An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
This is the last installment of a six week structured improvement program inspired by one of Dennis Ralston’s books, Six Weeks to a Better Level of Tennis. During this time, I have been focusing my training on improving my on court mobility and coverage.
It seems weird to be writing about the rules of tennis after my extended tangent. Trying to remember that I had just wrapped up the “Hindrance” section was somewhat disorienting. Even the act of pasting the USTA Friend at Court reference into the footer of this post caused a new sensation. I wonder where the 2021 USTA publishing location will be, since the closure of the White Plains office was announced in the interim.
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The USTA player safety tips say to not play if you have been in close contact with someone who is COVID-19 positive, but not the actual player. Seriously.
I am in the middle of a six week structured improvement program inspired by one of Dennis Ralston’s books, Six Weeks to a Better Level of Tennis. During this time, I am publishing a status update on the effort every Sunday. This week as I reviewed the inventory of all the training activities that I had devised for myself as a part of this project, I came to the realization that I had not touched on the creation and practice of match routines that would directly lead into better footwork patterns.
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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During my current tenure as a computer rated 5.0, I have been asked if I would be interested in joining a team as a 4.0 following a drill on no less than three distinct occasions. Some people observe my strokes in a semi-competitive environment and eyeball me at 4.0 to this very day. This illustrates the challenge in the NTRP self rating process.
In 1971 the USTA created an educational advisory committee which quickly morphed into the Education and Research (E&R) office. The focus of E&R was expanding public participation in tennis. The ideas generated from this office included scholastic programs, a film lending library, a publications department, and clinics for tennis teachers. E&R was also the first unit to focus on player development.
Based on my personal exposure and experience I perceive that there are a lot more league players than there are tournament players. At the same time I think that the majority of tournament players also play leagues. This leaves a small sliver of players who play only tournaments.
I can’t decide if I am more disappointed or relieved that no one called me out for the “Damn You Autocorrect” item in my training plan indicating that I would watch matches by Chris “Every” in addition to Steffi Graf to study their technique. Probably everyone knew who I meant anyway.
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In physics, critical mass is the smallest amount of material needed for a chain reaction. The concept of critical mass is a useful analogy for participation in tennis tournaments. Enough players have to enter an event in order for it to be held. Additionally, players typically will not enter tournaments if they assume or are concerned that the draw might not make.