usta league rant

[PK6]

I’m doing strict diet/workouts!!! It’s sardines/salmon/green vegetables/kidney beans/lots of water/green tea!!! Health is way way way more important than playing tennis. Team didn’t care about working out eating clean healthy diet. I’ve cut myself away from them and now have nothing to do with them anymore-

 

[Hurting Elbow]

Usta has so much money from its monopoly on the pro game I have no idea why they are charging anyone 44 per year to simply play in their leagues over and above the 28per team fee. It’s unclear what people getting for that. Yes I know sometimes people get some sort of coupon but that does not apply year round.

Should've gone with the lifetime $500 membership 25+ years ago.

 

[Moon Shooter]

I’m doing strict diet/workouts!!! It’s sardines/salmon/green vegetables/kidney beans/lots of water/green tea!!! Health is way way way more important than playing tennis. Team didn’t care about working out eating clean healthy diet. I’ve cut myself away from them and now have nothing to do with them anymore-

Let me guess they didn’t eat the kidney beans veggies and green tea you brought instead opting for beer, peanuts and even (God forbid) chili cheese Fritos and you were insulted.

A better tea option is diet Arnold Palmer tea/lemonade with a shot of absolute lime vodka.

Question: Do you even lift?

 

[travlerajm]

The captains have these kids come down to a court and have someone hit with them before adding them to a team. They are well aware that they are under-rated, and most of the kids are well aware of it as well. They have people self rate sometimes TWO levels below where they really should be. Then when they get disqualified or bumped, they are computer rated at that next level for the next season, still a level below where they should be, and can't be touched. A guy beating a solid 4.0 player 0 and 1 in a singles match cannot possibly have ever been a 3.5 in the time frame of signing up for that 4.0 team. No chance. The captain is blatantly cheating and the player is sandbagging. Most players who self rate themselves rate themselves TOO HIGH. A cocky kid who played in college is going to rate himself as a 3.5, the realm of chubby middle aged playground hacks? Nope, that's the captains doing after convincing them what the plan is. And when he has like 4 of these guys on the same team, it's not just a coincidence.

They are doing it because when you go to sectionals...most of the teams there are sandbaggers as well, and these captains goal is to get to sectionals by any means necessary. Having 4.0 and some 4.5 players self rate as 3.5 is the means to that end.

If everybody is doing it… that becomes the level.

 

[PK6]

Let me guess they didn’t eat the kidney beans veggies and green tea you brought instead opting for beer, peanuts and even (God forbid) chili cheese Fritos and you were insulted.

A better tea option is diet Arnold Palmer tea/lemonade with a shot of absolute lime vodka.

Question: Do you even They rather be fat/happy instead-could care less about winning or losing.

 

[PK6]

They rather be fat/happy instead of winning or losing-thank the good lord I had enough sense to quit playing. And yes I was mad about the junk food/they have no clue whatsoever on eating healthy-Best decision I ever made!!! Worst decision I ever made was to quit bodybuilding. And yes I do lift every day! Much better than being fat and playing tennis. I’ll take lifetime of strict diet and being lean and ripped then being fat playing tennis-

 

[dman72]

If everybody is doing it… that becomes the level.

Not everybody is doing it, only a select few playing key courts on teams that are known for doing this. The problem is that it discourages everyone else. I just like playing, but because my team has no 18+ singles sandbaggers, me and other 30 yo+ guys play 20 year olds who are current college players. I don't even see how they enjoy it.

 

[travlerajm]

Not everybody is doing it, only a select few playing key courts on teams that are known for doing this. The problem is that it discourages everyone else. I just like playing, but because my team has no 18+ singles sandbaggers, me and other 30 yo+ guys play 20 year olds who are current college players. I don't even see how they enjoy it.

I lost a UTR singles flex league match last week to a college age player 30 years my junior. It was discouraging mentally to know that my legs were ultimately going to break down first if I tried to play a long game strategy. This led to me playing more impatiently than I ordinarily prefer, hastening my demise.

 

[Lord Of The Strings]

I've actually wondered why league play is so key in tennis.

Way more people play golf, and they just have a friends group who they play with every week.

Having done both leagues and just a WhatsApp group of similarly-skilled guys who take up 2-4 courts on any given Saturday at our club, the latter is way more relaxing and fun. Plus we just play as long as we like, don't have to leave after a 6-1, 6-2 match.

I think league play is more key to amateur tennis than to golf b/c when it comes down to it...you can play the game of golf and follow all rules with just yourself as the primary opponent. You can't play the game of tennis solo, nor can you play without having a winner and loser. You can rally, you can run drills, but to truly play the sport of tennis, you have to keep score and someone has to win, someone has to lose. In golf, you can play the sport and keep score, but there doesn't necessarily need to be a winner/loser for the game to be played.

This makes tennis more competitive by nature and people who play it tend to enjoy that winning/losing element of the sport. Meanwhile, golf has a lot more casual players who are trying to beat their own scores, not the scores of their playing partners. The handicap system was developed in part to make competition among amateur players more even, but most amateur golfers don't even carry an official handicap from GHIN or other index, they just have an estimated one if that. that said, you can still play 18 holes, count your strokes, record your score and you have played the sport of golf without "winning" or "losing" to anybody.

I love golf and I love tennis and I play both regularly. But they fulfill different things. I play tennis for exercise/competition/quick social thing that takes less than 2 hours and I play golf for fun/4.5 hours of social time with a couple friends/some peace and quiet.

 

[Roforot]

I think league play is more key to amateur tennis than to golf b/c when it comes down to it...you can play the game of golf and follow all rules with just yourself as the primary opponent. You can't play the game of tennis solo, nor can you play without having a winner and loser. You can rally, you can run drills, but to truly play the sport of tennis, you have to keep score and someone has to win, someone has to lose. In golf, you can play the sport and keep score, but there doesn't necessarily need to be a winner/loser for the game to be played.

This makes tennis more competitive by nature and people who play it tend to enjoy that winning/losing element of the sport. Meanwhile, golf has a lot more casual players who are trying to beat their own scores, not the scores of their playing partners. The handicap system was developed in part to make competition among amateur players more even, but most amateur golfers don't even carry an official handicap from GHIN or other index, they just have an estimated one if that. that said, you can still play 18 holes, count your strokes, record your score and you have played the sport of golf without "winning" or "losing" to anybody.

I love golf and I love tennis and I play both regularly. But they fulfill different things. I play tennis for exercise/competition/quick social thing that takes less than 2 hours and I play golf for fun/4.5 hours of social time with a couple friends/some peace and quiet.

How does golf do amateur tournaments? do they have age or handicap divisions? Is there any sort of amateur team competition? Like top players from one club play against the cross city club?

 

[Lord Of The Strings]

How does golf do amateur tournaments? do they have age or handicap divisions? Is there any sort of amateur team competition? Like top players from one club play against the cross city club?

not talking about the high level amateur tourneys, most amateur tournaments/leagues are club based. some are open to non-members, but most aren't. It's not really organized on a national basis for amateurs like USTA is. Like when you're talking high level amateur tourneys, you're talking the US Junior Amateur, which has qualifying events and whatnot. It's a different world. There's really no USTA League equivalent for golf.

Not a ton of cross-club golf play in my experience, but that's not to say it doesn't exist. Most rec league play at the club level that I've experienced is not handicap based, but more like 2-ball skins games.

 

[Nostradamus]

I think this will be my last year...
USTA doesn't care but here is why:

• small pool of players, with both dwindling # of players and teams. mostly older players that only way to have fun is win at all costs. (cheat, sandbag, "self-rated" players, etc...)
• grievance process is a joke, no way to deal with cheaters or assholes. tennis is built around sportsmanship. lose that, and you lose the soul of tennis.
• league coordinator is lazy and doesn't care. every captain seems to complain about the LC.

I did meet some great people via USTA that I will keep in touch with and play tennis with.
Having been a captain I tried recruiting most of my tennis friends. But most of them did not want to join USTA leagues.
Some USTA veterans I know have already left. Same story every time... basically it was not FUN for them anymore.
Many of them are in these large private groups with contract courts and have way more fun playing there.


What we need is to have the assholes/cheaters play each other, instead of being on the same team.
Also should have some type of sportsmanship rating for opponents post match.

Agree Pickelball is killing the amateur tennis. USTA organizers seem to care somewhat but not enough to aggressively build more teams and attaract more amateur adult players back into tennis. USTA needs to spend more money on attracting Adult players back into tennis.... Enough money has been and is being spent on Junior tennis already.. Now with Threat of pickelball,,,,, its TIME to concentrate on attracting adults back to tennis and spend some more money and go after adults with more prgrams and fair league plays

 

[dman72]

Agree Pickelball is killing the amateur tennis. USTA organizers seem to care somewhat but not enough to aggressively build more teams and attaract more amateur adult players back into tennis. USTA needs to spend more money on attracting Adult players back into tennis.... Enough money has been and is being spent on Junior tennis already.. Now with Threat of pickelball,,,,, its TIME to concentrate on attracting adults back to tennis and spend some more money and go after adults with more prgrams and fair league plays

Agreed. It seems the low hanging fruit are people who used to play and stopped because of USTA league nonsense like I've experienced.

 

[dman72]

I don't understand how this strategy could be successful the way you describe it. If they are playing in 4.0 leagues and consistently crushing solid 4.0s, then it doesn't really matter if they self rated at 3.5 or 4.0 - they would be just as likely to get DQ'ed or bumped to 4.5 either way.

Also, if the cheating you are seeing is truly blatant, e.g. lying about college team experience, then isn't that's an easy case for a successful grievance?

I think college players are allowed to self-rate 4.0. I'm not sure about 3.5.

 

[TennisOTM]

I think college players are allowed to self-rate 4.0. I'm not sure about 3.5.

Male college players under age 25 have to self rate at least 4.5, even for junior or community college.