Steven retweeted a very interesting article from Simon Briggs at the Telegraph on the new structure at the LTA.

Effectively focus on junior tennis

Aim is to develop juniors through very tough boot camps at Roehampton

No direct funding for players unless ranked 150 or less bar Kyle Edmund

Top male juniors coached under Leon Smith at Nottingham

Lots of HPCs to have funding cut

LTA Coaches to go on 3 day trips around country rather than occasional day trips

New regime at executive level

Some of it certainly makes some sense, and reading the article, his heart seems to be in the right place (completely shaking up the dinosaur of blazer-LTA tennis). The funding comment seemed bizarre though - why would you directly fund players in the top 150 ? It's only there that you can actually start to earn a decent living from tennis . . . not saying that you should necessarily fund the lower level players but Heather and Andy and whoever most certainly don;t need direct funding.

Anyway, good luck to him - i still don;t think that using those glorious resources just for half-term junior tennis camps is the right way to go (although tough half-term junior tennis camps is a good idea). Bit one step at a time - you can't change Rome in a day . . .

It might be semantics though, in terms of what "direct funding" is? Perhaps that effectively means money dumped in your bank account?. Could it be that other plays get 'indirect' funding, in terms of subsidies, or assistance with certain expenses, availability of certain things for free. And then there's the bonus system.

There was some talk about % of prize money coming back into the system for players receiving assistance wasn't there, or did I make that up and it was just something that was being floated around as a possible idea?

The list of people being backed to hilt based on early promise to the exclusion of assisting a wider base pool includes a huge number of players of both sexes who barely made the top 500, if that. It's a shame this regime intends to continue that 'them and us' approach, even if only for one or two people.

Thing with Kyle is, who knows if it's a chicken or an egg situation.  Did he stand out from the ranks because he had special treatment, or has he deserved the special treatment because he's such a stand-out?  I suspect it's a bit of both.  Even as a real youngster he's always had good light footwork, a fairly settled temperament and a good athletic physique, all things which perhaps made him stand out a bit.  However, having his own coach in Colin B, plenty of wildcards and seemingly no other stone unturned to ensure his success must have propelled him upwards faster than his peers.

I do wonder (whilst not wishing to upset Kyle supporters!) whether the relative plateau he has hit this year reflects the fact that the benefits of special treatment are less noticeable the higher up you go.

With regards to the LTA, I like the sound of the changes.  If Bob B can inject a bit of rigour into our juniors it can only help.  I've seen performance sessions at quite a few HPCs and, with one or two noticeable (and wonderful) exceptions, it all seems a bit too 'comfortable'.  Nothing wrong with them but no real feeling of intensity or kids busting a gut to push their personal bar upwards.  This is not to suggest that the kids are lazy, rather that the structure of the sessions is insufficiently demanding.

As everyone here knows, I am a huge Kyle fan (mainly because my middle name is Edmund - LOL) but even I find it hard to understand the logic behind the "exception" to the system. What is even harder to understand, is the logic behind publicising that fact and it leaves me to wonder if some "journalistic licence" has been used which doesn't truly reflect the entire situation. Perhaps as has been suggested, the others are still receiving some funding but in a more indirect way.

I sincerely hope that this situation doesn't lead to any animosity amongst other players where Kyle is concerned and I am also concerned that the "all the eggs in one basket" scenario, (if that is truly the case) might just heap even more pressure on Kyle to be the "next big thing". None of this however, is Kyle's fault of course and I believe he is level headed enough just to focus on the job in hand.

As with regard to his progress this year, whilst it is true to say his results haven't been stellar, he has still risen 130+ places in the rankings and has nothing to defend for the next three months following his illness at this time last year. Hopefully he will rise even higher by the end of the year. It seems he is off to play some of the Australian Challengers (and poss some 15Ks) in November, where historically, the fields tend to be a bit weaker. So hopefully he can put together a strong end to the season and reach the Top 200. To do so while still a teenager would be a notable achievement.

I do think there have been some issues this year and I am not sure the transition from Beechy to Greg has been as smooth as publicly expressed. Perhaps Greg has just made some changes to Kyle's game and it is taking time for those changes, both technical and tactical, to bed in and this has led to some inconsistency. For me though, he remains the outstanding prospect amongst our up and coming players.

-- Edited by Bob in Spain on Tuesday 14th of October 2014 06:09:03 PM