At the grass roots of British tennis, there is very little competition. Tennis is not played as a competitive sport but as a leisure activity, there to provide some gentle recreation.
When people turn up at clubs, they are invited to join in with this recreational tennis. Most people can get by at this standard with no training or technique. And most people never bother to improve.
Other sports aren’t run this way.
If you want to play for the village football or cricket team, you have to be good enough, you have to go to a few training sessions, but you also have the prospect of playing real matches. When people play football and cricket, they play matches in a league structure. A huge percentage of tennis players never take part in competition.
This has a knock on effect on the juniors. If the adults in the club aren’t involved in competitive play and keen to improve their game, the juniors will take cues from this. There will be less competitive play for the juniors to step up to. The will see tennis as a leisure activity, and the competitive among them will look for other challenges.
What we need is far more competitive tennis at every level, so that even complete beginners are thrown into situations where they have to win and lose. If they want to win, they will need to learn some strokes and improve. The whole game will benefit.
This needs to start with the LTA. The LTA should be organising competitions open not just to the elite or to those who chase down competitive situations. The LTA should be going out to the clubs and pestering them to enter more teams and individuals into competitions. There should be competitions everywhere, not just for juniors but for adults and seniors too. Not just for the promising elite but also for complete beginners.
And there should be a series of national competitions open to every tennis player in the country. Imagine a men’s singles tournament that, like the FA Cup in football, starts at the grass roots level. Everyone in the club could play. Better players, with rankings, could join the tournament as it went along, in later rounds. Even the most hapless tennis player could play, and would be much more interested in the final result as a consequence.
There should be competitions to play in every month, every week. There should be competition everywhere.
