How would you improve the USTA
 

My idea is to open local USTA training centers that are open to all US kids from ages 6 through 14 that provide comprehensive training in tennis including group drills, private lessons, fitness, nutrition information, and tournament planning, etc.

The price for this could be done on a sliding scale basis depending on parental income from $50/month to $1500 or so.

The centers would be managed by a team of experienced PD coaches who would manage and train local coaches to work under them.

Each kid would be matched to an individual coach who would be directly responsible for monitoring his or her progress and development.

After 14, kids who show promise and want to continue on with the USTA would be selected for something similar to the current player development scheme.


What do you think? What are your big ideas to grow the game in the US and produce the next crop of American champions?

Some good thoughts ,, but we need to have the ones with potential turn pro and default on a college ride ,

One of the biggest things that would improve the USTA is if they would acknowledge ideas or comments or suggestions (OR AT LEAST ACT LIKE THEY MIGHT) instead of just giving no response whatsoever. Can't tell you how many people in the trenches are infuriated by something as simple as the lack of basic customer service. Instead, the reps just walk around, shaking hands...almost like politicians...and then the wonder what the problem is. That won't produce champions, of course, but it would a vast improvement over current situation. People deserve to be HEARD.

excellent thread, lets keep it civil and not start bashing the usual USTA with no fruitful results.

this statement below is powerful, and I wish someone will claim otherwise and prove it wrong: these figures will be double is 5 years

You will be receiving an average value of approximate $90,000 in scholarship instead of spending c. $140,000 on the tour – for a NET GAIN of c. $230,000 per year (an approximate $920,000 net benefit to you over four years in college – using the present values)

I email my head and I get a response within hours. Can you imagine if I go to the USTA office in NY and DEMAND 250K cash for my kid and if they don't comply, I will THREATEN a revolution? is this how we should do things:confused:

No problem here with responsiveness from two USTA sections I am most familiar with. Mode of contact has been telephone, email and in-person conversation.

I have never made a telephone call that was not picked up. Some emails didn't get answered, but I could tell independently that the result was accomplished. I have never gone up to a USTA representative in person and been ignored. Is this really happening to y'all out there?

When any organization does not respond to a person, it does not necessarily mean the person was not heard. It could mean that the incoming message was acted upon and no response deemed necessary or that the incoming message was not considered worthy of response.

Rabbit mentioned that the USTA should not stay with the self rating system and go with a system like ALTA, which is a good idea.

TCF first recommended that USTA should invest heavily in teaching pros the proper progressions and universal method of mini tennis along with 10 and under,,,,,,, and I agree.

As for giving 250K cash for the top kids so they will not go to college is a slippery slope. Who gets the 250K, the parent? the coach? what are they allowed to spend it on? etc..... too many variables which leads to possible kickback/self dealing and don't forget when you give someone $ uncle sam wants 33% so now you have a 1/3 partner in this journey.

It was mentioned that refurbishing 3000 courts was a waste of time, how about retro fitting red clay courts? is that a waste of time?

another recent thread called modest proposal to the USTA started by ClackC

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showt...highlight=usta

-Do away with Player Development.
-Open CTC around the country, free to all kids
-expand junior team tennis
-create junior team tennis tournaments. Billie Jean King runs a great one in San Diego every year.
-Provide tennis programs to K-12 schools
-Get involved with high school tennis, provide grants for equipment or building courts.
-Subsidize junior tournaments in every USTA Section
-Subsidize more future & challenger tournaments in America. There is not enough tournaments.
-Increase the prize money for the futures, challengers, make it possible for up and coming players to earn enough to continue to play more events. It's almost impossible for American up starts to earn enough to play as a professional.
-we all know of local courts that sit empty, get those courts identified with the USTA, bring in programs like quick start or something similar for adults,
USTA financially help local pro to get those programs started.
-Provide financial support for coaches and juniors that are highly ranked.

Hire think tank to think of more ideas!

excellent list i agree with most, keep it coming

They need to be more response and less prescriptive. Just because they like it, doesn't mean it's right for everyone. One size doesn't fit all. With the money they have they could do a lot more with facilities. Some areas can't come up with $ matches, help those locations, combination of grants, and arranged gifts. Stop hiring friends. Most of the local offices are full of "I got the job because I'm a friend of someone."

I agree 100% at least in our section the reps are promoting 10 and under tennis (with little results) and some intermediate level junior team tennis - if you are a competive player you are on your own with no help and no advice - and just to show how clueless the reps are- we got a letter asking my son to "compete" for CTC and he has already aged out under the CTC guidelines - you would think that the section would have looked at his birthdate!

America is a large country compared to many European countries. Opening local training centers for juniors to train after school is a good idea but hard to be accesible to kids in different areas. If local centers are in big cities, kids from other cities will not be able to benefit from the centers. Commuting daily is impossible unless you live near the centers.

Open CTC around the country like Tennis hacker suggested, utilizing existing facilities and well trained coaches will help juniors gaining more access to high quality training and help identify talents. USTA has been doing this but should increase access and offer regular training. USTA can help fund existing infrastructure, uses and trains local coaches.

Promising juniors should be able to train with their private coaches and have access to USTA coaches, fitness training, mental training, nutrition consult with USTA. In other word, private coaches and USTA work together to develop promising American juniors (no cherry picking and no relocation need for juniors).

Another suggestion for USTA is to improve communication to USTA members. USTA should set up more ways of communication with juniors, adult members, parents of juniors ( most are members ) via email, FAQ on several websites, facebook, tennis magazine, etc. Have forum on the media or websites that people can ask questions or have things clarified.
Proposed or major changes need to be publish, email to members VERY EARLY so members and parents will not think they are being dictated and can adapt to all those changes smoothly.
Lastly, USTA needs to have satisfactory survey sent out to member regularly (quarterly or twice a yr). USTA revenue comes from members/customers. USTA needs to know and be sensitive to what customers want, happy or unhappy, have suggestion, comment, compliment...... We need a two-way communication.

How would I improve the USTA?

Get rid of it. They suck.

The End.

How about instead of writing letters on forums people actually write and address letters to key decision makers in the USTA itself, or... better yet volunteer with the USTA to do some of the things people think are missing from that organization's menu?

Maybe by doing that we might see the organization's line of thinking and reasoning or limitation on human resources instead of just tossing out ideas that have little chance of being executed. Seems like a better use of time to me than just sticking a poorly-thought-out letter down a rabbit hole.

Look at the type of response Wayne Bryan's letter got. He sent it directly to the top. Granted, he's also a big wig himself, but his thoughts generated a lot of response.

Most of the things mentioned here, from what I can tell, the USTA is already doing a large percentage of them in some form of fashion or has tried them before. It helps to know the organization's history before you criticize it as well - what they've tried, what they've failed/succeeded at.

People need to remember this is a monstrous, slow-moving national organization with volunteers running the show and making a majority of the decisions. The organization takes on an incredible amount of aspects of this sport, not just junior development. They take the heat for EVERYTHING.

No one ever blames the USPTA for poor teaching methods or poor coaching or saying our kids are terrible players right now because a million coaches thought this was the best forehand or that was the best , No one says anything to the Tennis Industry Association for not rallying all the major players in the sport into a cohesive body. The USTA are the biggest target and they no doubt deserve a lot of criticism.

But there are TONS of varying factions even inside the sport ---with no one-size fits all solution to many of the problems, especially junior development, which is about as inexact a science as there possibly is.

It's really not as simple as suggest something and the USTA goes and does it, nor will it ever be when they're closing in on 800,000 members. Does anyone know anything that large that makes swift, perfect decisions to all? I'd like to see it.

Not saying there aren't a million great ideas out here in the blogoshpere/Internet, but there are also a lot of hair-brained ideas as well.

Believe me, the USTA has tried them all....good and bad. I wonder how many people here commenting that the USTA should do this and the USTA should do that are actual dues-paying members? If not, you have no right to say what they should or should not do.

It's like saying FIX THE DEFICIT BY CUTTING SPENDING. Everyone knows we need to do it, but no one knows exactly how to do it in a way that is amenable to all.

No one ever says anything to the NBA or MLB or NFL about Player Development or their roles in developing American champions for their sport, but damn if many people on this forum don't think the USTA should fund every child in America with lessons and have the No. 1 player in the world male and female year after year.


Jeff

Jeff - you should probably give full disclosure with your posts in this thread (that you work for USTA) so people at least know where you're coming from. But I agree with your statement that people should send emails/write these letters to USTA directly and not just post stuff here on this forum.

And by the way jamauss...you have every right to criticize the USTA. And I know that...because I know you are a dues-paying member.

By the way, how many racquets have you strung out there in Surprise this week?

Believe me, when I hear someone criticize...the first thing I ask is "do you support the organization in some form or fashion?"

A lot of people have learned about the USTA by volunteering with the organization that the answers are not nearly as simple as they thought they were.

I started as a volunteer for the organization myself in Texas, my home state. It was a great crash course in learning that I didn't know half as much as I thought I did about what it takes to get this sport moving.


Jeff

My whole family are USTA members. We play USTA tournaments regularly and yes, I had sent email and communicated with USTA officials before. I sent feedbacks for tournament often.

Email and electronic surveys are simple enough that USTA should be able to communicate/reach out to members very easily and effectively.

There is a lot of truth in that - many people on the outside don't understand all the behind the scenes stuff that goes on, and tend not to think about it because it's not flashy and doesn't interest them. But a lot of the flashy and "cool" stuff wouldn't be possible without the grunt work that goes on - and by "cool" stuff I mean events such as kids days, the 10 & under programs, etc. all the way up to player development and the US Open.

I think the toughest thing to accomplish (for the USTA) is to produce quantifiable, visible results both for league players and developing talent (junior level up through pros) while still maintaining and improving the whole infrastructure that exists within the USTA. What makes that even tougher is that not everybody wants the same things from the game of tennis. Some people are in love with the idea of making sectionals/nationals in a league format, while other just want to play with their friends one night a week. There are all levels of seriousness among the USTA membership base and it's not an easy (or enviable task) to try and please them all.

I have had my beef with USTA in the past (surrounding the handling of a league boycott that I'm sure you know all about) but you'll never hear me talk bad about the USTA because I've seen a lot of what goes on behind the scenes and know the people involved and I know they try to do their best day-in and day-out so I don't fault them for trying and know not everyone's perfect.

Well, I've said enough...time to go get some rest before I'm back at the stringing machine again tomorrow... :lol:

I should mention too that while I have (had) a USTA membership for many years now - I don't even play many USTA events or leagues...but still maintain my membership solely for the fact that I believe in supporting an organization that is for the game I love.