USTA - Adult League/Age changes - DON'T LIKE IT

[schmke]

Originally Posted by TommieF

Have you heard of any plan to allow two 5.0 guys on the adult 4.5 team? Why allow 5.5's to play with 5.0 but not let the adult 4.5 league have two 5.0's?

I believe the idea is for the "plus" leagues to be at the top-level available as a way to have league playing opportunities for those one level "too high".

So, if the highest league available is a 5.0 league, it becomes a 5.0+ league and 2 5.5s are allowed to be rostered and play per the earlier described rules. But because there is a 5.0 league for 5.0 rated players to play in, there is no need to make the 4.5 league a 4.5+.

If the highest league available is 4.5, then it could be a 4.5+ league to give the 5.0s that don't have a league an opportunity to play.

[OrangePower]

^^^^^ what he said.

In regular adult, the highest level for which there are teams is 5.0, so it becomes a 'plus' league and allows two 5.5s. In 40+, 4.5 is the highest level, so that becomes the plus.league and allows 5.0s.

[J_R_B]

Around here, it's going to be interesting to see what happens to the 18+ league. The problem I think we will face is that every one of the 4.0 men's captains in NJ is over 40 and almost all of the PA as well. Some guys will do an 18s team, too, I'm sure, but how many? There's no chance in hell I'm doing 2 teams.

[Winning Ugly]

Originally Posted by J_R_B

Around here, it's going to be interesting to see what happens to the 18+ league. The problem I think we will face is that every one of the 4.0 men's captains in NJ is over 40 and almost all of the PA as well. Some guys will do an 18s team, too, I'm sure, but how many? There's no chance in hell I'm doing 2 teams.

I think we'll see this in Delaware as well. For some reason, USTA is really aging around here. Not just the captains, most of whom are great guys who have been doing this forever. The adult team I played on last year is reforming as a 40+ team and I believe nobody is being left behind due to youth. And, in doubles, where I play 95% of the time due to bad wheels, almost none of my opponents was under 40 either! I do know the singles players saw a fair amount of young guys (some of whom were just passing through on the way to the next level) so I think they will see the biggest change, probably for the better as far as they are concerned. The 55+ team I am joining has lost almost nobody in the 50-53 bracket also -- pretty much all 55-65 years old anyway.

[Alchemy-Z]

Well the 40+ league went so badly and everyone was unhappy with it that the local coordinator said we are going back to having the regular 18+ league (fall and spring)

and that he would have a round Robin tournament (Week) for the 40+ group

[gameboy]

This is a non-starter for me. Our team has hard enough time trying to get enough people for the 18+ team. Couldn't even get much bites for 40+.

[goober]

Our 40+ season went great. The 18+ teams that are filled with rating manipulators and sandbaggers didn't field a 40+ team so we had actually had a competitive meaningful season.

[Spokewench]

Originally Posted by Alchemy-Z

Well the 40+ league went so badly and everyone was unhappy with it that the local coordinator said we are going back to having the regular 18+ league (fall and spring)

and that he would have a round Robin tournament (Week) for the 40+ group

what section and district are you in?

[Alchemy-Z]

Southern -GA

[Cindysphinx]

Here's the weird thing.

Our league is having 40+ starting in January. Rosters are starting to fill. It is the same old crowd, divided into the same old teams. This is because there were so few youngsters at 4.0 to begin with.

So what will happen in April for 18+? All of the teams are full. Will 40+ captains kick off some of their players to make room for some young singles players?

The really bad thing is that I feel our team was kind of forced to play the January 40+ season. If we didn't, our players would scatter and there would be no one to recruit for the April 18+ season.

[Sakkijarvi]

OP, I understand, regret that you find the new age rules frustrating. I don't blame you, it is annoying. One of the best hitting partners I had all summer was under 20 years old and was on our USTA team. I would not have met him with the new age brackets.

My two cents.

Since coming back to tennis some years ago (and thus having exactly zero hitting partners) I set out to find guys to play the way I like to play: no such thing as a "practice" or "social" match. Singles play, all out, every match matters. From there I got one of my old tennis buddies back into it, got another friend that was out of it ... back in. And played club and USTA leagues with the main intent of building a deep Rolodex of players that are intense competitors, available when I am.

Over time the list of guys exceeds the time I would ever have available to play, and it is not uncommon to play with 5-7 different guys a month. These are guys I like, and I am open to hitting with anyone at our club or some other clubs.

Anywho, league play is a small part of my tennis experience, and frankly contains 100% of any negative component -- aka the nuts. I can pass on it altogether if I had to make a choice, that's how ambivalent I am about the value to my health and recreation USTA and club leagues are and have been. Was a house league champ, woot, bumped up (like a FICO score IMO ... who knows how it is really calculated??) And all that.

So perhaps this USTA age thing is a chance for you to change the parameters of how you enjoy this sport. Or go do something else with the time that is fun and where some bureaucratic 'authority' can't pull the rug out from under you like the USTA has.

How about poker runs in a 1962 356 coupe on Indian Summer days? Skeet and trap shooting? Cross country skiing (so much less dangerous than Alpine skiing as an adult), medicine ball catch, or as they say in New England, 'what have you?' Whatever is fun, who needs aggravation?

[chatt_town]

What's up dude? I have to totally agree with you here. That's my number 1 reason for loving the 40 plus league. I to don't like running into some div 2 19 year old kicking second serve aces down the t at will in a 4.0 league. I don't mind playing them on my own time but I don't want to take two days off from work and get a hotel to run into 3 out of 5 guys like this. Let them kick each other in and we can run each other around with slices for 3 hours.lol

Originally Posted by beernutz

I'm enjoying playing 40+ this fall immensely because I have yet to play a self-rated 19 year old former #1 for his high school or a self rated 23 year old former junior college player like I did last season in 18+. My experience has been that the biggest problem with self-rated sandbaggers is young people and in the 40+ league I have yet to encounter even one self-rated player, much less a self-rated sandbagger.

I'm sorry 40+ is negatively affecting you but I think there are a number of assumptions and contentions in your post I don't necessarily agree with which make it hard for me to agree with your argument.

[chatt_town]

Yea, just wait until you get to state and you run across two or 3 players with "appy state club tennis" shirts and what not on that get you off the court in about 32 minutes including warmup. Then come back and tell us how you feel about the age brackets.

Originally Posted by Cindysphinx

Here's the weird thing.

Our league is having 40+ starting in January. Rosters are starting to fill. It is the same old crowd, divided into the same old teams. This is because there were so few youngsters at 4.0 to begin with.

So what will happen in April for 18+? All of the teams are full. Will 40+ captains kick off some of their players to make room for some young singles players?

The really bad thing is that I feel our team was kind of forced to play the January 40+ season. If we didn't, our players would scatter and there would be no one to recruit for the April 18+ season.

[texacali]

Yup...our 40+ Winter league is pretty much identical to our Fall 18+ league. Which means our Spring 18+ will be pretty much identical also, minus players who were bumped up. Spring recruiting is already going on....not many players in our division so it will be interesting to see who gets who.

[g4driver]

Originally Posted by Cindysphinx

Here's the weird thing.

Our league is having 40+ starting in January. Rosters are starting to fill. It is the same old crowd, divided into the same old teams. This is because there were so few youngsters at 4.0 to begin with.

So what will happen in April for 18+? All of the teams are full. Will 40+ captains kick off some of their players to make room for some young singles players?

The really bad thing is that I feel our team was kind of forced to play the January 40+ season. If we didn't, our players would scatter and there would be no one to recruit for the April 18+ season.

Why don't you simply play both leagues? April is exactly three months after January.

If you don't want to play don't.

Our 18+, 40+ and 55+ leagues all run at the same time.

Late Jan- early April, then Mixed, then Combo, then Singles and Fall with the last two overlapping.

So we will see some guys playing 18+, 40+ and 55+ all during the same week.