Tennis players - what is the state of tennis in your area?

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I've been playing since high school and love the game. As with many things my ability to play has waxed and waned, depending upon finances, other responsibilities, etc. I used to drive to one of the cities during the winter to play in a Holiday Tournament and a mixed doubles winter league. It was great fun and I enjoyed it immensely. I was unable to play for a few years (4) but am now able to do it again. I checked out the tennis club website and it's all canceled. No tournament, no leagues, no round robin tennis. There is literally no organized adult tennis during the winter. 

 

I also looked at the USTA Tennislink to find winter tournaments to play in. Wow - the number of adult tournaments has been reduced as well. What few tournaments I could find within a 200 miles radius lump everyone in to an Open category. While I all for playing with players of various levels, I don't like spending money on a tournament only to have top level college players in the same draw. I much prefer the NTRP draws but there are none within the 200 mile radius.

 

It makes me sad and concerned that interest in tennis is diminishing.

 

How is tennis where you are?

 

 

[wintermom]

I play in a mixed doubles league in the winter indoors. I am in Ontario. This is a citywide league open to anyone and no membership at a specific club is required. It's competitive and player self-rank (range from 3.5 - 5.5). Teams are divided into two levels.

 

It's really fun and affordable. Hope you find something for yourself. Perhaps contact a club and ask what is going on now in the area now.

[MysteryJen]

I don't really know about adults in the area, but having a budding tennis player, I can tell you, it is jaw-droppingly expensive here.

[snowbeltmom]

I don't really know about adults in the area, but having a budding tennis player, I can tell you, it is jaw-droppingly expensive here.

 

That's for sure! :svengo:

 

The cost to play tennis as an adult is a fraction of the cost of junior tennis. 

 

Our area has a very vibrant tennis community, both for adults and junior players.

[wintermom]

 

The cost to play tennis as an adult is a fraction of the cost of junior tennis. 

 

 

Where is the extra cost? Is it lessons?  My dc are included in a family membership in our local clubs. Children can then just play, with each other or with parents. Many parents teach their own kids how to play. The cost of lessons is the same for children as it is for adults.

 

If parents don't play tennis, juniors don't have to be club members to take lessons and join programs. 

[MysteryJen]

Well, here a four week class of 4 hours a week is $400. Members are cheaper at $325. Membership for a family is $250 a month and court fees are extra. That is cheap compared to other options. Things are slightly cheaper in the summer, but needing a bubble in the winter is expensive. My dh plays with ds3 whenever he can on public courts when the weather cooperates, but it is not enough to be competitive which is ds3's desire.

Lessons run $50 an hour which frankly is not terrible, but not cheap.

I have never heard anyone say tennis was a reasonably priced sport.

 

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[Granny_Weatherwax]

<snip> Perhaps contact a club and ask what is going on now in the area now.

I did. I live in a small midwest town and the nearest (good) clubs are an hour away. We have an older, poorly maintained facility in town that offers nothing for adults; half of the facility has been converted to multipurpose courts and those are used for volleyball and batting cages. We are lucky to get enough players to fill 2 or 3 tennis courts once a week. We usually run 6-8 players; ages ranging from 30s to 80s. I have 7 players for tomorrow and have been scrambling to find someone to make us 8.

 

After contacting the clubs in the cities -Nothing is going on. Tennis participation is down significantly and almost all organized adult activities have been eliminated. It's so sad. I wonder how much of the decrease is based on our local economy; most of which has not seen recovery or because no one is filling those positions. Both clubs have fewer USTA professionals and I think that hurts registration.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

Well, here a four week class of 4 hours a week is $400. Members are cheaper at $325. Membership for a family is $250 a month and court fees are extra. That is cheap compared to other options. Things are slightly cheaper in the summer, but needing a bubble in the winter is expensive. My dh plays with ds3 whenever he can on public courts when the weather cooperates, but it is not enough to be competitive which is ds3's desire.

Lessons run $50 an hour which frankly is not terrible, but not cheap.

I have never heard anyone say tennis was a reasonably priced sport.

 

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As with most other sports, tennis can be played on the cheap or it can cost hundred or thousands of dollars. Competitive players will have costs that far surpass those of recreational players. In warm months, tennis is cheap. In colder months, if one chooses to play year around, court costs increase the expense dramatically. Even our awful, indoor courts (you have never seen indoor courts this bad, believe me) cost $25 an hour.  

 

Your cost for 16 hours of lessons averages $25 an hour for a non-member; that's not that bad. It's the membership + court fees that drive up costs. 

[Plagefille]

Around here many of the tennis courts have been converted to pickle ball courts. Not sure if that is the trend in other places. I guess pickleball is easier to play, especially for all the retirees we have here.

[happi duck]

Around here it used to be that every town, practically every park in every town, had well maintained courts. Now those courts are gone or unusable.

[snowbeltmom]

Where is the extra cost? Is it lessons?  My dc are included in a family membership in our local clubs. Children can then just play, with each other or with parents. Many parents teach their own kids how to play. The cost of lessons is the same for children as it is for adults.

 

If parents don't play tennis, juniors don't have to be club members to take lessons and join programs. 

I was thinking more along the lines of comparing kids who play in tournaments vs adults who play in leagues.  All of what you wrote as far as costs and club policy is similar to where we live - juniors don't have to belong to a club to take lessons and children are included in a family membership at our local clubs.

 

My perspective is skewed because the kids I know who play tennis are tournament players.  They usually have at least one private lesson a week (at $95/hr), take clinics at least three days a week, and then practice on their own with a hitting partner multiple times per week.  Most parents buy a club membership so their kids can hit on their own outside of clinics and lessons.

 

Then you have the cost of tournaments, which unlike the adult leagues, are not local and involve travel,hotel stays, and eating out.  The cost of entry into the tournament itself is around $75 and up.  My kids are the only ones in their circle of tennis players who have never played in a tournament that required a plane ride to get there.  If we can't drive there (and some of the drives are 8 hrs), my kids don't play the tournament. 

 

Now there are local summer leagues for juniors that are similar to what the adults have year-round.  However, my kids and their peers are not permitted to play in those leagues.

 

 

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I was thinking more along the lines of comparing kids who play in tournaments vs adults who play in leagues.  All of what you wrote as far as costs and club policy is similar to where we live - juniors don't have to belong to a club to take lessons and children are included in a family membership at our local clubs.

 

My perspective is skewed because the kids I know who play tennis are tournament players.  They usually have at least one private lesson a week (at $95/hr), take clinics at least three days a week, and then practice on their own with a hitting partner multiple times per week.  Most parents buy a club membership so their kids can hit on their own outside of clinics and lessons.

 

Then you have the cost of tournaments, which unlike the adult leagues, are not local and involve travel,hotel stays, and eating out.  The cost of entry into the tournament itself is around $75 and up.  My kids are the only ones in their circle of tennis players who have never played in a tournament that required a plane ride to get there.  If we can't drive there (and some of the drives are 8 hrs), my kids don't play the tournament. 

 

Now there are local summer leagues for juniors that are similar to what the adults have year-round.  However, my kids and their peers are not permitted to play in those leagues.

But you can't really compare tournament play to recreational play. That's like comparing kids who play on traveling baseball leagues to adults who play on a community team. They just aren't equivalent. Now, comparing adults and kids who play in tournaments - well, the differences just aren't there; except that youth actually have more tournament play options than adults. In some instances it's like 3:1. I've been looking on USTA Tennislink for tournaments and as soon as I eliminate junior tournaments the options drop off dramatically. There are also more tournaments for men than for women. 

 

When I was in my 30's and my heart was set on being a ranked adult in my state, I had the same expenses as a younger player. I still had to travel but I had to look harder for NTRP sanctioned tournaments. Most of those were in Chicagoland and involved travel and hotel expenses. A weekend tournament could easily cost $400-500 dollars. There were a couple of tournaments that required weekday play; that meant loss of wages plus extra hotel expenses. I did get my state ranking, #1 woman in my division for a whole two months, but I couldn't maintain it due to the expense. It was fun, though, while it lasted.

 

As far as summer leagues that youth can't play - that is how it should be. Most summer leagues are 3.0-4.0 and most junior players who are playing on the tournament circuit are 4.5+.  It's just not feasible to have younger players with higher ratings playing against people who cannot (by age or ability) play at their level; it's no fun for anyone. We don't have this problem in our area. Most junior players are ranked 3.0-3.5 (again, we have no pro or decent indoor facility to encourage younger players to work on competitive tennis); there are some male players who might hit the 4.0 level but those are few and far between.

[snowbeltmom]

But you can't really compare tournament play to recreational play. That's like comparing kids who play on traveling baseball leagues to adults who play on a community team. They just aren't equivalent. Now, comparing adults and kids who play in tournaments - well, the differences just aren't there; except that youth actually have more tournament play options than adults. In some instances it's like 3:1. I've been looking on USTA Tennislink for tournaments and as soon as I eliminate junior tournaments the options drop off dramatically. There are also more tournaments for men than for women.  The cost difference between junior and adult tournament players is huge in my neck of the woods.  Here, the adult players don't have to travel out of the area until they advance to states.  The only time the entire year that they would have to get on a plane is if the team qualified for nationals, which teams from my club do every year.

 

The USTA Tennislink does not have any of our club's USTA Adult teams listed.  The match results are listed, but an adult in our area could not find a team to join using the USTA Tennislink.  Our area has USTA summer leagues and Interclub leagues, Combo leagues, Mix-Doubles leagues, Tennis Start 123 that run during the school year.  None of these opportunities can be found through tennislink.  You have to sign up for a team ahead of time and then the captain registers the entire team for the league.

 

If an adult would not want to play on a team, the opportunities for tournament play are less than they would be for a tournament junior player, but if the adult wants to play on a USTA team, the adult tournament player has way more low-cost opportunities than a tournament junior player would have.

 

When I was in my 30's and my heart was set on being a ranked adult in my state, I had the same expenses as a younger player. I still had to travel but I had to look harder for NTRP sanctioned tournaments. Most of those were in Chicagoland and involved travel and hotel expenses. A weekend tournament could easily cost $400-500 dollars. There were a couple of tournaments that required weekday play; that meant loss of wages plus extra hotel expenses. I did get my state ranking, #1 woman in my division for a whole two months, but I couldn't maintain it due to the expense. It was fun, though, while it lasted.

 

As far as summer leagues that youth can't play - that is how it should be. I agree.  I was just making the point that even in the summer, the options for junior players to compete locally and at a low-cost are not available.  Most summer leagues are 3.0-4.0 and most junior players who are playing on the tournament circuit are 4.5+.  It's just not feasible to have younger players with higher ratings playing against people who cannot (by age or ability) play at their level; it's no fun for anyone. We don't have this problem in our area. Most junior players are ranked 3.0-3.5 (again, we have no pro or decent indoor facility to encourage younger players to work on competitive tennis); there are some male players who might hit the 4.0 level but those are few and far between.

 

Have you looked into playing in a tournament sponsored by Universal Tennis?  If you are looking to play singles, you might have better luck playing in one of their tournaments.  My kids have played in UTR tournaments.  The format is different - players compete against opponents who have the same Universal Tennis Rating, regardless of age or gender.

 

 

[snowbeltmom]

I've been looking on USTA Tennislink for tournaments and as soon as I eliminate junior tournaments the options drop off dramatically. There are also more tournaments for men than for women.

 

Besides Universal Tennis, you might want to ask the folks over at the TennisWarehouse blog for recommendations on where you can find more tennis opportunities in your area.  It obviously is possible that your area simply does not have that much going on, but it is also possible that some of the opportunities may be flying under the radar. 

 

Here is the link: https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php

 

This website has a whole forum dedicated to adult tournament play.  I haven't spent any time on it, but it looks to be pretty active.  Hopefully someone there can help you out.

 

Good luck.  I hope you are able to find something in your area!

 

[wintermom]

I did. I live in a small midwest town and the nearest (good) clubs are an hour away. We have an older, poorly maintained facility in town that offers nothing for adults; half of the facility has been converted to multipurpose courts and those are used for volleyball and batting cages. We are lucky to get enough players to fill 2 or 3 tennis courts once a week. We usually run 6-8 players; ages ranging from 30s to 80s. I have 7 players for tomorrow and have been scrambling to find someone to make us 8.

 

After contacting the clubs in the cities -Nothing is going on. Tennis participation is down significantly and almost all organized adult activities have been eliminated. It's so sad. I wonder how much of the decrease is based on our local economy; most of which has not seen recovery or because no one is filling those positions. Both clubs have fewer USTA professionals and I think that hurts registration.

 

That's too bad. Tennis in our area of Canada seems to be going strong with lots of recreational play for adults of all ages.  I think they are trying to beef up the competitive side, but it's challenging in Canada because of the weather.  It's expensive in the winter as you have to head indoors and pay around $35/hr for courts + membership. Some places you can get away with just court fees (university tennis centre). 

[tampamommy]

Another poster mentioned pickleball...look into it!! The USPBA is growing tremendously and it is not just for seniors! Google the national championships to see what it is like. I have converted from tennis to pickleball in the last several months. Players can be ranked according to ability level, very much like tennis. Our area community center and other tennis venues offer play almost every day at a variety of levels and times.

 

It is loads of fun...and dare I say it, requires way faster reaction time and "touch" than tennis. My tennis pro friend converted about 6 months ago and is now an advanced player. I am about intermediate now, after three months. If you are a good tennis player, you will catch on very quickly. I began as a former tennis player at the novice level, yes -- playing with some older folks. But as you progress, you tend to see a lot of younger and middle-aged players involved. Just don't let the old folks fool you! I played once with an 86-year-old woman who was able to put a wicked spin on the ball that few opponents could touch :) She made up for limited mobility and quickness with her amazing spin. 

 

Finally, there are many leagues and tournaments for pickleball in our area as well, ranging from novice to super advanced.

 

HTH!

[Granny_Weatherwax]

Snowbelt - I see the differences in our thinking and comparisons. Team Tennis is only one aspect of adult play. If an adult does not play team tennis and wants to play tournaments the issues remain, travel and expenses. 

 

Each of the clubs within an hour's drive of where I live only have enough players to field one team for Team Tennis. Those adults have to travel greater than 100 miles each time they play against another team. 

[FaithManor]

Rural here. I played tennis in middle achool way back in the day, but none of th schools here offer tennis anymore. No local clubs either. Dh and I used to play each other for recreation but the closest city park ripped up the tennis courts in order to expand the playground.

 

Friends about 1.5 hrs away in a decent size city have kids playing tennis through the school district.

 

Wages have been stagnant here for several years so people are no longer willing to pay for private lessons. This is true of soccer coaching, swim, and music lessons as well. I do not think there is a piano teacher left in our county.

 

My guess is this an economic/regional issue.

[snowbeltmom]

Snowbelt - I see the differences in our thinking and comparisons. Team Tennis is only one aspect of adult play. If an adult does not play team tennis and wants to play tournaments the issues remain, travel and expenses. 

 

Each of the clubs within an hour's drive of where I live only have enough players to field one team for Team Tennis. Those adults have to travel greater than 100 miles each time they play against another team. 

 

Wow to the bolded.  Yes, your area is much different than my experience. Here, I don't know any adults who play tournament tennis similar to what the juniors play - i.e. mostly individual singles play.  All the adults I know, with the exception of college kids, play team tennis or the occasional UTR tournament.

 

We have 4 tennis clubs within a 30 minute drive of each other ( and twice that number if you want to drive up to 45 minutes away) that have tennis year round.  Many of the clubs have multiple teams at each level from 2.5 up to 5.5.  Our club has broken ground to add 5 more indoor tennis courts to keep up with the demand. 

[Granny_Weatherwax]

Wow to the bolded.  Yes, your area is much different than my experience. Here, I don't know any adults who play tournament tennis similar to what the juniors play - i.e. mostly individual singles play.  All the adults I know, with the exception of college kids, play team tennis or the occasional UTR tournament.

 

We have 4 tennis clubs within a 30 minute drive of each other ( and twice that number if you want to drive up to 45 minutes away) that have tennis year round.  Many of the clubs have multiple teams at each level from 2.5 up to 5.5.  Our club has broken ground to add 5 more indoor tennis courts to keep up with the demand. 

I would give my eyeteeth to be able to play in an area with that many active tennis players. 8 clubs within an hour's drive? OMG, I would be finding partners for daily play! 

 

(now I have tennis envy)

 

This is why I started the thread. I needed(wanted) to know if tennis was flourishing elsewhere. It must be. That makes me happy for tennis in general but sad for my area in particular.

 

Oh well, I've managed to get 8 women together for a round of doubles tonight. I'm hoping nobody cancels as there are no available subs.

[Momling]

Our town has one tennis club which is constantly on the edge of failure. It's been on the market for a while. Local outdoor courts are available but only an option for half the year. As for tournaments, my wife and I play with mostly older ladies on a 3.0 team, but the next nearest team is 4 hours away so it always involves a hotel stay. There are a few local (non team) tournaments too. One is USTA sanctioned and one is a local thing.

 

Privates here are around $50/hr. When I took my daughter to a national tournament in L.A., parents were talking about paying $100-120/ hr. Also one hour clinics are $15 drop in here and were $45 there.

 

Junior tennis is definitely down in our area. 5 out of 6 of the USTA tournaments scheduled this year in our area didn't have enough kids to run. The one that did could only run a round robin draw for 14s and 18s in boys and girls. Bigger cities seem to be doing well but I'd love for there to be more kids for my daughter to play with.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

@Momling - Our area has experienced a huge drop in the number of youth tennis players; it's why our local club (now run by the city) couldn't keep a pro. Tennis cannot compete with soccer, basketball, or Cal Ripkin baseball. I think the issue is that tennis is a different kind of sport which draws a particular type of athlete.

[Momling]

It's true. My daughter gave up trying to find kids her age to hit with. She'll take on anyone who's willing to play with a 12 yr old girl.