Junior Tennis Youth Pathway Changes

[Postpre]

More out of touch behavior demonstrated by the higher ups of our USTA district (Missouri Valley) where my kids play tennis.

Per 2016 changes, a kid must be 11 before they can compete in 12's unless they jump through a ridiculous amount of hoops in orange/green dot. No longer can you register for a 12's tournament and pretty much figure the tournament director won't pay attention to your precise age. No, USTA account numbers are now tracked through tennislink and you're not allowed to proceed with registering (in 12's) unless your age (or pathway progression) allows for it. Kids under 11 can now access a player progression page at USTA.com to show how many stars and trophies they've earned and how many they still need to graduate to yellow (still not clear if it's feasible). It's clear that a lot of money has been spent on this senseless Junior Pathway infrastructure. You need a Masters degree to understand what in the heck the Pathway progression actually entails.

I'm relieved that my son (11 yrs, 3 months) doesn't have to deal with this, but my daughter (10 next month) will have to endure these new ridiculous rules for 13 months. She made a final of a 12's tournament last month and I was looking forward to her progress in the 12's this year. I guess that won't happen now, USTA.

 

[jcgatennismom]

You are also at a disadvantage in the MV section as there are few top players in that section. I could see why a talented player would need to play up. It is unfortunate that USTA changed the Regionals so most of those are Closed and players can't chose to play in other regions to play different people. At least if your son and daughter get to the level where they can play national level 1s or 2s, they will have the opportunity to play players from anywhere in the US. I dont think it matters so much in the 12s and 14s but playing nationals is a great experience in the 16s and 18s. I think I saw the 2nd place player for boys 16s at Winter nationals was from Missouri.

I have posted before that I wish USTA would make rules the same across all sections. I think it is very hard when players move from one section to another.We are lucky that our sectional leaders attend tournaments and are open to parent comments, but still some of our sectional rules need to be updated.

 

[shindemac]

Is there a reason for the change? It seems nowadays, there's a backlash towards achieving and moving ahead of your peers. From my siblings, I know they won't let you skip grades anymore.

 

[BMC9670]

Sorry to hear that. I think these kind of rules stem from parents playing kids up when they're not ready, so the ones that are ready get caught in progression rules.

Our section has a different issue. They split the 12's by playing yellow ball in the higher level tournaments and green in the lower level tournaments. So what happens is many 12's play up to avoid green (with no progression requirements) and the 14's become bloated in the local tournaments. After winning a few of these tournaments, my 13 year old has started playing up in the 16's rather than roll through a number of 10 and 11 year olds that he's just played for 2 years in the 12's. So, the shift is felt through 2-3 age groups. And my daughter, who just turned 12 and is not ready to play up, has to play some green and some yellow, depending on the tournament. Not ideal either. And so it goes.

 

[Postpre]

BMC,

Do you feel that once a kid can rally consistently with yellow with good mechanics, that it would be hard to make significant improvements if they can only compete in green tournaments?

 

[BMC9670]

BMC,

Do you feel that once a kid can rally consistently with yellow with good mechanics, that it would be hard to make significant improvements if they can only compete in green tournaments?

It really depends on the player. I think green can be valuable if the player is coached to hit through the ball, work to construct the point, and develop proper footwork. However, many young players simply use the slower ball to keep it in play as long as possible until the other player makes an error. Having been through it, I know several kids that were successful in green because they moon balled or just kept the rally going, but never really developed otherwise. These kids are now trying to play that way in the 14's and getting beat.

I do believe in a "progression", but the challenge is that kids develop at different rates and at different ages, and the problem is parents sometimes don't know where their kid should play or think they do and are wrong. Hard to come up with rules for every situation. You just have to work through it and do what's right for your kid.