Regional Tournaments

[tennisforlife77]

With a year of the new tournament format under our belts seems like a good time to reflect on the pros and cons of the new system. Just got back from Tucson from what I thought was a very well run tournament given the very compressed time zone. I had 2 kids involved. Both got 4th place in doubles and 4th place in singles - different age groups. They both ended up playing 8 matches in 2 days and 9 matches in 3 days counting the 3rd place matches. My older kid handled it ok but my 12 year old was fried by the end of it and in a lot of ways it ended up taking a lot of the joy out of the matches. On court for hours every day and physically exhausted by the end of it. Did I save any money - not really..did the kids miss less school - maybe a day. Did they have a great time - well they were happy they did well but comparing to the old days of the Copper Bowl - not really! Looking ahead to the Level 2's next moth there are virtually no locations with more that one age group at the site and so I will now have to arrange travel to two different sites - so much for saving money! I hear another round of changes to the National tournament schedule are being voted on this March. It seems such a shame that the young players involved in these tournaments seems to represent a very low priority for USTA junior competition!

[tennis5]

Originally Posted by tennisforlife77

With a year of the new tournament format under our belts seems like a good time to reflect on the pros and cons of the new system. Just got back from Tucson from what I thought was a very well run tournament given the very compressed time zone. I had 2 kids involved. Both got 4th place in doubles and 4th place in singles - different age groups. They both ended up playing 8 matches in 2 days and 9 matches in 3 days counting the 3rd place matches. My older kid handled it ok but my 12 year old was fried by the end of it and in a lot of ways it ended up taking a lot of the joy out of the matches. On court for hours every day and physically exhausted by the end of it. Did I save any money - not really..did the kids miss less school - maybe a day. Did they have a great time - well they were happy they did well but comparing to the old days of the Copper Bowl - not really! Looking ahead to the Level 2's next moth there are virtually no locations with more that one age group at the site and so I will now have to arrange travel to two different sites - so much for saving money! I hear another round of changes to the National tournament schedule are being voted on this March. It seems such a shame that the young players involved in these tournaments seems to represent a very low priority for USTA junior competition!

Offer to take someone's child to say the 14's and maybe they have a sibling who is going to the 12's, and they can take your other child.

Or you take 3 kids to a tournament, and the next time, they bring your kid.

You have to be resourceful here. And in the long run, your kids will have more fun if they do it with other kids.

I am usually pretty negative on this site, but have seen this work in most sports, and I have seen many parents do this with their kids if they have two kids who play who are different ages in tennis.
Obviously, you have to establish a relationship with the parents. At your club is a good place to start.

On the weekend tournaments, my son takes off at least two days after and that seems to work out well.

Also, Copper Bowl was fun, but I heard from most folks that it is hard for the high school kids to miss that much school.

[seminoleG]

Originally Posted by tennisforlife77

With a year of the new tournament format under our belts seems like a good time to reflect on the pros and cons of the new system. Just got back from Tucson from what I thought was a very well run tournament given the very compressed time zone. I had 2 kids involved. Both got 4th place in doubles and 4th place in singles - different age groups. They both ended up playing 8 matches in 2 days and 9 matches in 3 days counting the 3rd place matches. My older kid handled it ok but my 12 year old was fried by the end of it and in a lot of ways it ended up taking a lot of the joy out of the matches. On court for hours every day and physically exhausted by the end of it. Did I save any money - not really..did the kids miss less school - maybe a day. Did they have a great time - well they were happy they did well but comparing to the old days of the Copper Bowl - not really! Looking ahead to the Level 2's next moth there are virtually no locations with more that one age group at the site and so I will now have to arrange travel to two different sites - so much for saving money! I hear another round of changes to the National tournament schedule are being voted on this March. It seems such a shame that the young players involved in these tournaments seems to represent a very low priority for USTA junior competition!

Yea my daughter only had 4 Matches and I thought she was physically OK. So much so she wanted to play Soccer Sunday afternoon with her Travel team. So we went and her legs were gone. Couldn't run hardly at all. Compressed draw in the heat were tough. When the heat really comes the Florida Regionals will be a War Zone Mash unit.

[chalkflewup]

And I loved the compressed draws. Cut right to the chase.