Dream Big

The following contribution comes from Richard Johnson. I first met Richard when he would come out to the desert in order to visit his brother David. Richard's always had a huge game that was supported by a solid foundation and a top-notch attitude. Playing points against him is never easy. He will make you work hard for every point and, with a relentless attacking game, you need to come up with a lot of good returns and passing shots just to get close. It goes to show the positive impact of developing solid fundamentals early and continuing to polish them through the development stages. Here's a quick bio (please check the upwards progression through the rankings): 

Quick Bio: #1127 ATP in 2008; Played #2-4 singles senior year and # 1 doubles as captain at Pepperdine; Member of 2006 Division 1 NCAA championship team; 12's: top 150 in nation, top 5 in Intermountain section, #1 in colorado; 14's: top 70 in nation, top 3 in intermountain, #1 in Colorado; 16's: top 30 in nation, # 1 in intermountain section and in colorado; 18's: top 10 in nation, # 1 in intermountain section (round of 16 of Kalamazoo supernational). 

Dream big and keep your goals in mind. After the novelty of tennis and travelling a little wears off, you need a dream and goals to do the amount of training and get through long and tedious practices. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a famous pro. I think that too many kids and parents are afraid to admit their true goals because they are afraid of being ridiculed for having unrealistic plans. Who cares if it is  unfashionable to want to be great at something?!

Becoming a great tennis player and being educated and successful at other things are not exclusive. The higher your goals are, the better tennis player you are likely to become. The better tennis player you become, the better your fallback options will be. If you try to go pro but can't quite make it, your consolation will be a full scholarship to your choice of top universities.

If you dream, have high goals, and are serious about those goals, the rest will follow. No one knows which 10-16 year old is going to “make it” until they are already winning ATP level matches. The two most successful players from my generation were John Isner and Sam Querrey. They were not the “chosen ones.” My point is that you need to keep working and have a long term vision that isn’t thrown off by every loss or frustration. You don't know when things will click, how your body will develop, and what opportunities will come your way. The players who end up being successful keep working for as long as they played tennis.

Your goals need to be front and center in your tennis. You need to decide on them and think about them often, because if you step on the court or go to a tournament without the motivation that comes with wanting to achieve these goals, it is too hard to practice right and it is a waste of time. If you keep working while being serious about your goals, you will train right and play right. If you are serious about your high goals and keep them in mind, there is no way you will tank matches, get pissed, or waste time on court because you will realize there is no time for that.

Think about the physical aspects of the game. You can't control their mind. You can't will the ball to do anything, and "trying harder" isn't specific enough. Try harder to do specific things like getting split for every ball, increasing your racket head speed,  and analyzing what is working. Focus on the things that you are told every day but take years to master. Once you do everything right, do it every point, relax and don’t let anyone tell you you aren't trying hard enough. 

Richard, we thank you for your contribution and great words of advice and wish you the best in all your future legal and tennis endeavors. 

Junior Tennis: National Points vs Who You Beat

Before Y2K, the junior landscape for gaining entry into Sectionals and Nationals was very different from what it is today. Currently, the USTA has implemented the point system which rewards players for reaching certain rounds in certain tournaments. The further you go, the more points you get.

Before the USTA implemented the point system, the junior ranking system consisted of your wins and losses. Players were required to fill out their "Player Record Forms" to submit to tournament directors, sectional offices, and the USTA for ranking and seeding purposes (you had to send it before the entry deadline through snail mail). It was all about who you beat and who you lost to. You were penalized for losing to poor players (you couldn't have a bad day all year) and you were also penalized for taking an injury default during a match (eliminated the mental shenanigans for weak players). The combination of your wins and losses determined your ranking.

Furthermore, in big sections like the South or Midwest, one had to qualify from parts of their state to make it to sectionals. For instance, Chicago might take 15 of the top players to go to Sectionals for a 128 draw. You had to qualify, no silly exemptions, everyone had to play. Whether you were Jack Sock or #533 in Chicago, you had to go through the avenue to get to Sectionals. Then to get to Nationals (Clays, Hards, Indoors), one had to be in the top 15 in the Section of the Midwest Section. The draw size was not 192, it was a smaller 128 draw with clear cut quota spots for each section.

The competition was viscious and everyone had to go through this pipeline. Nobody could duck competition, everyone had to face the music and display guts. The best tennis players were rewarded and it promoted a certain amount of toughness. The mentally weak were weeded out and the sneaky parents couldn't buy their way to the national tournaments (abuse of point system today). Kids were tougher and college coaches could rely on that stats the ranking system spit out. Today, college coaches have a harder time deciphering who is the real deal when the system is all about points, skipping levels, ducking tournaments, playing ITFs, playing Pro Circuit Events, and such.

Back in the day, only the top 10 players from SoCal would be able to attend Nationals. Think about how viscious the competition was? Think about how good it was for the kids to experience this type of pressure, year and year, multiple times per year? It allowed amazing players to develop and nobody was allowed to cut corners. People who were left behind had to fight that much harder, there was no other way to Kalamazoo!

Parents: Next time you whip out the credit card to travel 1000 miles to a tournament to get his/her ranking up, save your money. It's not money well spent. A better option is to play a local tournament at his/her level (don't play up) and make them prove time and time again, they can handle the pressure of winning. All college coaches will not be fooled by points, they will first check how they did against the top players and who they lost to. It all comes down to wins and losses.

First The Smile, Then The Good Tennis

"Champions love to practice when nobody is looking and champions love to compete when everyone is watching" -unknown

The title of this article sounds kind of cheesy, but it is very true. Tennis is a really long journey and the MOST important thing is falling in love with the game. Ultimately, you want a player who can be their own coach. Sure, there have been and always will be a giant of list of players who don't "love" the game or never had the "bug" for it, who happened to blossom because they were gifted athletes driven by tough parents and/or coaches. Usually these types of players only frustrate the ones who care about them because they never fully realize their potential. The smile never was there from the beginning or more likely, the smile was lost along the way.

Here are some ways to ignite the tennis "bug" from a young age (pay attention hungry, overachieving, perfectionist parents):

1) Make tennis a family activitiy. You should play with your kids.
2) Take them to local college tennis events, pro events, get autographs.
3) Introduce them to the wall and explain how the The Wall is the best player in the world.
4) Don't force heaps of tennis lessons on them. Let them play with other kids.
5) They do not need $60 private lessons at age 8. Keep it light and fun.
6) Don't be technical, just let them swing for the fences or tap the ball. Whatever they want.
7) Play points, forget drilling. It's like when you first learn the piano, would you rather learn chords or a popular song off the radio. Make it fun!
8) Take tennis away from them, limit their play. It will make them want more.

Now if they catch the "bug," you have done an excellent job. Now how do you maintain the smile for the next 10-15 years?

Stay out of their tennis and just be supportive- no matter what. Don't be the one who ruins their love for the game. If you are the type who can't stay away, must micromanage, cherry picks from mutiple coaches, calls coaches after lessons to discuss backhand technique, chases tournament points all over the country, makes excuses for your child's poor play, and has an opinion on everything- STAY OUT OF THEIR TENNIS and JUST BE SUPPORTIVE! (We all know who you are, atleast there is never a shortage of drama and characters in tennis).

Tennis is hard enough as it is. You can't force a horse to drink from the river. And you can't drag your spouse down the aisle at your wedding...

Always the smile, then the good tennis.

The Great American Swindle

Since CAtennis.com got started we've had both positive and negative reviews. Several of our site frequenters have inquired whether some of our tips/suggestions (or "articles") carry a deliberate (or, perhaps, innocent) anti-teaching-pro tinge. Our answer is, as it has always been, "absolutely not". After all, we are, or have been, involved in the junior development business ourselves and, as a result, we would be hypocrites to attack ourselves or our methods. Nevertheless, what separates us from a number of our peers is that we constantly remind our students that the time on-court with us is simply NOT ENOUGH. We encourage the students to take ownership of their development and charge of their destinies. We remind them to utilize our knowledge and expertise as a guide/map, not a tour bus. "We're along for YOUR journey; not the other way around." Do the hard hammering and chiseling yourself; come to us when you require our assistance with the fine sandpapering. We do not presume to have all the answers (and are loathe to rely on the "authority" implied by our modest results). The primary purpose of CAtennis.com is to elicit a discussion of "what it takes" from people who have gone through the process. 

With the foregoing in mind, however, let's take a sledgehammer to that other great American tennis institution: the live-in tennis "academy" (I put this term in quotation because I doubt that subjects such as the history or physics of tennis are heavily studied, discussed and debated at such places). Enter "tennis academy" and "United States" into your basic search engine and you are likely to get over 1.5million hits. They all have enterprising sounding names and some are even associated with reputable former tennis players or teaching professionals. The cost of attending one of these live-in academies is usually pretty steep; most of the time, upwards of $25,000/year. At the more prestigious academies, the per-student tuition can run as much as $50,000/year - $68,000/year.  This cost usually covers housing, meals and entertainment, as well as coaching and training. At some academies, the tuition also includes education (although a lot of times this costs extra and, in several cases, it's provided through an online program), tournament entry fees as well as transportation and housing to/from the site. Most academies charge extra for racket restringing and almost none provide the basic equipment (save for balls): shoes, strings, RACKETS, grips, etc. Generally, parents - with BEST INTENTIONS IN MIND - send their children to some of these glorified day-care centers with the expectations that, upon spending $200,000+ over 4 or more years, the player will receive a full college scholarship and, perhaps, be good enough to try "the tour" for a couple of years. 

Now, you don't have to be a genius to realize that for LESS than $200,000 (cost of attending your average, high-end academy for 4-5+ years), the child could easily attend a reputable institution of higher learning AND have sufficient money left over to live in Paris and/or London or travel the globe for 1.5years after graduation. But this is not the reason why the academy system is a swindle; it's a con because, like many hucksters before them, they use limited examples (anecdotes) to market the perceived effectiveness of their program(s). Without naming names, you will often hear stories how so-and-so sent his young son to some far-off place in Florida where he trained all day and became top-10 in the world. However, what these examples dicount is the percentage of people "who make it" versus the sheer number of players who do not. For every academy player who cracks the top-100/200 there are THOUSANDS of kids from the very same program who do not. Similarly, for every player who gets a "full ride" somewhere, HUNDREDS of his academy-mates do not. Would you consider a law school to be reputable if only 1 out of 1000 graduates pass the bar exam?! What if you had to go in for major surgery and 999 of your doctor's patients have died on the operating table but he's had major success with 1 patient?! Would you let him operate on you?! 

Thus, when evaluating whether to spend good, hard-earned money on an academy you not only have to perform a cost-benefit analysis (i.e. would money be better spent on an Ivy League education?) but also look at the percentage of players who make it v. those who do not. Then, you have to ask whether those players who broke through would have made it regardless; maybe they just worked harder, were more passionate about tennis and had the qualities necessary to succeed. Some players may be very good - best in their countries or sections - but not have the resources in their home-town to develop further. These good players receive scholarships at the prestigious academies - so the process doesn't really cost them anything - that are funded by players who might not have what it takes (and never will). In other words, they serve the academy's marketing scheme to attract the paying suckers. In addition, these good players usually get to spend a lot more time with the "top" academy pros (and, if lucky, serve as sparing partners for the touring players) thereby improving at a faster rater than their colleagues. 

Conversely, the rest of the students (i.e., the average or bad players) spend 4-5 hours on the court with a "pro" who's getting paid $15-$20/hour. Wait! You thought that the academy pros are highly compensated individuals?! Did you think that the on-court ball-feeders are getting paid a king's ransom for their work?! Well that's just naive. The academy is a BUSINESS and someone's gotta be making money from this endeavor (as usual, it's the owners, not the workers). So how involved is that instructor going to be in your child's development if he receives a fraction of a cost of a lesson AND has 5-6 students to look after. Of course, some of these pros might not be qualified to teach at the local country club to begin with, but that's a separate issue altogether. Per-student, this instructor/babysitter is getting less than minimum wage. There are, of course, some who use this opportunity to learn about the teaching business, develop a clientelle and, perhaps, find one or two students with whom they can travel. However, at some point, burn-out is going to set in and the likelihood that the "pros" will continue to provide high-quality instruction will diminish.

Now let's look at the flip-side. For $30,000, your child could: (a) live at home, play the tournaments that she wants to play and not be subjected to the negative influence of the live-in peers (yes, drugs and alcohol abuse are often factors at live-in academies and you can't always count on some immature monitor - who many times is not much older than the pupils - to look after everyone's conduct); (b) at $60/hour, your child can take 300 private lessons per year (or 600 semi-private). Heck, your local pro can cut you a deal (a lesson package) and maybe work with your kid for 400 hours/year. That's 2 hours a day of individual attention (not counting days off or tournaments). We're not flip-flopping on the "lessons" concept; just pointing out that if you're sending the child away for instruction, then you can very easily secure instruction close to home. If the private lessons don't work for you, maybe you should consider hiring a gardner to mow the tennis balls around the court while lil' Johnny is grinding on the ball machine. That's $15/hour well-spent; (c) take lessons from someone who is actually getting paid a decent hourly wage ($50/hr v. $15/hr) thereby, more or less, guaranteeing quality advice and interest in the player's development; (d) have a relatively "normal" upbringing and not be removed from her friends; (e) have less stress and higher quality education; and (f) have the opportunity to work on her own development and not rely on someone else to force-feed her information. 

Again, the live-in academy system works for some and those "some" happen to be very good players who have put in the work early and have a proven commitment to the sport. Like first-born children in the middle ages, they get the benefit of the best training and attention and are groomed to become champions at the expense of the rest of the students - his "sponsors". These sponsor-players serve as the foundation of the academy pyramid scheme and are only there to fulfill their parents Walter Mitty fantasies. Of course, some parents will continue to be razzle-dazzled by the anecdotes of success. Rather than doing some critical thinking and planning, they will prefer to continue writing checks and pass along the development responsibility to someone else. After all, signing a check is way easier than being actually involved. The best advice that we could give you would be to contact the former players (and their parents) and see how the academy worked for them and whether they got everything that they wanted out of their investment and experience. 

Road-map for American Success in Tennis

A discussion has arisen as to what it would take for the US to, once again, achieve dominance in the tennis ranks (particularly for men). Although the factors are numerous, here as some thoughts to consider:

1.         Set Goals Early. Parents and players need to have a clear vision of where they want to end up 10-11 years down the road (assuming that the player picks up the racket at age 7-8) in terms of tennis. Are the parents simply interested in treating tennis as an after-school activity (“play it by ear”) or do they (and the player) intend to take this game seriously. This decision should be made early – although it doesn’t mean that the youngster becomes a “tennis monk” (i.e., foreclosed from other childhood activities) – in order to provide the player with the maximum chance to improve. Initially, many parents intend tennis to be merely a fun activity in order to keep the player off the streets and out of trouble; then, after 3-4 years into the process, they figure out that the child may have some innate knack for the game and a passion, and proceed to reverse course. For many players (not all), this may be simply too late; their competition (whether it’s Juan Carlos from Spain or Anna or Maria from Russia or Ukraine) will have spent many more hours on court developing their technique, eye for the ball, footwork and tactical understanding. In other words, while the American player is striving to become "well-rounded" (and there's nothing really wrong with that), their foreign peers would have played 500-600 hours more. There are, of course, stories about some athletes who played multiple sports and still achieved great success. You have to ask yourself whether they are the exception or the rule. 

2.        Understand the Odds of “Making It”. Whether you are intending to push for the “pros” or merely college tennis, you have to understand the odds of achieving your results. Tennis is open to people from all demographics or walks of life. In addition, for most of the world, tennis is a very, very popular sport (maybe 2nd or 3rd in popularity after football/soccer). The popularity adds to the pool of players and talent. When it comes to playing pro tennis, I will quote what Jose Higueras told me when I had the opportunity to train with him as an 18 year old: “you know, your chance of making it is ZERO [needless to say, I felt crushed]. But you know what?! Jim’s [Courier] and Michael’s [Chang] chances were also zero.” In other words, the reality is that tennis is, from a financial point of view, a zero-sum game for most people. However, despite the odds, some people take up that challenge and work hard towards their dreams while others get discouraged. Both Jim and Michael were tremendous work horses who spent a great deal of time improving their games and fitness levels. Not many people would be willing to put in the miles that Jim was doing in the middle of summer with truck tires behind him. 

3.         Avoid Negative Influences. Despite the odds, it is OK for the parents and players to admit that they have lofty goals (e.g. Top-200 in the world; D-1 scholarship; etc.). Many people, however, will not admit to harboring such dreams because they feel that other people will laugh at them - particularly if the goals are not attained. Screw those people! Why allow them to dictate your dreams?! If the child wanted to become a doctor, lawyer or astronaut would you pour water on her dreams too?! Set the standards high and then aim for them with all your energies and resources. Very few people finish a marathon if they’re only training for a 5-K race. The reality is that if you aim for the “top” (let’s say, for purposes of discussion, top-200ATP/WTA) and fail, you are still a helluva player. If you’re an accomplished (i.e. world-class/ranked) player, you can more easily get into a good college and have your education paid for and, thereafter, "make a decent life for yourself". But you cannot allow the negative noise to deter you from your goals. 

4.        Forget About Rankings. This will be a constant theme on CAtennis.com but it’s worth hammering the point home. When you’re young, worry about developing your game...all of your game (technical, tactical, physical and mental); get addicted to winning; play tournaments to see how your practices and training are coming along and then fine-tune your training further (don't "live" on results alone); seek to dominate all levels starting from the simplest one (your "backyard") first and working your way upwards (sectionals -> nationals -> internationals); stop trying to “buy” success. Some parents think that if their kids play “bigger” tournaments even if they are not ready (i.e., because they have not achieved worthwhile results at lower levels), the competitors' level/success will somehow rub off on their own kids as if it were mud (or something more colorful). Success must be earned; it cannot be borrowed from someone else. 

5.    Know the Difference Between Organizations. The USTA is, technically, in charge of tennis development. The ITA (NCAA) is in charge of college tennis. They are not related! They have different rules and interests. One (USTA) cares about one thing (tennis development); the other (ITA), about something entirely different (scholastic development). If we, as a country, are to succeed and have a long-lasting impact, we need to have coordination efforts between these organizations in order to allow players to transition from the auspices of one organization to those of another.

6.       Amateurism. A strong argument exists that antiquated notions of amateurism may be detrimental to the game. After all, many foreign players have no concept of college tennis (or the rules are more relaxed or not completely enforced). Thee aim of some of these players is the pro tour; for them, there is no secondary target. Thus, while our players are setting their sights relatively low, their foreign peers are setting their sights considerably higher.

Perhaps we need to devise a circuit of events where the players can at least be reimbursed for their travel expenses. For example, we could make it a requirement that "national" events reimburse the winner's and runner-up's expenses up to a point; no more scalping the parents for $120/event in exchange for a tournament T-shirt and "national points". It might be tough to monitor (for NCAA purposes), but the concept is that the players will learn how to view the sport as a professional endeavor and college as a mere stop along the way and not the final destination. For example, in France, cash prizes are sometimes awarded in junior events (even the smallest ones). This breeds a completely different mentality – “yes, we can make a living at this game.” While Johnny (USA) is playing for plastic trophies, Francois, Rafael, Jurgen, Dmitri or "-ova" are playing for something completely different. I wonder who will have a better chance of making it.

Nevertheless, this is really not a novel concept. Some ITF events actually reimburse the players' travel expenses so there's no reason - well, besides greed from the tournament organizers and short-sightedness - for not implementing this at other events (e.g. national tournaments). We're simply saying that more tournaments could follow the ITF approach and not be in violation of any EXISTING amateurism rules. 

7.         Player Assistance. We need to provide actual, tangible incentives for people to play the sport and push for the higher echelons of the game. The more players we have in the ranks, the greater the likelihood of players breaking into the top-100, top-50 and toop-10. Remember, when the US dominated the top spots in tennis, the US also dominated the entire ranks. As of Oct. 24, only 17 American men are in the top 300. While everyone focuses on what we need to do to get a player in the top 4, we need to focus on energy in getting more players into the top 200-300. This is the pool of talent from which we can make a push into the top-100, top-50, top-20 and top-10. As a nation, we can't afford to continue to gamble on one or two players making it big. We need to actually increase the odds of it happening. 

Again, foreign countries have a different approach than ours. Rather than adopting a “sink or swim” mentality, many foreign federations provide actual financial/development assistance to their players. In some countries, assistance is provided by the clubs themselves. Here, we could devise a system where the USTA could provide grants/loans to players attaining certain rankings. For example: if you’re top 500 ATP/WTA, you receive (from USTA) $15,000 per year (to assist with further travels); if you’re top 350 ATP/WTA, you receive $25,000 per year; if you’re top 200 ATP/WTA, you receive $30,000 (figures are arbitrary and for purposes of discussion only). Players participating in this program (i.e., it's not mandatory) could then either agree to pay it back (from future earnings; when they "break through" top 150ATP/WTA) or trade on-court time for grass-roots tennis events or exhibitions in order to “grow the game”. The reality is that the USTA is spending a lot of money in trying to develop players, but it’s doing so on salaries of non-players. The players are the face of American tennis – not the executives or administrators. 

8.         Put More Money Into the Lower Tiers. Although prize money has increased in the Grand Slams and top-tier events, it has more or less remained constant in the futures and challenger series. $1000 20 years ago meant a whole lot more than $1000 today. Not many Americans are willing to grind out, week-in and week-out, sleeping 6 to a room or in their cars, for little or no compensation (even if they manage to get good results). Again, we need to provide an incentive for people to stick with the game through the grind-stages. Otherwise, players will simply quit and start teaching or get “real” jobs.