Archive for December, 2012

Happy New Year!

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On this last day of 2012, I want to wish all of you a very happy New Year! My hope is that 2013 proves to be a year of big fun, hard work, challenging competition, and personal growth – all with a giant dose of parental love and support – for all of our junior tennis players.

At Noon Eastern time today, I will be on the air for my last radio show of 2012.  I have no guest today and welcome all of you to call in and share your thoughts.  The call-in number is 714-583-6853, so, if you’re around in a few hours and would like to chat, please call, even if it’s just to say hello!  To listen to the show live online, click here to go to the UR10S website.

Be safe in your celebrating tonight – please note that AAA has a service for members and More >

4th & 5th Listening Meetings at Winter Nationals

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Two listening meetings were held over the past two days during the Winter Nationals in Arizona, a tournament that will, ironically, disappear from the schedule if the 2014 changes remain as is.

I received emails from attendees at both meetings, each of which had 40-50 people in attendance.  It seems that the parents, players, and industry folks (Brad Stine, Jack Sharpe, Mark Bey, Steve Bellamy, Kevin Kempin, Gordon Bellis, Timon Corwin, Tim Mayotte, Antonio Mora) who were in attendance were well-versed in the changes and had no qualms about speaking their minds to Tim Russell, Kurt Kamperman, and Dave Haggerty.  Several parents and players spoke out about how they would NOT have gotten a college scholarship under the new system.  One More >

The Rankings – What do College Coaches Want?

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Thank you to Peter at Adirondack Tennis for this article on college coaches’ views on the different junior ratings/rankings.

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‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (with a tennis flair)

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Twas the nite before Christmas and out on the courts was a jolly fat man in red tennis shorts

The sweat socks were hung in the pro shop with care and the racquets were strung with a Christmasy flair

The players were snuggled all safe in their beds While visions of passing shots Danced in their heads.

They dreamed about tiebreakers love sets and aces Wimbledon, Forest Hills, All kinds of places

Whatever the setting Wherever the scene with Pancho or Stan or perhaps Billy Jean

A fast match with Bobby with pre warm-up- rituals for winner-take-all (plus TV residuals)

When out through the night there arose such a clatter I put on my sneakers to find out the matter

And there on the court was the source of the trouble ‘Twas Santa and More >

3rd Listening Meeting at ITA Coaches Convention

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ITA Coaches Convention handout

The link above is to the handout given to attendees at yesterday’s “listening” meeting at the ITA Coaches Convention in Naples, Florida.  The pages are reversed – my apologies for not being able to figure out how to edit them in Adobe – so be sure to scroll to Page 2 for the details.  NOTE: Lew Brewer just emailed me a cleaner version of the handout which I’ve linked to above.

The meeting was led by outgoing USTA president, Jon Vegosen, and incoming USTA staff liaison to the Junior Competition Committee, Bill Mountford.  Lew Brewer was also in attendance.  For more information on the meeting, please see today’s ZooTennis post by clicking here – Colette was there and gives a very thorough analysis.

One thing I More >

TRN’s National Showcase Series

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5 months ago
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As I’ve been posting on Facebook and Tweeting this week, TennisRecruiting.net recently announced its National Showcase Series for 2013.

Per the email I received yesterday from TRN, the National Showcase Tournaments are designed to give players a chance to compete outside of their districts and sections.  They are seeking to fill the gap left by USTA’s 2013 and 2014 junior competition calendar changes, some of which limit players to competing within their own section or region.  While the TRN events will NOT count toward USTA national rankings, they WILL count toward USTA sectional or district ranking (if the player is competing in one of these events held in his/her own section or district of residence) as well as a player’s ranking and More >

Quota Insanity

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More unintended consequences?  Thank you to Antonio Mora, Emmy-winning journalist and tennis parent, for sharing the following information with all of us:

In the boys’ 14s of the upcoming Winter Nationals, the boy ranked 211 in the country on the day entries closed, did not make the cut. But the player ranked 955 (!!!!) was selected, even though almost 90 higher-ranked players were excluded. In the girls’ 18s, the player ranked 333 didn’t get in, but #965 did. In the boys’ 16s, the player ranked 204 didn’t make the cut, but #442 did. Boys 18s, 288 out, 713 in. Girls’ 16s, 250 is out, 731 in.

How does this happen? Kids who aren’t highly ranked managed to squeeze in under their section’s quota. Under current rules, only sixty kids out of More >

My Sit-Down with USTA’s Bill Mountford

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5 months ago
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Earlier this week, I received an email from Bill Mountford, currently USTA’s Market Development Specialist and one of the guys present at the 2nd listening meeting in Rocky Hill, CT.  He was coming to town for the USPTA’s 10-and-under coaching workshop and wanted to meet me.  He said he had no proposed agenda for this meeting but simply wanted to sit down and chat.  I figured it would be a great opportunity to ask him some very pointed questions about the 2014 junior comp changes and where things were heading.  I was right.

The main point that came out of our 2 1/2+ hour conversation is that many of the parents and coaches who came to the first two listening meetings seemed either uninformed or confused over exactly what the 2014 junior More >

The ParentingAces 2012 Holiday Gift Guide

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5 months ago
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Whichever holiday (or holidays, in our case!) you celebrate this winter, I thought I would offer up a few suggestions for some tennis-related gifts for your junior player. If you have more ideas to add to the list, please put them in the Comments box below!

  • For the Agassi fan, you can’t do any better than a piece of original jewelry from Nick Zimmer who created the famous Trinity earring and pendant gifted to Andre by Nick Bollettieri and his former wife. The pieces come in gold and silver (or a mixture of the two) and start right around $100. Click here to go to Nick’s website, LoveMyMetal.com.
  • Brad Gilbert’s Tennis Nation store has all sorts of tennis equipment and fun accessories, too. One of my favorites is a wireless tennis ball More >

ParentingAces Radio Show

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For my long-time readers, you probably already know that I’m now hosting a weekly call-in radio show on the UR10S network.  It airs every Monday at Noon Eastern time, and you can tune in online or listen to the recorded podcast on iTunes or on BlogTalkRadio’s website.  (For more info on the details of the show and how to tune in, click on the Radio Show tab above.)

The cool thing about hosting the show is that I now get to put voices to people with whom my only prior communication has been Facebook or Twitter or email. I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of our sport’s greats, like Allen Fox and Johan Kriek and Mark Kovacs.  I’ve gotten to interview lesser-known but no-less-important contributors to our sport like Ross Greenstein, More >

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