tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post5473228220166815721..comments2024-03-26T09:23:26.937-04:00Comments on ZooTennis: McEnroe Out as USTA's General Manager of Player DevelopmentColette Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14905215531491180014noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-17208132092817035302014-10-01T13:01:13.077-04:002014-10-01T13:01:13.077-04:00As long as the financial barrier to play this spor...As long as the financial barrier to play this sports remains, nothing will change. Not only should USTA invest heavily at the sectional level (reduce staff costs and invest in the youth) but they should absolutely create a sectional approach that prohibits playing out of section unless you earn the right (my daughter is a junior player but also run tracks and per USA junior track, you play a season then start a series of meets where only the top 3 advance . . . local to state to regions to nat'l). This immediately reduces the amount of $ you can spend b/c you can't buy your way to regionals or nationals.<br /><br />Sponsor the top 10-20% of each section and as much as possible, require them to train together (most private clubs would allow access to courts if the USTA paid for it . . . again, invest). Try to recruit from the other sports where the best athletes are . . . the best athletes do not play tennis in the U.S. Attend some b-ball, football or track events and watch the best kids (would be interesting if you talk to their parents and offer full ride scholarships to try tennis) but, of course, that would bring diversity into the game (economic and racial) and I'm not sure USTA wants that.<br /><br />This is so frustrating and why we stopped it with our daughter . . . we quit spending $20k+ per year which is common and actually at the low end of the scale . . . there is absolutely no ROI for those economics . . . as a comparison, my daughter runs track nationally and we pay $55 per month for 4x days per week + conditioning . . . that will barely cover 30 min. with a top tennis instructor.<br /><br />We are done but I hope something changes for the generation behind us.<br /><br />HHH-https://www.blogger.com/profile/07806815513746934744noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-44579782275426232522014-09-05T13:47:30.182-04:002014-09-05T13:47:30.182-04:00Jeez another comment about entitlement. When will ...Jeez another comment about entitlement. When will all these people stop complaining about the U.S. but take everything they can from it? We live where you can have an opinion without getting executed or punished, and trying to make the system better is American, not entitlement. USTA works with ITF, they can seek change. And ITA and NCAA are not mutually exclusive from USTA, that has never been so evident than recently. That is becoming way too incestuous. There, some understanding.Confusing rights with entitlementnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-70607191249822309432014-09-05T10:21:34.639-04:002014-09-05T10:21:34.639-04:00Basic economics.... Lower the price and advertise ...Basic economics.... Lower the price and advertise it. That will get an increase in participation. Get a larger pool of athletes playing the sport. garynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-82462474343430033272014-09-05T08:28:39.787-04:002014-09-05T08:28:39.787-04:00First, I think Zoo Tennis is an excellent outlet f...First, I think Zoo Tennis is an excellent outlet for information and thoughtful analysis by CLewis.<br /><br />My suggestion for PD is a 'Co' position....Wayne Bryan and Greg Patton together. I believe the position needs a 'mentoring' kind of personality...one that encourages...both of those individuals have that trait instinctively.<br /><br />Wayne knows, and understands, club's...for one. The tennis clubs through our great country (and the public facilities of course) can be the 'entry point' for youth. Each facility that WANTS to help CAN, by offering a Junior Membership (with a limited time frame) to an outstanding boy and girl in their neighborhood that COULD NOT afford club membership...or if the child had parents that might not be supp ortive of their interest in tennis.<br /><br />Perfect example: The Seattle Tennis Club, when it was in a mode to HELP develop players, gave an INTERMEDIATE MEMBERSHIP to an outstanding athlete/basketball/baseball player who was very skinny, and very fast.<br /><br />He was mentored by players/people like 'Righty and Lefty' Eden, Bill Quillian (STC's top player/great man)...and this player had a place to play, got on the traveling teams for tournaments and he continued to develop.<br /><br />This is a true story...and it can be duplicated AROUND THE COUNTRY very soon...for those clubs that want to help find American boys and girls that have talent, but need a place to call home for their tennis.<br /><br />The player was/is Tom Gorman of Seattle...who rose to #8 in the world. (If somebody could have shown him a little better technique on his forehand...OMG...he would have been top five!...:) )<br /><br />I am his friend...so I can kid him...but the story is true. Wayne and Greg Patton (who is a great coach as well)...would be great Ambassadors for tennis.<br /><br />The coaching staff underneath them is already there if we use it.<br /><br />Footwork: Jose Higerus<br />Serve: Pete Sampras<br />Groundstokes: Landsdorp, Bolletierri<br />Volley: Brian Gottfried<br />Overhead: Tom Gorman<br />Strategy: Pancho Segura (let the children sit at his feet while he watches a match)<br />Mental Toughness: Alan Fox perhaps Johan Kriek (American citizen)<br />Return of Serve: Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi<br />Conditioning: Mr. Gil Reyes<br />Doubles: Sherwood Stewart, John McEnroe, Bob Lutz<br />Clay Court Tennis: Harold Solomon<br /><br />I know we have GREAT coaches throughout the USA...and great facilities. <br /><br />I believe we also should bring the top juniors from EACH SECTION of the USTA, a team of seven girls and seven boys, to NYC for the US Open to be BALLCREWS from Southern, Texas, PNW, So. Cal, Northern Cal. Let them work the Open as teams...getting the best seat in the house. They would return so fired up you would not have to tell them to practice...they can see for themselves what it takes to make it to the top of the game.<br /><br />I have other thoughts...and again, love to hear from those who love the game and want to create an environment for our American junior to develop as far as their heart muscle can take them.<br /><br />Best,<br /><br />Brian Sidney Parrott<br />Oregon, now Iowa...:)<br />www.ATHOF.comBrian Parrotthttp://www.athof.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-47459298308971172322014-09-05T01:31:19.753-04:002014-09-05T01:31:19.753-04:00Reading the comments. You can see so many of the ...Reading the comments. You can see so many of the problems with American tennis. Namely entitlement and zero understanding of how things actually work or what the job is all about.<br /><br />- "blue chip parent". what??? blue chip? 5 star? who cares. <br /><br />- Futures prize money is dictated by ITF. Not usta, its not like grand slam prize money thats announced by federations. <br /><br />- draw size at Kalamazoo has little to do with amount of foreign players in college tennis. <br /><br />-Lake Nona is more for other parts of USTA than player development. PD only gets a fraction of the courts. the rest are for UCF, future NCAA site, league tennis, community tennis, etc. Sad but true. <br /><br />-good luck getting a title IX exemption. or limiting foreign scholarships. NCAA and ITA issues, not player development/usta. its like jurisdiction that you learn in CivPro. <br /><br />jeeznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-75293725731016547122014-09-04T22:17:50.860-04:002014-09-04T22:17:50.860-04:00the BBC is reporting….the "Not Ready for Pri...the BBC is reporting….the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" of Saturday Night have hired Pat McEnroe..:) look at it this way…you get to stay n New York:)"LIVE FROM NEW YORK..It's Saturday NIGHT"noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-29336816277285324382014-09-04T21:48:53.107-04:002014-09-04T21:48:53.107-04:00ACTION ITEM TWO
In a quest to repudiate the USTA ...ACTION ITEM TWO<br /><br />In a quest to repudiate the USTA PD’s belief that they are responsible for producing the next generation of US players, and in the hopes that the USTA will stop cherry-picking America’s top players in the search for a champion, I herewith offer another solution for American player development.<br /><br />The USTA has made an assumption that hiring former professional players is the equivalent to hiring quality professional level coaches. Frankly, there is almost zero correlation between the playing and coaching skill sets. Coaching requires creativity, an ability to articulate information through aural, kinesthetic and visual means. It demands incredible patience and an ability to motivate others. Moreover, coaching involves a wholesale commitment to a player in order to understand: 1) the psychological barriers which might impede a player’s progress, 2) the familial and training environment the player must deal with in addition to tennis practices, 3) a history of the player’s emotional and physical development so as to modify training for trauma, injury, and various other stressors, 4) etc.<br /><br />Playing, however, requires a wholly different skill set. Great players feel the ball, the urgencies and vacillations, and the instinctive shot making. This is not to say great players cannot be great coaches, but rather, only that great players are not necessarily great coaches. Blessed with supreme talent, many professional tennis players frequently cannot articulate how they perform technical skills. Their learning experience is concentrated upon their particular learning style, and their sole concern is motivating themselves. Better than most people, great players recognize the hours required to master certain skill sets, and to suggest they can become great coaches without putting in the requisite hours is to belittle the coaching profession and to express a level of arrogance not conducive to a supra-standard organization. Only a poorly educated organization would hire employees based on assumptions rather than evidence.<br /><br />However, these coaches have wisdom from playing experience, and clearly it would be irresponsible not to include them in the national player development plan. But, their knowledge should go to the coaching community whose professional skill in developing players is far better. To help American tennis, the governing body should focus on the infrastructure, not the end product. Rather than commandeer the talented few, build the framework and let champions emerge. This is the American way.<br />part 7noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-86063836346527815842014-09-04T21:47:50.797-04:002014-09-04T21:47:50.797-04:00Having traveled the world with junior and professi...Having traveled the world with junior and professional players, I feel the USTA has a less-than-outstanding understanding of how to construct an elite player development program. The professional tennis world is an ocean of talent. The current PD model has PD scouts traveling from small pond to small pond, all across the country, in search of a few talented drops of water. They remove these players from their small ponds, offer them the world, and expect them to enter the professional ocean and make an impact. Handpicking twenty or so kids per year has about the same odds as buying a winning lottery ticket, and, with millions dollars going into the program, appears to be an abhorrent waste of money.<br /><br />Instead, the USTA should change its model. With PD coaches who’ve had tour experience and a good understanding of professional tennis life, they have an under-utilized and improperly directed asset. These PD coaches should not be centrally located to work with players, but rather, travel around the country working with players and their private coaches. By passing on their knowledge to private coaches, they are no longer limited to affecting a few players per year, but now access and inform all of the players under all of the coaches with whom they communicate. Once done, the few drops in a pond will become strong currents of players in a river that flows mightily into the ocean of professional tennis. John Kennedy said A rising tide lifts all boats, and in this case, PD should allocate its resources to raising the floodwaters of American coaching.<br /><br />But this would entail removing the egos from the equation, the desire to have OUR OWN USTA kids, under OUR OWN tutelage, so we can show how good WE ARE as national coaches. It would require these national coaches to stop hoarding their presumed wisdom for their post-USTA careers and to focus on educating the nation’s coaches so we can grow the quality of American tennis as a whole.<br /><br />Sadly, USTA PD now sees itself in competition with the private coaching community. The PD coaches work with talent taken from private coaches, and then, to the detriment of the other U.S. kids, sit behind court fences cheering on their OWN charges. Few things are more offensive to a tennis parent than seeing his/her own child cheered against by the organization that presumably attracted the kid to the game in the first place. It is nepotism inverted.<br /><br />Get the information into the hands of the people that can use it and let the kids compete.<br /><br />Step one on the path back to American success involves sending USTA’s PD coaches out to the country’s tennis clubs such that more coaches and players have access to the best information available. Do this only until their contracts run out and then move on to Action Item Two.<br />Part 6noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-22578246690783713362014-09-04T21:46:45.033-04:002014-09-04T21:46:45.033-04:00It would be irresponsible of me to cast aspersions...It would be irresponsible of me to cast aspersions without offering some remedies for our current state. And so, in the interest of bettering American tennis:<br /><br /> <br /><br />ACTION ITEM ON<br /><br />After twenty-five years of abysmal non-performance, the USTA player development program needs to reassess its purpose. According to the establishment’s current mission statement, “To grow the game…” they should be directing their resources toward community tennis initiatives, tournament structures, and league tennis. However, believing the development of an elite cadre of American athletes will contribute to the growth of the game, the USTA has taken on the daunting role of player development. Several high level coaches contend this approach does not fall within the boundaries of the organization’s proposed mission, and deem the USTA’s approach antithetical to the private coaching community’s success.<br /><br />Patrick McEnroe sees the private coaching community as a conduit into the USTA PD national program. “Coaches should be promoting their programs by touting the number of players they send to us,” stated McEnroe at an event in Southern California. Within the private coaching profession, a vocal community reflects on the PD program’s lack of success and questions whether PD really can do it better. They feel the USTA is cherry-picking the nation’s best players with promises of free coaching, grant money, wildcard opportunities, and travel expenses to ITF events.<br /><br />“The USTA tells parents the players have to attend their workouts 4-5 days a week, and play within their development system. Too often, this “system” goes against the private coach’s theory on player development and the kid ends up leaving the private coach for the USTA perks. It is not the direct theft of a player, but what parents and kids are going to say “No” to the sport’s governing body? Then, when the player underperforms, the USTA drops the kid for the next presumed prodigy. Two decades later, with no accountability for their failures, they are still searching for someone to hang their hat on,” says one prominent Southern California coach wanting to maintain anonymity for fear of reprisal.<br /><br />Part 5noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-63667471448726002312014-09-04T21:38:28.261-04:002014-09-04T21:38:28.261-04:00Meanwhile, you sit in your high-salaried office ha...Meanwhile, you sit in your high-salaried office having your coaches recruit/steal America’s top juniors by offering them travel and coaching incentives from your $300 million dollar US OPEN trust fund – a fund we private coaches cannot compete with – and then blame everyone but yourself when the kids do not make it. YOU and your coaching staff have access to every single top player in America, you have a massive player development budget compared to other nations, you have training centers and the best technology money can buy, you have private housing for kids and coaches and an absurd expense account for your personal needs, you have equipment manufacturers and trainers and past champions at your beck and call. Annually, the US produces juniors who win international championships at both individual and team competitions, and then the USTA PD staff picks them up to presumably “take them to the next level.”<br /><br />And with all of that – more resources than any nation on the planet – the USTA PD program has failed to produce a champion. Yet, the organization continues to spend millions of dollars in pursuit of just one success story to justify its existence. American tennis is at its worst place in our nation’s history and you are manning the helm of a ship that continues to sink into the depths of international waters now thick with better boats. And you have the gall to impugn us? At what point do you begin to blame yourself for the recent dearth of American champions? The mirror never lies, Patrick. THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!<br /><br />Frankly, I am not even questioning your intentions. I truly believe you’d like to see American tennis rise again. But intention and arrogance are rotten comrades. With intention should come humility, and an honest assessment of one’s accomplishments and failures. On this account, you are lacking. It is time for you to go. Before you do, though, please put some clothes on because someone has now exposed your nakedness and the crowd is starting to speak up.<br />Part 4noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-11458097303175048762014-09-04T21:37:48.224-04:002014-09-04T21:37:48.224-04:00YOU have hired foreign coaches who prepare the cur...YOU have hired foreign coaches who prepare the curriculum for player development and who should have the motivational tools to get players to push to the levels required for professional tennis. YOU have chosen to abandon the American coaches who’ve been responsible for the development of so many world champions, including those from other countries. YOU have chosen to take top junior players away from their private coaches and bring them to your foreign coaches, coaches who continue to fail to produce champions from the obscene crop of talent we private coaches continue to push into your funnel of failure – If these foreign coaches aren’t succeeding, why haven’t you fired them?<br /><br />Here’s another one of your loathsome comments:<br /><br />“I can guarantee you there are more, better coaches in other countries than in this country, percentage-wise.” – Men’s Journal<br /><br />Really? Then perhaps you should go join them. A leader doesn’t praise the enemy and belittle his own troops, but rather, a leader leads by example. Leadership is about role modeling and solving problems. It requires hours of helping people break habits and putting in the effort and motivational time to rebuild them as confident competitors, not blaming them for lack of hard work and scapegoating them for your own personal and professional failures. Assuming you actually believe these foreign coaches are better, leadership means getting your presumed “better coaches” out to the masses to educate the “lesser American coaches” so that a rising tide will lift all ships. This makes more sense than cherry-picking the best kids and taking them from their private coaches who do all of the grunt work. Leadership is the place where responsibility and accountability kiss, and right now that seems to be where the sun don’t shine.<br /><br />Maybe if you got your ass out of the media booth for those eight weeks per year that you are supposed to be doing your player development job, and placed it on a court with some of the country’s best developmental coaches, you’d understand what I’m talking about. You want respect from the tennis community? Grab a racket and a few beginners and come earn it! Until you join us in the trenches, we have neither the time nor the inclination for your disparaging words.<br /><br />Wrongly, YOU believe our job as private coaches is to bring talented and successful kids to you because you believe you can do it better than us. YOU expect us to slog hours through the developmental muck and to help young children develop character, work ethic, passion and commitment. YOU expect us to bring you perfectly formed little champions so you can ride their coattails of success and expound upon your own sagacity. And when they don’t make it, you accuse these kids of NOT SACRIFICING ENOUGH FOR YOU? That is a condemnation of the coaches, the kids and the families. To blame others for your own ineptitude is the highest form of arrogance. I commend you on your achievement!<br /><br />You hire ex-players as coaches assuming – with NO evidence – the skill set for coaching is the same as the skill set for competing. Though these are great people who want the best for the kids, this demonstrates your complete lack of understanding of the requisite talent comprising the developmental coaching community.<br /><br />Part 3noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-20498119246754515082014-09-04T21:36:17.585-04:002014-09-04T21:36:17.585-04:00To claim Americans don’t understand hard work or t...To claim Americans don’t understand hard work or that we are unwilling to sacrifice is to go against the character of this nation. When the competition gets tough, Americans step up – WE always have. WE do not look without for excuses. WE do not blame the competitive arena for better competitors, or suggest that the global nature of sport makes it tougher for us. That’s what YOU do. WE get tougher, more dedicated. WE do not turn to a bureaucracy to cure our ills, but rather, WE seek that innovative individual spirit and revolutionary wherewithal that allowed this nation to overcome tyranny and thrive in the face of despotism. WE are as blue collar as it gets and WE are more than willing to jump into the trenches to fight for what we believe. WE are willing to work harder than any competitor and to sacrifice everything for a shot at titles. Ask the Brothers Bryan and the Sisters Williams. Every two years, our Olympians confirm that the American athlete is still one of the greatest in the world. In spite of your efforts to shorten matches and hold kids back from the yellow tennis ball, WE teach our children to overcome obstacles, to thwart dictatorial regimes, and to prosper through perseverance. To us, sacrifice is one step on the trail to greatness, and to suggest we are not willing to forfeit everything for a chance at glory is to demean our character. WE take umbrage at your insolence.<br /><br />The truth, however, is success requires leadership. And our present leader is performing a half-ass job for one organization, while taking money from another, and then scapegoating the people he is presumably responsible for. That is hypocritical, irresponsible and arrogant, so we leave that for YOU, with the hope that you never again confuse the letters ESPN with USTA.<br /><br />YOU continue to blame the kids for not being able to construct points and accuse them of not being willing to sacrifice (Yes, I know you said “blaming our players is not the answer” but that is exactly what you are doing), to blame the parents for being poorly educated about the sacrifices required for this game. And yet, YOU are the one who will avoid junior tournaments like the plague. YOU refuse to commit to the private coaching hours required to develop talent by tossing and feeding millions of balls, and sitting with players to explain what is needed to become an elite professional, and getting to know them holistically – their families, their schools, their personal relationships, and emotional setbacks, and injury-filled pasts, and myriad other petty and unsexy things that make up a human being first and a tennis player second. YOU would rather sit in your comfortable commentator’s booth or White Plains office and offer scathing opinions of America’s best young talent. The pivotal lines of leadership are not sketched on some whiteboard. They are created through inspiration and participation.<br /><br />Leadership’s robes do not come from making appearances, but rather, from fighting in the trenches with the troops, and surrendering one’s self for your team, and giving up media jobs and high-powered luncheons and seven-figure salaries to tough it out when the lighting is dim and the courts are cracked and the body is exhausted. That is sacrifice, and it is YOU who are unwilling to make it. I’ll say it again, “The Emperor has no clothes!”Part 2noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-44572136850393778252014-09-04T21:35:20.391-04:002014-09-04T21:35:20.391-04:00(Editor: This story was first posted 15 months ago...(Editor: This story was first posted 15 months ago. We never stopped running it. We went as far as this week calling Pat Mac a Teflon brother. We are truly pleased. It’s 4,300 words composed from years of frustrations and first hand experience By: An American Guardian Of The Game . )<br />http://www.10sballs.com/2014/09/03/the-emperor-has-no-clothes-by-american-guardian-of-the-game-2/<br /><br />Where are the Americans in the year end championships ? No Single Players ! We do have one doubles team ” The Bryan Bros ” coached and developed by their mother and their dad.)<br /><br />Patrick McEnroe, you are responsible for directing the quite extensive resources of the USTA into junior player development. In the absence of producing successful players, rather than taking responsibility, you have chosen to throw the junior tennis players and their coaches under the bus. It is time to call you to task.<br /><br />“For the first time since 1912, when no American men entered the tournament, not one advanced past the second round.”<br /><br />Patrick McEnroe concedes there may be some truth in the claim that young Americans aren’t willing to sacrifice as much as their counterparts around the world. “Blaming our players is not the answer,” he said. “We need to educate them at a younger age about what it takes, so they learn the right things to do early.” –Washington Post<br /><br />Not willing to sacrifice? There are thousands of kids out there that spend a fortune to travel to USTA national (you know, the ones with the absurd $151 entry fees) and international tournaments in search of competitive match play and rankings. Many of them sacrifice normal adolescent lives and relationships in order to pursue something greater. They forego fun weekends and post- school-day hangouts with friends and social interaction, and they incur injuries and debt and failure on a regular basis. They spend five hours per day on court and another hour in the gym, and give up fun fatty foods for those which will fuel their bodies. They suffer weeks where the mood of the house is dependent upon their performance and, sadly, they may only be ten years old when that pressure begins. They endure losses and failure and some of that may be attributable to their unavoidable lack of talent or athleticism. They give up dates with boyfriends or girlfriends and Friday night football games and family vacations so they can boost their rankings or get in one more practice. They tolerate constant soreness and dehydration – and a future with swollen joints – for a shot at what is almost impossible. They risk what would be college tuition money in hopes of avoiding injury and perfecting their games in order to receive an athletic scholarship. And you have the audacity to claim they are not willing to sacrifice as much as their counterparts around the world? Let’s look at who is the pot calling the kettle names here.<br /><br />YOU are the Czar of Player Development for juniors in the US, and presumably make the recommendations to the USTA how to structure player development across the United States. It thus appears that YOU agree with shortening matches from three sets to two-plus-a-breaker. YOU marginalized or eliminated doubles matches. YOU attempted to constrict draws so fewer kids would get to compete at nationals. YOU decided to introduce and promote Ten and Under Tennis/Quickstart to make the game EASIER, and to prevent talent from advancing when they are ready. YOU imposed a mandate based upon unproven research to make the game easier and then accuse us of not working hard enough. YOU transformed from someone, who avoided accepting juniors with collegiate intentions into your player development program, into someone who thinks college can be good preparation for professional tennis. YOU claim our children are not willing to sacrifice and then you lower the barriers to progress in every way. YOU have only YOURSELF TO BLAME for America’s current state in the game.Part 1noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-48540937212720321092014-09-04T21:20:50.887-04:002014-09-04T21:20:50.887-04:00Very sad that this organization doesn't seem t...Very sad that this organization doesn't seem to care about the juniors at all in this country. No wonder tennis is in the doldrums. I received the new questionaire and just trashed it. I spent good money to go to the listening meeting and was ignored when I spoke about the cuts to Kalamazoo and what it would mean to our juniors in terms of visibility for recruiting. They didn't acknowledge my complaints, didn't listen, and have zero interest that mens college tennis is becoming increasingly foreign. Learned my lesson with my older son, but I won't make the mistake with the younger one. He is staying in baseball.Done..noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-90192570061439995482014-09-04T21:14:22.778-04:002014-09-04T21:14:22.778-04:00EW YORK -- Parents of top current and former U.S. ...EW YORK -- Parents of top current and former U.S. junior tennis players said Wednesday night they were relieved to hear of the shakeup at the USTA with the departure of player development head Patrick McEnroe.<br /><br />"I think it's overdue," said Sheila Townsend, mother of 18-year-old Taylor, the best junior player in the world in 2012 now ranked 103rd in the WTA. "Nothing against [McEnroe] personally, I just think if this were a for-profit company and it had a CEO who hadn't produced any kind of positive results for this amount of time, the shareholders ourselves would have let that person go long before this."<br /><br /><br />Gayal Black, mother of Tornado Alicia Black, the No. 3-ranked junior in the world and a player who has gone through USTA development since winning the Nationals 12s title at age 10, said the entire program needs an overhaul.<br /><br />"I'm very, very happy, not because [McEnroe's out] but because a big change is coming," she said. "We need to clean house. New coaches, new everybody."<br /><br />McEnroe, also an ESPN tennis analyst, said Wednesday night the decision to step down was based largely on his unwillingness to commit to being a full-time employee. <br /><br />And indeed one of Black's biggest problems with the program, she said, is that McEnroe has spent little time with the top young players in Florida, including her daughter.<br /><br />Guess even the PD players were unhappy toonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-66045445798235179992014-09-04T21:11:32.946-04:002014-09-04T21:11:32.946-04:00Language was pretty strong in the first comment, b...Language was pretty strong in the first comment, but would have to agree. USTA is just collecting their paychecks and ignoring all the problems that juniors face in this country. No refs, no competent refs, fighting at tournaments, fist fights, you name it.<br />The wild west of terrible behavior with no grownups to manage it. And complaining to sectionals is a waste of time, they don't care. No wonder the kids quit this sport. lauranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-11286417373311487762014-09-04T21:06:40.468-04:002014-09-04T21:06:40.468-04:00Collette, fire the sectional heads. Or the 16 out ...Collette, fire the sectional heads. Or the 16 out of 17 who voted for the changes against our wishes. <br />When I complained to Eastern ( worst section ), that all parents were against changes, I was completely dismissed. Dannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-4693829049822567652014-09-04T21:04:30.718-04:002014-09-04T21:04:30.718-04:00Per Wayne -
Lamp Story: Light the lamp in the li...Per Wayne - <br /><br />Lamp Story: Light the lamp in the living room at 8:30 in the evening and it lights up the room and puts a warm glow everywhere. Take that same lamp outside on a Summer day at noon and you cannot see any shine coming from it at all. It is all drowned out by the bright sun. Have only American kids playing college tennis and the crowds will be even bigger and the tennis just fine and exciting. Open college tennis up to the whole world and make it world class and our US kids are diminished. Why not make High School Tennis world class too? Why not have all the foreign coaches come over and take all the jobs away from our American coaches? College tennis should not be a world class sport. It should be for our American kids. And the scholarships should go to them and be helpful to their parents who pay all those taxes and who have supported their children and their tennis and their academics every step of the way.<br /><br />It is time for the USTA to stand up and be counted on this issue. It is our USTA juniors who are losing out and paying the price. This glut of foreign players is chilling US junior tennis. When their is no fruit or flowers on the top, the vine dies.Continuation of Wayne's letternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-22710588596844497912014-09-04T21:03:46.784-04:002014-09-04T21:03:46.784-04:00USTA - want to know why all the real athletes in t...USTA - want to know why all the real athletes in this country play football and baskektball. It's the $. There is no scholarship money for boys in tennis.<br />Until you actually acknowledge this problem. the best boys will always play the $ sports. <br /><br /><br />http://www.tennis-prose.com/articles/wayne-bryans-letter-to-the-usta/<br /><br />Address the glut of college players in American college tennis. This is the big elephant in our tennis living room. The USTAhas never taken a stand on this. They even put out a White Paper saying basically that there is no problem. I chaired a panel discussion on this two years ago and the four USTA Staffers at the table all said American kids are “no good” and “lazy”. Huh?! There are several million dollars in tennis scholarships going to foreing players whose parents do not spend dollar one in taxes for education in this country. In this dire economy this is unconscionable it seems to me.<br /><br />UCSB Story: I made my annual trip up to see my ol’ school UCSB beat UOP on Friday and made a little check contribution to the team, but it broke my heart to see most all the players on both teams being from Hong Kong and Denmark and France, and everywhere but the USA.<br /><br />Baylor wins the NCAA Team Title a couple of years ago with six foreign players. What do we do? We make their head man theITA Coach of the Year!<br /><br />And I had a nice long chat with a Freshman who was watching and supporting the team from Washington DC who couldn’t quite crack the lineup at UCSB and he was saying that he “just wasn’t quite good enough”. That broke my heart and I remembered back to my wonderful days playing there in the late 60s and having everyone on the squad from California (they are all close pals to this day – one a doctor, two lawyers, one in real estate and two still in tennis) and we played maybe one team all year that had one foreign player.<br /><br />With 65% of the players being from overseas, it is criminal and most of all, it is a crying shame that American college tennis is now a world class sport. It should be for our American youngsters to enjoy and to derive the wonderful benefits. Are those parents of the players from Europe and Asia paying taxes to support UCSB and all the other colleges in this country? To ask the question is to answer it.<br /><br />European soccer and Japanese baseball have quotas re foreign players. As Steve Bellamy points out, to be Miss America you must be from the US. To be President of the United States you must be Born in the USA as Bruce Springstein would sing.<br /><br />One foreign player per team? – - – fine – - – helps international good will and is a nice broadening experience for the guys on the team – - – six foregn<br />players?! – - – I say the emperor has no clothes. I say burn it down and start over again. Time for a revolt. Carthage must be destroyed!<br /><br />I have been spectacularly unsuccesful in getting this elephant in our American living room removed. I have made speech after speech to coaches and parents in this country and they are 100% behind me and I’ve spoken to the college coaches national meeting in Florida on three occasions in recent years and I’ve hit this topic as hard as only Wayne Bryan can – - – to no avail.<br /><br />The USTA blew him off before, maybe they can listen now.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-90260358788840761972014-09-04T20:25:44.800-04:002014-09-04T20:25:44.800-04:00It is a disgrace that the heads of the USTA have u...It is a disgrace that the heads of the USTA have used the $ for themselves, it's like their own piggybank.<br />If Patrick had taken $125,000 salary and did this half witted job, there wouldn't be this kind of outrage. But, a million dollars a year? I have been at the national tournaments for the past 5 years and have never seen him. That million dollars could have gone to pay for refs for the tournaments.<br />Let's see a million dollars divided by $15 an hour for refs = 67,000 hours of refs a year.<br />Or 1,000,000 divided by $10,000 for guys on the tour = 100 pros.Rory - NJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-2888434791074089102014-09-04T19:52:56.056-04:002014-09-04T19:52:56.056-04:00I have so tired of the talk of spoiled Americans v...I have so tired of the talk of spoiled Americans versus the poor hungry immigrant and because of all their suffering it has made them better players. Nonsense, being spoiled has nothing to do with it, U.S. players are just smarter than their foreign counterparts and know when something is a good investment and when its not. Right now, American tennis is not a good career path. As a foreign player if you get help from your country and/or have a good competitive system in place (which many do) be thankful for it, but don't come play in the U.S. and call the players here lazy. The tennis system has failed them, the players haven't.<br /><br />And to "The Facts" you may want to research what a blog is - Colette is not here to censor people's opinions, and yes, they are opinions and people are entitled to them. What Colette posts are facts. Get it straight.And btw, many do believe that the statement, "the USTA are self serving pigs" is a fact.Tired of poor poor me...yadda yadda yaddanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-729227094942225512014-09-04T19:42:09.822-04:002014-09-04T19:42:09.822-04:00Help the men's futures circuit - make the priz...Help the men's futures circuit - make the prize earnings bigger so they can make a living. The guy sitting on the the bench and not playing for the football team can support a family. The guy on the futures tour can't afford a good room for the night or support himself. And it is either this or be the less than 1% of the men playing college tennis that have a full ride. And the girls have 2 sitting on the bench with a full (and play 2 or 3 less sets in a match but demanded equal pay, really?) And they are asking why is American men's tennis hurting? Are they serious? It is right there in front of them?!Start with the Futures Circuitnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-83522756814837578372014-09-04T18:27:10.804-04:002014-09-04T18:27:10.804-04:00The reason that the US women have more up-and-come...The reason that the US women have more up-and-comers than the men is Title IX. Not that the top US women play college, but that as juniors they stick with the sport because they know they can play college if they want. The boys learn at around 14 that they have little-to-no chance of a full college scholarship so the really great athletes tend to go to a sport where the can more likely play college.<br /> <br />The next USTA Head of PD should try to get a Title IX exemption for men's tennis in NCAA DI, or negotiate to sponsor US players in college who couldn't get that full scholarship.<br /><br />He or she should also negotiate with the NCAA to limit the number of foreign plays receiving tennis scholarships as was done by the NJCAA for the junior college system. The USTA must work to improve the chances of US junior and college players to get better.<br /><br />There are plenty of great coaches out there, but the next PD head should have above all political stroke to get things done, and not necessarily be a tennis coach.LA Dadnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-59175616169531218782014-09-04T16:25:16.185-04:002014-09-04T16:25:16.185-04:0060 million dollars for another tennis complex?
I w...60 million dollars for another tennis complex?<br />I would have spent that money on the American pros trying to compete on the future tour who make less than someone at Burger King. If the USTA wants to do one thing right - stop building Orlando, we need the money now to support the men in the Futures.Mark - Californianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10016685.post-13191955875162563742014-09-04T16:15:59.570-04:002014-09-04T16:15:59.570-04:00Also the Orlando complex will solve nothing unless...Also the Orlando complex will solve nothing unless you live in lake Nona and need to find an empty courtJamesnoreply@blogger.com