UTR Is Not the Problem -People Are
Junior tennis ranking systems for people to be obsessed with have existed for decades. Universal Tennis Rating(UTR) is just another system with its own advantages and disadvantages.
What’s changed is how academies, parents, and players have easy access to seeing the “ratings” thus exposing how much they actually look at them.
In an attempt to have a non-biased why of grouping kids, academies have started organizing drill groups kids based on UTR rating, not hitting ability. In order for kids to move up in groups, their UTR has to move up. This puts pressure on a child to stall their development, focus on winning now, and then hopefully pick up the development again later.
Parents now know the UTR of the majority of kids their child is playing against. When I was growing up parents only knew if a child was good, great or weak! Parents now tell me their child’s opponent along with their UTR.
The average UTR of every college team is now available. The junior tennis community takes advantage of this. They try to game the system so a player can reach the average UTR of their desired collegiate team, giving them a better chance of being recruited. Instead of having a player work as hard as possible and let the chips fall where they may, tournament schedules are being made to get UTR's up.
Since losing to a lower rated player results in a falling UTR, parents are allowing their kids to pull out of consolation matches to avoid a ratings drop. They’re withdrawing kids from tournaments before it’s even started if the acceptance list includes too many kids with a UTR below their child. And this is being done by parents whose child hasn’t ever won a tournament!
UTR isn’t creating practice groups based on rating. UTR didn’t tell parents to look at their child’s opponents rating. UTR didn’t tell people that withdrawing kids from tournaments because their UTR won’t go up was the best way to develop a junior player.
People need to take responsibility for their own actions and conversations. Stop blaming UTR.
If the following actions are taken, we can take a huge step in getting junior coaches, players, and parents back to truly focusing on development:
Parents, forget UTR even exists. If someone brings it up to you just change the topic. If a coach starts talking to you about your child’s UTR, they’re probably not the right coach for your child. Never mention UTR to your child because when you do, you’re causing an emotional riot in them. Every time you mention your child’s opponent’s UTR to them they’re going to remember that. And they’re going to remember that as they’re walking on the court to play their opponent. If the opponent’s UTR is lower, they’re going to feel pressure to win. If the UTR’s are pretty close, they’ll again feel pressure to win because their UTR can really go up. If the opponents UTR is significantly higher, they’re going to be happy with losing a close match because their UTR can still go up. They’ll try to keep it close and once it’s late in the set, they’ll be satisfied and waiting for that opportunity where they lose the match. Losing is okay, but accepting defeat before the match is done is a loser’s mentality.
Academies, start grouping kids on hitting ability again. You’ve separated kids from their friends and hurt their confidence for no reason other than they’ve lost matches. Kids learn to succeed in competition at different times in their development. Winning in competition and being able to give a quality practice to someone is completely different. Take the extra time to get to know each kid to see where they truly belong.
College coaches, never mention UTR to a parent. If they want to focus on that then that’s their problem.
Kids, focus on your long term development. There are thousands of kids who succeeded in the 10’s, 12’s & 14’s divisions that fell off the wagon as they got older. If you’re doing the right things on a daily basis then at some point you will succeed. I promise!
UTR has its flaws but every junior tennis ranking has had its flaws. The bigger flaw is how the junior tennis community now uses and talks about UTR. Most people have the best intentions, but their actions have placed unnecessary pressure on kids at too young of an age, and their tennis experience is being ruined. It’s time to be more responsible now.