The USTA thinks Ten And Under Tennis is the answer to increasing participation in junior tennis.
It's no secret American tennis has a problem--and has for years. A drought atop the world rankings, dwindling participation at the junior entry level. Our sport is retracting. Sad to say, I agree
The numbers don't lie. Participation in the lower age group tournaments has been dropping steadily for years now. Entry numbers, particularly in the ten and under divisions, are drastically down. As I travel the country I am hearing the same thing. For the past couple of years, SoCal 10s are at their lowest level ever. And, yes, I would submit that the U10 Mandate is partly to blame.
From talking to lots of parents and SoCal pros, some aspiring and hardworking 10s simply want to play with yellow balls like they use during the week and like they have used for a few years, and they end up having to play “up” in the 12s or are forced to use the soft green balls in 10s. I disagree with what you write below - - - to my way of thinking and from my long time experience in coaching, I never had juniors play up unless they were absolutely dominating their age group and could get no competition - - - and truth be told, I never had a player like that - - - playing up when you are 8, 9 or 10 is the absolute worst time it seems to me.
Is the lack of a marquee box office player killing the interest of potential young players? Are the dwindling numbers of younger players shrinking the pool of potential pro talent to the point that we don't have the same stable of athletes to draw from any longer? Good questions.
As to possible answers, a rift has emerged in our sport between the centralized authority of the USTA and certain segments of the private sector, including media figures who assert they speak for the tennis community and know better.
This faction took their grievances about the decline in US tennis public two years ago. What has transpired has been a multi-front assault on the USTA.
The USTA has devised a new learning system named TAUT (Ten and Under Tennis) that they hope will reverse the dwindling participation numbers. Smaller court dimensions, lower nets, lower compression balls--serious changes.
More importantly, the new system is mandated. The reason for the mandate is simple. Anything less would be complete chaos. I do not think it would be chaos to simply continue regular tennis for 10s that want to compete against their peers. And, at the same time, have all the green ball or red ball or orange ball or nerf ball or polka dot ball tournaments that you want. In time, the players would vote with their entry blanks. If there are hundreds of thousands of kids are signing up to play with the magic green ball - - -as the multi-million dollar USTA ad campaigns and promo said would happen - - - then continue on with that ball and even increase offering it. Fabulous. Wonderful. All for it.
All I remember thinking upon hearing the news was Hallelujah. As a lifetime player and coach, the lack of graduated learning tools for young tennis kids always puzzled me. Truth be told, many pros have been using graduated learning in tennis for decades. This is anecdotal, but in the 60s and 70s I was sawing off the handles of wooden rackets and then re-gripping them, using lower nets and punctured balls for the juniors in our program that were 5, 6, 7, and 8. I have a written book as well and I have long advocated graduated learning in tennis and music and dance and theatre and speaking and writing . . . To me it is axiomatic and obvious.
A lot of controversy about the new balls that are slower and lower bouncing.
I picked up the game as an 8 year old back in the early 1970's. All those cute junior rackets, we didn't have those. We learned with dad's extra racket. A Slazenger 4 5/8 Heavy--a 14 ounce slab of laminated wood that required a giant wooden press just to keep it from warping. Again, many coaches were using sawed off rackets. And in the 80s there were lots and lots of shorter junior rackets put out by the racket companies. I used lower nets and shorter courts in lots of school clinics that we would do in our community.
Throw in the standard ball that routinely bounced well above your head In watching good U10 tennis in SoCal and across the country, I saw some amazing tennis being played and I did not see balls routinely bounced well above players heads. , it was a wonder anyone stuck with tennis in those early years. Speaking personally, I would have quit in an instant if I wasn't threatened a good spanking with that same God forsaken racket. I am truly very saddened and sorry to hear that. (For more on the strange tale of tennis life in the Buss family, Click Here.)
Every other sport known to man has graduated learning. Baseball has t-ball, To my understanding from talking to parents who have their children in baseball, T Ball is for 4-6 year-old players, not 10s., then little league with no mounds and only 45 feet to throw home. Basketball has 8 foot rims with smaller balls, junior golfers use knock off clubs.
Competitions themselves are shorter, with 6 inning games, 8 minute quarters for basketball and football, running time for ice hockey. This list could go on for pages. Yes and understand.
Yes, in tennis rackets became much lighter, evolving to aluminum and then to graphite. But still, from the time I was 8 years old, tennis was played with adult rackets on courts with the exact same dimensions as the professionals on television. Again, shorter rackets came in during the 80s.
The USTA changes to junior tennis are not solitary or new. Europe has been using a similar system for a couple years already, with their entry numbers to the sport building nicely. Red balls, orange balls, green dot balls, new court dimensions, new net dimensions.
I would urge you to check with rank and file pros in Spain and Switzerland and Germany and find out what their top 10s are using in practice and competition. I have several friends coaching in Europe and, although this is anecdotal, they paint a different picture.
Sean Hannity, right wing bull dog, USTA critic, frustrated junior coach.
Some pros here in the states who wanted to get involved were confused at first. But really in a couple hours of study they found they knew what they needed to know.
In my opinion, after a month of using the system, any pro with an open mind will see how effective TAUT was in growing the game at the entry level. I agree. I am a huge proponent of graduated learning in all sports and all arts.
However, not everyone shares my opinion, including many visible and influential personalities, among them former Wimbledon finalist Chris Lewit, celebrity tennis dad and coach Wayne Bryan, and bizarrely, Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity, among others.
If you aren't a Fox News fan and you've never heard of Sean Hannity. He is a vicious One man’s vicious is another man’s passionate and patriotic and deeply caring about his country. By the way, his show, Hannity, is one of the top rated shows on television. right wing polemicist, an avid recreational player He actually plays well and support our sport in all kinds of positive ways and his son is a national caliber junior and a terrific young man., and a tennis parent who thinks he should be allowed to coach his son on court during junior tournaments.
By the way, that is the same in high school tennis, college tennis, World Team Tennis, Davis Cup, and Fed Cup. I disagree with Sean on this one point and think for tournaments, kids should be on their own, but in team events, like the ones cited above, I think on court coaching is good for the sport.
The opposition took to the internet to attack. There were multiple wide ranging essays, all with numerous follow ups and rebuttals. Here are a few quotes:
From Wayne Bryan; "I say burn it down and start over again. Carthage must be destroyed."
Ha. The exact phrase was "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam" and it was often delivered during the Roman Empire days by Cato the Elder. I was a History major with a Poli Sci Minor in college and also took Latin for 4 year during High School. I’m not sure what I was referring to in using this phrase, but I’ll bet I had my tongue in my cheek and was attempting to use humor to make a point. Besides my coaching, I also spend a good part of the year emceeing events and fronting my band and you might be surprised that I actually get paid pretty well for being funny.
From Chris Lewis: "The consequences of this dictatorial approach are devastating to player development."
His playing was big time and his coaching is the same and his writing on the various tennis issues is first rate.
From Sean Hannity: "A typical bedrock position of liberal thinking, and a mindset against which I have railed my entire career in broadcasting." I’m guessing you do not agree with his political philosophy, but he is a brilliant and hardworking and generous and kind man. Cool and funny and fun and bet you’d like him if you ever were out on the court with him . . .
The opposition has now moved on to petitions and social media pages. Doomsday language filled with pitchforks and insurrection about the imminent death to our sport at the hands of the evil incarnate USTA. Some of my best friends work with and for the USTA and they are great and dedicated tennis people one and all.
It's a tennis tea party calling for a revolution. The USTA tried to appease these patriots with nationwide listening parties, hoping the movement would lose some steam. Instead they were further empowered.
From personal history I learned Coach Bryan does not always respond well to confrontation.
To me it was crazy and scary. And ok, yes, with some of the protagonists, Coach Bryan in particular, I do have personal history, if I may digress, with a point.
More than a decade ago I played one of his kids in singles, the left handed one. I think most people in tennis would call him Bob and not the “left handed one”. He was 18 and cocky One’s man’s cocky is another man’s confident. Am wondering if you have ever played any other “cocky” or “confident” players in your year playing junior or college tennis? Am wondering if you were like that yourself? I was 32 and grumpy. His son started quick serving me Do Mike and Bob get on with it and only bounce the ball three times and then serve. Yes. Do they run out to position after the change over? Yes. Are they attempting to use sharp practices to “quick serve” an opponent before he has a chance to take his position to return? No. again, and if you have read any of my other pieces on Tennisplayer you can probably guess I didn't respond warmly to that.
When I challenged him, despite the fact that he won the southern California sportsmanship award later that same year Proud to say Mike ‘n Bob have won several junior and pro Sportsmanship Awards - - - the most recent was at the US Open in 2012., he responded with a stream of profane epithets. Sorry to say I do not remember you or that match, Barry. And I will accept your version and apologize. Have Mike or Bob ever used a profane word in a match or practice session in their long junior, college and pro career? Yes, they have. But not very often or on a regular basis. I would humbly submit that most of their opponents through the years would say that Mike and Bob were good sports and good guys. Again, I do not know you or can ever recall seeing you play, but I wonder if your opponents would say the same thing about you? Hoping they would.
But there was more. Bizarrely, the late Wilt Chamberlin was sitting in the front row. To this day I am not sure what his connection was to the Bryan family I do recall seeing Wilt Chamberlain one time at the Racquet Center in North Hollywood and one time at a distance in Hawaii, but never met him and don’t recall Mike and Bob as ever having met him either. What an athlete though. Great in basketball, obviously, but also in track and volleyball. Not sure what Wilt has to do with the U10 Mandate though., but I did note he was rooting loudly and avidly for my opponent. This was around the time he published a memoir claiming to have slept with 10,000 women.
And ok, yes, he did get on my nerves, so I asked him quite loudly "Shouldn't you be getting laid right about now?"
That worked, as he got up and walked to the back of the crowd. That's when Father Bryan jumped in, yelling at me:
"Stop your complaining and get to playing!" In all my years of watching my juniors players or Mike and Bob play, I can recall saying something like that a time or two. And even saying it to Mike and Bob a few times when warranted. It was something I rarely did, however...
To which I elegantly responded: "Who the fuck are you and why are you screaming at me?" I know I never screamed at an opponent. I’m not really a screamer type. And may I be so bold as to say your comment is a little more strident than my “Carthage Must be Destroyed”?
Remember I did say going into the match I was a little grumpy. But to this day Wayne Bryan the only tennis parent I've ever had yell at me at a tennis match. Ha. I hope you’ll send me a plaque or something for that great distinction.
Legend Wilt Chamberlain: the 100 on the card refers to his NBA single game scoring record. In his memoir he added a couple more zeros to a different numerical claim.
A couple of tough sets later, experience triumphed over youth. Winning is always the best attitude adjuster, and suddenly I felt badly for yelling at the famed Coach Bryan. Three paragraphs above you did not know me and at the end of the match you are saying I’m suddenly the “famed” Coach Bryan.
So I called out to him as he was leaving the premises--twice. Not once but twice? But there was no response. Mr. Bryan was not interested in dialogue with someone who challenged him. Maybe we were all hungry and wanted to go eat? Or maybe we were thirsty and wanted to get something to drink? Or maybe I had to go to the bathroom? Perhaps after what you said to me or to Wilt or to Bob, I just didn’t like you or want to talk to you? Or maybe I had no respect for you?
And you know what? That experience sheds a lot of light on how Coach Bryan approaches the TAUT mandate. Nobody in tennis tells him what to do. Yes, I would say that is true. Do I like to meet with coaches and come together to share ideas and coaching methods, yes. Do it all the time. Did a couple of days ago. We just took 235 juniors, adults and parent chaperones to the Davis Cup in San Diego last week and had a fabulous weekend. We had early morning workouts at the picturesque and historic La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club and then hustled over en masse to see the exciting USA vs. Great Britain Davis Cup Matches in the afternoon. We loved seeing the weekend through the wide eyes of those juniors. Another highlight was the 22 coaches coming together to share ideas and games and drills out on court with the kids. And that's the same attitude shared for the most part by his current compatriots. I have a list of several thousand coaches and parents across the country and we exchange ideas regularly. Am I still a student of the game and of coaching and mentoring and parenting? You bet. I try to learn each and every day. Do I have opinions about the growth and direction of the game? Sure. Have I met with USTA President David Haggerty and Kurt Kamperman for two days in Malibu and Camarillo to have a fair and frank discussion of American tennis? You bet. Do I express my views on a host of tennis topics on radio, TV, letters, calls, e mails and in person? Guilty as charged.
Remember now. We are talking strictly about ten and under competition. Really good arguments can be formulated that healthy 8 and 9 year old children should be spending their weekends riding bikes, building tree forts, maybe making up secret passwords. Mike and Bob did all that too, although am not sure about the secret passwords. And that is just fine for those that want to do that. And those kids that are passionate about playing piano or guitar or drums or oboe or want to play golf or tennis or ride horses that is fine too.
They can still play lots of tennis in those developmental years. But if we must lug little Johnny off to the tournament sites a few times a year, let's analyze what that is about. Not sure what you mean by this sentence?
For starters, if you really have a child prodigy, he or she will never play their actual age group. Never have. Never will. Now, I must ask what you mean by a child prodigy here? A Tracy Austin or a Martina Hingis or a Pete Sampras or Michael Chang or Andre Agassi? These are very, very rare players, indeed. The vast majority of juniors, I would submit, should play their own age group. Especially in the U10s!
Anyone who wants to debate what ball average 6 and 7 year old kids should be competing with in tournaments should receive a visit from social services. Again, I say use any colored soft ball you want for 5, 6 or 7 year olds - - - red, green, orange, purple polka dot or nerf balls. All I am saying - - - and, yes, so, so many 9 and 10 year old kids and coaches and parents are saying across this country - - - please allow us to compete against our peers with regular tennis balls on regulation courts in the U10s.
What about kids a little closer to the cut off age of ten? A super-talented 8 or 9 can play up an age group in the 12's and do battle there. Again, see what I have written above about that concept. If you are truly made of champion stock, the jump up should be no problem. It's been this way in junior tennis my whole 40 years of involvement. It's not going to be any different today.
Barry Buss, 1-0 lifetime with the left handed Bryan.
The argument being put forth by the tennis tea party is that somehow, if your child does play a couple dozen matches in the ten and unders with green dot balls, their long term development would be irreversibly damaged. No. We are not saying that. We are just saying, why not allow U10s that want to compete with regular tennis balls be allowed to do so? They do not want to have to jump through the USTA new hoops of the soft balls. If there is a massive demand for green ball tournaments, I say have all you want! Have 52 a year. Send me a note and I’ll contribute to buying trophies and T shirts.
That is a ridiculous argument. The reality is that a young player's future will be determined by their ability to deal with heavy topspin forehands that jump over their heads Yes. Truth be told and from all my observations out on the pro tour today, the ball is much higher in the air than back in the day. Balls are often up around the shoulders. If you are returning second balls off a John Isner or Sam Querrey serve, it is well over your head. Not so bad for young players to learn to deal with all levels of height of tennis balls., biting slices mere inches off the ground, and 125 mph serves to the body. Maybe even a buck forty-five.
Remember now, we are talking strictly about ten and under tennis tournaments. The level of outrage by the tennis community can't be about the teaching system; it actually works quite well for those of us who have taken the trouble to apply it on the courts.
Again, every pro I know is for graduated learning. And, as I said, up at the top, many ol’ pros were sawing off rackets and puncturing balls and lowering nets 50 years ago.
This is all about the mandate and the USTA telling these lifetime elite coaches how to do their jobs. Well, I think that is true. They would rather be rolled over by a ball sweeper than have to submit to a higher authority.
Many feel that the people telling them how to coach have never coached many top players themselves.
And I get their outrage. To a point. Nobody wants to be told what to do when you've spent your whole career doing your own thing and being personally successful at it. Bingo!
But the point to heed here is that autonomy is not sovereignty. The public temper tantrum by the tennis tea party is all about being told what to do in one small area, an area that happens to be critical for the survival of tennis. These guys are having nothing of that and damaging the sport by their opposition. I disagree. I think there are lots and lots of other and better ways to get more kids into our great sport and to get those that are in our sport to stay in it and enjoy it for the rest of their lives. I say that players come from Main Street and not White Plains.
And, Barry, I would be more than happy to meet you over lunch at Coogies in Malibu today to hear more of your views on U10 tennis or any tennis topic. Maybe even hear about your book and your playing and coaching background. My cell phone number is (805) 402-7282 and I’d love to meet you and hear your views and I’d even pay for lunch...
Best and thanks for all you are doing for your players and for tennis each day,
