There are two significant questions related to USTA Player
Development that I'm going to skip over in this post. The first is the governing
structure of the USTA itself, which
I discussed last week.
The second is whether the position of
General Manager of Player Development is one that needs to exist at all.
But assuming it is going to be filled
and the new hire in the position will be reporting to the new president and
board of directors, I'll proceed with what I think has been accomplished in
McEnroe's six years at Player Development, what needs to change to improve
its effectiveness and what skills and experience the new General Manager should possess.
I ask that you remember that I am not a coach, a parent, a
player or a tournament director who has any direct contact with Player
Development's policies and decisions. I talk regularly with all of those people at high-level junior tournaments, but my views are from the
perspective of a journalist, not a "customer." I will say again what I have said for
the decade I have been covering junior tennis for this website--all of us want
the same thing: a strong and viable American presence in the global world of
tennis.
Here are the positive steps I've seen introduced or
emphasized in the past five years, in no particular order of importance:
1. Talent identification is more organized and systematic,
with more regional camps and more travel by USTA staff
2. There are more invitations for a wider array of players
to training camps in Boca Raton
3. The outreach to private coaches has improved, with
invitations to Boca with their players and to other focus group meetings to
brainstorm
4. Recognition
that some private sector coaches who develop national-level players but are not
famous have wisdom to offer.
5. Establishment of a National Collegiate Coaching position
6. Increased opportunities for juniors and young pros to
train and play competitive matches on clay
7. Introduction of Pro Circuit Wild Card Challenges for slam
wild cards
8. Providing US Open Junior wild cards to 18s Clay Court and
Easter Bowl champions
Here are the areas where I feel Player Development has
fallen short:
1. PD allowed the USTA junior competitive structure be
radically altered without advocating for the best interests of elite national
players. PD has long recognized the various development paths, but has
consistently abandoned its own system as a viable means of providing top-level
competition. This goes not just for the tournament structure but the ranking
system as well. When your federation's ranking system is not trusted by college
coaches nor understood by those who are competing in the system, it has failed.
2. PD's voice must be heard on the topic of minimum prize
money for Futures events on the USTA Pro Circuit. To allow $10,000 Futures
tournaments to continue to exist without any increase in prize money for 20 years
demonstrates a lack of big-picture thinking. It would cost $115,000 to upgrade
the 23 men's $10Ks to $15Ks. A less complicated and cheaper action item would
be hard to find.
3. Too much money is going to too few juniors. Selecting
prospects is what competition is for. Anointing players based on potential and
providing them with everything is risky at best and a waste of PD resources at
worst. Better to give 100 kids $1000 than 1 kid $100,000.
4. USTA tournament fees are too high. $120 for a top USTA
event vs $65 for a top ITF event (which unlike the USTA, provides hospitality)
doesn't make any sense. If that gap can be justified, provide a breakdown of
where the tournament fee dollars go. Adequate, well-trained officials should be
the top budget priority. Earmark funds to that end if necessary.
5. There's not enough USTA PD presence at National/sectional
tournaments and major college events. This is not a reference to the national
coaches who travel with USTA players (see below), but to those in PD who do not
have responsibility for specific players. They should be at as many tournaments
as possible, representing the USTA and listening to tournament directors,
players, parents and coaches.
6. Team USA, the recent initiative to view all American players as
part of the USTA, is sabotaged by the presence of USTA National Coaches as
private coaches for "their" players at tournaments. It's only natural
they want to see the players they are coaching daily in competition, but should
a federation aim to have it both ways?
Seeing three or four PD employees at the match of one junior they work
with, and none at the majority of matches featuring American juniors, sends the
wrong message to everyone, widening a gulf they maintain they want to close.
7. The emergence of social media has provided all
organizations, big and small, a means to quickly and cheaply disseminate
information and engage its constituency. Player Development has failed to take
advantage of this opportunity to reach out to parents, players, coaches and
fans.
8. Town meetings, webinars and focus groups are valuable,
but if the USTA does not regularly and clearly communicate what it has heard
and what it intends to do about what it has heard, it does little but feed the
cynicism many feel. The USTA will always be a target for anything and
everything that goes wrong in junior tennis in this country. That cannot blind
it to reality that some criticism has merit, suggestions from the field are
often valuable and its power has genuine consequences.
I'll close with a list of what attributes I would like to
see in Patrick McEnroe's replacement.
My dream General Manager of Player Development would:
1) have a background in coaching
juniors and either a player they coach, or a son or daughter in the system
2)
be familiar with the demands of the current pro game, whether as a coach or
player at that level in the past decade
3) be well-versed in the current
advances in coaching and sports science
4) have a love of the game that extends
to sectional/national junior tournaments
5) demonstrate an ability to convey to
the USTA president, board and all USTA members the goals and mission of Player
Development, a plan to reach them, and a means to determine if they have been
met
6) possess business and marketing skills to attract sponsorship and support
from commercial interests
7) inspire loyalty, leading to reduced turnover
8) be
delighted to live in Lake Nona, Florida
It's very unlikely any one person would fit in that box, and
I've probably missed other important aspects of the job, simply because I don't
know what it has been or am failing to imagine what it could be. But if you have other ideas on how the
USTA could improve Player Development, pass them on. It does matter.
and its author Daniel Coyle, who wrote 
