Ten USTA League Changes I'd Like To See

USTA Leagues in all forms has long since obliterated Adult tournament tennis.  There has been a steady decline in tournament play as the proliferation of league tennis has exploded to incorporate the entire calendar year.

However, the over-saturation of USTA league is not the only part of league tennis that, in my opinion, should be addressed at the national/state/local levels.  Below are a list of ten changes I'd like to see in USTA League Tennis, to both improve the overall product, and compliment other parts of the game.

1) Eliminate the 40 & over Leagues

Your rating determines your playing ability.  Age is but one minor factor in determining that level.  By having yet another age denomination that counts towards your rating, NTRP ratings get more skewed than they already are with senior league matches counting.  The whole point of the NTRP is that your age has zero effect on the result of the match.  If you are 70 and cannot win at 3.5 adult league, then you are not a 3.5.  You are likely a 3.0.

It is normal for a player's skill level to decline as they advance in age, because their athleticism wanes and the ability to move decreases.  The age divisions eliminate this from being factored in to your ability level, thus skewing everyone's results.  I understand someone's desire to keep their 3.5 rating well into their 50s and 60s.  However, at some point we all must face the facts that we just aren't the same player we were in our 30s and 40s.  We have to play a level or two down to remain competitive.

Another solution to the skewed ratings would be to not have the age division ratings count toward your rating at all, or have them ONLY count within your age division.  If you played normal 18 and up Adult league, that would be the true standard of playing level, and if one played 18 and up AND the age division leagues, ONLY the 18 & up would count toward the rating.

2) Shorten the League Season(s)
Shorten the league seasons to September through November and March through May.  Combine all the Adult/Age division Leagues in the spring, and have combo and mixed doubles in the fall.  All sectional and national events must also be played within these windows.  The remaining windows (December-February, and June-August) are used to promote TOURNAMENT USTA tennis, as well as encourage players to utilize those off segments for game improvement classes.  I think players will get better more quickly, and tournaments can schedule events without fear of league conflicts.

3) Get rid of the "Mixed Only and Tournament Only" rating
Why give someone a computer generated rating that doesn't count when they play adult league?  If you are adamant that  mixed doubles should have zero effect on one's rating, then simply don't count them, and leave self-rated individuals as self-rated.  Too many times players receive a mixed only or tournament only rating, only to play USTA adult league, and get disqualified, which screws everyone up.  Either mixed doubles and tournaments count, or they don't, no gray areas necessary.

4) Make National and Sectional League Events FREE to every competitor.
Frankly, since you pay your CEO $9 million a year, it is clear your non-profit is rolling in the dough.  Help the people that help you make enormous sums of money, by making the sectional and national events FREE.   Participants already have to pay for hotel and food and travel, at least make the events no charge. 

5) Every State should have the identical rules for Combo
Some states allow a 1.5 level difference while others require a .5 difference. I believe the structure should be a 1.5 level difference in Florida.  Southern section uses this format.

What this would mean is that for a hypothetical 7.5 combo team, you could have a 4.5 and a 3.0 play together.  While some may scoff at that, I will submit that our current format allows a 3.0 to play with a 3.5 in 7.5 combo despite their combined rating being an entire level below. 

If the goal is competitive matches, then we must either allow the 1.5 level differential or restrict registration to combo leagues to specific levels - ie 3.0 and 3.5 ONLY for 6.5, 3.5 and 4.0 ONLY for 7.5 etc.

6) Mandate that local leagues must be played on the same surface as the sectional and National events

Surface consistency would be a great thing.  It is silly to have a local league that is played on clay, when the sectionals are played on hard.  Simply alternate each year between men and women with the surface.  So if, for example, in 2014 women's' 3.0 is on hard for all league competition, and men's  3.0 is on clay for all league competition, then in 2015 the women get clay and the men get hard.   I understand that in some locales clay is not an option, but in places like Tallahassee where you have options, keeping things consistent would benefit our winners when they go to the next level.  There is a reason each major at the pro level has a warm up series of events on the SAME surface.  USTA leagues, were possible, should follow that example.

The sectional level events should be identical to the National level events as far as surface as well.

7) Reduce warm-up time to 5 minutes in local leagues.
I played in the District tournament for 4.5 four years ago.  The officials give you 5 minutes.  Here at the local level your "time" that is allotted for your match is essentially 1.5 hours.  If you warm-up, as some do, for 15-20 minutes, there is no way on God's green earth you will finish in 1.5 hours from the time you walk on court.  It just isn't mathematically possible.  The 5 min warm-up should be strictly enforced by simply have someone from each time starting a timer on each court when you hit the first ball.  When the alarm goes off you must begin play.

Another solution to this problem, which invariably pushes the matches of the second league group coming to the facility, is to ask for 2 hr blocks of time, which would allow the league coordinator to actually schedule the matches in a more time efficient manner, where fewer people would have to wait 30 minutes to an hour for their court to open up.  Of course this would increase your league fees by 33%.  Right now, everyone is paying for 1.5 hours despite playing much much longer than that.

8) Use Tom Brown Park and Winthrop Court more for non-senior (18 and up, 40 and up) leagues

Most people, I believe, are extremely neurotic when it comes to planning and knowing what time to set aside each week for their tennis.  Having worked at the front desks at Forestmeadows as well as in my time at William & Mary, I can tell you that people HATE when they can't get a court at the time they normally play.  It's like someone shot their dog, or perhaps it more closely resembles how one might react to an imminent apocalypse.

My point is people like to know that their league is a 6.  Not 6 one week, 730 the next, etc.  Mixed doubles in the past has had matches at either 5:30, 6, 7:00, 7:30,or 8:30.  And you could be playing at all of those times during the course of the league.  Hard to have a life that way.

The issue in the past has been not using the hard courts that the city has around town to offer.  Sure, most people want clay courts, but people also like consistency in scheduling times.  You love it for personal reservations, why wouldn't you love it for your once or twice a week league play?  Of course you would.  Easier to get a babysitter every Tuesday at 7, or every Friday at 6, rather than trying to lineup babysitters for a different time every Friday night.  I don't even have kids, and that sounds exhausting.

In order to make the usage of clay courts fair, simply rotate teams around so every team (to the best of the coordinator's ability) plays on clay the same number of times, while playing on hard courts at Tom Brown or Winthrop for the other matches.  Understandably, this may not be logistically possible for adult league, but it is feasible for mixed doubles on Friday nights.  After all, with only 3 courts needed per match, you have 12 at Tom Brown and 6 at Winthrop which gives you 6 mixed matches at every time slot in addition to the 12 clay courts you currently use at Forestmeadows. That means at any time slot, you can schedule 10 mixed matches.  Just food for thought.

9) USTA National should have an online match lineup app that takes the player inputs from the captains, and then spits out the line-ups based on STRENGTH.

This would be very easy for USTA to come up with, they already have everyone's dynamic NTRP ratings in their computer database (which you are not allowed to see).   A captain would input their lineup, designating who is playing singles, and who are doubles partners.  The program could then do an instant comparison and list who your #1, and #2 singles players are for the match based on strength, as well as compare all 3 doubles teams and rank them 1,2,3 based on strength.  This would have three effects.

First, every team match would be strength vs strength, the same way a college match is strength vs strength.  Second, the practice of "sacrificing" would be eliminated.  Third, you would always have the most competitively possible matches based on players' actual dynamic ratings.   No more gamesmanship lineup garbage?  I think that's a big plus.

10) Eliminate a player's ability to appeal their computer generated rating

There are two reasons this should be done away with.  One, either you believe in your system or you don't.  Two, when you grant an appeal to play down a level, their rating is NOT a computer rating, and the person is subject to the three strikes and you're out policy.  This by its very nature is unfair both to the player, their team, and the teams that play them.

Essentially, even if a player is injured, they have the choice to play at their computer generated level, sit out a season to heal if necessary, and let the system adjust their rating based on results.  Anytime you are adjusting ratings based on emotion, you are looking for trouble.