USTA - Heal Thyself
By: J.D. Davila
In this past month's issue of "Tennis" magazine, there was an article on the NTRP rating system and the system that came before it. The article, I thought when I first the title, was going to be about the problems with sandbaggers and how the USTA was going to solve this issue. After reading the article, I was not only disappointed...I was offended. How dumb does the USTA think the public is to try to soothe over the issue of the thousands of complaints from sandbaggers they have had by complaining (kind of) about it in their own magazine?!? For those of you that don't participate in USTA league tennis, I will break down the problems for you.
The main issue are the numerous sandbaggers which have recently risen to alarming rates. Usually what happens is that you will have some league captain that wants to win at any cost and they will talk a player to play at a much lower level than they are capable of playing. For example, you would have a male tennis player that should be rated (according to the "ify" NTRP rating system) as a 4.0 or above self rating themselves as a 3.5 and playing a league down. This would be like having a professional football running back playing high school.
What's the big deal, if everybody else is doing it? Well, besides being dishonest? According to the USTA's own statistics, there are about half a million new players each year. Although I don't think you can accurately see how many new players there are each year by the sales of tennis balls at Target, Wal-Mart, and Academy...but that's just me. Unfortunately for the USTA, the same number of tennis players STOP playing tennis each year. And, what makes it so alarming is that a quarter of those playing USTA league for the first time, quit within their very first season.
So, how did this come about? Well, the USTA used to have people that were accredited and they would see you play and they would give you an accurate NTRP rating. However, big money talks and they would decide to run it...in a word..."corporately". So, the self rating began. Now they could save all that money by having the players rate themselves. After all, tennis is based on honesty with everyone calling their own lines, right? I think we all know a player (or three) that calls the lines a little bit too close, don't we? Tennis was founded as a gentleman's game, right? Pfft! I think we all know someone who has "assaulted" someone with an overhead on purpose, don't we? Obviously, it is not about what is best for the sport, but what is best for the USTA monetarily. I would think that with so many people quitting without even finishing a season and not renewing their memberships, the USTA would wake up and go back to having a certified USTA official rate the players.
Ok, so back to their article. In their article they had this sad story about how the NTRP system was the lesser of two evils and how it won over another system. Boo Hoo! Don't expect me to feel sorry for the USTA when I see families getting into arguments with teams because the opposing captain had some sandbagger beating the crud out of their sister or mother. Tennis did start out as a game for the more intellectual, but it has made itself readily available now to "thug mentality"...the "win at any cost" thinking. What's worse is that these people don't actually see how ugly it looks to those on the outside that had maybe considered playing tennis at one time.
It's my opinion that the USTA's lacksadaisical attitude on the issue (especially since they make it so confusing to complain about a sandbagger) is driving people away from tennis. Oh, sure, they keep track of all the people they turn on to the sport; but who's keeping track of the people they turn off?
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