The “Tennis Tournament Ranking System Player Survey” was closed to additional responses last week. That means that analysis has begun in earnest. I am delighted with the feedback received and have already started geeking out on the data. This weekend’s “Unplugged” series of posts will hit some of the highlights as I start work on a full analysis report.
A total of 86 responses were received and every single person who started the survey finished it. That 100% completion rate defied SurveyMonkey’s prediction of 71% when this campaign went live. The commitment rate from this community is high.
One of the questions collected age based demographic data in large incremental bands. The break points between each category were intentionally selected mostly align with USTA NTRP Tournament and League age divisions. The only exception is that I split up 40 and under into two pieces.
This blog is targeted at Adult competitive players and I knew going in that my readership is a little… more seasoned. However, I was surprised at how old the data was skewed. This survey received a single response from a person in the 18-30 range. In retrospect, that is exactly where the “bathtub” in the USTA’s participation rates live as well.
The survey’s demographic data reveals high tournament participation and a lot of engagement.
Collectively, our tournament participation is predominantly in USTA sanctioned events. I was a little surprised that UTR had attracted more people than ITF events.
I am wrapping up this initial post on the survey results by touching on one participation data “worry stone.” Exactly half of the survey respondents reported they they had entered a tournament division that did not attract enough competitors to be conducted.
That statistic is worrisome enough in isolation. However, when correlated with the next question, evidence of a dangerous self-reinforcing loop emerges.
70% of players have decided to not enter an event that had not already attracted other competitors. That means that some divisions may have not made simply because no one else was willing to be the first to throw in an entry. That is essentially the data behind the ideas previously explored in “Enter Tournaments Early, Enter Tournaments Often.”
The tennis community has a moral imperative to find creative ways to incentivize people to enter more tournaments.
T Shirt Winners
The T-Shirt Winners have been determined and will be individually notified later today. For the sake of (semi-) transparency, these are the obfuscated email addresses that were drawn out of my Theragun accessory bag that I have found to be well suited for blind drawings:
- mu*****@gm***.com
- cp******@gm***.com
- th******@ho*****.com
- ch*************@gm***.com
- th**********@ya***.com
