Competitive tennis at my age and situation...

L

ljw5021

New User
Basically I started playing tennis not too long ago actually, but from the looks of some videos in the college tennis forum that I've seen (along with feedback from other users on this site) I believe I could easily be competitive in at least D3 once my shoulder heals up.

--Side note if anyone can help: Recently my flat serve has been bugging my shoulder loads. I can't tell if suddenly I've developed problems with my technique or what. Months ago I was hitting a high percentage of first serves, and ended up hurting my arm, then rested it for quite some time. Now the pain is back and I can't do anything save for a kick or slice serve. I'm going to the Chiropractor on Monday to see if that might help anything, as well as fixing my back up.

Anyway... I'm going into my senior year at Penn State, so I really doubt I could play there. Regardless, where can a D2/D3 calibur player go to compete in their early 20s? Would any local adult league suffice?
 
subaru3169

subaru3169

Semi-Pro
not exactly sure what you're asking.. but you can get a usta membership for yourself and enter some tourneys
 
TennisDawg

TennisDawg

Hall of Fame
Get a USTA membership and enter tournaments and just go for it. If you're talking college level, you should problably be at least a 4.5 player by now. If not at least 4.5, then you could be in way over your head at the collegiate level. I would really watch that shoulder be careful it's not a rotator cuff, those can really be a problem for tennis. Good luck
 
A

acehole

Banned
yeah usta would be good. do you go to main campus. if you play usta you will be in middlestates and i could end up playing you in usta. we have some solid D1 players at a lot of these tournaments so its quite competative. i often wonder what the cut off age is for playing D1, i would love to give it a try.
 
L

ljw5021

New User
Well basically the question was where could I go to compete? Because I'm not good enough for Penn State's team (not to mention leaving in a year).

I've been playing around with graduate school (my major is mathematics), so if I end up going to a school that is D3 in tennis maybe I could end up playing. I heard the cut off age for D3 is less strict?

And yes, I definitely want to look after this shoulder. I don't want this to turn into something super serious. But still, I took a few months off of serving, and the problems still came back.

I go to main campus for Penn State.
 
subaru3169

subaru3169

Semi-Pro
do the usta route then.. i thought athletic teams were only meant to undergrads, might wanna double on that though.. in any case, d3 IS less strict than d1

in any case, i don't think you'd really be able to compete anyway at the collegiate level if you really took a few months off serving.. i've seen a bunch of college players and they honestly have consistently nasty serves
 
L

ljw5021

New User
subaru3169 said:
do the usta route then.. i thought athletic teams were only meant to undergrads, might wanna double on that though.. in any case, d3 IS less strict than d1

in any case, i don't think you'd really be able to compete anyway at the collegiate level if you really took a few months off serving.. i've seen a bunch of college players and they honestly have consistently nasty serves
Click to expand...

Well I mean like... working out the problem with my shoulder, then getting back into the swing of things. I don't plan on competing somewhere without being close to 100%.
 
subaru3169

subaru3169

Semi-Pro
ohhhh ok.. sorry, i can't offer any suggestions about that as i have everywhere pain of my own=(

but if it's really that bad, you may have to see your chiro multiple times.. those types of things are not one of those one treatment deals unfortunately
 
T

tonyg11

Rookie
what kind of experience do you have with tournament tennis? There's a HUGE difference with how you look in practice and how you will perform in a tournament.
 
A

amarone

Semi-Pro
ljw5021 said:
I'm going to the Chiropractor on Monday to see if that might help anything, as well as fixing my back up.
Click to expand...
Go see an orthopedist and get some proper medical advice. My son hurt his arm serving and we went to an orthopedist who prescribed a course of physical therapy. This cleared up the problem and it has not returned.
 
D

Datacipher

Banned
You're around 3.0 as a player. Yes, you should easily be able to find leagues and tournaments that will be sufficient competition for you. You will then discover your true level. In several years, if you progress, and start having tournament success at say a 4.5 level, it will become harder to find good competition, but by then you'll know exactly where to go to get better competition.

Sorry, but this is the reality, and I'm telling it to you straight. A guy who doesn't play much tennis, has physical problems from playing 2 hours a day lately, and has no league or tournament experience isn't remotely ready for competitive college tennis. No harm in asking though, good luck.
 
L

ljw5021

New User
Datacipher said:
You're around 3.0 as a player. Yes, you should easily be able to find leagues and tournaments that will be sufficient competition for you. You will then discover your true level. In several years, if you progress, and start having tournament success at say a 4.5 level, it will become harder to find good competition, but by then you'll know exactly where to go to get better competition.

Sorry, but this is the reality, and I'm telling it to you straight. A guy who doesn't play much tennis, has physical problems from playing 2 hours a day lately, and has no league or tournament experience isn't remotely ready for competitive college tennis. No harm in asking though, good luck.
Click to expand...

Well what I was saying was that judging from videos of players wanting to play D3 tennis I've seen around the site (with positive responses from the community) it LOOKS like I could easily outplay some of them.

It's not that I develop pains from playing 2 hours a day, I believe the problems to lie in what technique I was using for my flat serve. Today I played for a few hours and changed it up a little bit and was able to serve quite hard with no discomfort.

I guess I'll know for sure next fall when I start playing Club Tennis again. The players there are better than my hometown and it will be a better judge of my playing ability.
 
S

serve and Justin

New User
watching videos of people on here really doesn't help...playing someone who plays well is different than watching them play and saying your shots are better.
 
goober

goober

Legend
ljw5021 said:
Well what I was saying was that judging from videos of players wanting to play D3 tennis I've seen around the site (with positive responses from the community) it LOOKS like I could easily outplay some of them.

It's not that I develop pains from playing 2 hours a day, I believe the problems to lie in what technique I was using for my flat serve. Today I played for a few hours and changed it up a little bit and was able to serve quite hard with no discomfort.

I guess I'll know for sure next fall when I start playing Club Tennis again. The players there are better than my hometown and it will be a better judge of my playing ability.
Click to expand...

Why wait till fall? Join some open level tournaments this summer and see how you do? Current D3 college players should be able to do very well in local open tourneys.
 
L

ljw5021

New User
goober said:
Why wait till fall? Join some open level tournaments this summer and see how you do? Current D3 college players should be able to do very well in local open tourneys.
Click to expand...

Where can I find some? I've never heard of any tournaments in the area.
 
A

acehole

Banned
charliefedererer said:
But if you join a USTA league, you can be playing a match every week against someone at your level. You don't have to wait for a tournament. There must be USTA leagues in eastern Pennsylvania. No?
http://www.middlestates.usta.com/mi..._League_CoordinatorsEastern_Pennsylvania.aspx
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there are actually lots of tournaments in eastern pa. if you get on the website for usta middlestates you will find tons. i live in western pa and a good many of the tournaments i will play this year are in easter and south eastern pa.
 
L

ljw5021

New User
Since I haven't been exposed to tournament play yet, where should I begin as to not get overwhelmed with new rules and customs?
 
beernutz

beernutz

Hall of Fame
ljw5021 said:
Basically I started playing tennis not too long ago actually, but from the looks of some videos in the college tennis forum that I've seen (along with feedback from other users on this site) I believe I could easily be competitive in at least D3 once my shoulder heals up.

--Side note if anyone can help: Recently my flat serve has been bugging my shoulder loads. I can't tell if suddenly I've developed problems with my technique or what. Months ago I was hitting a high percentage of first serves, and ended up hurting my arm, then rested it for quite some time. Now the pain is back and I can't do anything save for a kick or slice serve. I'm going to the Chiropractor on Monday to see if that might help anything, as well as fixing my back up.

Anyway... I'm going into my senior year at Penn State, so I really doubt I could play there. Regardless, where can a D2/D3 calibur player go to compete in their early 20s? Would any local adult league suffice?
Click to expand...

Post some video of yourself.
Did you play high school tennis?
Have you before or are you now taking tennis lessons?
 
beernutz

beernutz

Hall of Fame
ljw5021 said:
Basically I started playing tennis not too long ago actually, but from the looks of some videos in the college tennis forum that I've seen (along with feedback from other users on this site) I believe I could easily be competitive in at least D3 once my shoulder heals up.

--Side note if anyone can help: Recently my flat serve has been bugging my shoulder loads. I can't tell if suddenly I've developed problems with my technique or what. Months ago I was hitting a high percentage of first serves, and ended up hurting my arm, then rested it for quite some time. Now the pain is back and I can't do anything save for a kick or slice serve. I'm going to the Chiropractor on Monday to see if that might help anything, as well as fixing my back up.

Anyway... I'm going into my senior year at Penn State, so I really doubt I could play there. Regardless, where can a D2/D3 calibur player go to compete in their early 20s? Would any local adult league suffice?
Click to expand...

To butcher a Bruce Lee quote, "Videos don't hit back."
 
Devilito

Devilito

Hall of Fame
how have you been doing in tournaments? That's what counts. Everyone looks good in practice. A person you see on video that you think you can beat may actually bagel you in a match. Hard to tell until you test yourself in a competitive situation.
 
goober

goober

Legend
Devilito said:
how have you been doing in tournaments? That's what counts. Everyone looks good in practice. A person you see on video that you think you can beat may actually bagel you in a match. Hard to tell until you test yourself in a competitive situation.
Click to expand...

From what he said earlier, he doesn't have any tournament experience.

Watching vids of people and saying your as good or better without any actual competitive experience is usually not a very accurate way to judge your ability. There was one poster on here who watched a vid of 4.0 USTA league match and proclaimed he was much better than the players in the vid. He never played any competitive tennis, but he based this on hitting with "high level" club players from college. About a year later he joined USTA and is at the 3.0 level and was not even winning most of his matches.
 
Devilito

Devilito

Hall of Fame
goober said:
From what he said earlier, he doesn't have any tournament experience.

Watching vids of people and saying your as good or better without any actual competitive experience is usually not a very accurate way to judge your ability. There was one poster on here who watched a vid of 4.0 USTA league match and proclaimed he was much better than the players in the vid. He never played any competitive tennis, but he based this on hitting with "high level" club players from college. About a year later he joined USTA and is at the 3.0 level and was not even winning most of his matches.
Click to expand...

yeah, i don't know how the OP thinks he could be competitive in college tennis at any level based on zero competative experience.
 
L

ljw5021

New User
Devilito said:
yeah, i don't know how the OP thinks he could be competitive in college tennis at any level based on zero competative experience.
Click to expand...

I realize everyone looks "good" in practice, but just the number of shots even on video that were botched, and the pace and placement with which people were hitting told me what I thought I needed to know.

I'm pretty confident I could play D3 tennis. If anyone has videos of matches from D3 schools that I could look at, I'd love to see them.
 
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