Usually around this time of year I deliver a Xmas post on this site, in fact in 2015 I did and it received 436 hits, to be precise.
Not sure why, it wasn't controversial, I simply stated some facts.
In 2018 , December 25 I will state some facts about the sport of tennis that I have accumulated in my silly mind over 35 years of playing and coaching the sport.
Firstly;
Tennis is still grossly over priced, $80 per hour now seems the 'norm' to learn a sport that will take hours, weeks, months, years to learn and that's just the hitting side of tennis.
Learning how to play the game, well that's a whole different story, how much money do you have ?
Tennis is a 'caged' sport, you have to pay to play it, nothing in tennis is free, good luck finding an unlocked, free tennis court to have a hit on, 9 times outs ten, well, you will have to pay to play.
When's the last time you saw an unlocked tennis club ?
Throw a basketball at the local park, it's cheaper.
Most do.
Decision making at the top end of the scale leaves a lot to be desired whether it be with funding issues of players who apparently are too 'poor' to pay for their own court hire or the Davis Cup selection Committee who couldn't pick a winning team if their lives depended on it.
The Governing Body of Tennis in this Country require a good dose of common sense and a cap on what they dish out to players who don't need the contents of the dish, so to speak.
Comedy routine.
Acknowledgement from certain people who own certain jobs in tennis in the Land of Oz that their job is made easy through the hard work of others, but hey, that's tennis in a nutshell isn't it ?
Yep, it'll never happen.
A cap on a Tennis Coach's Club Court hire so that 'reasonable' cost may be handed down to people who in fact wish to not only take up the game but continue to learn it at an affordable price.
Hahaha.
An hourly rate to learn the sport which is in relation to the 'Coach's' credentials.
In other words, if a 'Coach' of 5 minutes is new to the sport then how are they allowed to charge the same as a real Coach of say 25 years ?
Well, that's tennis in the Land of Oz, a free for all, yet no one asks any questions, they just pay a lot of money and hope it works.
Hard work learning tennis in the Land of Oz.
Did I mention it's expensive ?
No more 'Mickey Mouse' decisions as far as appointing Club Coaches who are not in fact doing the lessons on a regular basis.
In other words, if a Club Coach signs a piece of paper to say that they are in fact the Club Coach and do not deliver the lessons ( you know the story, a young kid turns up in place of the guy who said he would do the job yet the public still pay the same amount to 'LEARN" the game ) well I believe that Club should send the Coach a letter explaining the facts;
'Hey Coach, weren't you supposed to be doing the lessons.............'?? Explain yourself please.......
It'll never happen, trust me.
Look, we could go on but it's almost the Australian Summer of Tennis so let's finish this post with the obvious, as there will be plenty of things to write about over the next 6 weeks, no doubt about it.
Open the Coaching Circus to ALL COACHING PROVIDERS and NOT just Tennis Australia.
In other words allow the AATC ( Australasian Academy of Tennis Coaches ) plus the ATPCA ( Australian Tennis Professional Coaches Association ) to EXIST, as for those of you who are not up with it all in the Land of Oz, it's like this ;
Tennis Australia will not RECOGNIZE any accreditation of a Tennis Coach in this Country unless it is a TA accreditation.
Interesting.
With tennis 'success' in this Country which is as rare as rocking horse shit, it should be open to anyone who can teach the sport with half an ounce of tennis intelligence as far as 'credentials' are concerned to actually find this Country a winner or two.
Kyrgios is our best chance currently as we all know however as we also all know, he's a nutter, we need someone other than a nutter to rely on to win the big ones on the World stage.
You never know, the ATPCA or the AATC may just own a program or two that may own some merit yet you will have to be a part of TA if you want a few bucks to fund your travel plans plus be a part of one of their programs if you want any help whatsoever, cos they know best.
Just ask em.
Funny sport tennis, run by funny people, particularly in the Land of Oz.
Deck the halls......
Merry Xmas.
Regards GT
No comments:
Post a Comment