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Post Info TOPIC: LTA funding


All-time great

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LTA funding


The Realist wrote:

Kolohead, you are right that there are far fewer opportunities for boys than girls in American universities - due I think to their equality laws - whereby they have to give the same number / value of scholarships to boys and girls, and most of the boys scholarships go to baseball and American football players. Even a full scholarship for a girl will rarely include spending money and the cost of flights. 


The girls do very well in terms of fully paid scholarships because of tittle IX; any educational institution offering sporting opportunities must do equally for both sexes. It has made a massive difference in terms of increasing the number of women playing college sports and as a consequence many athletes get an education they would not have, so bizarrely a lot of positives for female students. There are very few female sports that will make you incredibly wealthy but tennis has definitely kept the wolf from the door for the likes of Nicole Gibbs, Danielle Collins and a few others. 

US College sport is what it is and the ethics behind it put any complaints about tennis funding in the UK to shame. The generally affluent middle class white kids on the tennis scholarships, whose parents paid for individual coaching as children, get their scholarships from income generated by the profitable sports, football and basketball. They bring dollars through large TV audiences coast to coast on Saturdays, match day attendances, match day food sales and generally billions of dollars through merchandising. The footballers and basketball players are elite athletes you can't teach height as they say in basketball (or electric pace and all round athletic ability) more often than not they are from deprived backgrounds, scholarships are for one year and don't cover surgery if you get injured, thousands of kids do and they are done. 

I don't think going to the US on a tennis scholarship is a win win for boys, realistically those that stand a chance of playing futures successfully at the end will get an opportunity. You literally have to arrive and dominate one of the good programmes in a power conference if the ATP tour is your target. I don't think good tennis programmes in good but lesser conference will give that opportunity although Joe Salisbury is making a good crack at doubles having finished in Memphis. Getting a degree from one of the Ivy league colleges, Stanford, Cal Poly adds a different context altogether. 

All the US colleges in the London Tennis tube video of the Stars and Stripes introduction video offer good tennis opportunities without exception although, not all in power conference tennis. On the girls side all are very strong programmes aspiring to build. 

College tennis growth in the U.K. cant hurt and I see there are institutions with lesser academic standards e.g. The University of East London that also take tennis seriously, so there are opportunities to combine building a skillset in something other than academia with tennis. 



-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Wednesday 18th of July 2018 11:45:57 AM

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Junior player

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Tennis legend have I read that correct the uni blu is at charges 40k per year. If his parents can afford that and he still needs more what hope is there for those of us where that fee exceeds an annual salary.

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Tennis legend

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Kolohead wrote:

Tennis legend have I read that correct the uni blu is at charges 40k per year. If his parents can afford that and he still needs more what hope is there for those of us where that fee exceeds an annual salary.


 I haven't looked up the fees. And it's an academy, not a uni. 

The crowdfunding site of the lad who knows Blu (is a friend?) and partly trained by Blu's father claims that figure. (In dollars)

However, I do know that a lot of the European academies give pretty large scholarships - one that is normally about 20k gives scholarships of up to about 15k, leaving the parents of talented players 'only' 5k to find. So it's possible that the same applies here. 



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Tennis legend

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Regarding the need for a complete pyramid of players, and for the LTA to realise that they must support all levels, not just grass root and the high elite, I note Judy Murray's tweet singing the praises of league team tennis:

judy murray

Verified account

@JudyMurray
3h3 hours ago


"This what we have to aim for. Strong clubs. Strong team competition. Opportunities for tennis players, coaches and fans at local level. A tennis culture is all about numbers."


As she says, it's all about numbers.....



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County player

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Look at John Millman's comment under Judy Murray's. That has significance.

I've banged on about this for too long. You need strong reasons to play tennis. There are none here (more or less). Compare that with Millman's German club where 5,000 people came to watch a local derby. What stronger motivation do you need than that?

Judy Murray's comment about strong tennis clubs is also apposite. The David Lloyd organisation has weakened tennis club culture here. It's perversely ironic that their boss is now running the LTA, struggling with a problem of his own making.

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Tennis legend

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Absolutely.

I put Millman's comment in the European League Tennis thread.

People like Martin Weston have also retweeted it.

Fat lot of good it will do......

However, also emphasises how GB players have to get out there and play the European league events - as Millman says, he couldn't have succeeded without it. 



-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 24th of July 2018 10:02:15 AM

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Junior player

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Having just watched the under 18 boys aegon national finals at the NTC this weekend further demonstrated the talent at that level that exists. The standard from the players was outstanding to my untrained eye with many matches decided by 10-8 tiebreaks. The finalists each had 3 18 year olds and one 17 year old in the teams. Speaking to the older boys every one of them are heading to the states as they felt there was nothing really for them in this country . What a shame to lose these players from the clubs and of course university tennis here. So to echo what I have read above we need more for the kids who are performance players but not quite good enough, yet, to be watched by the LTA.

I did find it Shocking not to see any LTA reps. The usual suspects (referees) were of course present but not one coach that I could see. Even andy Murray stopped by to watch a few points of an important doubles on his way to a shower.

At the trophy ceremony the organiser congratulated the two teams of being the two best clubs teams in the country for their age groups. Shame nobody was here to watch

I have to add also that the semi finals on the sat were equally of a high standard with some fantastic tennis with two other teams but I didnt get a chance to talk with them so do not know the ages of their players or if they are too heading off onto the states

The take away here is that we have some fantastic youngsters who are all heading off to the states as they do not feel supported here

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