Anyone else have a hard time navigating USTA site?

I just renewed my membership and am wanting to play much more. I am usually about a 3.5 but could be at 3.0 right now. I try and look for tournaments to play but they are all so confusing to navigate through and some are just hard to try and interpret.

Plus how do you join leagues and such? What all options is there to do as a USTA member? Will I have problems with my religious affiliation being that I can't play on Saturdays? (I am a Seventh Day Adventist)

Thanks for any help.

The only problem you'll have is if you join a league or sign up for a tournament that plays on Saturday's. There are lots of leagues that do not play on Saturday's - at least around here. And, for that matter, I've played in a number of tournaments and did not have to play on Saturdays. (Well, I would have had to if I'd won on Friday, but...)

What city are you in Brett?

I live in Hendersonville, TN, just north of Nashville.

It's so confusing with their website. I try doing the search criteria for Tennessee and sometimes it shows no tournaments. Or sometimes there is other criteria such as Adult Division, or I can put in my NTRP level and I dont know which one to choose. Or nothing comes up at all when I search with that criteria.

Also, with leagues I don't know how to search for ones in my area, it looks like you can only register leagues. Ah! Sorry but it's so confusing. Not to mention all the abbreviations under the tournaments.

I found this by going to the TennisLink page and selecting "Find a Tournament"
In DISTRICT I selected "Southern - Tennessee"
In DIVISION I selected "NTRP Divisions"
In MORE SEARCH OPTIONS I entered Nashville TN

Here's what it found: http://tennislink.usta.com/tourname...neEntry=&DrawsSheets=&UserTime=Tue+Jun+8+2010

Music City Slam Adult Tournament - 704243810
Smooth Strokes Tennis
MW(Op,40,50,60)s,SE; NMW(3.0-4.5)s,SE; MW(Op,50,60)d,SE; NMW(3.5-4.5)d,SE; Combo MX(6.5-9.0)d,SE
Surface Type: Hard

Here's a recap of some of the abbreviations:
MW(Op,40,50,60)s,SE; = Mens & Womens Open, or 40, 50 & 60 age groups Singles, Single Elimination
NMW(3.0-4.5)s,SE = NTRP Mens & Womens 3.0 - 4.5 Singles, Single Elimination
MW(Op,50,60)d,SE; = Mens & Womens Open or 50 & 60 age groups Doubles, Single Elimination
NMW(3.5-4.5)d,SE; = NTRP Mens & Womens 3.5 to 4.5 Doubles, Single Elimination
Combo MX(6.5-9.0)d,SE = Combo (mixed NTRP) Mixed Doubles with total ratings of both players from 6.5 to 9.0, Doubles, Single Elimination

Hard Courts.

And yeah, it's harder to find Leagues. In TennisLink, go to Leagues, then go to Local League Coordinators in the lower righthand corner. Then just start drilling down until you find someone's e-mail addr in your area.

Thank you, I will look more into your post in a little bit, I got a lesson soon.

How do I know what my NTRP level is? I pretty much know but do they assign you one or what?

And in Division why did you put NTRP Division instead of like Adult Division or 3.5 NTRP? It's just so confusing on what to put in. Also, Geezer Guy it doesn't even look like I could qualify for that tournament for example. I am only 23 and it looks like you are saying its only 40 and above for singles.

The USTA does not assign you an NTRP level. Well, yes I guess they kinda do. But you determine what you are. Again, go to TennisLink. In the right hand column is "About Self-Rate". That will guide you to determine what you are. Another way is to play people that have computer-rated NTRP's and see how you do against them. Do NOT play other self-rated players - that won't help. The person you're taking your lesson from might be able to help, but a lot of times they're not really that accurate at guessing what you are. Your NTRP will be determined by your match results. You might have really pretty strokes but lose a lot, or you might have really ugly strokes but win a lot. The quality of your strokes does NOT have anything to do with your NTRP.

You CAN play in that tournament. You CAN play in the Men's OPEN division (but I wouldn't suggest it). You're correct that you can NOT play in the 40, 50 or 60 year old division. You can also play in the NTRP divisions - they have no age restrictions. Since you do not yet have an NTRP rating you can play in any of the NTRP divisions that you like - just pick the one you think most appropriate. (I would suggest 3.0 or 3.5. You might think you're better than a 3.5, but I assure you that the 3.5's that play in tournaments are match hardened and ready to battle. They are not the same 3.5 weekend hackers you find in the public parks.)

OOPS - I screwed up my write-up in my previous post. I'll go fix it so it's clear. Sorry about that. (So yeah, it's a bit confusing but you figure it out pretty quickly.)

Note that you do have to get a USTA membership (and self-rate yourself) before you can play a USTA sanctioned tournament. But yes, whetever you rate yourself you can play in all those NTRP events and higher rated events.

The abbreviations you see under the tournament are different division/events at the tournament. It's not saying you need to be 40-60 years old AND rated 3.0-4.5 in order to play. It's saying you can play in the 40-and-over division, 50-and-over division, 60-and-over division, 3.5 division, etc., whichever you would like. If you are 3.5 and 45 you could play both the 3.5 division and the 45-and-over division (two separate events with different brackets) if the tournament allows you to register for more than one singles event.

Hope that helps!

Edit: Whenever I search for tournaments I always use the "NTRP Divisions" under the divisions category as well. This shows you all tournaments which are holding NTRP Division events. I also restrict my search by area as little as I can just to see all the options available. Using "Adult Divisions" under the division category will also bring up all the tournaments with Open divisions or age group divisions. Since I am not old enough to play age level divisions and not good enough to play open divisions, this is irrelevant information.

Brett said:

I just renewed my membership and am wanting to play much more. I am usually about a 3.5 but could be at 3.0 right now. I try and look for tournaments to play but they are all so confusing to navigate through and some are just hard to try and interpret.

Plus how do you join leagues and such? What all options is there to do as a USTA member? Will I have problems with my religious affiliation being that I can't play on Saturdays? (I am a Seventh Day Adventist)

Thanks for any help.

Click to expand...

Not being able to play on Saturdays is a major obstacle if you want to play tournaments or USTA League tennis, Brett. Your best bet may be USTA Flex League tennis, because the "Flex" stands for a flexible schedule.

darrinbaker00 said:

Not being able to play on Saturdays is a major obstacle if you want to play tournaments or USTA League tennis, Brett. Your best bet may be USTA Flex League tennis, because the "Flex" stands for a flexible schedule.

Click to expand...

Actually not every USTA League plays on Saturdays. In our area they are only weeknights.

It's only on Saturdays in areas where obviously everyone thinks it's great to play on a Saturday or in the areas where your match could end up on any random day of the week. (although in that case you could just not play on the ones on Saturdays)

I write websites for friends and myself.

The USTA's site is a nightmare. One of the worst sites I've ever tried to navigate. Key Word searches are useless.

You might try a backdoor approach, using a search engine with the parameters that might get you a more direct link to what you need.

yeah there was an earlier thread about this. they need to re do their whole site.