Little League Tennis
A few years ago, I attended a seminar where Patrick McEnroe, director of USTA Player Development at the time, spoke about the future of tennis in the United States. He spoke of the demise of tennis as a youth sport and asked why there wasn’t something like Little League in our sport. The crowd, filled with teaching pros, groaned in response, “There is!” But if the director of Player Development for USTA wasn’t aware of Junior Team Tennis (JTT), how can we expect the general tennis public to know about it?
What JTT means to a player
JTT is a way to get children entering the competitive pathway involved in playing the sport, not just by going to lessons and working on technique. Players are put on teams and are matched up against opponents based on gender and age. Team wins are based on the total amount of games won. As a result, players learn not to give up and that even one game may mean the difference between a team’s win or loss. There are leagues starting from age six all the way to 18 & Under Advanced.
How many times have you entered your child into a tournament only to meet up with the number one seed in the first round? JTT offers competition for beginner, intermediate and the most advanced tournament players which means fair play.
While most sports like football and soccer allow coaches on the field to motivate and support, tennis leaves our youngest players to deal with pressure on their own. JTT allows coaches and teammates to sit courtside, so your child isn’t out on the court alone, but coached and applauded by teammates.
JTT also promotes having volunteer court monitors assisting our youngest players in court positioning, scoring and basic rules.
Competition for JTT is local, usually no more than 30 minutes away from your home club, and matches are no more than two hours a day, one day a weekend. A player signing up for a team can play one time a month or every weekend.
Like Little League, youth soccer and football, parents are recruited to act as team managers. No prior tennis playing experience is required, just organization and a desire to be a part of your child’s tennis journey. Tennis can be a lonely sport. But with JTT, you can lose your match and still walk away a winner. Tennis is now not so lonely because you are part of a team.
At the end of the local season, JTT offers a championship playoff. Teams travel together to compete against other teams from their Region and can advance to a Sectional and even perhaps a National Championship. This is the highlight of the season for some teams. The whole family gets involved in the competition, making banners, coordinating picnics and other off-court activities.
JTT teams can advance to championships or the league can stay local. There are even programs running that piggyback instruction with competitive team play.
How does Junior Team Tennis benefit the professional instructor?
About 10 years ago, I had just started working at a new club. One of the other pros at the club asked me if I would be interested in volunteering to manage a JTT team. My first thought was: Volunteer? I am a tennis pro and people need to pay for my time! But on the other hand, my students were only taking tennis lessons once a week and never playing matches. So I decided to give it a try.
What happened next was something I never expected. Junior Team Tennis brought breathe to a good program and made it great! Players who were taking clinics once a week now were registering for two times a week and asking their parents to schedule private lessons. To find a local JTT program, a parent will sometimes contact the local USTA service rep or a JTT coordinator. They will supply a list of teams that offer Junior Team Tennis in the player’s area. When a parent called my club asking about JTT, I would schedule evaluations during clinic times and next thing you know, “Voila! New players for our program!”
But what about the volunteer part? Now I was so busy, how was I to handle managing a team? That’s where the team manager/volunteer parent part comes in. Take advantage of that “helicopter parent” who is always hovering around. They are dying to become involved in their child’s development. I am always there to help assist in recruiting new players for the team or to find a substitute player, but the team manager/team parent is the one who accompanies the team to away matches and communicating scheduling with the other team parents.
What JTT means for the provider
To help players learn to play doubles and work on strategy, I decided to start scheduling team practices. Team practices are now a great source of income not only for me, but my club. Team practices and JTT matches help to fill court inventory that might otherwise go unsold. JTT contracts to use courts for the entire season. In the fall and spring when adult players are still playing outdoors? No problem … JTT is filling courts every weekend. JTT doesn’t take away court time, it fills those courts that are the hardest to sell like on a Saturday evening. JTT only requires a minimum of two courts, for two hours per week, per home team.
And during the summer months, JTT was an additional program offered by the club to enhance programming. After training, we would visit other clubs and compete. Sometimes, the kids got to go swimming at the clubs they visited and started socializing with their opponents. As a result, when travelling to tournaments far away from their local club, they ran into friends instead of a stranger across the net.
What about the fact that JTT will promote my players travelling to other clubs? Won’t other clubs “steal” my players? In fact, more often than not, Junior Team Tennis kept players at my club because they didn’t want to leave their teammates who they had built a bond with. I found that Junior Team Tennis took that tennis player who was just trying the sport to a whole new level.
Maybe JTT doesn’t have all the answers. But I personally have worn all three hats that I speak of, including a team parent, and JTT has given a place for my children and students to compete on a weekly basis, make friends and learn to love the sport. JTT has helped me increase my business, and maintain and bring new clients to my facility.
Tennis, unlike other sports, allows your child to play every point. No longer are they put in the outfield or sitting on the bench when the other kids are competing. JTT doesn’t just send your kid to a lesson, it gets them in the game!
For more information about Junior Team Tennis, contact your local USTA service rep.
