Where is player Development in the USA

Tennis over the years has turned more into industry than player development system. It is not very difficult to find the tennis programs for your kids these days. Tennis academies are all over the place. What is difficult is finding the right training program for your child. If we are talking about developing player in my opinion the tennis academy’s are probably the last place you want to stick your child in. people who run such places are interested more about having the programs packed up with players then actually working and developing kids game. If they convince you otherwise they did a great job of selling their product to you.

What draws most people to the academies is a few good players who train there. People think that if a top junior works out in particular academy that is the place for their kids as well. Usually less ranked played end up getting lost in the shuffle after a few weeks of training. All the attention they get in the first few weeks quickly fades and the attention shifts to another player academy is trying to recruit that particular week. Cycle goes on player come and go and that is how these places stay busy.

I don’t blame these places for getting as many kids as possible. At the end of the day like any other business they are trying to make as much profit as they can. All the academies function is such a way, from most known one to less known ones. Their reputation is built on a few good player they have training in there, or some players that have come through there over the years. Let's be real for a second if a top ranked player who is 15 years of age walks into an academy and start training there. And for some reason he becomes successful professional player, people should ask themselves one question. Who worked with this player before he was 15 years old? I can tell you one thing academy had nothing to do with teaching and giving this player tool to win matches. Development of the player went on long before he walked into some fancy place. Parents should look and find out who gave this player skills and tools to win matches before he stepped foot in the academy.