currently all age levels. I see members playing and cheering on their teammates to play their best — striving to win each point and each match. Many times teammates who are not playing in the day’s match come to watch and cheer (or quietly chat with friends). In my old community I participated in a local community tennis organization which had the goal of promoting tennis for all in the community and supported a very active drop in tennis in the community. In the smaller community we actively tried to bring in younger folks to our teams especially to play singles — it just seemed difficult finding new younger folks — we created WEB pages, put up posters on all the public courts, and even tried to recruit via the University club tennis. Sometimes folks found new players via their work but most of the recruitment (which wasn’t much) occurred via our very active community pros but that only brought in folks who could afford to pay for group lessons. I don’t think the issue is an adult culture of people not wanting to win, I think it’s also that up to age 40, tennis players can only participate in the 18+ leagues which only happens a short season – no long enough to build up the team rapport necessary to create a sense of tennis community. However those who are 55+ also get to play in the 40+ and 55+ leagues. This really limits the league play opportunities for younger people. Regarding tournaments – I was part of the large group of people who put on an annual fundraiser tournament in our community. Took a lot of time to find sponsors, get a referee to commit, and set up the operation for an event for the 120-180 players many of whom traveled to participate. Those of us in the community rarely could participate due to the need of staff to run the front desk, work that had to be done to set up the competition, coordinate issues if players dropped out, coordinate the flow of players, pick up trash, check the weather for outdoor courts, be ready to hand out awards, etc. While it was joyful to see the young players compete those who worked that whole weekend were exhausted for a week or so after the tournament and ended the event wondering about doing it again the next year — we did because it was good for the community but it is quite tiring to set up a tournament.
League play means commitment for 2-3 hours 2-8 times in an 8 week period with perhaps a 10-15 minute drive time to get to the courts. In this community, your teammates often come to cheer you on and perhaps your group has a end of season party to celebrate and if your team won you may travel to sectionals for a three day weekend tennis event together. Your team builds rapport together. I’ve been on league teams that make it to sectionals, been the new person on a team that succeeds, and have been on teams that are trying to get into the league — just starting up and may include people just bumped up and trying to find a way to participate. I’ve never been a captain but have been the assistant to many captains, helping to build a week’s roster and then reworking it when some event pulls a player out of play. I’ve also been the person helping a captain recruit more players. I have to say that I’ve only seen captains giving it all they can to support their teammates (most also play on the team many times putting others on the better play options before themselves). Those captains deal with a lot of personality issues and sometimes just unplanned issues — someone’s family had a crisis and now that person suddently can’t play, etc. Don’t know much about playing in lots of tournaments as just haven’t done that much. But am not sure where this view of sandbagging self-entitled culture in USTA Leagues comes from as I don’t believe at all that the USTA league culture rewards people who don’t try to be the best they can be and find it sad that there is such a focus on this particular perspective in these blogs that otherwise offer a lot of interesting thoughts about tennis (i.e. different exercises to try and thoughts on perhaps trying to play in more tournaments in my new local area)
Re: toxicity in Adult Tennis
Heard (again) today on-court in a friendly adult recreational match, after a call across the net to us of, “Good shot!”. This was immediately followed by, “…but in USTA it would have been OUT.”
Yeah. That’s part of what drove me out of USTA play.
A few points:
I agree that many league captains encourage new players to sandbag in self rating. They encourage even older players to sandbag as well. There is a chart the new players should be using for self rating but I doubt that many see it!
Many junior players go to college and whether or not they play in college, their first goal is to find a job and start to make a living. I feel that accounts for much of the loss. And I doubt that much is done to re-engage them once they have set up a lifestyle or even while they are doing so. I find that the email list of the USTA must not have my email address on it because I never get the general emails they send, not even about the ratings! I think that is because we used to have a family membership and the emails always went to my husband, but they stopped offering the family membership but perhaps did not update the email list when we each had to purchase a single membership.
As far as senior players are concerned, the USTA does not even make sure that all Senior/SS tournaments offer draws for all levels of senior players. For example, the upcoming senior/ SS CATA tournament does not offer a 55+ 3.5 Mixed Doubles draw! It didn’t last year either. I have mentioned it to the TD many times but nothing has come of it. Last year they offered 55+ for 4.0 and 4.5 players but nothing just one step lower. I have not checked this years’ tournament once I saw that 3.5 was not offered for 55+ Mixed Doubles. I feel that all level 5 and above Senior/SS tournaments should be required to offer 55+ for the mixed because some older players do sant to keep playing together even when they can’t beat a 40 year old.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest!😊🎾❤️