The series of posts that culminated with “Metrics Matter” a couple of weeks ago attracted some similar comments directly on my site, via social media, and in person. I was triggered by one word that was a common theme in that feedback. Travel. It is apparent that many people in the Adult tennis ecosystem believe that tournament play isn’t a local thing. Playing tournament tennis should not require travel for the vast majority of adult tournament players. The fact that it does is yet another indicator that the tournament ecosystem is broken.
Travel to play in tennis tournaments should only be a necessity for two categories of players. First are those with elevated performance levels rivaling the most elite players in their age divisions. These people are the best in their nation and sometimes the world. Even if the tennis tournament ecosystem were fully healthy, travel would still be required for the top players to find competitive matches.
The other demographic that desperately needs tennis tournaments is those that have transcended the level of competition available to them at the local level. Players living in less populous areas can rise above the competition available to them in their immediate area, yet still be nowhere near what would be considered elite. However, they should not have to travel great distances in order to find competition. If the tennis tournament ecosystem was healthy, they could travel relatively short distances to local tournaments in nearby areas.
The vast majority of Adult tennis players should not have to leave their local area to find competitive match play. Unfortunately, many areas with a high population of tennis players that should have a plethora of tennis tournaments simply don’t. A local community tennis association embroiled in conducting 32 different leagues replete with multiple divisions and flights simply lacks the bandwidth or motivation to conduct a tournament.
Players in those more populous areas that are rising above their local competition should have tournaments close by as a competitive outlet. In the absence of that, “The Insidious Plateau” of players who manage their ratings rather than trying to be the best player they can be occurs. It’s hard to blame the players for responding in precisely the way the system incentivizes them to behave.
Restoration of the tennis tournament ecosystem is a complex problem with no easy or obvious solutions. However, simply refusing to allow the concept of tournaments to be psychologically linked to travel at least prevents everybody involved from accepting that an absence of local tournaments is normal or healthy. It’s not.
