10 The Best Table Tennis Player Of All Time

The Best Table Tennis Player Of All Time in 2023

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Prepare Your Junior Players for Tennis Competition

Properly preparing juniors for sanctioned tournaments isn’t just about strokes and strategy. To stay interested and involved, they need to know the rules, regulations, and procedures.

As tennis teachers, coaches, and programmers, not many hurdles (besides inclement weather postponing our programs) fill us with more dread than a player putting down his racquet and walking away from the game due to a misunderstanding or incorrect assumption regarding competitive play.

Think about it: You or a facility employee recruited a junior, encouraged him to enroll in beginner classes, followed by private lessons, a season of United States Tennis Association (USTA) Jr. Team Tennis and some group classes. Then, he registers for his first USTA sanctioned event. During the tournament, he's uncertain about how to handle procedures: the proper check-in process, incorrect line calls, the length of event, or the 15-minute default rule. He ends up forfeiting a match after arriving 16 minutes late. His score, "Default No Show" was posted on the Internet for everyone to see. How embarrassing is that?

Now, he says, he hates tennis.

Tennis competition, especially USTA sanctioned events, come with a truckload of rules and regulations. It's a lot for a beginner competitor to take in. So, who's responsible for ensuring junior players are prepared?

Ultimately, the player himself bears the brunt of accountability. However, as a facility manager, program coordinator, tournament director or teaching professional, you have the power to cultivate the passion for tennis competition in the hearts of your junior players - and you can help ensure they're prepared for competition.

After all, moving kids from on-court lessons to competitive play benefits you and your facility through increased program participation, more lessons for your coaches, traffic for recreational play and purchases from your pro shop. However, if novice players sign up for events unprepared, all that hard work you spent on recruiting and retention can go straight out the window. An unpleasant first tournament experience can result in player injury, low self-esteem, or worse, leaving tennis altogether.

So, what can we do to help our junior players? Plenty.

Know your players:

Some juniors have tougher skin and can handle the baptism by fire approach when it comes to tournament competition. However, many children may be too sensitive to deal with these situations early on. You need to be able to gauge player toughness. Or better yet, let parents know some of the expected pitfalls. Ask them, "You know your child; how do you anticipate your child will react when confronted with these hurdles?"

Get your entire tennis facility involved:

Embrace the "it takes a village" philosophy to tournament preparation. Each staff member should be familiar with basic questions that both parents of novice competitors and the kids themselves will typically ask. When part-time employees don't know an answer, they should (at least) know where to direct specific questions. Recruiting your entire facility to help out means you'll score points for customer service and you'll hit the jackpot when it comes to retention and referrals.

Encourage your coaches to become more involved:

"Parents and players appreciate when I teach more than the strokes," says Sarah Witherspoon, a PTR certified teaching professional at the John Drew Smith Tennis Center in Macon, Ga. "I tell all my students, 'Stay hydrated, watch what you eat, get plenty of rest.' I let them know tournament formats may require three matches in one day - more if they sign up for doubles. When I warn them in advance, there are no surprises."

Post FAQs:

For better results, post frequently asked questions on your website for parents and players, behind the front desk for all employees and on the bulletin board for everyone. If you provide literature for your brand-new players, include a Tournament Preparation sheet along with your welcome packet.

Talk to the experts:

It's not just novice players who have questions; juniors climbing the ranking ladder need help, too. For this group, Rick Davison, USTA Georgia's Director of Adult and Junior Competition, says, "Remind parents to utilize their district offices as resource centers for qualifying tournaments and ranking points. Many parents receive misinformation through other parents. Never assume a parent of a competing child has all the answers."

Host a forum:

Educating new parents and players is on ongoing process. Why not hold several forums on a seasonal basis?

Paul Tobin, head men's and women's tennis coach for Saint Francis University and ITA northeastern rep in Loretto, Pa., says, "Invite a guest speaker along with local area coaches."

Hosting forums provides parents with an opportunity to become tournament savvy.

"Have one for novice players," suggests Tobin, "and another for advanced players where college coaches are invited. Who better than a college tennis coach can paint a clear picture of NCAA tennis expectations?"

The competition prep forum not only boasts faculty exposure, it gives parents an opportunity to fully understand the tournament structure while providing a chance to ask questions pertinent to them and their situations.

When you help prepare your beginners for tournaments, you not only develop stronger loyalties between them and their families, you keep them in the game and coming back to your courts for lessons and leagues, and into your pro shop for racquet stringing and tennis apparel.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wrote the original article and did the interviewing..