ParentingAces
USTA Online Sportsmanship Guide
03 weeks ago
I just received the following email from USTA South Carolina due to the fact that my son will be playing in a tournament there this weekend:
Prior to your child’s participation in an the upcoming Bullfrog Designated tournament, please take the time to view the Sportsmanship Guide linked below. Please note that this is being sent to all entrants of the upcoming tournament via blind-copy on this e-mail. Junior tennis should be a fun and rewarding experience for our children. Character building lessons such as hard work, discipline, good sportsmanship, and endurance of adversity are regularly on display. Parents of junior players should also enjoy the time spent with their children, watching them develop not just into better tennis players More >
Too Much Generalizing, In General
43 weeks ago
in Parenting
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m getting awfully tired of reading and hearing all the sweeping generalizations made about junior tennis players and their parents. Not all junior players are spoiled, entitled brats. Not all tennis parents are pushy, overbearing brutes. There are plenty of sweet, well-grounded, hard-working, focused kids out there with parents who support and encourage those positive traits.
Yes, I know the bad ones rear their ugly heads from time to time – we all have our War Stories to share in this regard – but why all the generalizations?
I was talking with a good friend of mine recently, and she flat out told me that she encouraged her daughter to quit tennis and to play a different sport because “tennis More >
ZooTennis Update on 2014 Calendar
31 month ago
Please click here to read today’s ZooTennis.com post which includes information from USTA’s Scott Schultz and Lew Brewer on the calendar changes.
Share this:“If You Don’t Like Us, Find A Way To Get Rid Of Us!”
21 month ago
“If you don’t like us, find a way to get rid of us!” That was Patrick McEnroe’s response to a parent’s question regarding the 2014 Junior Competition Changes at last summer’s Girls 12 Nationals in Atlanta, and it was really the beginning of my extensive coverage of the new calendar that USTA was planning to implement beginning January 1, 2014.
Now that the calendar changes have been finalized and approved at the National Board level, I figured I should do a sort-of recap of the process around the changes and how they came to be . . .
- Some time in 2011: Jon Vegosen, then president of USTA, charged his Junior Competition Committee (JCC) to devise a new national tournament schedule. Please note that the JCC was chaired by Tim Russell, a More >
Update on 2014 Junior Comp Structure
11 month ago
I know I said you probably wouldn’t be hearing from me this week – I’m still at the beach on Spring Break, luckily – but I wanted to pass along the latest news from USTA’s Board of Directors meeting.
I received an email this morning from USTA’s Bill Mountford, letting me know that the changes to the previously approved Junior Competition Structure were unanimously approved by the Board last night. That means, as predicted, that the changes will go into effect January 1 of next year.
It’s time to take a serious look at your child’s current schedule and the tweaks that you’ll need to make for next year. Alternatives to USTA tournaments are popping up around the country, and I’ll continue to post them here as I get word.
Time to move on . . More >
Spring Break!
01 month ago
I’m off to the beach for the week – YAHOO! – so it may be kinda quiet on the blog for the next several days. But, my radio show will air as scheduled on Monday at Noon ET at www.blogtalkradio.com/ur10snetwork, so please tune in and listen to what I know will be a very insightful conversation with tennis parent, Melanie Rubin.
While I’m gone, please feel free to continue commenting on previous posts and to continue the important discussions that have started here. Only through dialogue can we ever hope to effect change!
Have a great week!
Share this:New Rules in GA for U10s & U12s
111 month ago
Why, you might ask, is there a French magazine cover pictured at the top of this post? Well, 2 reasons . . . first of all, because I want everyone to notice that it features French pro, Richard Gasquet, at the age of 9, playing tennis using a yellow ball. Second of all, because in just a few weeks I’ll be at Roland Garros watching a couple of days of phenomenal tennis at the French Open and am pretty darn excited! (P.S. Anyone who wants to hook me up with courtside seats, you know how to reach me!)
Some of you may have gotten wind of the changes happening across the country with 10-and-under tennis and the mandated use of the ROG balls in tournament play. What you may not know is that ROG is now infiltrating the 12s, too.
Now What?
41 month ago
The 2014 changes to the junior competition calendar are all but a done deal. The Powers That Be at USTA, despite our best efforts, have decided they (not parents, not coaches, not the players themselves) know what’s best for our young players and have slashed competitive opportunities at the national level by a huge margin. So, now what?
Add to the mix the fact that several USTA sections have also adopted a rather Draconian policy for the 10-and-unders and 12-and-unders, forcing them onto the ROG path, making it so they have to play all the way up in the 14s if they want to play with a yellow ball on a full-size court. If you haven’t already, be sure to listen to the free podcast of my radio show with Lawrence Roddick (Andy’s older More >