LTA Strategy

Kolohead · Junior player

LTA Strategy

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

Fix British Tennis wrote:
Born2WinTennis wrote:
There's no way this would happen, the clubs main reason for affiliating is for access to 1000s of Wimbledon tickets. So without the same offer of tickets a rival organisation couldn't possibly compete. A rival competition structure could compete however, with the rise of UTR tournaments etc, as we see happening just now.
My thinking was more that the LTA's shareholders / members (the county associations which are in turn controlled by clubs) could join force to shake up the LTA and make it more transparent, inclusive and accountable. The main reason that the LTA gets away with running as a conflicted cosy network is that its governance structure makes it very hard for it to be held accountable. It would not be easy and would require the games more progressive thinking volunteers to become involved in their county associations but I have certainly achieved harder things through pulling stakeholders together through using internet and social media.

I agree about the transparency and accountability problems, however if you are saying the clubs could shake up the LTA, then first of all you would have to address the massive problems with clubs in this country:

1. Myopic focus on social doubles and district or county doubles leagues

2. Committees average age is over 50

3. Allowing coaches to charge too much for group lessons

4. Zero aim or care for performance juniors in most clubs

5. No interest in singles

6. Unwilling to host tournaments

7. As a product they do nothing to attract 18-30 year olds

8. Stuck in their ways and resistant to change

9. Ridiculous rules such as a guest may play 3 times before being forced to join - they would rather courts go empty

10. No support or involvement with schools coaching or schools competitions

Honestly, I could go on and on. The majority of things I blame on the clubs in this country, not the LTA. The LTA have to tread on eggshells with the clubs.

Growing up at Dunblane Tennis club, as a junior I remember regularly getting kicked off the courts for ladies night, when a friend and I were on 1 court out of 4 courts and there was a solitary game of ladies doubles on one of the other courts...the courts were even split 2 by 2, so we weren't being any bother to the ladies at all. Compare that experience to the golf club next door and the tennis club was a very poor cousin (and even golf has massive problems with participation at the moment). We had a junior golf tournament every Friday where the worst player competed equally with the best player, it was free to enter, you won vouchers, it was so much more fun than the tennis club environment. You could hang out in the clubhouse, you could have dinner, you could order drinks. Most tennis clubs don't even have those basic facilities.

Sim · County player

Born2WinTennis wrote:
There's no way this would happen, the clubs main reason for affiliating is for access to 1000s of Wimbledon tickets. So without the same offer of tickets a rival organisation couldn't possibly compete. A rival competition structure could compete however, with the rise of UTR tournaments etc, as we see happening just now.

This is also the big carrot/stick that the LTA can use.

The clubs should earn their rights to the tickets - and/or number of tickets allocated to each club to be based upon criteria e.g. attracting young players, cheap/subsided group lessons for young players, hosting tournaments etc.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Sim wrote:
Born2WinTennis wrote:
There's no way this would happen, the clubs main reason for affiliating is for access to 1000s of Wimbledon tickets. So without the same offer of tickets a rival organisation couldn't possibly compete. A rival competition structure could compete however, with the rise of UTR tournaments etc, as we see happening just now.
This is also the big carrot/stick that the LTA can use.
The clubs should earn their rights to the tickets - and/or number of tickets allocated to each club to be based upon criteria e.g. attracting young players, cheap/subsided group lessons for young players, hosting tournaments etc.

Yes. Absolutely. I've gone on about that too (and that it's the way it works in France). It should be a two-way cooperation thing.

Fix British Tennis · Improver

Born2WinTennis wrote:
Fix British Tennis wrote:
Born2WinTennis wrote:
There's no way this would happen, the clubs main reason for affiliating is for access to 1000s of Wimbledon tickets. So without the same offer of tickets a rival organisation couldn't possibly compete. A rival competition structure could compete however, with the rise of UTR tournaments etc, as we see happening just now.
My thinking was more that the LTA's shareholders / members (the county associations which are in turn controlled by clubs) could join force to shake up the LTA and make it more transparent, inclusive and accountable. The main reason that the LTA gets away with running as a conflicted cosy network is that its governance structure makes it very hard for it to be held accountable. It would not be easy and would require the games more progressive thinking volunteers to become involved in their county associations but I have certainly achieved harder things through pulling stakeholders together through using internet and social media.
I agree about the transparency and accountability problems, however if you are saying the clubs could shake up the LTA, then first of all you would have to address the massive problems with clubs in this country:
1. Myopic focus on social doubles and district or county doubles leagues
2. Committees average age is over 50
3. Allowing coaches to charge too much for group lessons
4. Zero aim or care for performance juniors in most clubs
5. No interest in singles
6. Unwilling to host tournaments
7. As a product they do nothing to attract 18-30 year olds
8. Stuck in their ways and resistant to change
9. Ridiculous rules such as a guest may play 3 times before being forced to join - they would rather courts go empty
10. No support or involvement with schools coaching or schools competitions
Honestly, I could go on and on. The majority of things I blame on the clubs in this country, not the LTA. The LTA have to tread on eggshells with the clubs.
Growing up at Dunblane Tennis club, as a junior I remember regularly getting kicked off the courts for ladies night, when a friend and I were on 1 court out of 4 courts and there was a solitary game of ladies doubles on one of the other courts...the courts were even split 2 by 2, so we weren't being any bother to the ladies at all. Compare that experience to the golf club next door and the tennis club was a very poor cousin (and even golf has massive problems with participation at the moment). We had a junior golf tournament every Friday where the worst player competed equally with the best player, it was free to enter, you won vouchers, it was so much more fun than the tennis club environment. You could hang out in the clubhouse, you could have dinner, you could order drinks. Most tennis clubs don't even have those basic facilities.

Hi Born2WinTennis - while I agree there are still clubs which operate along those lines there are also more and more successful progressive community focussed clubs which have got where they are in spite of the LTA rather than because of it. I have been involved in running our local club (as well as being a volunteer coach and official referee) for over 15 years during which time we have grown from 150 to over 750 members. We converted to a charity, slashed membership costs, partnered with local schools, free membership and coaching for those who cannot afford it and got loads of people playing tennis / grew participation massively. Yet the LTA has always despised us for being progressive and pushing for change. We battled against their old regressive per member affiliation fee (which would have eaten up over 25% of our revenue) and they took legal advice and threatened to take us to court. Then when Sport England told them they did not know what participation meant and cut funding they suddenly listened and moved to a per court affiliation fee as we had suggested. When we wanted funding to grow tennis in our local state secondary school with pupils from some of the most deprived areas of the country we were ignored and funding was given to a wealthy private school with fantastic tennis facilities. Guess which school the children of the LTA regional manager go to? We have been trying to get TBTT funding for a fantastic project to retain kids in tennis through delivering it at their secondary school and involving them in the coaching but have wasted hundreds of hours, 2 visits to the NTC but got nowhere.

There is a growing number of clubs like ours in our area and we could push for change. The LTA could and should be incentivising such change and supporting progressive clubs with funding, tickets etc. So I am now considering getting likeminded clubs together to nominate and vote for a new LTA Councillor for our county to push for change. If progressive clubs in other counties did likewise the LTA would get quite a shock.

Etienne · Club Coach

That's very encouraging, lots of kudos for that.

Kolohead · Junior player

Thank you fix British tennis you have emphasised my early points. In spite of the LTA there are clubs and coaches who care. The trouble is we are not enough and the voices are not loud enough. Im just a tennis parent and actually play a diff racket sport so am not informed about the club structure . Do all clubs have to be affiliated to the lta and pay a premium too?? Why ?? Apart from the promise of tickets what else do they get ?

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

Wow that sounds like an excellent effort from yourself Fix_British_Tennis, so sad about the problems you have encountered with the LTA. I do know a couple of similar sounding clubs, but sadly in the minority, compared to the majority I visit.

Was the funding the private school received only benefitting their students or did the public get some benefit too? If there was no benefit to members of the public I think that decision deserves to be criticised more publicly. Especially when the Regional Manager had a massive conflict of interest, that sounds like front page scandal.

-- Edited by Born2WinTennis on Friday 22nd of June 2018 01:57:54 PM

EddietheEagle · County player

While the antiquated structure of the LTA council remains in place, you will never effect any change whatsoever because the elected blazers all kowtow to a system of favouritism with the ultimate being the chance of a place in Elysium itself i.e membership of the All England.

Even if every individual LTA member held the privilege and power of a vote, you might still not get any sensible change because the LTA tail will always be wagged by the Wimbledon dog and the demands of professionalism. This requires much of the so-called Wimbledon surplus and LTA manpower to be lavished on the prestigious grand slam shoulder events which they effectively control - Queens, Nottingham, Eastbourne etc. Tennis is a total stitch up in this country and, sad to say, could well fade as a mass participation sport.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Same old, same old....

www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2018/07/08/british-tennis-must-grow-grass-roots-become-big-hitter-wimbledon/

the addict · Tennis legend

A quick check of the ITF calendar for the rest of the year shows just three 15k futures for the men (all in September) and two $25k for the women (first two weeks in August).

Wonder if they'll ever do anything to fill this ever-growing void

RedSquirrel · Satellite level

the addict wrote:

A quick check of the ITF calendar for the rest of the year shows just three 15k futures for the men (all in September) and two $25k for the women (first two weeks in August).

Wonder if they'll ever do anything to fill this ever-growing void

There are 2 further women's 25K events scheduled at the end of October/ beginning of November.
https://www.lta.org.uk/major-events/international-events/gb-pro-series/

the addict · Tennis legend

Well that's something at least. Although they aren't on the ITF calendar yet.

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

Interesting idea about the HSBC Road to Wimbledon opening up for adults too, or as he alludes to making the national finals of our Team Tennis at Wimbledon, rather than at Eastbourne. I think this misses the point though, because these are club competitions, not individuals, so it's not going to directly impact participation. What you need to do is create/invent new competitions that anyone can enter, not only members of ailing clubs.

paulisi · Tennis legend

The two women's events at Wirral and Shrewsbury were always scheduled. I was told about them by Richard Joyner and I must have posted on one of the threads.