‘Wake up’ to the ‘exodus’ from Tennis
View(s):Between the starting block and the finishing line of being a good Tennis player, the world over, numbers that vanish into thin air are in the thousands. Nothing seems to challenge Tennis players more today than trying to remain as a recreational player or as a competitor, regardless where one lives. From owning a racquet, getting a court, finding partners, buying good balls, getting access to facilities with convenience and an inviting place to play, have become difficult in most countries. Tennis ‘availability’ is an issue that remains ‘unidentified’ even to address it seriously, hence the massive player exodus.
This has also hit Sri Lanka very hard. As for the number of Tennis courts are concerned in our island, be happy if the count goes to one hundred in the entire island. This count went past 350 in the sixties and even the rest house keeper was a Tennis player. Right now, parents are paying prime money and players are investing prime time of their youth only to say ‘good-bye’ too soon well before being a player. The institution that maintained Tennis courts in Sri Lanka were the Tennis-clubs. The sustaining aspect of any club is the strength of the playing membership. Too many issues have appeared and the participatory players walked away making clubs lose their strength to be functional. The attraction of team-sport is the events. Likewise, in individual sport as Tennis the attraction is participation. The core of the issue lies in the availability and opportunity to participate. All the supporting mechanics has been altered towards commercial interest. Today we face a possibility of losing Tennis in this county and may happen pretty soon. This is perhaps the main reason behind the low Tennis standard we have.
Tennis standard
In the recent Under 14 international event in Colombo, local players did badly but we often claim of having young players in the thousands. One past player stated that ‘our players’ did not know where the ball was, in this junior international event! Maybe a little exaggerated but he revealed our under 14 standard. Lack of courts and players is hindering match practice. When it comes to Open-Tennis, our challenge is even a bigger one. Open Tennis is now professional and it is an ATP and WTA affair. They are not tolerant to low playing standards. Bringing their events into our island to popularise Tennis would depend on three aspects – being attractive to world ranked players; ATP and WTA points availability; and dollar prize money. It is a little out of reach for us now.
‘Play and Stay” and ‘ITN number’
Exodus from Tennis being a global phenomenon, the International Tennis Federation [ITF] has been conducting a programme called ‘Play and Stay’ for some years. ITF openly admits ‘Tennis is bad at keeping players’. They have researched and identified the reason for the exodus from Tennis. To change this trend ITF has gone to the extent of borrowing ideas from other sports, where player participation is very high. The ‘ITN number’ a global system, was introduced to Tennis by ITF. It is an equivalent of Golf’s handy-cap system. The idea is for players to find suitable partners using the ITN number system as a guide. From what I know its effect is questionable.
Universal approach of learning
Tennis is like the guitar. It is easy to play, very difficult to master. ITF tried another system to overcome this and it came from Football. Football is introduced to the world using the Universal-system- that is to play without the teaching or coaching process. In USA Basketball used this system and registered tremendous success. In the same way Tennis can be played with the normal coordination ability we use in daily living. ITF wants to exploit this advantage and make players ‘serve and rally’ to enter and stay in Tennis, that is playing Tennis for fun first. It means the tedious technical perfection is eliminated. Excellence in the game is being dropped in favour of fun and simplicity. Its success in Tennis has not been significant because unlike Football and Basketball, Tennis needs a prepared surface and it restricts the number to four per court at a time.
The white-sport
The cost of playing Tennis has always been very high. In Europe even today, it is called a ‘white-sport’ not because of the dress code it had earlier but for the cost to play Tennis. If the surface is clay, it is labour intensive. The Grass court could be used only about 4 hours a week! No doubt we hardly see grass courts. To overcome this cost issue, Hard courts were made and that made more people stop Tennis than start due to the strain it induces to the hip and knees. Unfortunately Hard-courts are very expensive to create and maintain in the tropics.
Cost of Tennis certainly contributes to the exodus. The clubs cannot survive on the membership fees to meet these levels of costs. Tennis is a ‘white-sport’ and running ‘clubs’ have become ‘white-elephants’. This has turned clubs to Tennis-schools and this is disturbing the ITF idea of ‘play and stay’ as tennis schools occupy courts at prime time. Cost must be felt by many. I know of juniors seeking sponsorship just-to-play-Tennis! All these means ‘Play and stay’ in Tennis is a ‘Catch 22’ situation for many.
Court design and Multi division events
Some thought will have to be directed to courts and court design. We are far behind in time, in this aspect. Sun, rain and light will have to be given prime consideration in court designs.
‘Multi-Division’ based competitions integrate players of all ages and make players to stay in the game longer. Multi division means junior under-18 and the Open-events should be in three divisions. Multi Division junior approach will keep players in Tennis easily for 10 years. This means ‘skill’ and ‘maturity’ both get addressed. In Sri Lanka, organised junior development programmes have been with us for the last 30 years in an unprecedented intensity and this has cheated us more than anything else in sports development. Age group approach isolates players from being a part of the Tennis community and this too has contributed to the exodus from Tennis.
Time for a wake-up call
Every activity when left unattended stalls after some time. This has happened to our Tennis. Given the history Sri Lanka had to face in recent times, I am not fair with the demands I state. The issue is the record we have created. We do not have a player in a reputed ranking, we do not have the numbers in ‘Open-Tennis’ events as we used to have. Looking from every angle it is fair to ask, Is Tennis available to us?
Our Tennis was of a much higher standard not very long ago. I am yet to hear the badly needed ‘wakeup call’ to turn our Tennis around. What we see in many countries like ours can be named as the ‘carry-on’ series. I hope, what these countries have now is not the last chapter of the series, for Tennis.
* George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, ITF and USPTR; National, Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach–gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com