The juniors of the Middle Atlantic States in Levels I and II competition will no longer decide third-sets with 10-point super tie-breakers (STBs).
?The committee felt strongly that this was the best thing for player development,? said Vesa Ponnka, Chairman of the Coaches Commission for the Middle Atlantic Tennis Association?s Coaches Commission. ?On the outside, the abbreviated matches have been looked at as a good solution to playing many matches in a short period, but they have had a negative effect.?
Recently, at junior tournaments throughout the country, it has become common to use STBs instead of playing out third sets, despite rising voices of disapproval from players, coaches and parents.
?It teaches our players some very bad habits about competition,? says Frank Salazar, the 2009 Junior National coach of the year. ?The biggest problem is that it does not instill the qualities of what competition is really all about; most importantly: perseverance. Perhaps this has contributed to why very few young Americans are surfacing in tennis on the world scene. We are the only country in the world that uses this system, and maybe that says something about us falling behind.?
Cris Robinson, Director of Tennis at Willow Oaks Country Club in Richmond agrees, ?We might be self-sabotaging player development with its use. Players grow the most when learn how fight through hard matches and win. The byproduct is learning to think through adverse situations while developing strength of body and mind along the way. If the player always engages the heart, the pain of losing will have its upside as well.?
Winning and Losing: Tools for Growth
It is through tough, close three-set wins and close losses that players usually make the breakthrough to a new level. Easy matches seldom pave the way for growth.
One example of the ?breakdowns before breakthroughs? phenomena is John Isner's arduous tournament in Washington, DC a few summers back. He prevailed in several very long and difficult three-setters. It was like he achieved a right-of-passage ? a ratification to the next level.
A player does not earn this full impact by winning a third-set tie-breaker. Likewise, with a loss, he may be less likely to take ownership of his game, and instead shrug it off as a result of the scoring-system. As Salazar states, ?The losses are supposed to hurt and the wins are supposed to feel really, really good. Both of these emotions are critical incentives for player improvement.?
Where Did the Third-Set Super Tie-Breaker System for Come From?
For the first time time, the third-set STB was first implemented for the first time at the college level back in the early 1990s. It was during an experimental era. College tennis was attempting to find a way to shorten matches to increase the fan appeal. In the dual match format, however, it quickly flopped. Many top-ranked teams suffered upsets to lesser teams. For example, once, under the STB system, the Lander College team beat the heavily favored University of Georgia by winning three of these 10-point STBs.
Though soon abandoned in colligate play, over the past decade the system has crept into youth tennis events. Previously, tournament formats included a singles and a doubles event for each age group. Consolation events were only conducted at the Nationals. Later, as a result of parents, coaches, and players wanting more than one match for first round losers, USTA officials added more consolation matches. This format pushed out the traditional two-out-of-three doubles events.
Some Good with the Bad
Why have tournament officials have continued to implement this method? ?The set tie-break system allows us to run off a lot more matches in a shorter time,? says MATA Tournament Director William Ellison. ?The USTA seems to have an agenda to use them, and it seems to be the easiest way to get more players into events and to conduct back-draw matches as well. Using them makes it easy to run off a lot of matches and finish on time. From the coaching perspective, however, it cheapens the end result. A slow starter is penalized.?
Ellison offered an alternative abbreviated system. ?Perhaps, starting at 2-2 or 3-3 for the final set could be a possibility,? he said. ?It would mirror regular matches in a better way.?
?There are times when the tie-break for third sets or abbreviated systems make events more manageable,? says Bonnie Vona, Manager of Competitive Tennis and Player Development for MATA. ?Its advantages are noted when you take into consideration the amount of matches that a tournament director can play at a facility that has limited court space or when weather conditions create time constraints. Another advantage is for the parents and families that may be new to the sport and are not used to being at a site for extended periods of time.?
But she conversely points out, ?These are quite different needs than what is needed in the training of high performance players. Players trying to improve need to learn to play out third-sets for developmental reasons? We probably need to define more clearly the differences between developmental needs of competitive players and recreational events.?
Is the Traditional Way Too Strenuous for Younger Players?
A USTA official has recently stated that the long matches in hot conditions were just too taxing on our young players. He maintains that it should be used to prevent injuries and health problems, stating, ?Our kids are often being exposed to tougher conditions than U.S. Marine Boot Camp.?
Many coaches feel this is an overreaction and a more short-sighted, administrative-friendly point of view. ?The USTA data for making this claim comes from a study that was done at their sports science department in California,? says Bonnie Vona. ?They marked the index for boot-camp Marines and football players while training in heat with high humidity. They have marked a crisis point where it becomes a physical extreme for players. They made a correlation to what we were putting our kids through by noting that the heat index of just one boys and girls 14 championships at San Antonio, Texas.?
Although convenient, this may not be the best correlation. If players have properly conditioned, there are very few situations in a tennis match where overexertion becomes dangerous. In most situations, when a tennis player is playing a long match, and he becomes tired, he does not perform well. The bottom line: If you play badly, you?ll lose.
Perhaps, at a tournament, to eliminate the fear of a lawsuit resulting from heat related illness, there should be a release or disclaimer. Most of the more dangerous sports regularly do this. An event should be not be cheapened by adding a third-set STB just due to weather conditions.
Whenever children compete, safety should always be a consideration. Tennis, however, is primarily an outdoor sport. Hot and humid conditions are often an element of the game. Thus, conditioning and heat acclimatization is an essential training fundamental. This human factor should not be overlooked.
Players Agree with the Coaches
Likewise, many players, like 17-year-old MATA player Collin Johns, have spoken out against third-set STBs. ?I take a lot of pride in my fitness and in the program of training that I do,? he says. ?The ten-point breaker allows players to get victories without paying the full price. The right test to prove the better player both mentally and physically should be three tough sets. The skill and toughness that I gain though hard work should be my advantage and the STB system doesn?t allow the work I do to make a difference.?
ATP professional Ryan Young holds a similar opinion. ?The ability to finish off an opponent and learning how to carry leads throughout a long, tough match are incredibly hard skills to learn,? he says. ?There is no substitute for having to learn how to do this over and over again. Our sport has no clock to do the dirty work, and it is unlike any other when it comes to learning how to win. The third-set set tie-break system is unfair to the favored player when the underdog knows from the start that it is a smaller mountain to climb in order to win. Tennis is a lot like boxing. You often don?t really gain small advantages on the lesser player until 45 minutes or an hour into the match. It is unfair to stop at the point when you finally gain control of the match and have to play a tie-break.?
Revalue Doubles
Many coaches also disagree with the downgrading of doubles. ?The skills used for doubles really round out a player?s game,? says former US Davis Cup Chairman Roy Barth.
Tournament officials are stuck. Though it obviously would be better to play full matches in doubles for juniors and pros, in the current system, it is too time consuming. Perhaps, better scheduling or the offering one consolation match for first round losers would be a solution.
The idea of opening a tournament by playing two rounds has been brought up. It might help to foster relationships and sportsmanship, as well as and solve a time issue. Players, coaches, and parents could immediately bond in a non-threatening environment as players would also have a chance to work their way into the tournaments. The doubles matches could be held in conjunction with participant socials and organizational meetings. If doubles were played first, with 75% of the doubles matches completed before singles were started, it would provide a bit of breathing room for the directors.
Honoring the Game
The traditional tennis scoring system is one of our most sacred heirlooms. It should be protected. The scoring system sets up multiple dimensions and complexities ? unlike the simplistic (counting by ones) scoring of other racquet games ? which is one of the reasons why tennis is so very interesting to watch.
Based on threes, tennis scoring constantly tests one's ability to construct points in sequences that vary in pressure from being behind, being tied, and being ahead. The pressures of a tennis match change back and forth ? redefining each game. The player can only go forward in a level of achievement when he or she has mastered the ability to manage these fluctuating pressures. The third-set STB fails to measure this. One of the most important aspects of the game is momentum-control, understanding the ups and downs, the flow of the match.
A bad rule is like a bad law. They are easy to implement, but hard to eliminate. Our traditional scoring system is the fundamental. Modifications like no-ad scoring, pro-sets and super tie-breakers are devaluing our game. Such scoring schemes should be abandoned.
Chuck Kriese was the head coach at Clemson University for 33 years. He coachesd 5 Junior Grand-slam Titles. He is the Senior Director Competition and Coaching, at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, MD. Visit his website at ChuckKriese.net.
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