201506 tennis industry magazine

Player Development

USTA taps MARTINBLACKMAN forPlayer Development

Retail Success

Sometimes BACKTO BASICSis best for sales

Health & Fitness

Give themREASONSto play tennis

Incorp

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TA

JUNE 2015 / VOLUME 43/ NUMBER 6 / $5.00

ConstructionExcellenceAward-winning private courts

Racquet TechnologyStay up to date on the latest in frames

Group SalesOutfitting teams can boost your biz

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DEPARTMENTS

4 Our Serve

7 Industry News

13 Letters

14 TIA News

16 Racquet Tech

18 Retailing Tip

20 Your Players: Sun Protection

22 Facility Management

36 Ask the Experts

38 String Playtest: Tecnifibre Black Code 4S 17

40 Your Serve, by Hunter Lipscomb

PLUS

42 CEOs Message

44 Past Presidents Message

46 Endorsee News

48 Inside Coaching

52 USPTA World Conference

56 USPTA World Conference

58 Career Development

50 Member News

INDUSTRY NEWS

7 Martin Blackman tapped to head USTA Player Development

7 USTA breaks ground at Lake Nona site

7 North Carolina sportswriter wins Tennis Media Award

7 PTR adds senior, junior educational programs

8 USTA presents awards at Annual Meeting

8 Sport Court named USPTA official 36, 60 court

8 World TeamTennis 40th season to start in July

8 Legendary coaches honored at Easter Bowl

10 Ad-In Bin collects used balls for recycling

10 Peoplewatch

10 Adidas introduces Y-3 Roland Garros Collection

12 Short Sets

JUNE 2015Tennis Industry

24 Basic TrainingDriving sales in your store often involves a simple formula.

26 Advancing the CauseStay up to date on the latest racquet technologies, frame materials and construction techniques. 28 Adding Years to Your LifeLong known as the sport for a lifetime, tennis is the sport of a longer, healthier, more complete lifetime.

30 Group SalesGoing after the team businesswhether for clubs, leagues or schoolscan be a nice boost for your store.

34 Private EnterpriseThese residential winners are great examples of tennis-court construction.

48 Building Champions of Character through Tennis

52 Tulanes Rick Dickson to Headline USPTA Awards Luncheon

54 Silent Auction Returns to World Conference

56 Magic Seven

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2 TennisIndustry June 2015

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FEATURES

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www.tennisindustrymag.com www.tennisindustrymag.com

Read more articles online at www.ADDvantageUSPTA.com

www.tennisindustrymag.com

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Our Serve Publishers David Bone Jeff Williams

Editorial Director Peter Francesconi [email protected]

Associate Editor Greg Raven

Design/Art Director Kristine Thom

Special Projects Manager Bob Patterson

Contributing Editors Robin Bateman Cynthia Cantrell Kent Oswald Cynthia Sherman Mary Helen Sprecher Tim Strawn

Contributing Photographers Bob Kenas David Kenas

TENNIS INDUSTRY Corporate Offices PO Box 3392, Duluth, GA 30096 Phone: 760-536-1177 Fax: 760-536-1171 Email: [email protected] Website: www.TennisIndustryMag.com Office Hours: Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Advertising Director John Hanna 770-650-1102, x.125 [email protected] Apparel Advertising Cynthia Sherman 203-263-5243 [email protected]

Tennis Industry is published 10 times per year: monthly January through August and combined issues in September/October and November/ December by Tennis Industry and USRSA, PO Box 3392, Duluth, GA 30096. Periodcal postage paid at Duluth, GA and at additional mailing offices (USPS #004-354). June 2015, Volume 43, Number 6 2015 by USRSA and Tennis Industry. All rights reserved. Tennis Industry, TI and logo are trademarks of USRSA. Printed in the U.S.A. Phone advertising: 770-650-1102 x 125. Phone circulation and editorial: 760-536-1177. Yearly subscriptions $25 in the U.S., $40 elsewhere. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Tennis Industry, PO Box 3392, Duluth, GA 30096. TI is the official magazine of the USRSA, TIA,and ASBA.

Looking for back issues of Tennis Industry/Racquet Sports Industry? Visit the archives at our website at TennisIndustrymag.com for free digital versions back to 2004.

One of the areas USTA President Katrina Adams has identified as a huge oppor-tunity for tennis is with high school players. Right now, there are an estimated 350,000 or more students who play on h.s. teams, but the vast majority of them dont play beyond their high school seasons.Fifteen years ago, the USTA did an

amazing job when it realized tennis was letting go of hundreds of thou-sands of players who, after graduat-ing from high school, had few or no opportunities to play tennis in col-lege. Thats when the USTA created Tennis on Campus, one of the most successful programs in this sport. TOC continues to grow and is now at nearly 680 colleges and universities, involving nearly 40,000 students.Now, Adams has recognized the

need to do more to keep h.s. tennis players engaged right now, during their high school off-seasons. They already play tennis; we should be able to find more ways to keep them playing year-round. It helps every-one: the players, the school teams, local tennis retailers and facilities, tennis manufacturers.To tackle this, the USTA has cre-

ated a High School Task Force and, heres where it can get really cool. One of the key people on this task force is Glenn Arrington, the USTAs director of TSRs/High School/Ten-nis On Campus. Glenn will never admit this (and Im sure hes cring-ing right now reading this), but it was in large part his guidance start-ing in 2000 and continuing today that truly drove TOC to be the fun, engaging, tennis powerhouse it is. Glenn loves hearing about ideas to grow tennisno matter where these ideas come fromand he lets people do what they do best when it comes to growing this game.Of course, the H.S. Task Force is

loaded with great talent, all with solid credentials when it comes to growing this sport, including its chair, Mark Faber, a tennis direc-tor, USPTA elite pro, and National Community Service Award winner, among many other honors. Over the next few years, expect

to hear much more from the High School Task Force. And Im sure theyd welcome your thoughts, too, about how to keep high-school players engaged and on the courts year-round.

Peter Francesconi, Editorial [email protected]

The High School Push

4 TennisIndustry June 2015 www.tennisindustrymag.com www.tennisindustrymag.com

As we were finishing up this issue, we received some very sad news. Mary Lloyd Hodges Barbera, the director of marketing, membership & special events for USTA North Carolina, passed away unexpectedly April 22, at age 49. Mary Lloyd was one of the most amazing people Ive ever met, and a true joy to work with in every wayalways with a ready smile, witty quip, encouraging words, and always

advocating and pushing for tennis. When I think of an ideal tennis per-sonand just a wonderful person overallMary Lloyd comes to mind. Our hearts go out to her family, friends and colleagues at USTA North Carolina. This sport, and all of us in it, will miss her.

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The speculation on who would replace Patrick McEnroe at the helm of USTA Player Development ended in early April when the USTA tapped coach and former pro tour player Martin Blackman.As general manager, Blackman will oversee the Player Devel-

opment staff and partner with the U.S. tennis community to identify and develop the next generation of world-class Ameri-can tennis players, the USTA said in a statement. Hell report to USTA Executive Director and COO Gordon Smith.

Blackman will oversee both the USTAs Player Development staff and Training Centersincluding its Regional Training Cen-ter network and the Player Development facilities at the soon-to-be created USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla.

As a junior player, Blackman trained with Nick Bollettieri alongside future greats Andre Agassi and Jim Courier. He won the USTA Boys 16s National Championship in 1986 and reached the Boys 18s final two years later, then went on to become a member of two NCAA Championship teams at Stanford. He played on the ATP Tour from 1989 to 1995, reaching a career-high of No. 158.

Blackman was head mens tennis coach at American University in 1998, where he was named conference coach of the year three times. In 2004, he became director of the Ju-nior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md.

Blackman was hired by the USTA in 2009 as senior director of talent identification and development. He left the USTA in late 2011 to found the Blackman Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Fla.

Blackman, who has an economics degree from George Washington University, also served two terms on the USTA Board of Directors, from 2003 to 2006.

June 2015 TennisIndustry 7

Industry NewsInformation to help you run your business

N.C. Sportswriter Wins2015 Tennis Media Award

Scott Fowler, a sports columnist for The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, is the winner of the 2015 Tennis Media Award, presented by the TIA in conjunc-tion with the Nation-al Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NSSA). Fowler will be recognized at the NSSAs 56th annual Awards Week-end in Salisbury, N.C., June 6-8.

Fowlers story, which was published in August, is about his attempts to return the serve of tour pro John Isner. A recreational player, Fowler managed to get his racquet on two of the eight serves Isner hit. For his winning entry, he will receive a cash award and travel expenses to the NSSA Awards Weekend.

Two other journalists will re-ceive runner-up awards. Chuck McGill of the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail, who won the inaugural Tennis Media Award last year, is a runner-up in 2015 with his story on a recreational player who delayed a critical transplant of his stomach and intestines so he could play tennis, something doctors told him he wont be able to do after the surgery. Another runner-up is Jack Thompson, whose story about overly involved tennis parents appeared in the PTRs TennisPro magazine.

PTR Expands EducationWith Senior, Junior Programs

The PTR is expanding its educational offerings with a new Senior De-velopment Certi-fication pathway and Level 3 Junior Development Program. By the end of 2015, PTR will have 1,000 hours of


Martin Blackman to Head USTA Player Development

The USTA broke ground April 8 for what is now being called the USTA National Campus at Lake Nona in Orlando, Fla. The facility will have more than 100 courts and is expected to be completed in late 2016. It will house the USTAs Community Tennis and Player Development divisions.

When completed, the facility will feature red and green clay courts, hard courts, and youth tennis courts. The site, which will be open to the public, also will house a collegiate tennis center capable of hosting a number of college events and will serve as the home for the University of Central Floridas mens and womens varsity teams.

The groundbreaking was attended by senior USTA officials, officials from Tavistock Group and Lake Nona, along with City of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orlando Coun-ty Mayor Teresa Jacobs, as well as a number of state and regional partners. The USTA facility will serve as a cornerstone for Lake Nonas Sports Innovation & Performance District, an athletic district with a focus on research, design, innovation and technology.

USTA Breaks Ground in Florida

education available to its members.The Senior Development Certification pro-

vides on-court training workshops to help coaches prepare for teaching senior players. The Level 3 Junior Development Program is for coaches who wish to progress their coaching skills and knowledge beyond basic certification. Its the first program of its kind in the U.S. that provides advanced coaching education from the red to yellow court.

For more information, visit ptrtennis.org.

Sport Court Named USPTA Official 36 and 60 Courts

Connor Sport Court Internationals Sport Court is now the official 36-foot and 60-foot court of the USPTA. In addition, CSCI will also contribute a percentage of sales to participating members USPTA Retirement Gold+ accounts on Sport Court purchases for their clubs and facilities.

Industry News

Sport Court will provide the surface for the on-court demonstrations at the 2015 USPTA World Conference in New Orleans in September. Also, CSCI will donate two courts during the USPTAs annual conven-tion: One will be donated to the USPTAs Division of the Year award winner, and another will be donated to be sold at the annual silent auction for the USPTA Foundation.

Sport Court is excited to partner with the worlds largest association of tennis-teaching professionals, said Ron Cerny,

Connor Sport Court President and CEO. The USPTA is helping lead the charge along with Sport Court to Reimagine Tennis, where their members can teach longer and players can play tennis longer on Sport Courts engineered safe sur-faces. Visit sportcourt.com. World TeamTennis ProLeague To Start July 12

Mylan World TeamTennis announced the schedule for the 2015 season, which is highlighted by the return of world No. 1 Serena Williams to WTT action for the first time since 2011. This summer, Mylan WTT becomes only the fifth major professional team sports league in the U.S. to reach the 40th season milestone when the season kicks off on July 12.

The 52-match schedule runs July 12-29, with conference championships scheduled for July 30 and the Mylan WTT Finals on Aug. 2 on the home court of the Eastern Confer-ence Champion.

Williams will take the court on July 21 in Washington D.C. for the defending Mylan WTT champion Washington Kastles, which are looking to become the first team in league history to win five consecutive titles. The Kastles lineup also includes returning marquee players Martina Hingis and Venus Williams and American standout Sam Querrey.

After finishing at the bottom of the standings in 2014, the Boston Lobsters this year added world No. 7 Eugenie Bouchard. The top-ranked doubles team in the world, Bob and Mike Bryan, will play for the new Sacramento-based California Dream, and John Isner was picked up by the Springfield Lasers. Visit WTT.com for the full schedule and ticket info.

Legendary Coaches HonoredAt Team USA Coaching Event

Legendary tennis coaches Jimmy Evert, Dennis Van der Meer and John Wilkerson were honored as Team USA Coaching Legends at the second annual Team USA Coaching Awards reception held April 6 at the ASICS Easter Bowl junior tourna-ment at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California.

In addition, Lynn Nabors-McNally, coach and mother of 2014 USTA National


USTA Presents Annual Awards

The USTA honored its annual award winners at the Annual Meeting and Conference April 10-13 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Florida. The honorees were recognized for their dedication to growing the game. Brad Parks Award: Harlon Matthews of

McDonough, Ga.The award honors an indi-vidual or organization that has been instrumen-tal in the development of wheelchair tennis around the world through playing, coaching, sponsoring or promoting the game. The award was named after Brad Parks, a pioneer of wheelchair tennis.

USTA NJTL Founders Service Award: MaliVai Washington of Ponte Ve-dra, Fla.Created by USTA Diversity in 2011, the award recognizes an individual NJTL chapter founder who is committed to positive youth development through tennis and education and provides free or low-cost tennis, education and life-skills programming to thousands of underserved children each year.

USTA Member Organization of the Year: DC Department of Parks and Recreation, Washington D.C.Instituted in 1981, this award recognizes the outstanding services of a USTA member organization through its commitment to the tennis community, the organizations members and the game of tennis.

Ralph W. Westcott USTA Family of the Year Award: the Ponwith Family of Scottsdale, Ariz.Created in 1965, the award emphasizes the theme that Ten-nis is a Family Game and is given annually to the family that has done the most to promote amateur tennis, primarily on a volunteer basis.

Seniors Service Award: Connie Ebert of Abington, Pa.Established in 1958, the award goes to the person most deserving of the respect and honor of all senior players. It is awarded on the basis of the recipients willingness, cooperation and participation, either in play or organizational work, for the betterment and furtherance of senior competition.


Industry News

June 2015 TennisIndustry 9www.tennisindustrymag.com www.tennisindustrymag.com

Champions John and Caty McNally, was recognized as the 2014 Team USA De-velopmental Coach of the Year, and the Tucker Tennis Academy in Tulsa, Okla., was named the 2014 Team USA Devel-opmental Program of the Year, part of USTA Player Developments Team USA initiative to work collaboratively with developmental coaches and programs across America.

Jimmy, Dennis and John have been synonymous with coaching excellence for decades, and were honored to be able to recognize them as Team USA Coaching Legends, said USTA Player Development General Manager Patrick McEnroe. On top of that, Lynn and the team at the Tucker Tennis Academy have done outstanding work this past year and deserve to be acknowledged for setting such a high standard for coaching success.

Oncourt Offcourt DistributesStart Rite Grip Trainer

The Start Rite Grip Trainer will now be distributed by Oncourt Offcourt. Formerly distributed by another company as the Yippee Grip Trainer, the training aid was invented by tennis industry veteran Rod Schroeder.

This is the first racquet sport grip aid that is easy to use, durable, and works quickly, Schroeder says. One of the big-gest challenges for players and coaches is to start with the Continental grip on the serve. All tennis players know that holding the right grip allows for the fastest improvement. The Start Rite Grip Trainer

PeopleWatch

Young American Frances Tia-foe has turned pro and signed with the Roc Nation Sports agency.

Australian tennis great Thelma Coyne Long passed away April 14. She was 96. Long captured her first major title in 1936 and her last, an im-

pressive 22 years later, in 1958. Over that span, she won a total of 19 Grand Slam tournament titles, including championships in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2013.

Nicole Jeter West, the USTA

Managing Director of Ticket-ing and Digital Strategy, has been named to Sports Busi-ness Journals 2015 Forty Under 40 list.

For the fifth time in six years, Tony Larson won the mens open singles division at the $5,000 USPTA Indoor

Championships in March at the Racquet Club of Mem-phis. Ashley Murdock of Memphis won the womens open singles division title.

Jason Joseph is the new tennis director at the Rhinebeck (N.Y.) Tennis Club.

Industry News


meets this challenge.The Start Rite Grip Trainer is available

for under $3 each and sells in packs of one dozen. Visit OncourtOffcourt.com or call 888-366-4711.

USOS Tix On Sale June 8 Tickets for the

2015 Emirates Air-line US Open Series go on sale across the nation, begin-ning June 8. Now in its 12th season, the Series serves as a true regular season

to make tennis more readily available to VA patients. With more than 8 million veterans enrolled, VA operates the largest integrated health care delivery system in the U.S.

The three-year partnership will include organizing tennis clinics for VA medical facili-ties, linking VA medical facilities with com-munity resources, and providing consulting and design services for VA facilities inter-ested in upgrading or building tennis courts. The USTA Foundation will support VA in the form of coaching, instruction, equipment, use of courts and other technical assistance needed to sustain a tennis clinic.

In addition, the USTA Foundation recently developed the Warrior Tennis Curriculum, an electronic manual that provides rehabilita-tion therapists, tennis professionals and vol-unteers guidance through text, pictures and videos on how to use tennis as a therapeutic option to help veterans stay fit and active.

For more information on facilitating or starting a program, getting connected to a VA facility in your community, or to obtain a copy of the Warrior Tennis Curriculum, contact [email protected].

Ad-In Bin Collects Used Tennis Balls for Recycling

Retour Tennis introduces the Ad-In Bin, the first tennis ball collection bin de-signed to attach directly to court fencing to make recycling balls at public courts and clubs compelling and easy. Designed with input from parks and rec staff for easy maintenance and collection, the Ad-In Bin begins tennis ball recycling at the source: When players walk off the court with balls they will not play with again.

Discarded tennis balls enter American landfills at the rate of up to 125 million a year, but there are now companies that grind up balls to be recycled into alterna-

of hard court tennis, linking eight sum-mer tournaments to the US Open.

The eight USOS tournaments run from July 27 to Aug. 29, stopping in Atlanta; Stanford, Calif.; Washington, D.C.; To-ronto; Montreal; Cincinnati; New Haven, Conn.; and Winston-Salem, NC.

To purchase tickets, and to find out more information on all the tournaments, visit emiratesusopenseries.com

VA Partners WithUSTA Foundation

The USTA Foundation, the national chari-table organization of the USTA, is partnering with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Adidas Introduces Y-3Roland Garros Collection

Adidas has introduced its Roland Garros Collec-tion by Y-3, which will be worn at the French Open by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Ana Ivanovic. The collection will also be worn by the tournaments ball boys and girls.

The range includes functional accessories such as socks and wristbands in classic Adidas designs, while footwear utilizes the brands ultra-light Adizero concept, designed to maxi-mize clay court use. The collections colorways are firmly rooted in the classic Y-3 look, offering both Yohji Yamamotos signature stark black-and-white as well as vivid, electric, ultra-bright Hawaiian floral prints that reference Y-3s Spring/Summer 2015 collec-tion. Visit adidas.com.


Industry News


tive surfaces, says Bill Dermody of Retour Tennis. The Ad-In Bin, which hangs at eye level, installs in 10 minutes and adjusts to fit any fencing. It can hold 200 balls and weighs 40 pounds when full. The bottom swings open for easy ball collection, and the unit unlocks and empties in sec-onds. It is made of a durable, weather-resistant composite and is virtually maintenance-free.

For more infor-mation, visit retourtennis.com or call 608-218-3688.

USRSA Names New MRTs, CSs Master Racquet Technicians

Alex Belote - Springfield, MONathaniel Helmkamp - Big Rapids, MINate Pagel - Berrien Springs, MIJohn Radcliffe - Chandler, AZDaniel Rhoades - Springfield, MORJ Rumsey - Roswell, GADavid Terzaghi - Big Rapids, MIKyle Wartick - Springfield, MO

Certified StringersSteven Rifkin - New York, NY

Support For Military Families ThanksUSA, in partnership with USPTA,

is appealing to tennis professionals and enthusiasts to donate or to host a fund-raising event to benefit ThanksUSA and its mission of providing need-basedpost-secondary scholarships for college, technical and vocational school to the children and spouses of military men and women.

Visit uspta.com or ThanksUSA.org.

Correction to Stringers Digest Due to incomplete information supplied to the USRSA for the 2015 edition of the Stringers Digest, were printing here the correct specifications for the Tecnifibre T Fight Dynacore frames. Please copy or cut out this informa-tion and insert it into page 99 of the Stringers Digest.

12 TennisIndustry june 2015

Industry News


ShortSets

Following its 3-2 Fed Cup World Group Playoff loss to Italy in April, the U.S. Fed Cup team will be relegated to World Group II play for 2016. In the decisive doubles match, Serena Williams, partnering for the first time with Alison Riske, lost to Sara Erranni and Flavia Pennetta. It was Williams first loss in Fed Cup singles or doubles; she now has a 17-1 record overall. The 2015 Fed Cup final will be contested Nov. 14-15 between Russia and de-fending champion Czech Republic.

The PTRs Wheelchair Tennis Championships has been designated an International Tennis Fed-eration Grade A Junior Tournament. The event is one of only seven events

in the world awarded this designation for 2015. Grade A events offer more points than other Junior tourna-ments. The PTR Wheel-chair Championships, which draws players of all level from around the globe, has been on Hilton Head Island, S.C., for more than 20 years and has seen the worlds best players compete. This year, the event will be Oct. 1-4.

Cliff Drysdale Tennis has launched The Cliff Drysdale Foundation, a donor-advised fund with a mission to pro-vide support through the game of tennis to organizations and pro-grams that enhance the lives and well-being of others.The Foundation will raise funds through the tennis endeavors of Cliff Drysdale Tennis and its partners.

Italian coffee compa-ny Lavazza has signed a multi-year agreement to sponsor the French Open. Lavazza spon-sors Wimbledon and recently signed to sponsor the US Open.

PlayYourCourt, which introduces tennis les-sons and programming at dead or under-utilized facilities, has entered into a partner-ship with the USTA Mid-Atlantic Section to grow the accessibility of tennis throughout Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington D.C. The company says that with its full-service software and nationwide staff of tennis professionals, it makes tennis more accessible to players in their local community.

Entrepreneur Maga-zine, in its March 2015

issue, has recognized TGA Premier Youth among its Top New Fran-chises. The magazine makes its selections from companies that have been franchising for the last five years. In related news, TGA has estab-lished a second chapter in the Raleigh/Durham, N.C. area.

The USTA has launched a nationwide online audition as part of its ninth annual US Open casting call. A select number of submis-sions will be chosen to participate in a call-back that will be held at the Queens Theatre in Flush-ing Meadows Corona Park on June 30, with those selected earning the chance to perform America the Beauti-ful live in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the 2015 US Open. Children 14 and under are eligible.

The ITF announced that the UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters will continue to be held in Mis-sion Viejo, Calif., through 2016. The 2015 event, which is the ITFs flagship wheelchair tennis doubles tourna-ment, will be at the Marguerite Tennis Pavilion Nov. 3-7. The season-ending event currently features the worlds top eight mens pairs, top six womens pairs and top four quad pairs.

Gamma Sports continued its spon-sorship of Tennis Recruiting Network by becoming the title sponsor of "Count-down to Signing Day" and "Signing Week" fea-tured content areas of TRNs website.

U.S. Pros Attend Cardio Tennis Trainer Summit

Thirty select tennis and fitness professionals from across the U.S. took part in the Cardio Tennis Trainer Summit in April, held at the IMG Academy in Braden-ton, Fla. At the two-and-a-half-day event, attendees learned the skills and knowledge required to be a TIA Cardio Tennis Trainer.

We trained the trainers, said TIA Cardio Tennis Manager Michele Krause. These 30 tennis and fitness professionals are qualified to deliver official Cardio Tennis education to tennis and fitness professionals around the country, so that those pros can bring quality Cardio Tennis programs to con-sumers and players.

The CT Summit kicked off with a welcome from IMG Acad-emy founder and tennis Hall-of-Famer Nick Bollettieri. Then David Thompson of Polar USA talked to the group about the use of heart-rate monitors for Cardio Tennis participants, to make sure theyre receiving maximum benefit from their on-court activity.

Over the course of the weekend, the CT Trainers were coached and evaluated on feeding technique, delivery of Car-

dio Tennis games, warm-up and cool-down activities, as well as personal fitness. Other speakers included Cassiano Costa, the head tennis fitness trainer at IMG; Jeff Smith from Rapid Force; and Krause.

Also during the weekend, there was a Cardio Tennis Tri-ples tournament, in which 36 professionals participated. In addition, there were TRX Cardio Tennis workouts and IMG protocol pro training sessions.

The third day of the Summit included a seven-hour Cardio Tennis course delivered to 45 participants by multiple mem-bers of the CT Trainer Team.

"It was an incredible weekend of learning, bonding, team-work and personal growth, Krause said. The members of the TIA Cardio Tennis Team are the best in the business, and their passion and energy over the weekend was off the charts. As an educational team, we are now that much stronger and evolved to continue providing some of the very best education in the tennis industry.

For more about Cardio Tennis, including training for tennis providers, visit CardioTennis.com.


Improving ParticipationIn the May issue, I enjoyed reading many terrific thoughts and sug-gestions concerning how we can improve tennis participation levels. For me, three concepts in particu-lar are interconnected and crucial toward increasing the popularity of tennis.

First, in Our Serve, Peter Fran-cesconi suggested we need to get out there more. We must reach people who are not currently or have never played tennis. Most ten-nis communications are to current players, which will never result in acquiring unique players.

Second, in the Tennis Summit summary (Industry Addresses Major Issues and Concerns), Tom Cove of the SFIA was quoted as say-ing, Parents want a good experi-ence for the whole family when it comes to recreation. He is spot on. All people love their families and want activities they can do together. The message that people should play tennis as a family could resonate with millions of parents, grandparents and siblingsif they were to get the message.

Third, Ellen Millers Your Serve piece discusses the impor-tance of using low-compression balls to help players rally, which is essential for player development. But the value of rallying goes further than that. Rallying is what makes every racquet sport fun. Time spent playing versus pick-ing up balls is a decisive factor in determining whether new players stick with tennis, and using low-compression balls can make all the difference.

If we were to do a better job of reaching the non-tennis playing public with the message that they

Letters could enjoy tennis as a family, and that using low-compression balls will help them rally and have fun, we could create an upsurge in the number of people who get hooked on tennis.

Kevin Theos Tennis Service Rep, Alabama

Appreciates String InfoI enjoyed the excellent article by Bob Patterson (The Evolution of Poly Strings) in the May issue. It did a great job of clearly explaining string types and benefits, as well as pitfalls for each.

It can be a struggle to work with customers in matching their game to strings they will be happy playing with. I avoid getting overly technical and confusing, and the concise info from this article discusses each type in a manner that all can easily ap-preciate. The illustration was also an excellent visual to demonstrate ball and string interaction.

Keep up the great work!Ken Fisher

Cleveland, OH

Getting Pros Up to DateEllen Millers Your Serve was right on. A great tennis player feeding balls to students does not make a good teacher. I call it pro-centered teach-ing, vs. student-centered teaching.

I am a USPTA elite-level pro who recently left the industry, disillu-sioned with club owners who require only that their "pros" be great players. Sure, that doesn't hurt, but there is so much more that should be required. When will the USPTA, PTR and USTA send representatives to each club in the country and sell them on the value of having a certified teaching pro at least lead their classes?

I've seen many head pros at clubs who, while they may be great players, have no teaching credentials, don't go to conferences, don't get involved with

local USTA initiatives, and basically teach the same way they were taught. Sometimes decades ago. Schoolteach-ers don't enter the class unprepared and without up-to-date information and neither should tennis teachers.

Please, follow what Ellen wrote about and keep this subject going. Maybe some of the independent, family-owned clubs will pay attention.

Chris Sanford, USPTA Toledo, Ohio

I enjoyed and totally agree with El-len Millers Your Serve in the May issue.

Nigel ORourkeDirector of Tennis

Toscana Country ClubIndian Wells, Calif.

Wisdom of Lessons PastIm writing to say how much I liked Mark Reardens column in the April issue, Respecting the Wisdom of a Lesson Taught Years Ago. Not only was it well-written, but Rearden tells a great story and makes an excellent point.

I had a similar experience as a col-lege student in the 1980s, working as a summer counselor at the Allen Fox Tennis Camp at Pepperdine. Like Reardens friend, Mr. Charlie For-tune, Dr. Fox consistently revealed hidden truths that still astonish me with their profound simplic-itytruths I still share with my own students today.

I love a good memoir, and it frus-trates me that most tennis magazines don't publish much of it anymore. Bravo.

Keith Hayes, USPTA. Marin County, Calif.

We welcome your opinions and com-ments. Please email them to [email protected].


Industry News

The 2015 T.O.M. Conference and Summit were wonderful events that were informative and engaging, with an A list of industry speakers and attendees. These events were examples of how all of us in the tennis industry must work together and share information to promote our amazing sport and spread the benefits of playing tennis. Hats off to the TIA! Jeff Gocke, COO, TennisCT

Thank you for putting on such a wonderful conference. The sessions I attended were educational and informative. During the breaks I was able to make a number of connections, develop business contacts and renew friendships. Clark Corey, Director of Tennis, Carmel Valley Ranch I cannot thank the TIA enough for organizing the Tennis Owners & Managers Conference. I also attended the one a year ago in Charleston, S.C. Both were terrific, with the opportunity to meet others in the industry who have similar challenges, to meet executives with the various companies and to hear leaders in the field express their opinions on everything tennis. It was time and money well spent. Terry Ward, Manager, Frontenac Racquet Club, St. Louis, Mo.

I am so glad I went to the T.O.M. Conference. It was very well organized, the topics were well thought out and the seminars were well planned. It was so informative because there were so many great speakers who shared their experiences and opinions. As a tennis facility manager, I am thankful for TIA for putting this event together. Bram Sada, Manager, Cerritos Tennis Center, California

The conference did a great job of bringing several strong operators that provided expertise and perspectives that were of great value to what we are trying to accomplish with GreatLIFE! Next year I will be bringing several members of our team, because what I learned this year will make us better both operationally and financially.Tom Walsh, GreatLIFE Malaska Golf & Fitness Clubs, South Dakota

The TIA should be applauded. This no-nonsense T.O.M. Conference is a must for anyone who cares about the business of tennis. Topics and speakers are highly relevant and encompass critical areas. Of course, networking opportunities abound. The conference has successfully created an environment and informal settings where you can meet and chat with industry giants. Simply stated, The T.O.M. is good for tennis! Ajay Pant, General Manager, College Park Tennis Club, Maryland

What Theyre Saying About The 2015 T.O.M. Conference

14 TennisIndustry June 2015 Join the TIA . . . Increase Your Profits . . . Grow the Game . . . www.TennisIndustry.org

The second annual Tennis Owners & Managers (T.O.M.) Conference played to an engaged and connected audience in Indian Wells, Calif., in March. The two-day conference, which started immediately after the TIA Tennis Summit, featured top tennis and business speakers and consultants, along with a number of tennis facility owners and managers who spoke on panels, in breakouts, and in working sessions. T.O.M. Conference attendees also spent an evening at the BNP Paribas Open pro tournament.

The feedback on this years T.O.M. Conference has been very positive, said TIA Executive Director Jolyn de Boer. The tennis club and facility owners and managers, and other tennis providers who attended the event, have all been commenting about how useful the presentations,

seminars and workshops have been, in addition to the opportunity to network and share information and best practices.

The event included a Resource Center where attendees could connect with companies

and organizations. We also had legal experts, technology consultants, compensation and staffing experts, retail experts and more, de Boer added. Our T.O.M. Conference Advisory CommitteeDoug Cash, Rod Heckelman, Greg Lappin and Mark

McMahonput together a terrific lineup that covered the bases for club owners and managers.

The TIA is making plans for next years T.O.M. Conference to be in Miami during the 2016 Miami Open.

2nd Annual T.O.M. Conference Educational and Informative

Key Stats Presented At The T.O.M. Conference Average number of participants

in intro/beginner programs is 41, which is down from 57 in 2009.

Average age of tennis teaching pros: 51. Industry needs to get more under-30s and women into the teaching profession.

Retention rate following beginner programs is 61%, which is quite high.

The average tennis teaching pro works 44 hours a week. 65% of pros work over 40 hours a week.

The average income per court is $33,000, which is up 12%.

Court fees have declined from $25 to $21.

On the positive side, the number of members leaving clubs has decreased.

Owners and managers should explore incentives for pros that grow activity, not just book private lessons. At facilities, emphasize growing the game, not just coaching it.

Advisory panel (from left): Rod Heckelman, Greg Lappin, Mark McMahon, Doug Cash, with TIA Executive Director Jolyn de Boer.

Ted Robinson; Sportscaster, Tennis Channel, NBC

Embrace techn1ologyit will bring more people into the sport. Look at different ways to introduce tennis to kids. Every facility should have the Tennis Channel on TV.

Bahram Akradi, Founder & President, Life Time Fitness

Tennis is the least productive square footage of the club, but tennis members stick around, are loyal, social and spend two to three times as much as other types of customers at the club. Tennis members are the most valuable members. Dedication to people and senior management is crucialtake care of them so they take care of the customers.

Kurt Kamperman, Chief Executive, USTA Community Tennis

It is harder to get kids off their digital devices and into sports. Free play is non-existent; every kid is over-scheduled. The tennis player base is aging. We have senior players covered but still have work to do with getting youngsters into the game. Millennial parents are looking for sports that better fit into modern family lifestyles: social, fun, local, shorter time. Are we listening to the marketplace?

John Embree, CEO, USPTA Everyone, including the club owners/managers, has an obligation to emphasize the importance of continuing education for tennis teachers.

Dan Santorum, CEO, PTR A very small percentage of college tennis players want to teach/coach tennis as a profession. Its imperative to reach the kids earlier, in high school, about considering tennis as a profession.

Paul Lubbers, PhD, USTA Senior Director of Coaching Education & Performance

Weve got to be better at selling tennis, not just the clinics or leagues, but selling tennis as a lifestyle, as a way to better your family. There is movement toward licensing [tennis teachers] for youth providers, not just from an education perspective but also from a safety/background-check perspective, because the marketplace demands it.

Peter Burwash, Founder & President, Peter Burwash International

The characteristics of good leaders are: enthusiasm, great creativity, expand horizons, empathy, appreciation. In the resort business, many people in the last seven years have moved from golf to tennis due to the time factor and cost. The strongest leaders are lifetime learners.

Nick Bollettieri, Hall-of-Famer, Coaching Legend

Keep your mission top of mind at all times. You cant be afraid to failits critical to success.

Matthew Stevens, President & CEO, The Bay Club Company

Bring in youngsters through internships from high schools and colleges, both on court and on the business side.

Greg Lappin, Industry Consultant Were in the lifestyle change business, not the tennis business. A team that is aligned, skilled and informed will produce the desired results.

Dr. Jim Loehr, Human Performance Institute Health and happiness enable high performance. Health ignites performance. Take cues from John Wooden, one of the greatest coaches: Seek opportunities to show you care. The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference. Happiness begins with selfless deeds. The No. 1 predictor of engagement is the perception that the coach cares about the player as a person. Repurpose your teams mission away from individual performance to focus on helpingthe team.

Lin Conrad, CEO, California Clubs of Distinction

Be aware of independent contractor vs. employee statusindependent contractor status may not be legal in many instances. Stay on top of the number of hours employees and independent contractors work per week. Too many may open you up to legal action. Make sure appropriate working conditions and breaks are provided.

Doug Cash, Owner, Cash Flow Tennis The No. 1 staff job description is to grow the game. Tennis is a try and buy productget people to try it, and hold their hand while they try it. Get rid of guest fees; it will increase guest traffic 15 to 20 percent. Offer special pricing for members to bring guests.

Dr. Gerry Faust, Founder & President, Faust Management Group

Manage separately and distinctly for short and long term. Have two separate and distinct plans, as well as two separate meetings every monthone for operations and one for strategy. Most of the problems we work to solve every day are symptoms, not problems. Customer needs are the rock. Most organizations are too busy playing whack a moleknocking down day-to-day administrative issues and problems, which takes away from focusing on customer needs. Change your mission statement every two to three years or it just becomes wallpaper that everyone ignores. Make it relevant or business will stagnate.

Join the TIA . . . Increase Your Profits . . . Grow the Game . . . www.TennisIndustry.org June 2015 TennisIndustry 15

Nick Bollettieri

T.O.M. Conference Takeaways

Programming That Works Its important to lower barriers to entry and

get customers playing as fast as possible. Jorge Andrew, Director of Tennis Operations, Lexington County, S.C.

Stop selling lessons and clinics and start selling a lifestyle. Over 75% of kids drop out of activities if they only play once a week; we need to get them playing at least twice a week. Simon Gale, Director of Tennis, Yonkers Tennis Center

Lets start marketing tennis with a focus on fun, fitness and forever, rather than on lessons and clinics. Facebook is a great lead generator. Jeff Gocke, COO, Tennis CT

The value of tennis to peoples lives is greater than the game itself it helps encourage a healthy lifestyle. Lets make tennis less complicated. Tom Walsh, Chairman, Dakota King

Ted RobinsonDr. Jim Loehr

Lin Conrad

Dr. Gerry Faust

David LaSota, Richard Zaino, Randy Futty

One Tool, Many UsesBy Bob Patterson

Racquet Tech


Whether you are a novice stringer or a seasoned veteran, one tool that is second only to the stringing machine itself is the starting clamp. Obviously, it is a great tool to start the stringing process, but it has even more uses that can help stringers do their job. Lets look at a few of the most commonly used.

StartingThis one seems obvious, but I am always surprised at workshops and other places to see so many technicians who do not use a starting clamp to start. Utilizing only the fixed clamps on the machine is certainly acceptable, but using a starting clamp is easier and faster. The most common way is to simply place the clamp on the string outside the frame. With the clamp resting against the frame, tension is pulled (photo 1). My preferred method is to place the clamp on the center string (or second string if your machine mount is in the way) and pull tension for the first string on the adjacent string (2). This allows for pulling tension on each string only once, whereas the common method requires pulling the first string twice (once to apply tension and then again in the opposite direction to remove the starting clamp). The starting clamp can also be utilized to back up your ma-chine clamps. This is especially useful if your clamps dont have great holding power or if youre using a rather high tension (3).

Starting CrossesThe starting clamp can be used instead of the starting knot on a two-piece string job (4), as we talked about in our Racquet Tech segment in the April issue.

Around-the-World or Box PatternsWhen using these pat-terns, you will often find the need to clamp off two strings on the same side of the racquet (5). A starting clamp is the only way to go. I have actually seen technicians utilize two starting clamps plus the machine clamps on some patterns that require special tie-offs that required three strings to be clamped on one side.

Bridge or JumperI have heard it referred to by both names, but whichever you choose, it can be a life-saver (or at least a job saver) if you find yourself coming up a bit short in string length. By placing a piece of scrap string through the eyelets on the clamp to form a loop around the clamp (6), the clamp allows for instant string extension to your machines tension head (7). If you have an extra clamp, you can leave it set up for this to make rescues even quicker. A piece of tubing protects the string as it passes through the clamp eyelets.

So, even if you dont use it for its intended purpose, the starting clamp is an invaluable tool. As with all your tools, make sure you invest in a good one with strong springs and a quality jaw surface. Otherwise, when you apply tension the clamp is likely to become a flying object that does nothing to help you get the job done.

1. Common starting clamp starting position.

2. Alternate starting clamp starting position.

3. Starting clamp position as back up for machine clamp.

4. Starting clamp used for starting crosses in lieu of a starting knot.

5. Starting clamp used in around-the-world pattern.

6. Starting clamp and a piece of scrap string create a bridge when strings come up a bit short. Tubing helps protect the string.

7. Starting clamp bridge allows tension to be applied to strings too short to reach the tension head.

I was conducting a webinar recently and hammering away on one of our themesabout making it easy to buy from your locally owned specialty retailer, while at the same time making it easy to sell for your storewhen a question popped into my head: Why is it so hard to keep it simple?

I waited for an attendee to ask it, and although no one brought it up, it stuck in my head. Local specialty retail is the very heart of small business and small, family-owned retailers in the U.S. You would think keeping it simple would beshould berelatively easy. But too often, the opposite it true. Why is it so hard to keep it simple? Why is it so hard to make it easy in specialty retail?

Product MixOur experience in the specialty bicycle, outdoor and tennis channels have uncovered the same issues relative to the simplicity of the retail process. First and foremost is the product portfo-lio that determines what models and stock-keeping-units (SKUs) your store stocks and you educate and train you and your staff to sell day-in and day-out.

There should be only one final authority when comes to what models and SKUs go into your product port-folioyou! Allow staff input and seek input from your best customers and sales reps, but the final authority is the person who writes the checks.

Be clear and concise in the models and SKUs you select. Strive for a simple Good, Better, Best selection that, wher-ever possible, provides logical steps in value, features and price for your cus-tomers, is easy to understand and sell, and returns a fair profit to your store.

For some models, you may want to stretch to a four-step spread, adding

one SKU to the mix, but do this only after careful consideration and make sure you run the numbers and create carefully thought-out sales forecasts for each and every SKU.

Remember, it isnt your job to make money for your sales reps and suppliers. It is their job to help your store make a fair profit. If they dont agree, you need to do some sorting and supplier selection.

What too often happens is one brand or one sales rep does their job better than the others, and they end up selling you or your buyer on the merits of stocking a broader selection with more inventory commitment, which ties up your open-to-buy and cuts down your inventory turnover and your gross margin return on investment. This may work for them, but it has to be a win-win-win for your store, your customers, and you and your staff.

Displays and SignageNext is merchandising and display, including signage. The same principles apply here: There is one final author-ityyou, the store owner. You may want to seek help with merchandising and display and signage, but its not your suppliers final responsibility, nor do they have final authority as to what your store displays and how it is coordinated

This is part of a series of retail tips presented by the Tennis Industry Association and written by the Gluskin Townley Group (www.gluskintownleygroup.com).

with your Good, Better, Best product portfolio. The guiding principle is, if its in this seasons product portfolio, it goes on display supported by back stock and intelligent, well-thought-out signs and price cards.

Finally education and training. With a simple product portfolio, it is also simple to craft displays and signage that easily point out and explain product step-up features and price/value differences. It all becomes part of a simple, straightforward storythat you and your staff will find easy to un-derstand, commit to and tell over and over again to shoppers and customers.

I think we sometimes lose sight of how much more profitable simple and easy is, or can be, because the consumer-dominated digital world, including the growing complexity of our supply chain, keeps wanting a piece of the action that is going on in your specialty retail store. But it is possible to keep it simple and make it easy and profitable.

Why is Simple So Hard?By Jay Townley

Retailing 138

www.tennisindustrymag.com www.tennisindustrymag.com18 TennisIndustry June 2015

W ith summer around the corner, many of us will step up our outdoor activities and increase sun exposure. The blue skies and warmer weather mean tennis tour-naments, day camps, morning leagues, round-robins and drills with students and members of all ages.

As temperatures rise and the sun gets higher in the sky, it should be an auto-matic reminder to grab the sunscreen and lotion up. But the truth is, we should pursue sun protection all year round, not just in summer.

According to The Skin Cancer Foun-dation, 5 million Americans are treated for skin cancer annually, with more new cases reported than combined incidences of prostate, lung, colon and breast cancers. Think skin cancer is reserved for those over the age of 50? Think again. From 1973 to 2009, pedi-atric melanoma averaged a 2 percent increase per year.

As facility managers and tennis coaches, we should add the sun protec-tion lecture to our lesson plans. After all, tennis players find themselves in the sun during the course of an entire weekend. The tennis court isnt exactly sun-protection friendly (although,

to fabric, look for clothing with a higher Ultraviolet Protection Fac-tor, or UPF. A shirt with a UPF of 30 means the fabric allows only 1/30th of the suns harmful UVA and UVB rays to penetrate the skin. If the fabric says SPF, that means protection against UVB only. A number of tennis apparel manufacturers make clothing de-signed to block UVA and UVB rays. Look for garments with a high UPF rating, such as 40 or 50 and above.

Players and spectatorsand tennis teaching prosshould also use wide-brimmed hats, UV protection sunglasses, umbrellas, towels and Frogg Toggs to help aid them in their fight against skin cancer. Remember, typical baseball-style hats provide no sun protection for the ears and neck, which are particularly vulnerable and often overlooked.

Also keep in mind, standing near surfaces like water or glass can increase the intensity of exposure because UV rays bounce off these surfaces.

Pro shop owners should keep a well-stocked shelf of water-resistant sunscreen of at least SPF 30. Dont forget to add umbrellas, hats and UPF clothing.

Its not just your players who are at risk, but tennis pros and coaches, parents, fans and spectators, too. Keep the products handy that will keep them out on the courts longer.

Shady Dealings

Your Players


Keep your players, and your teaching pros, healthy and on the courts by offering products to protect from the sun. By Robin Bateman

as much as possible, you should have shaded areas near and between courts). Its not only on court when your skin is at risk, before the match or practice, on the trip in the car, your skin takes a hit. UVA rays can pass through glass.

Players arent the only ones who should practice sun protection. Coaches and spectators need to protect their skin, too. The nature of tennis doesnt allow everyone to avoid the sun from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., as guidelines suggest. So, what can we do?

Sunscreen: Skincancer.org recom-mends using a broad spectrum water resistant SPF 30. You should apply 30 minutes prior to exposure and reap-ply every two hours. Sunscreen is a must, says Huntley Sanders, a physi-cian assistant at Georgia Dermatology and Skin Cancer Clinic. If youre rid-ing in your car, walking to your mail-box, you need sunscreen. And not just in summer, adds Sanders. You should wear sunscreen every day, regardless of weather or the season.

Coaches can really impact players habits in this area. Virginia Lane, a 25-year-old coachs assistant, makes a show of putting it on in front of the

8 & Under kids in her program. I never hit the court before reapplying, she tells the kids as she slaps it on her cheeks.

Clothing: While SPF is used to rate sunscreen lotions, when it comes

Comparison Between UPF and SPF Ratings This chart is from the American Melanoma Foundation (www.melanomafoundation.org).UV Protection Rating %UV BlockedVery Good UPF 25, 30, 35 96.0% - 97.4%Very Good SPF 25, 30 96.0% - 97.4%Excellent UPF 40, 45, 50+ 97.5% - 98.0%Excellent SPF 30+ 97.5%


Getting the Word Out in Todays World

Facility Management


We would all agree that commu-nication to club members as well as among staff is crucial. Research has shown that it takes between 10 and 30 touches of communication be-fore people respond to an advertisement. Knowing this stat, at our club, we publicize our events multiple times in several differ-ent forms.

First, we publish an events calendar with all the events for the season. Every mem-ber of the club receives the calendar. Then, we personally create fliers and posters for each upcoming event. The fliers are posted

By Holly Chomyn

on the event bulletin boards inside the pro shop and on the outside patio. Fliers are also displayed on tabletop easels on the patio tables. We make mini fliers, which are smaller 5.5- by 4.25-inch ver-sions, as take-home reminders, as well as Save the Date fliers that advertise events specific to the month.

We purchased a printer designed to print 24- by 36-inch posters. We display our framed posters on easels next to the water stations and walkways. We also send out email blasts weekly. We person-ally call new members to invite them as

well as members who have previously come out to events. Our pros spread the word in their lessons and clinics.

All this may seem like overkill, but we still have members who say, I didnt know anything about it.

Recently, we started two new ap-proaches to get the word out. One is to produce a promo video of an upcom-ing event starring our members. Once they get talking about being in the video, the word seems to get around quickly. People come out to watch the filming and are excited about the event. It seems to stir more personal interest and camaraderie among the members. It also seems that people will look at a video clip with more interest than reading about it.

Another new communication approach we are using is the private social media app called Clubster. Clubster is a social media network for private country clubs where all com-munications stay within the club and do not go out onto the internet. Mem-bers can exchange information within small groups or they can reach out to other members within the network. Staff members are also using it to com-municate with each other and across departments. It is a faster, easier way to communicate using mobile devices.

It seems we will always struggle making every member aware of our events, but by using calendars, emails, posters, fliers, videos, word of mouth and social media, we can say we have our bases covered.

Holly Chomyn is the Head Tennis Professional at the Bonita Bay Club in Bonita Springs, Fla. She is a USPTA Master Professional, USRSA Master Racquet Technician and a USTA High Performance Coach.


Retailing Success

Basic Training Driving sales in your store often involves a simple formula.By Kent Oswald

Whether trying to improve ones game or shortcut a path to greater sales, it is easy to get caught up in the excite-ment of the search for the secret or the new. However, as a brief roundup of recent retail success stories suggests, the recipe for success often is rooted in the more mundane: Execute the basics.

Be Open to Opportunities In St. Paul, Minn., Tennis on Selby has been the sports sole independent outpost on the citys east side for about five years. Owner Deb Irvine welcomes both the hardcore and non-traditional tennis customer into

her 1,000-square-foot shop with a no-pressure atmosphere that encourages active browsing for some customers and just gathering to watch the televised tennis for others.

That approach attracted a local Vietnamese man who saw a need for community building and organized tennis play. On a day soon after the roll-out of the Babolat AeroPro Drive Play, he walked into the store while Irvine was experimenting with

the racquet. His intrigue led to hitting with it, buying it and then introducing it throughout his network. That introduc-tion has led not just to increased string, shoe and accessories sales, but specifically to the vending of repeated shipments of Aero Pros and a level of customer engagement that serves as a conduit of her stores principles to his network.

Testimony of the bridge that has been built comes directly from Irvine, who remembers, Several of my customers were anxiously awaiting their Play racquets and could see that they were available from one of the online retailers immediately. My shipment was stuck in the work slowdown on the West Coast, but because they value having a local tennis shop here in town, they waited until my stock arrived to make their purchase.

Listen to Your Customers Jan Davids original plan for Tennis R Us, southwest Floridas largest tennis specialty shop as of their 2014 move, was to allocate floor space and inventory evenly among all manufacturers. Before opening the Bonita



Springs store, I bought equally from all [and] was some-what rooting for smaller brands, he says. The idea was to let his customers choose what they wanted in a marketing-neutral environment.

Choose they did, zeroing in on Babolat racquets, and causing some rethinking: If Babolat did so well without full support, David says, it was time to get behind the brand. He embraced more opportunities to take advan-tage of the marketing support they offered, and, today, while major and some smaller manufacturers all have their wall space, it is the Babolat line that consistently increases its presence in Davids store, satisfies his growing customer base, and adds to the bottom line.

Have and Convey Faith in the Products You Sell Paradoxical to the advice to trust cus-tomers is the need to build trust with a sales rep and convey faith in a product to players. That is one lesson to learn from Jeff Hawes, director of tennis at

the New Orleans Country Club, whose rep was enthusias-tic when introducing Dunlops Black Widow co-poly string a few years ago. Hawes experience playtesting was as positive as he had been led to believe, which meant a strong order when it became available.

We started off recommending the 16 gauge to keep it from breaking, says Hawes. Members loved it up until about the last 20 to 25 percent of the strings life. He began stringing more racquets with the 17 gauge (often in com-bination with the companys S-Gut strings), which wore out slightly sooner and avoided giving players that dead string experience.

Because of the nature of the club, Hawes is careful to avoid seeming to sell the strings. A favored story is of how he went out for a lesson with one of the better hitting men and made the suggestion that not hitting quite as flat might help keep a few more balls in play and help his game. The player demoed the Black Widow string, came back to Hawes, closed the office door and asked that all his racquets be strung anew and that Hawes stop selling the string to anyone else.

We let members play with it and go from there, Hawes says, a strategy that took a new string from a trusted rep to the best selling string for players who trusted a recommen-dation enough to try it for themselves.

Talk Honestly with the Sales Reps You Trust Chuck Ellis, co-owner of Chuck & Mikes Tennis in Louisville, Ky., has been an enormous advocate of Asics shoesso


much so that he lets them crowd out other brands in his other outlets, which also serve as a source for non-playing customers referred to the shoes by local podiatrists. But when Asics first introduced the BZ100 racquet, Ellis was no fan. He remembers the prototype as a dull-looking stick without shelf pres-ence, and he did not shrink from sharing the impression or feedback about what he believed would work in his store. If [a customer is] going to spend $200 on a racquet, he says, it has to look nice.

But when he looked at the BZ100 Asics ended up putting into production, he saw that his (and presumably others) styling recommendations had been noted. To his eyes it had been given a rich look, with a throat piece that stands out and inspires customers to touch it. Ellis was so impressed with the look and play that he highlighted the racquet as part of the stores demo programcustomers can try a new racquet for a week at a time over a two-month periodand also features it in the middle of the wall. The combination of it all has taken the BZ100 to the second best selling racquet in his store. The racquet isnt yet quite as successful for the store as the shoes, which Ellis says he no longer brings out at the end to close a shoe sale, but as part of the first batch to save himself time, but it is a large step forward from his initial disappointment.

Sell Products that Mesh with Your Stores Expertise and Customer Expectations New Jerseys Tao Tennis Shops owner Gerald Sarmiento sells his store as a place to fine-tune a stick off the wall and get you

the right racquet. As a result, the brand promise of Dunlops iDapt racquet line with its built-in customizing features was a perfect complement to what the store was already providing two large niches of customers, the more demanding adults and high-performance kids.

Playtesting convinced Sarmiento and his staff of the iDapts quality. Its conception as a product quickly de- and recon-structed helped Tao by reducing the amount of time it took to individualize the racquets for demos. This in turn made for easier comparisons not just within but across brands during the week customers were given as part of the racquet demo program.

Additionally, being able to change grip size instead of buying new racquets when a childs hand grew was a big selling point for parents making large investments in their childs develop-ment. Those selling points, as well as in-store marketing and merchandise displays to create conversations about the new product, resulted in an estimated eight of 10 players choos-ing an iDapt over other companies product when purchasing from Tao in the first months after going on sale, as well as one of its hottest launches for a new product and continuing strong sales.


Racquet Technologies

Advancing the Cause Stay up to date on the latest racquet technologies, materials and construction techniques.By Bob Patterson

It seems that everything in our lives is driven by technology. Racquets are no exception. While revo-lutionary advances like the Babolat Play racquets or the Sony Smart Sensor scream technology, there are many other subtle advances in racquets. Manufacturers continue to seek out new materials and

construction techniques to improve racquets. They are also constantly tweaking the designs and integration between the frame and string bed to give player better feel and better performance.

These changes seem to come at a pace that makes it difficult for retailers to keep up. As part of our effort to make sure the USRSA Master Racquet Technician program exemplifies the highest standard of professionalism in racquet service, every MRT is required to complete an annual update test to ensure they are keeping up with the latest technologies introduced in the industry. (Visit USRSA.com for more information about certification.)

Here is a list of the latest technologies being introduced, along with a brief description provided by the manufacturers.

BABOLATFrame String Interaction Technology (FSI)New frame technology that provides a tighter stringing pattern in the redefined sweetspot area (slightly higher than the tradi-tional center of a racquet), along with an optimized woofer

system, to offer more control and consistency on all strokes.

DUNLOPiDaptA revolutionary frame technology that allows players to choose how their frame feels, plays and even looks. Players are able to choose their head size and look, followed by their feel, which is driven by the Shock Sleeve, available in firm, me-dium and soft feels. From there the player chooses their grip size and handle length. The dealer assembles the racquet in minutes. iDapt allows 432 different combinations to be built from just 12 racquet heads.

GAMMAAdvanced Aerodynamic Cross SectionAerodynamic frame shape reduces air resistance and allows easier maneu-verability. Also gives the perfect amount of flex in the head to store power for maximum ball speed.Recessed Bumper GuardBumper system built into the frame for a seamless blend with frame. This prevents less drag and faster racquet-head speed.

HEADAdaptive String Pattern (ASP)Allows racquet to be strung with two different patterns (16x19 and 16x16), utiliz-ing two exchangeable grommet inserts. Changing the number of cross strings changes the spacing between the strings in



the center of the sweetspot, allowing the player to adapt the racquet to what they want.GrapheneXTAllows for an extreme distribution of weight from the shaft to the tip and grip to increase swingweight and raise the sweetspot to maximize power in the modern game. Up to 30 percent stronger and 20 percent lighter and pro-duces up to 10 percent more energy transfer.

PRINCETeXtremeNew Prince TeXtreme frames utilize this high-tech material by positioning it in the shaft and lower hoop with a 45 orientation, resulting in 25 percent less twisting without increasing stiffness or swing weight. This provides more power and plow-through by reducing energy loss at im-pact. It also provides more control and accuracy by maintain-ing good racquet-face positioning at impact. Lower stiffness reduces overall racquet vibration and shock to the arm during play, improving comfort and feel.

TECNIFIBREArmor CapA thicker, wider and longer bumper guard pro-viding better protection with more durability.DynacoreFrame construction featuring unmatched com-bination of flexibility and torsional stability. Solid construc-tion for long-lasting performance. A softer feel for muscle integrity and less fatigue. Better and quicker communication to the hand.

EZ Lock EyeletExtra flat and larger grommets on tie-off holes eases stringing and improves tie-off knot.

WILSONBraided Graphite + BasaltAn elastic and reactive mate-rial combination that improves the racquet flex and increases the balls contact with the strings to provide enhanced feel and greater control.Braided Graphite + KevlarProvides a solid and consistent feel, dampens vibra-tion, and enhances touch and control.High Performance Carbon FiberDeveloped for aggres-sive swings, this premium modulus carbon graphite provides increased frame stiffness for power.Sony Smart Tennis SensorSensor attaches to the racquet to gather data about shots and strokes.X2 ShaftCombines a longer handle for increased feel and leverage on two-handed backhands and a rounded and nar-rower shaft to enable quick grip changes and optimal feel for the opposite hand on forehands.

Advance your own causeand your business, tooby becoming a USRSA Certified Stringer or Master Racquet Technician. Visit USRSA.com for more information.


There are many opportunities for people of all ages to get into tennis and continue to play this sport. But are we doing a good enough job giving consumers reasons to play?

Tennis is one of the only sports you can play all your life, from the youngest ages to the oldest. As tennis providers, we all know the sport has healthy benefits that will keep your body fit and your mind sharp.

But how do we get that message across to regular consumers, who dont (yet) wake up every day thinking about this sport? We need to give people reasons to play tennis that are simple and direct, that everyone can get behind. We need to tell people tennis is great for

whatever ails you, and if nothing is ailing you right now, tennis will keep it that way. We need to tell people that tennis gives you all the benefits of working out in a gym, but its much more fun, exciting and social.

Tennis can be the answer to virtually any type of issue. Want to lose weight? Want to get in better shape and tone muscles? Want to keep your mind sharp and reduce stress? Want to make more friends and expand your social network? Think tennis.

The bottom line: Tennis not only is the sport for a lifetime, but its the sport for a longer, healthier and more complete lifetime.

TENNISADDING YEARS TO YOUR LIFE, AND LIFE TO YOUR YEARS!

Join the TIA . . . Increase Your Profits . . . Grow the Game . . . www.TennisIndustry.org28 TennisIndustry June 2015

Play 3 hours of tennis a week and youll cut your risk of death in half from any cause, according to a Harvard University study of 10,000 people during a 20-year period.

Tennis Burns Calories An hour of singles can burn 580 to 870 calories, depending on your weight, says the Mayo Clinic.

Tennis Keeps Your Heart Healthy The Cleveland Clinic says tennis is an ideal sport for a healthy heart. And a Johns Hopkins study showed that middle-aged men who played tennismore than any other activityhad a significantly lower incidence of cardiovascular disease as they aged.

Tennis Develops, Tones and Strengthens Muscles

Constant movement works out both your upper and lower body.

Tennis Increases Bone Strength and Density

No matter what your age, weight-bearing activities like tennis are important for bone health, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Tennis Improves Flexibility When you play tennis, youre working all your limbs, joints and muscles. An expert panel at ESPN ranked tennis in the top 12 out of 60 sports in terms of flexibility.

Tennis Improves Balance, Coordination and Reaction Time

By moving then adjusting to hit the ball, tennis helps general body coordination, and by constantly judging the timing of the ball, it improves eye-hand coordination.

Health & Fitness

PHYSICAL BENEFITS

MENTAL BENEFITS

SOCIAL BENEFITS

Since tennis requires alertness and tactical thinking, it may generate new connections between nerves in the brain and thus promote a lifetime of continuing development of the brain, according to scientists at the University of Illinois.

Tennis outperforms all other sports in developing positive personality characteristics and physical fitness development, according to Dr. Jim Gavin of Concordia University, the author of The Exercise Habit.

Tennis Develops Your Mind The sport requires critical thinking and problem solving. Tennis keeps your brain active.

Tennis Helps Develop a Work Ethic By improving through lessons and practice tennis reinforces the value of hard work.

Tennis Develops Self-Discipline Regular practice keeps you disciplined in your approach to improvement.

Tennis Helps in Managing Mistakes Being able to move past mistakes is critical, whether in tennis or in life.

Tennis Helps in Problem-Solving and Managing Adversity

Players need to figure the angles, geometry and physics, while also adjusting constantly to match conditions.

Tennis Helps to Manage and Reduce Stress

With the physical, mental and emotional challenges tennis presents, youll increase your capacity to deal with stress.

Tennis Develops Social SkillsYou play with others both across the net and on teams and in leagues. For players of all ages and abilities you can make new friends and expand your social network.

Tennis Time Is Great Family TimeIts a great sport that the whole family can enjoy together.

Tennis Develops TeamworkWhether its playing on a doubles team, or on a league or school team, tennis helps develop your ability to communicate and work together.

Tennis Teaches SportsmanshipYou learn to compete and play fairly with others.

Tennis Improves Your Self-ImageTennis players scored higher in vigor, optimism and self-esteem while scoring lower in depression, anger, confusion, anxiety and tension than other athletes or non-athletes, according to a Southern Connecticut State University study.

Special thanks to Dr. Jack Groppel and his 34 Reasons to Play Tennis, on usta.com.

Join the TIA . . . Increase Your Profits . . . Grow the Game . . . www.TennisIndustry.org June 2015 TennisIndustry 29

Apparel

Group Sales Going after the team businesswhether for clubs, leagues or schoolscan be a nice boost for your store. By Cynthia Sherman


It all boils down to the outfits, and the right outfits are crucial to success. No other sport boasts better clothing options than tennis. Yoga and fitness wear might come close, but tennis has the goods.For a tennis team, theres not much worse than en-countering an opposing team wearing the same outfits. But teams, and retailers, can take heart knowing there are more and more choices out there. There are the obvious go-to appar-el players that many teams stick to, but in recent years there have been some movers and shakers who are making an impact on team wear and they all are adept at the customization that many teams, particularly schools, require.

While team wear can be big business for apparel companies, theres also a very practical reason retailers should consider outfitting teamsit can be profitable. Getting a team of six or eight women all ordering from the same menu from your store, consistently, year after year, easily can help your bottom line. And think about the possibilities if your local middle school or high school has a no-cut tennis team, where potentially dozens of team members could be visiting your shopwhich means plenty of other, non-apparel sales, too.

Team wear is a great business niche because it brings in more business as a whole, especially with womens club teams, says Jen Cunningham, buyer for The Racket Man in Des Peres and Chesterfield, Mo. Ladies come in for their team uniforms and end up buying more fashion-oriented pieces.

Joyce Capuzzi, owner of The Tennis Shop in Collegeville, Pa., notes her store does a great team business year-round be-tween womens USTA, club and high school teams. Servicing

teams bring back a lot of individuals who buy more clothing and equipment, she says. Team business encourages more foot traffic, and thats what you need in a store.

The Indianapolis Racquet Club takes servicing teams ex-tremely seriouslyit works with between 2,000 and 4,000 teams yearly, from middle school to college, in 48 states. With all that volume, Patty Jones, who works on the team-wear side of the business, tends to notice whats working and any trends with team apparel. Pieces have remained pretty consistent over the years, she says. The big changes have been in the sil-houettes.

Asics and DUC Sport have been coming on strong with styles geared toward school teams. Some of DUCs styles are revers-ible for more options. The style and fit is designed specifically for a high school girls tennis team. Asics has aligned with de-veloping young athletes, who it believes will be loyal to their brand for life.

Antigua is a relative newcomer to the team wear arena, but company officials say that team sales are picking up. A lot of Antiguas focus has been on embroidered apparel sales to clubs and retailers.

Some teams are going a different route to lines that have been more fashion-oriented, such as Tail and Bolle. Both manufacturers feature stylish graphics and color-blocking that is appealing to both school and league teams. Tails "Elec-tric Rush" line has been a popular choice for teams this year, and Bolles fashion pieces and High Performance line, such as All That Jazz, are becoming signature team standouts on the court.

BOLLEbolletennisapparel.com

[email protected], 888-977-7272

ANTIGUA (facing page)[email protected] ext. 2221

www.tennisindustrymag.com www.tennisindustrymag.com June 2015 TennisIndustry 31

[email protected]

BOLLEbolletennisapparel.com

[email protected], 888-977-7272

DUC [email protected]

TAILtailactivewear.com

[email protected]


Apparel


Private Enterprise These residential winners are great examples of tennis-court construction.


Fort Lauderdale Residence(Nominated by Fast-Dry Courts Inc.)Architect/Engineer/Specialty Contractor: Fast-Dry Courts Inc.Surface: Har-Tru Sports (ClayTech Membrane, HydroBlend Clay)Court Accessories: Fast-Dry Courts Inc. & 10-S Tennis SupplyFencing: Fast-Dry Courts Inc.


Distinguished Facility-of-the-Year Awards

Private Enterprise I

n 2014, the panel of judges for the Tennis Industry/American Sports Builders Association picked out three residential courts as winners in the Distinguished Facility-of-the-Year Awards. One, a private court in Newton, Mass., was singled out for outstanding

honors. That new, all-weather cushioned acrylic courtsurrounded by a custom-designed fence of Western red cedarwas honored with the other outstanding award-winners in our February issue. The other two distin-guished award winners for 2014 are both in Florida, and both were built by the same company.

The owner for the Fort Lauderdale residence court chose a synthetic clay surface with a HydroBlend infill, which requires less maintenance and water than typical clay courts (the court is conventionally irrigated). The property is nearly surrounded by water, so due to the courts proxim-ity to the water table, the court required a thickened concrete slab because of possible unstable soils. Natural retention swales are used for storm-water management. Vinyl-coated fencing, which is lower at the sides and includes angled corners, complete the award-winning package.

The new residential court in Palm Beach County, which also has a bas-ketball hoop at one end, is a cushioned system over an asphalt base. The owner wanted the court to feel open, so the solution was to use open mesh netting for the fencing, affixed to imported custom marble columns. The netting is a white, high-tenacity polypropylene knotless netting with a white sewn rope border, with high-quality marine-grade cable tensioning mechanisms on the top. The construction site was extremely busy, with other contractors performing other jobs on the property, so the court con-tractor had to juggle schedules and deliveries, but the final product proved a winner. Peter Francesconi


Palm Beach County Residence(Nominated by Fast-Dry Courts Inc.)Architect/Engineer/Specialty Contractor: Fast-Dry Courts Inc.Surface: LaykoldCourt Accessories: Fast-Dry Courts Inc. & 10-S Tennis SupplyFencing: Fast-Dry Courts Inc.

For details on the 2015 Outstanding Facility-of-the-Year Awards, contact the ASBA at 866-501-ASBA or [email protected], or visit www.sportsbuilders.org.

QClamp Replacement

How often should the clamps be replaced on a stringing

machine? I clean them with a tooth-brush when I see build-up on them. I bought my machine used.

AThey're expensive, so don't replace them until they wear out. Some manufacturers re-furbish their clamps, so you get a slight break on the price, but they get your old clamps in exchange.

QPlaytest Stiffness In the conclusion of a recent playtest report, you wrote,

"although it feels stiff during instal-lation it has a soft feeling during play." Then I compared this to the section on Overall Playability. Here, it seems that many more people rate the

string as being not as playable. How do you explain that?

A The reference to stiff in the conclusion is based on how it feels coming out of the package.

The reference to soft in the conclu-sion is based on some of the comments of how the string felt in play, and is a subjective comment probably based on comparisons to other polyester strings. It is not related to the Overall Play-ability section. You will note that in the Overall Playability section, were asking the playtesters to compare the string sample against the string they use most often, which is typically going to be their favorite string.

Q Playtest Tension LossI just read a playtest where you strung a racquet at 60

pounds. After 24 hours (no play-ing) the string-bed stiffness went from 79 to 64, and you refer to that as tension loss. How do you convert Babolat Racquet Diagnostic Center (RDC) stiff

201506 tennis industry magazine

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