Does anyone play USTA flex leagues?

[HunterST]

There are USTA flex leagues forming in a city about 50 miles away from me. I saw on the info sheet that there are "home" and "away" players. I was thinking about joining hoping that maybe other people from my city would join also and we could play.

Has anyone here joined one of these leagues? How far away do participants typically live?

 

[PushyPushster]

I've tried USTA Flex and, in my opinion, it was no better than "okay". I had much more fun in the UltimateTennis league, which also provides flexible scheduling, but combined with better drive times and a far superior website. There were very few people in the USTA flex league I joined, so everyone in the division ended up playing each other twice (only 4 people in the div). If UT wasn't available, though, I might give them another shot.

Good luck!

 

[raiden031]

Probably depends on who's running the league. My league just took place in my county, so we were not required to travel far away.

We only had like 6 people in my flight, and we were supposed to play everyone twice. I played like 5 of them once, and then after that nobody really tried to play again. It was a bit of a failure I think.

Then there's the competition which varies greatly. There might be rated USTA players as well as non-rated players in the mix. The non-rated are more likely to be playing at a level too high for them. There was one guy who I think would struggle at USTA 3.5 playing in my 4.0 flex league.

 

[PushyPushster]

I played like 5 of them once, and then after that nobody really tried to play again. It was a bit of a failure I think.

This is exactly what happened to us. I played only once in 'Round Two' and then everyone just quit.

 

[BMC9670]

I played USTA flex this past summer in suburban Philadelphia and it was decent. The geography for the flights were two counties. We usually met at a court in the middle so I never wound up driving more than 20 minutes. My NTRP flight had 8 players.

The only problem is that flex doesn't use the computer rating system. Out of the 8 players, 4 were competitively matched and IMO correctly self rated. 3 were very weak and should have rated lower, and one was a sandbagger and killed everybody.

I got 4 good matches out of it. I'd do it again.

 

[Papa Mango]

Its OK

I played Fall/winter league in my area and my experience is same as above 3 good matches, 3 bad and a couple of players never reply to emails.
The league itself is Ok but I met 3 good players and we have hit again outside of the league so I guess it was worth it. Have signed up for spring, if its the same players then I probably wont sign up again but just play with the better players outside of the league.

The indoor court with a USTA Flex league rate ($25/hr, which is half the normal rate for indoor around here) was about 25 mins away for me, played all the matches there.

 

[Yaz]

Played Flex League for one season in Northern California but didn't sign up again. It was OK but as others have pointed out the skill level varied widely. I think I signed up at 4.5, but there were some 3.5s in there which was a bit of a bummer. And the geographic area was too large, with some guys about 30 miles away. Many were kind of selfish about court location and wanted me to go out to their local courts even when I was "home".

I checked the site recently and I don't think it's even offered here in Norcal anymore...

 

[West Coast Ace]

Another vote for 'not good/not bad and probably won't do it again'. Geography wasn't a problem - rating level and player decorum was. There were guys getting back into playing and not willing to play at their current level; others who were obviously playing down for ego gratification. And I ran into two idiots - one who could write a 200 page book on gamesmanship and another country clubber who would only play at his club (even when he was the 'away' player) and was down hitting with his pro before our match and tried to rush me through a warm-up.

Oh, and the person running the league got grumpy that some of us decided to play super tie-breaks to settle matches. We'd split sets and between the match and warm-up had been at it over 2 hrs - just wanted to finish. She didn't want to accept the score - whatever.

 

[darrinbaker00]

Played Flex League for one season in Northern California but didn't sign up again. It was OK but as others have pointed out the skill level varied widely. I think I signed up at 4.5, but there were some 3.5s in there which was a bit of a bummer. And the geographic area was too large, with some guys about 30 miles away. Many were kind of selfish about court location and wanted me to go out to their local courts even when I was "home".

I checked the site recently and I don't think it's even offered here in Norcal anymore...

http://www.norcalflexleagues.com/site/

 

[Yaz]

http://www.norcalflexleagues.com/site/

I stand corrected! Still not signing up again, however...:neutral:

 

[OrangePower]

I've played in the Norcal 4.5 flex as well, and was also dissappointed. Quality of opposition was not good with many 3.5s / 4.0s playing up. In fact I was one of the 4.0s playing up But am 4.5 now so feel justified. Anyway, the best matches were against people that I already knew anyway and I don't have to join a league and pay $ to play them.

 

[Geezer Guy]

There are USTA flex leagues forming in a city about 50 miles away from me. I saw on the info sheet that there are "home" and "away" players. I was thinking about joining hoping that maybe other people from my city would join also and we could play.

Has anyone here joined one of these leagues? How far away do participants typically live?

I played in the USTA Flex Leagues here last summer, and my experience reflect most of the ones above. It wasn't great, but I'll probably do it again nest summer. The "home" person is the one responsible for initiating contact with the other player for the match, and bringing the balls. The match should still be played at a location agreeable to both players. And, IMO, if you're signing up for a league in another city, you should be willing to drive to the other city for all your matches.