Fiend at Court Unplugged
I have no recollection of the first time that a tennis racquet was thrust into my hand. However, I do recall the exact point in time that a tennis racquet came into my life. It unceremoniously appeared in the front seat of the family station wagon one afternoon as my mom retrieved me and my brother from my Grandparents.
My brother does not remember that occasion at all, which is not surprising. Despite the fact that I am actively promoting the rumor that he is a lot older than me these days, he is my baby brother. It was my birthright as the first born to sit in the passenger seat of the car. No car seats. No seat belts. It is amazing that anyone survived the 70’s.
As any self respecting pre-schooler would do, I immediately regarded the racquet as a new toy for me. That idea was quickly corrected. With a distinct lack of enthusiasm, Mom told us that she was going to be taking some tennis lessons. It clearly wasn’t her idea.
One of her friends, who also happened to be the wife of a very important customer of my father’s business, had decided to take tennis lessons. She didn’t want to do it alone, so my Mom was enlisted as her companion for the initial beginner classes. The Umpire who Gave Birth to Me was so confident that she wouldn’t like the sport, that she went into the endeavor with the primary objective of finding her friend some one else to play with.
By the end of the class, the Umpire who Gave Birth to me was hooked on tennis. Her friend… decided to get a facelift and never returned to the sport. There is a very real possibility that the only reason tennis ever came into my family is because one of our family friends was having a mid-life crisis.
I have recently developed a curiosity about the circumstances surrounding that time when a tennis racquet first hits the hands of prospective tennis players. The racquet is undeniably essential to the introduction of the sport. In order to build participation in tennis, it is critical to get racquets into the hands of more people. I have no clue how that actually transpires outside of the established tennis community.
Mom has no recollection of where that first racquet actually came from. The pro-shop at Hamilton Tennis Center where she took those initial lessons was the cinderblock hut that is currently used as the ball storage shed. There may have been a few racquets available for sale there, but I don’t remember any. It is more likely that her initial frame came from the Paul Brotherton Sporting Goods store. There is zero chance that I will ever learn the true source of that racquet.
From that point forward, everybody in my orbit who started playing tennis struck their first balls with a racquet loaned to them from another tennis playing family member. This has brought me to the recent stunning revelation that I have no idea how people outside of tennis acquire their first racquets.
Building participation in tennis has been front of mind for me this year. I am starting to arrive at the conclusion that it ultimately boils down to a numbers game. In order to build participation in tennis, it is essential to increase the number of people who give tennis a try. Retention goals are nice to have, but tennis has to get people to step through the gates onto a court in the first place.
Some number of beginning tennis players will become passionate lifetime enthusiasts. Others will not develop an affinity for the game and will move on to other activities. While it is important to pay attention to the consumer experience during initial tennis lessons, it is equally important to cast a wide net so that the initial engagement occurs at all.
To promote tennis is to promote racquet ownership. It is the critical first step to build participation in the game.
