Tennistrainer Commentary
Dumbed Down 8's and 10's by the USTA
by
Janice Combs
Another push by the USTA to dumb down American tennis even further by introducing slow balls and foam balls and kiddie short 1/2 courts for tournament play in the 8's and 10's. And to go along with the slow balls, a massive recruitment of slow kids from the schools, receiving free coaching as slow as the balls done with no intention of producing champions, and mediocrity will once again be king. The emphasis will once again be our ol' friend, "fun." They will not learn how to train hard, be shown any real technique, required to do any sports specific exercises for tennis, have any discipline, and therefore the US will have no results. What purpose will this serve? A whole new revenue stream (more inexperienced, beginning kids will be encouraged to pay their entry fees and play "tournaments" and think they can actually play this game with non regulation balls). It is already in place, more free lessons to start the recruitment to "build up tennis in America", which will not happen from this, and you will once again become the pawns in this fruitless endeavor and our nation of tennis players will be further weakened and underachieved.
P R O T E S T
I encourage the protest to include keeping tournaments regular balls and only reserve the optional short half court tournaments for any player between the ages of 4 and 7 years old only and to use real balls for tournament play like they do in Europe. Every club and tennis center should continue to have their have their own 10 and under regular full court, real ball, tennis tournaments.
These slower, orange/yellow, red/yellow, green/yellow balls and foam balls were first designed to give the beginning student a chance to feel the ball, learning topspin and slice. Playing them in the short court with topspin and slice is certainly not a bad idea. These slower and bigger balls should be used as warm-up balls as well as refine the technique of topspin and slice in the short court as well as in the full court, and certainly not be used for tournament balls, because the transition to the 12's would be an utter shock.
