USTA Eastern Metro Region Update: June 2014
Who Are Those People and Why Are They Still Competing?
By Nelson Kier
There are approximately seven million Americans who self-report that they play tennis 21 or more times per year. Of those frequent participants, more than 400,000 play in the USTA Eastern Section, which includes New York State and parts of Connecticut and New Jersey. Around 50,000 of them are dues-paying members of USTA Eastern.
One of the many reasons to join the USTA is to take advantage of it’s many programs for all ages and levels of play. At the top of the age, and perhaps skills, pyramid are senior adult players, where age groups are organized by five-year cohorts starting with 25 & Over and extending to 90 & Over. Men, women, singles, doubles and mixed-doubles events are held in various locations.
Most USTA members today play Adult Team League Competitions, which are organized by both NTRP levels, gender and finally, by age. Our most skilled members are among the more than 7,000 individual competitors that played in a USTA Eastern Adult Competition Sanctioned Event, and almost 2,500 of these lived within the Metro New York City area. Did you know that there were about 20 of those events per month throughout the Section? Who are those people and why are they (still) competing?
Many of those players compete in leagues during the week. On the weekends, they compete in tournaments. Most are 4.0+ NTRP players. Not all are world beaters. Many former ranked ATP and WTA Tour players compete in age group events around the country, but they are certainly a minority.
Why do they (still) compete? It turns out that older people who are athletes from around the world in many sports still compete for many of the same reasons. A study by Rylee, Baker and Horton titled, “Older Athletes' Perceived Benefits of Competition,” conducted among competitors in the World Masters Games in Australia in 2009 found five common themes to explain what the athletes gained from continuing to compete:
â–º“I like a challenge” depicts adult competition as an ideal context to test one’s abilities. In particular, lifelong athletes (or those who had returned to sports after a long break) enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing they “can still do it!”
â–º“I discovered that, at this age, I could win things!”
â–º“I’m more motivated to work harder,” describes how regular competitions provided goals for participants which structured their training. Also, the act of competing brought out their best performances.
â–º“You know where you stand,” shows how participants liked that competition enabled them to compare themselves with others of their own age cohort.
â–º“Travel” and “companionship,” explains how the organized, competitive structure of adult competition allowed for regular travel, the establishment of ongoing friendships and weekly social interaction.
So if you are a pretty good player (for your age), you can relate to one or more of the above themes and you want to play someone new, just sign up! USTA Eastern has a local event for you, and you can find one at http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/Schedule/Search.aspx. If you do well, bigger sectional and even national events could be in your future!
Nelson Kier serves as the Adult Competition Committee Chair for USTA Eastern. He may be reached by e-mail at nelson@nkier.com.
USTA Metro in action!
The USTA Metro Board and volunteers at World Tennis Day at Madison Square Garden
Junior Team Tennis captains, coaches and coordinators enjoying the World Tennis Day matches at MSG
The USTA Eastern team competing in the section showdown at the USTA Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.: Deborah Antoine, president and CEO of NYJTL; Michelle Rothstein; Captain Jenny Schnitzer, NJ Region President Lou Wiggs; Metro Region President Jackie Clark; Southern Region President Fran Osei, Metro Board Secretary Allon Lifschitz; and Sportime CEO Claude Okin
USTA Eastern Metro Board Secretary Allon Lifschitz and Metro Region President Jackie Clark competing in the Section Showdown (both are USTA National Committee members)
Metro Junior Team Tennis Coordinators Joani Akpan and Jonathan Williams and captain Mike Phillips
JTT kids having fun at Junior Team Tennis on Saturday night at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
The USTA Metro Board with 2013 Wimbledon Champion Marion Bartoli
The Sneaker Project
Amyas Ryan is an eighth grader at IS 318 in Brooklyn, N.Y. who organized a project through his school’s student government to collect gently used sneakers for the Tuscorora Reservation in Upstate New York. He is a USTA member, coached by USTA Metro Board member Mel Swanson, and a member of Junior Tennis Clinic (JTC), currently playing in the JTT League and a member of Brooklyn Lightning Fourteen Intermediate team. He will be attending The Beacon School in Manhattan this fall.
Amyas is a bona-fide "Sneakerhead" like many boys his age. His mother suggested he do some community service and to base it around something he has a passion in—that of course is sneakers. After exploring some different ways he might be able to collect sneakers, he read a book by Eric Gansworth called If I Ever Get Out of Here. The main character suffers such extreme poverty that Amyas was moved to try to help other kids like those represented by Gansworth in his book.
Amyas wrote a letter to Gansworth asking him if he thought it would be a good idea—and if kids would be okay with receiving secondhand shoes from kids in Brooklyn. The family has had an incredible correspondence with the author who shared many details of his own life. He is a thoughtful and sensitive man and was pleased to help Amyas figure out a way to help the kids on Tuscorora Rez, but also helped him to understand how challenging it can be to receive gifts and charity.
He connected Amyas with a childhood friend, who is a social worker and teaches in the school system on the reservation. She is helping to find families to support (in an anonymous and un-threatening way). IS 318 supported the project, and through Ms. O’Connor (Student Government teacher), the kids at IS 318 are actively involved in collecting sneakers to send upstate. Amyas is hoping to collect 100 sneakers in great shape, or like-new, to send upstate.
Gansworth's book is an inspiring read, it features an intelligent boy who attends school off the “Rez” who is bullied and teased by the local townies who dislike all Native American kids. But because the school is located near a military base, some of the military “brats” also attend the same programs. They too are "other" and the story focuses on a friendship that extends past racial and class barriers. It is very moving and the first book Gansworth has written for young readers which has been included on many great book lists.
Amyas wrote up this project in his school newsletter. This was what he says:
Sneaker Drive… Amyas Ryan, Class 806, tells us why …
After reading Eric Gansworth's incredible book, If I Ever Get Out of Here, about a boy growing up on the Tuscarora reservation in Upstate New York, I was really surprised to learn about the poverty of the people there. This inspired me, and along with my passion for sneakers, I decided to have a sneaker drive at I.S. 318. I contacted Mr. Gansworth to ask if he thought it was a good idea, and he went along with it. With student government, we are collecting new or gently used sneakers for kids on the reservation. The project is now underway, and if you have sneakers to donate we will be glad to accept them for this project. I highly recommend you read Eric Gansworth's inspiring book. (And bring in those sneakers!)
If anyone would like to donate sneakers, they can e-mail JTC185@aol.com or Jackiec555@aol.com.
