Let Them Eat Cake!

According to Murray the reason for this countries lack of world class tennis players could be because we're too soft with young players


"Do you know that in Spain, at 18, your funding stops?" he said in an interview with the Daily Mail.
"From there, you get nothing that you cannot earn for yourself. We're
funding guys to 27, 28 - while in the most successful tennis nation in
the world you're basically on your own. Maybe there's something in that.


"My mum has just come back from Russia, looking at the National Tennis
Centre that has produced this great run of players, six in the top 30
women at the moment. So what great set-up do they have? Sixteen tennis
courts and that's it. Not even particularly good ones, she said.


http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/story/121439.html


Is he correct?


I'm not familiar with the system in Spain but I'm struggling to think of any player in the top 100 who is 18 or under. Is it possable to be self supportive outside the top 100? Do we have too many tennis courts in this country? Or are the ones we do have too high quality?

We do have one world class player from this country. Did he recieve any financial support from the LTA when he was 18 or over?

I would guess that without outside funding the only chance of success for a young talented player would be to rely on that old trusted source (for some)... the bank of Mum and Dad.

Not surprised at all. It's like business; we keep hearing how the government should help businesses; it's a laugh - the people offering this wouldn't be in government if they could run businesses. All government has to do to help business is get out of the way and stop hindering.

Same with tennis players; just have the courts around the country and leave it to them.

I agree in principal with what Murray is saying. His coaches Gilbert and Petchy in the early years were funded by the LTA. He can't really 'complain' given he was helped by funds of the LTA until he was 20.

The funding incentive is not just the issue, but the coaching from the formulative years of tennis player's career from their native country is what the issue is. He gave Russia as an example, but Sharapova finished her development in America, same as Heather Watson. It is the standard of coaching which needs improving. The LTA do not help themselves with ball colouring system they have in place or the juniors set up by where they excel and their is no progression if they are the best in their age group or in the academy as a whole. Take Oliver Golding. Was taken out of the LTA coaching set up by his mum. Same as Murray was. Both have had junior Slam success. That speaks volumes if the parents don't think the LTA is providing the standard of the coaching required to take them to the next level. I would assume also that the parents would have 'looked' around at coaching standards in other countries which is why you don't tend to hear of players outside of the UK who broke into the top 300 for that matter on the back of the coaching in the LTA. The LTA improving in general would not only just help the game in Britain but could also be lucrative to other countries who do not have facilities to take promosing juniors forward.

It could be that - finally - we may have a good crop of young players coming through. I like the look of Golding, for example and Laura Robson will, IMHO, be a star. The Broady boy may be OK, too.
But most parents with a promising young player would probaly have nothing to do with our set up and take their precious offspring off abroad. I always remember how Andy M had said that UK coaching had ruined his brother Jamie's play.
It seems that Greg R is now helping out which may be a good thing. At least it's encouraging we have three women in the top 100. Even just one other UK man in the male top 100 would be a help.

What frustrates me the most about the LTA is that when players such as Murray and Watson being developed outside of their coaching and that they are 'proud' of that fact because they contributed 'funding'

It is ridiculous. Yes it is good we have some top youngsters coming through, but all the same depressing that we cannot push them to the very top ourselves.

legendkillar wrote:What frustrates me the most about the LTA is that when players such as Murray and Watson being developed outside of their coaching and that they are 'proud' of that fact because they contributed 'funding'

It is ridiculous. Yes it is good we have some top youngsters coming through, but all the same depressing that we cannot push them to the very top ourselves.

Personally, LTA are obviously not able to develop players, so why not do the thing they are good at: fund others who ARE good at developing do their job....nothing wrong there...
BTW, I reckon even if there were free courts in every town, we wouldn't see much difference. I go and play in my local park and I am usually the only one there , in the past I used to book the court, now I don't even bother.

Mind you, the area for BMX and scooter fanatics next to the courts is always packed with teenagers wearing their jeans halfway down their backside....

noleisthebest wrote:

legendkillar wrote:What frustrates me the most about the LTA is that when players such as Murray and Watson being developed outside of their coaching and that they are 'proud' of that fact because they contributed 'funding'

It is ridiculous. Yes it is good we have some top youngsters coming through, but all the same depressing that we cannot push them to the very top ourselves.

Personally, LTA are obviously not able to develop players, so why not do the thing they are good at: fund others who ARE good at developing do their job....nothing wrong there...
BTW, I reckon even if there were free courts in every town, we wouldn't see much difference. I go and play in my local park and I am usually the only one there , in the past I used to book the court, now I don't even bother.

Mind you, the area for BMX and scooter fanatics next to the courts is always packed with teenagers wearing their jeans halfway down their backside....

Strangely enough the free court by my way is full of the scooter chav brigade and there is a park next to them!!!

I have to kick them off sometimes! Even when no-one is using them. I hate seeing a court being bismirched in that manner.

In my opinion the LTA should do nothing more than make the game available to the maximum number of people in the country, by supporting clubs and facilities, and leave the best to make their own way in the World.

The only alternative I can see is logical is to invest in a player by funding him/her with a contractual agreement that they own a % of his earnings, perhaps capped at a commercially interesting multiple of the funding (say 10 times to account for significant risk of zero return).