The 20th minute is why i stopped playing tennis competitively at 17. I only started playing tennis more seriously after joining my high school team at 14. I had lots of natural talent, athleticism, and lefty topspin but lacked the experience of other juniors. There was such a big emphasis on college tennis and trying to get recruited that i kept getting pushed into playing big open level tournaments to get national ranking points before i was ready. i got sick of driving over an hour to pay $75 to lose in the first or second round to some ultra intense, mini pro robot who never smiles and argues line calls when he’s already up 5-2. If i kept playing unranked satellite tournaments where i could make deep runs i would have continued to win and improve and enjoyed tennis more. I could have kept practicing and playing tournaments at 17, 18, 19, 20 and eventually become good enough to walk on somewhere. Instead i started to hit a wall, got burnt out and quit.
I understand my son went through the same thing. USTA Jr is full of cheats and costs too much money and when players don't see results they are discouraged.
American men's tennis since the mid-90s can be summed up by: Huge serve, Big forehand, average to mediocre backhand (e.g. Roddick, Isner, Opelka, Querrey, Sock etc.). Another problem is what you mentioned at 1:40 - when they play the college system they only face peers of a similar age and not exposed to older and more competitive players in the circuit.
As an American who played competitive tennis as a junior, I've seen many kids coached well with more complete games and not the typical "American" game. Here is my personal assessment of some of the issues: - Too much indoor / hard court tennis. If you do not grow up in Florida, Texas, or Cali, you're playing indoor tennis for most of the year. Many non-academy/local tennis clubs where kids learn to play are even exclusively indoor since they need to make money in the winter. This then leads to most tournaments being played indoors even in the summer, this environment favors the big serve-big forehand game heavily. In Europe kids learn on red clay which is a big part of the ATP tour and favors the all-around game. - Travel; the way the junior ranking system is set up, many kids HAVE to travel very far at a certain point to access the tournaments with more ranking points. I grew up in Chicago, and even in such a major city w/ a lot of players there were 1-2 tournaments max per year that offered a lot of points. My dad would have to consistently travel with me 4+ hours by car just to play in more of these high level tournaments (most kids in these tournaments ended up being from my area as well lol). As you can imagine, burn out rate is super high when you have to travel far and spend a lot of money to lose in the first or second round. Coming from a very affluent family almost becomes a requirement. Not sure if the USTA has addressed this at all in the past decade. - Other sports; Most of the best US Athletes are in basketball, with maybe a few exceptions in other sports who would make good tennis players. You can be the 500th best basketball or football player in the US and make more money than almost every ATP player except for maybe the top 20 or 30. It is also much, much harder to get a university scholarship for tennis than football or basketball because those sports make money for the school and have bigger teams. A junior player I competed against was looking for a tennis scholarship and couldn't get one, but instead he got a football scholarship as a kicker and eventually became a super bowl champion in the NFL - true story. My opinion is that Isner, Opelka, Querrey, and even Fritz are a few exceptions that managed to muscle their way onto the tour by being some of the tallest / strongest guys out there.
I agree, no offensive backhand. They very seldom hit it down the line. Hell, Jack Sock will run in the doubles to avoid hitting a back. Big serves and wait on the forehand.
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"Help create healthy people for society". Some teachers/coaches understand this so well, just like Jedi Steve Jackson does! Thank you for this great interview!
Hey there! The algorithm dropped me into your channel a few weeks ago and I've enjoyed it. Today, it spat out this video while I was getting ready for bed. I know this is 2 years old, but I was fascinated by this as someone who grew up in Bradenton and currently lives less than a mile from IMG. I've also known Nick since I was a little kid. In fact, the old Boliterri academy courts now belong to the local school district. They are the closest courts to my house and I play on them a couple times a week. They are usually empty. IMG is big here. It employs a lot of people and you can't go anywhere without a bus full of sun tanned young kids in athleisure being shepherded around by someone (especially Chipotle). But I want to tell you a brief story that also maybe gets to the heart of why tennis is floundering. IMG stands for International Marketing Group. You'd never guess that based on how little outreach they do. The other day, I went to dinner with my father. The men's finals were on in Cincinnati so we wanted to go to a sports bar for a burger and beer and watch the match. When we walked in, the finals weren't on any tv. No problem, it's a sports bar with satellite, we just asked the waiter to throw on Tennis channel. They didn't have it. This sports bar is less than a mile from IMG as the crow flies and you'd never know it. It's not a big franchise either. This is a local spot that's been around for decades. Despite the ubiquity of IMG students around town, the company itself is shut up in its enclave. My father is an extremely active member of the community, but when I asked him if IMG ever really worked with the city or school district, he drew a blank. I know a lot of people who worked with IMG. About half my high school class were IMG students who left at noon every day to go train. I actually trained there for baseball myself at one point (I did the reverse of the video, I hit a wall with baseball and switched to tennis in my teens). But the IMG kids were never fully a part of the class. They travel in little bubbles around town with their adult keepers and return to the enclave. And that's the problem. They are here but they aren't present. IMG can't even promote itself and its presence to little old Bradenton. Outside of tennis, no one's ever even heard of this place (unless you love Tropicana orange juice). It still feels weird hearing it talked about on Tennis Channel so casually, like everyone knows what Bradenton is. But while everyone here is aware of IMG, it has little visible impact or interest in promoting tennis or any other sport for that matter. And that's true of a lot of the secondary academies around here. They exist in their own bubbles. The nearest local tennis store is in the next city over, Sarasota. If you want gear, your choices are a poorly equipped Dick's or Walmart. Otherwise, you've got some exclusive club pro shops or the internet. It's a shame. This is tennis mecca, all greats make a pilgrimage here at some point. But you'd never know it. I don't care if it's IMG, the USTA, or someone else. But tennis needs an advocate at the local level. I'm in my 30s. My best friend played and loved football growing up. He has a kid now and will never let him play that sport. This is a common sentiment among many I know. This is a golden opportunity for tennis to be the alternative. It's a low cost sport to start and all you need is a wall, a ball, and a racket to entertain yourself. But no one is interested in promoting it. Certainly not IMG, who just built a massive new football/soccer stadium. You'd think we'd have a local torunament to show off the up and comers. Maybe host a 250 event. My dad said we used to, back when Nick was the man. But not now. And that's the problem.
This we helpful for me to think about parenting. My kid is not even one yet, but I am reminded of a lot of what I need to be as a father. I can apply these principles to so many things besides tennis. Thanks so much!
Terrific interview with Steve Jackson. Many of the points he makes are spot on. One other key factor are clay courts. American boys are used to the serve +1 which are facilitated by fast hard courts at the local level. They don't learn to construct points the same way European boys have to on clay. When the tour slowed down the courts, it put the emphasis on players moving, constructing points and having a solid all round game which is facilitated more in clay court tennis. By the way i had the pleasure of watching Ryder Jackson play in the Juniors in Norcal and he had one of the sweetest all court games around...well done Steve!
@@codyross1000 yeah i dont know why. chang has been in 3 major finals and has 34 titles including 1 major. Roddick has been in 4 major finals and has 32 titles including 1 major title yet he is remembered all the time. very similar careers between the both.
I'm 15 and started tennis about 3-4 years ago with a Head TI-S6 that my parents got from a random sports store (I've moved to a Babolat Pure Aero Since then, used that for a couple years and now switching to a more control oriented frame as I feel I can generate the power myself. The Blade 98 16x19 V7 and Yonex Vcore Pro 97 310g are my top candidates. Any other recommendations by chance?) I've been through most of the American popular sports: Baseball, basketball, soccer, football, and the only one I really stuck with for a little while was baseball..... that is until I played tennis for the first time at a local school summer camp with my friends. Ever since I never really got competitive until this year; late 2019 and 2020. I'm really considering putting the effort in and moving from my local club that I've been practicing with for a few years to my local Tennis Academy that's supposedly pretty hardcore (Manchester Athletic Club or MAC for short) I really want to put the determination and effort into tennis and so far I've really been enjoying it.
Frankly, the nail was hit on the head mid video. Europeans train at the exclusion of all else and so they succeed. Americans don't and with all due respect to your guest, the European success directly contradicts his way of coaching by pushing other choice instead of making "the best". Frankly, that any coach is trying it the way he is, trying to wait until that "passion for tennis over other sports" expresses itself, only highlights how much the passion for tennis is lacking in America overall. That lack of passion IS the problem. Tennis just isn't seen the same way as it used to be. You know what else has dwindled as much as tennis' popularity? Country clubs. The two were synonymous with each other. Now, most country clubs I've known/traveled by have torn out their courts and are little more than wedding/banquet halls with open public golfing.
Great insights. The one thing he left out - bad coaching. Roddick won the 03 USO and the focus became ‘big guys with monster serves and FHs.’ Isner, Johnson, Querrey have weak BHs and returns. So their careers were limited. Thankfully Fritz, Paul, Fratangelo, and other young players are getting the BH reps in.
IMO opinion the game has changed but American tennis hasn’t. Even in comments on YT channels how many Americans do you see trashing western grip, heavy top spin, baseline play without coming to net, defensive play, and even insisting one handed backhand is the only way? Sooo many. It’s the American nostalgia. And it’s not just America it happened in the UK before the US. Not producing champions because stuck on the old style. The game changed. Poly strings. Slower surfaces. Coaching western grips and extreme spin and baseline play and defense. American coaches for the most part have not changed that much. Coaches I came across as a kid in the 90’s were all pushing people to play like McEnroe or Sampras. Even today I see coaches trashing the modern game. Also the changes to the surfaces and strings put a bigger premium on endurance and defense vs speed and power. That favors soccer players vs American sports. So Europeans exposed to soccer are doing better. Just having a good serve, FH, and volley isn’t gonna cut it anymore. Michael Chang would have done much better in this era.
Good video, thanks, agree on many points. Have lived in Europe and know the differences. About the Williams sisters - much respect for them and their parents/family for the supporting, enduring and committing through it all as it was the strong foundation needed to sustain their long term success in tennis.
American tennis has put to big of a price tag on the spot. Kids can’t go out and just enjoy playing it like others sports. When you show up to play basketball, no cares what “equipment” you have and you just play (for free in most cases). Kids like to mimic their friends and parents, if they don’t see them getting onto the courts enjoying it, the child won’t pursue it. In the economy we live in today, it’s upwards to $30 for groups and $65+ to have someone give you 30 minutes of their time teaching how to play. No-one paying for that can show a child to enjoy something when the time is being monetized and usually for little results.
If you analyze Federer, Murray, Djokovic and Nadal's forehands, they are totally different than what is being taught in a very high percentage of clubs. A former Swedish tennis star was asked a similar question about the state of tennis in Sweden, which used to dominate. He said teachers get stuck, and that they teach what used to work and not what works now. There is a gigantic market for mediocracy in the USA. A kid who won that states literally flew to Spain to work on his forehand. He could have driven 10 minutes to my house. There are a lot of reasons we stink at men's tennis, but one of them is the teaching. The teachers teach what used to work or what will still work against the other weak towns and just take your lumps when you play against an elite town which will coincidentally be very wealthy.
Remember Stefan Kozlov who was coached by pat mcenroe. He disappeared. Not to offend your guest but I think something is troubling in the USPTA. Weapons like big serve big forehand are important but we lack baseline point construction. His refusal to answer at 32:00 is the problem. Be blunt so we can call out the reality.
I think Stefan Kozlov is from South Florida and mainly coach by his parents (his academy so I read) most of his life. I seen him play on TH-cam once or twice. Is obvious he has tennis skills (helps when your parents owns a tennis academy), but really not much physical talent (not big/tall, not very fast, not very strong) compared to most pro tennis players. He was never really projected to be top pro, maybe mid-level at best. He won alot during junior years, but not as impressive as Donald Young.
Great analisys! Here in Argentina, when journalists or people around local tennis is asked for the reason about we only have a single one top ten right now instead of 4 or 5 top tens like 15 years ago, the general explanation reduces to exchange rate of our local money related to U.S. dollar, because the succesfull tennis is mainly in U.S.A....
Here is my two cents worth of why American tennis is not where it should be. 1- if you want to be a really good tennis player, you need to start them with soccer. Develop The legs. If you cannot get to the ball on time, you can’t hit the ball. 2- we must make a bigger investment in clay courts in the USA. And have more kids play on clay courts, developing the strategies, tactics and most importantly “patience”, willpower and determination to grind out a win. Not by hitting a forehand at 1000 miles an hour, but by the use of smart tactics, sheer will and determination to win. You’re also working those legs out on clay. 3- The money issue. There’s way too much money on the top, not enough going to the top 100 players. There needs to be some adjustment so that you can make a decent living if you’re in the top 50 to 100 players. Otherwise, a lot of talent is just gonna drop out and go sell real estate or stocks or whatever the hot product happens to be at the time. And that’s my two cents worth.
KORDA KORDA KORDA KORDA !!!!!!!! KORDA is the next big upcoming STAR ⭐️ !! The kid has it all. The pedigree, a family of athletes. Dad played professionally. Sisters are legitimate stars on the LPGA tour. He has the backing financially although he doesn’t want things handed to him. He has raw talent and has risen at a fast pace in a short time. He has the size. Tall, lean and aggressive. Cool calm composure. I’m surprised he wasn’t mentioned at all in this video or in the comments section. I know this video was 1 year ago but still. SEBASTIAN KORDA . Remember the name.
Steve finally said what I have been saying for a long time, the tennis players today are not real gifted athletes, they just know tennis, skilled in hitting from the baseline, thats it, and secondly, my opinion, they are not taught right, they stand on the baseline and the S/V has disappeared, which is the most athletic move one can make on the court, and it has disappeared. The more advanced the racket is, the less need to S/V, why should they just stand at baseline and bang the ball, it's not a real athletic skill to perfect. Today's racket's have allowed the 'less than' athletic child to enter the game.
Such a great video. I think it's fair to say that it's not so much the commercialization of American sports, in the classic sense of an academy with a business model for making $$$, but it's the INSTITUTIONALIZATION of youth sports in America, that is sucking the enthusiasm of young naturally talented athletes away from particular sports. If you look at soccer in the US vs Europe, USA is now 100% institutionalized right down to 8 year olds who have to hook into a US Soccer sanctioned team in order to play competitive soccer. It's no longer possible to just walk onto a field and play a pick up game with other kids in most of America. And tennis in most of USA, outside of FL, NY, CA, maybe a couple other places, has only nominal institutional infrastructure in place to compete with that mindset (a mindset I think is unhealthy, BTW, but one that nontheless is how American society has moved). JTT was an attempt to do that, as was bizzaro "quick start" tennis. Meanwhile you can barely find a legit tennis shop like Tennis Spin in most of the "major" midwest markets. I mean not one. They have been put out of business by online shops. Meanwhile tennis pros are able to fill their schedules just hitting with middle aged home-makers and "want to stay sharp" retirees. The money flows for them by books 12-hour days, not by developing supportive, nurturing relationships with super-talented kids, who, on a dime, might leave the area when their parent gets a job offer, or, even worse, decide to go off to an academy once they start knocking on the door of high national rankings. If you look at the sports the US tends to do very well at in international competition (so leaving out American football, baseball, and basketball... where USA just plays with itself), most of those sports claim the padawan at a tender age and demand year-round training. Gymnastics. Swimming. Skating. These sports grind up and spit out kids for all the reasons Coach Jackson mentioned - mental fatigue, injury, costs, etc. How has women's hockey boot-strapped itself? One way has been picking up the cast-off 10-year-olds from ice skating, whose coaches/parents didn't see gold medals in their future. To adopt a successful strategy, US mens tennis needs to become more adept at picking up those cast-off's: the 5-star athlete whose parents pull him from football after the third concussion, or the soccer star whose parents saw a near guaranteed college scholarship nearly go up in smoke on an illegal tackle that merely resulted in a 2 weeks of rehab vs. 6 months and surgery. And this is where things go really south for tennis as an individual sport, because unlike most technical sports that have a crew structure, where the new guy can learn from the person above him, tennis primarily employs a harem approach, i.e., favoritism and currying favor. Coaches often allow a player/family to believe that their success derives from the quality coaching. And therefore when the coach starts to spend the time necessary on a freshman who hasn't paid his dues, hasn't been with the coach for years, etc., it is seen as a betrayal. The top player who sees a nobody who has transferred in from playing another sport nipping at their heels feels as though their coach is favoring someone else and sinking them. This kind of thing is true also for music at the elite levels of youth music competition -- something which is very similar to tennis. That leads to problems and ultimately can jeopardize the ability of the coach to survive -- another reason why as a business decision, it's safer to rely on the patronage of middle-aged and retired folks than parents of would-be stars. I can say that even tennis coaches are a jealous bunch when it comes to players. Instead of embracing the idea that a player will be better if they learn from many masters, many coaches will take it personally if a player moves to another coach, even if it turns out to be a temporary matter of whose schedule had openings that worked with a parent's other commitments. Which brings us back to the first point... there is no country that programs it's youth sports more than USA. Ironically, while the pathway to pro tennis tournament tennis remain highly institutionalized, teenagers still make spontaneous plans to head to the public courts and hit with their friends (where they can still find public courts - that's a whole other problem) far more than with any other sport except possibly basketball. And at the HS level, a huge amount of interest in the sport comes from that caliber of player - kids who took a year or two of lessons and play with friends on weekends when they are bored. Those kids then do relatively well playing amongst themselves, but when they come up against a staked team with USTA kids, they get clobbered. And for the most part they laugh it off, because for them, it's a social sport, not a competitive sport.
The point with the college system is very true. While college sport is a great way for good athletes to play on a semi-professional level, it is not a top level competition for those, who want to end at world class level. The college system clearly is, no matter how competitive it still is, a massive step below that. This argument obviously doesn’t come into play for the US sports like basketball, baseball or American football, which are not played outside the US with few exceptions. For those athletes, the idea of going to college is still fine. But for any athlete playing a global sport, like tennis or soccer, college is not what brings you to the very top, what makes you a superstar, what earns you a grand slam.
14:19 This response is inadequate and is one of the reason that U.S. tennis hasn't produced a solid top 10 tennis player in almost 2 decades. If a kid comes to you and tells you that he wants to go pro, or if you see a kid who is a hard worker and wants to dedicate to going pro, you had better encourage it enthusiastically and either take on the job or send them to someone who can. Coaches are the problem, not the kids because kids do not doubt themselves until an adult tells them that they can not do something. In other nations, the end of your tennis journey is professional and college is your fall back. In the U.S. it is the opposite. ANYONE can play pro tennis as long as you have the money to travel to the tournaments and have the ability to sign up for a tournament. A first round loss in a Futures event will give you 1 ATP point. To qualify for that event, you either need a high enough ITF ranking or go through the qualifying rounds. Generally these Future events have players in the 12-14 UTR range. This is absolutely attainable if you prepare a junior in the right way and if they have the drive and means to get there. Quit it with the Mediocracy! You can still compete on the pro tour, while going to college. College tennis is NOT for everyone.
Tennis is a super hard sport to make money at. Only the top 400 players can make a living at tennis. All the money is made at the top. You are competing against the best in the world. Tennis is a super hard, technical sport. It is not realistic to plan to make money at tennis. It is better to stay in school and be a doctor, nurse, lawyer, pharmacist, etc. Getting a profession is a smarter bet than trying to play pro tennis. I love tennis, but it is not a smart idea to play pro tennis for momey.
RondelayAOK agreed, also most US parents can’t afford paying lessons. It is very expensive to have private coach. There was already an interview here in this channel that the girl got full scholarship for college. But her family had spent much more money on her tennis than the actual scholarship.
You're being generous with that top 400, narrow it to top 200. A top 400 is playing futures and staying even in therms of what they spend vs what they make, if not having to pay to work.
Leonardo Gatti Thanks! I cant believe how top heavy tennis is! All the top players make almost all the money! It took me 30 years to get to 4.5/5.0! Its a hard sport!
@@johnyang1420 yeah, it's a very hard sport to make money professionally, specially when you compare with team sports like soccer. I mean, if you stop to think that you need to be among the best 200 people in your job just to make some money after investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process of getting good at it, trying to go pro playing tennis is not a very wise investment
I apologize for blowing up the comments section. You made a good topic as you always do and it really struck a nerve here obviously. I hope it’s for the best.
Not enough money in tennis to attract the best athletes. Compare Challenger prize money of $10K to golf, baseball, or basketball money. Plus tennis is physically more grinding and much harder than golf or baseball. Think about how many hundreds of balls a Challenger finalist hits during 4-5 matches versus a golfer who only hits about 280 strokes in four days. The last great athlete in American tennis was Sampras who could’ve been a HOF baseball pitcher. BTW, only the top 5-10 guys out of college each year can make $$ on the tour.
Maybe... you have to realize that during the decades off the 70' till the 90' ..USA was the Nº1 country of the world in terms of performance training, knowledge and efficiency in tennis. As the world developed their's economy and culture towards sports, this difference became shorter year by year. If you check the top 20 ranks during the 80' and 90' you `ll see names such as Sampras, Currier, Chang, Agassi, Martin just to mention the first line of american's players were common residents of the ATP tour 's elite. Today if you check the 2020 ATP's ranking you will see that spanish, argentinians and french players fills almost 50% of the top 100 players...and the other 50 places are shared by players from the rest of the world..including USA.
Grew up playing on terrible rough full of cracks courts with nets that had holes in the local park. Only later started playing at clubs at high cost $$ Wouldnt trade the humble beginnings for anything.
a huge problem in pro tennis is that only around top 200 players can earn well and live from it... players who are below that, after they finish their career at some 33-35 years old, what else is left for them? coach kids at a local club? not a very enticing prospect. compare that with soccer, where you have tens of thousands of players making decent money and able to live from their earnings after they retire.
1. Elitism. You have to be very connected (even more so than other sports) and almost have to come from a well-off family in order to get the proper court time and training required to become a full-fledged pro. This wasn’t as much of a problem in the past. But since the economy has been crap for over a decade now and the middle class has shrunk, there’s less opportunities, and therefore less Americans are making it through the “system”. 2. Consolidation of media & choosing other sports. The media has become heavily consolidated since the TCA of 1996, with 5 companies owning basically everything you see and hear on TV. As this has happened, sports TV has become compressed, and almost all of it is about the Big 2 sports now. While tennis has always been behind the major sports leagues in popularity, it got enough of a share of people that were interested to keep American tennis going. But now that it’s become strictly a niche sport in the US, with barely more than lip service on ESPN & the like, even more kids are choosing football and basketball. 3. Lack of clay. Since the advent of poly strings tennis has become a more physical game that requires patience and endurance. Where are these skills best learned? Clay. Unfortunately the US has always for some reason not had many clay courts, and most of the ones that DO exist are Har-Tru green clay courts, which are fine, but not as good as “real” red clay, like is found in Europe. Hence why there hasn’t been a competent American on clay in this century, and why they have in general tended to be 1-dimensional bashers. Playing exclusively on hard courts doesn’t teach players the value of strategy and patience. These are what I would cite.
I've always wondered why professional US women's tennis are more successful than men's tennis. Coach Jackson just gave a logical reason why. For men we have football, baseball, basketball or ice hockey as a career in sports. For women, there are only tennis or golf.
Another interesting point about the genders in the same sport will be the public exposure and the amount where commercial sponsors would be marketing the tournaments. Also the promotions and the perceptions of the viewer audiences in various sports as well, tend to gravitate with the popularity and the viability to make a decent living as professionals. Women's tennis and golf have been around for a long time on television compared with other professional sports participated by them. Both sports in the professional levels are fairly close to even in terms of tournaments' earnings and sponsorship revenues with their male counterparts than many sports. Also Track and Field promotes both genders equally too to the most part. I don't want to bring up the sensitive issue of the US Women's National Soccer Team and their on-going legal fights against the US Soccer Federation several years back for their skewed inequality of pay. I am all for equality for everyone when it comes to all aspects of equal work and pay. The US Women players definitely had a case here. However, the huge divide of the gap where the revenues being generated for a FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup is night and day. In the US, you can say the same for the NBA and the WNBA where the women's professional games still struggled to have adequate paying fans to watch. Most of the ladies have to play all year round with two professional leagues or juggling with another career during the off-season. The worst case in Women's professional hockey where world class players often forked out their own expenses and playing at near empty arenas for years, leading to league folded recently until it was restructured and bailed out by the National Hockey League themselves. I believed more ladies participating in Tennis and Golf because they received worldwide exposures. Also mostly as individual sports, they can stand out and garnering more marketing than in team sports, where the stand out players often would be recognized and having similar opportunities instead.
I think....without listening to all of this video, despite its interest, I feel I've heard most of these reasons/excuses previously. Look at the array of countries that are now playing tennis seriously and in vast numbers. It's simply not like the 70-80s. The problem lies in the fact that essentially America is a wealthy country where opportunities exist & there are a myriad of distractions. By contrast, many of the players from other countries do not live in so called wealthy and opportunistic countries. They literally cannot afford to be distracted from their goal. Thus they have genuine desire to train, not this push by mum and dad mostly. Their lives literally depend on it. Others here have commented on outdated styles of play, training and so on that no doubt likely all play a part. Why not go surfing if you live on the coast, chase girls, enjoy the college lifestyle, play a team sport....the alternatives usually seem way more attractive to American mens tennis players, than doing the hard yards with steely focus. It's a super tough individual sport and those that make it fit that mold! Cheers
This is exactly what I wanted to say!! There's a reason the majority of high level players have come from Eastern European countries in the last two decades. The inherent culture is far more hard working and there are far fewer opportunities. When you're talented at a sport, you pursue it to the absolute death because that sort of chance is rare. In America (relatively speaking) it's an incredibly commercialized and homogenized lifestyle where there are so many opportunities and you're given so many chances that, if things are too tough, the stakes are much lower. If you dont succeed it seems to matter far less.
Interest in tennis has declined due to the fact that it is televised less today than in the past. We used to have all 4 slams on television as well as Davis Cup on major channels. Now it's only the semis and finals maybe and everything else is on espn2. In addition American College tennis has become dominated by foreign players which leaves less spots for American players. Also America offers kids many more sports like soccer baseball football and others that other nations dont. Add to these factors that the usta hasn't been interested in grass root development, they are more interested in identifying and supporting the cream of the crop. So put all this together and it is a wonder that any kids play tennis at all.
Biggest problem is most coaches are racist assholes who will take money from the young players parents but not really help the kids. When you do to USTA Jr level there are bad habits and cheats and scoring is done by players so a good player might not win and it starts to hurt confidence and moral. I have tried finding good coaches in NJ and in AZ and its a rigged game. USTA needs to have real tennis camps not run by colleges to collect money and checkout a few possible stars. Real pros need to come teach tennis, physical fitness, diet and sports psychology. And we need to do that for thousands of players to find a Serena, Djokovic, Federer or Nadal. We can do it but the attitude to charge more and do less by coaches has to change. We need to look at African Americans and Asian kids who can make it bigger but need help. Parents need help so they can get best results for money spent.
Do you have any estimation of when the new pro staff is coming out? I know you said sometime this year, but do you have any idea when this year? Love your videos!
I agree with you, missing Michael Chang from the list is a bit ashamed, I am old enough to see Chang beat Lendl at the French Open, who would have thought, David against Goliath in tennis.
A lot had to do with the Tiger Woods effect. Many parents ( especially fathers) believed they could have the next Tiger, removed their sons from tennis to golf. Also in America tennis is not as popular now as it was in the 80's and 90's. Tennis was a top 5 sport back then but now it is number 10. Last, American males have access to more popular sports like football (the number one sport in America), and baseball (the number 2 sport) where as their european counterparts don't.
I think Andre Agassi and his kid is perfect example why tennis is downhill is the US. I am sure he and his wife Stephie Graf can train their son to be a pro tennis player. But they didn’t, he’s son choose baseball, and going to play at USC(correct me if I am wrong). Agassi pretty much admitted that tennis is a very lonely sport. He hated for most part. And same reason he never push his kids towards tennis..
Great channel very informative. There is a lot of good points on this video. I am a Spanish coach. And one thing that’s incorrect is that tennis is the number 2 sport in Europe. Simply not true.As in USA in Europe it’s 3rd or 4th plate. In Spain main sport is soccer followed by basketball, then maby maby tennis . France and England 2nd probably Rugby. Rest of Europe 2nd is mostly Basketball. So no excuses.
Sorry man its the truth. Even if tennis the fouth most important sport in europe at best 7th or 8th here. Its not comparable at all. The best athletes here are cherry picked early!!! Tennis is probably even 9th in some areas. Football, BBall, soccer, baseball, hockey, boxing, mma, then you get to golf, tennis, track and field etc.
My theory ... maybe height is the problem. The tall guys who dominated in their junior days become too tall to be competitive or sustain an injury-free career. Top guys tend to be 6'1" or 6'2". When was the last time we had a 6'6" number 1 or a Slam champion. Del Potro was probably the tallest Slam winner in the past decade and he has injury issues. So juniors who are disadvantaged by height should persevere on.
Not sure I agree with you. Many of the upcoming stars are much taller: Medvedev, Berrettini, FAA, Zverev, Hurkacz, Tsitsipas - all 6’ 4” or taller. I’d say they are the new prototype. Will be interesting to see whether that group starts to win slams. Or whether you are right, and the winners continue to be shorter (not counting the big 3).
@@nicks6813 You could well be right. Those are all very promising players. Guess we'll know in a couple of years if they can stay healthy. Anyway, based on my height theory, the next-gen guys who fit the mould are the likes of Thiem, Shapovalov, Rublev. Not forgetting de Minaur.
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When he says Europeans can travel across countries easily, think about Australians. They basically have no where to go until they start to play pro tour.
Basketball, football, hockey, and baseball have always been around as alternatives to tennis. The US had world number 1's and consitent grand slam winners through the early 2000's. What no one wants to talk about is the lack of access to quality youth tennis programs to Americans of African origin. If you're making a decision about where to spend precious resources...it isn't going to be tennis. We are leaving future grand slam winners on the table.
Tell George Soros to fund an all black tennis team. I will destroy them and any other here in Cali. That is one of the stupidest comments I have heard in my life. White people used to fight with great swords back in the medieval ages. What were blacks doing back then? Insulting each other for two hours straight? Throwing crap at each other? Give me a freaking break haha. Most pro athletes are white it just happens that a lot of star NBA and NFL players are black.
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Another thing that drove American men's tennis was the fact that the players weren't best buds off the court. Many of them didn't really like each other that much off the court. There were always bitter rivalries between them. Scores that needed to be settled on the tennis court. Not anymore.
In my opinion, the NCAA is good for "American" sports like basketball and American football, but it's bad (in terms of sporting success) for non-mainstream/not american sports like tennis and soccer. What would you rather do: get a degree paid for at an above average college, and enjoy playing sports, or start making money at 14 as a pro player (small sponsorships perhaps but not that common I think) or doing ITF Juniors. From a tennis perspective, the latter might be better as a good personal coach (expensive) would develop a player better than college (possibly underfunded) programs. From a person perspective, a degree can go beyond playing days, up to retirement.
Im from Argentina, so neither Europe or the US, the main issue to me as an outsider is the point you guys talked about the different sports offered to athetically gifted kids out there, tennis is too much grind for too little return, its a solitary sport, theres less money to make... it has too many negatives.
We have the best basketball players in the world. If we could get those athletes into tennis then we could dominate. As someone from the black community tennis isn't really a sport the youth are exposed to. I think if we expose all our youngsters in every community to the sport then we will churn out some great players.
What's going on with American men's tennis?... The rest of the world caught up and now most who are good enough to play elite tennis can now also play and there are only so many places in all tournaments
20 years of Patrick McEnroe and Jay Berger running the show for player development is why men's tennis is what it is today. Favoritism and glamour. They did nothing to develop tennis outside of the prestigious parents.
Hmm agree with some of his points but ultimately I think there’s a softness to American tennis, there seems to be a safety ‘college’ net in American tennis that Europeans don’t have as someone from the uk I think most of our top ranked players are over achieving, this is the opposite for Americans they have far greater numbers who play tennis I don’t think many go onto other sports as he claims. college tennis is huge in America and guaranteed there’s far more participation in the USA for tennis than many places. You literally can’t play tennis here in the uk unless you pay a significant membership fee. He’s protecting his livelihood with some statements. There should be a push to get Americans out of college tennis quicker and onto the tour.
I'm seeing a troubling pattern developing here and it doesn't seem that people are recognizing the problem. If a player's parents have a gifted athlete for their son, they should not be thinking of how much money he may be worth in the future. The boy should be led by his desire to play tennis. If he likes dating more for a year, he will probably come back. If he's more attracted to baseball, football, etc., then so be it. Our culture is what it is. We shouldn't be influencing our kids to like what pays more. And what of his potential otherwise? I believe that comes from having your heart fully in what you're doing with your life. Then there's the seduction part of it. Usually the parents decide which of the boy's interests they think is a sound investment. BUT WHAT DO THEY KNOW ABOUT IT? And on the other side we have an over-developed junior program. The young player finds himself in a deep chasm between his parents and the USTA or the like. And why so many stops along the way to a pro career? Couldn't we have tennis communities (=
I enjoy your TH-cam videos. I really do. You’re not as slick as Tennis Warehouse so in a weird way that’s your appeal. You are more personable compared to TW or Tennis Express. But if you are going to bring special guests you need a wider shot to include both you and your guest within the frame. That will make your videos more appealing and better looking. Keep up the good work. You be you.
Another problem now days kids don't do any exercise if you don't push they just want to play video games or social meda parenting play a big role in all that.
I also believe that european players play on clay. Clay courters develop patience, stamina, and strategy better than on hard court players. Every country in europe has different styles and those players have a more variety of competition during the early years.
@@waingro5834 Agassi, Courier, and Chang trained at the Nick Bolletieri Academy during the 80's. The academy had several clay courts besides indoors and hard. Sharapova and Seles also trained there and both won the French. Now a days every American just train on hard courts.
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Tennis, in general, is missing exposure. As a high school coach, boys and girls are introduced to basketball, soccer, softball, lacrosse (recently) and football. For some families, the cost is minimal. Athletes from low income homes aren't picking up a tennis racquet. Here in Virginia, predominantly black high schools are lucky to even field a tennis team. During Covid, many teams shut down. Public parks tennis (in some areas) is dying. The sport has gone back to the country clubs.
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The 20th minute is why i stopped playing tennis competitively at 17. I only started playing tennis more seriously after joining my high school team at 14. I had lots of natural talent, athleticism, and lefty topspin but lacked the experience of other juniors. There was such a big emphasis on college tennis and trying to get recruited that i kept getting pushed into playing big open level tournaments to get national ranking points before i was ready. i got sick of driving over an hour to pay $75 to lose in the first or second round to some ultra intense, mini pro robot who never smiles and argues line calls when he’s already up 5-2. If i kept playing unranked satellite tournaments where i could make deep runs i would have continued to win and improve and enjoyed tennis more. I could have kept practicing and playing tournaments at 17, 18, 19, 20 and eventually become good enough to walk on somewhere. Instead i started to hit a wall, got burnt out and quit.
I understand my son went through the same thing. USTA Jr is full of cheats and costs too much money and when players don't see results they are discouraged.
American men's tennis since the mid-90s can be summed up by: Huge serve, Big forehand, average to mediocre backhand (e.g. Roddick, Isner, Opelka, Querrey, Sock etc.). Another problem is what you mentioned at 1:40 - when they play the college system they only face peers of a similar age and not exposed to older and more competitive players in the circuit.
As an American who played competitive tennis as a junior, I've seen many kids coached well with more complete games and not the typical "American" game. Here is my personal assessment of some of the issues:
- Too much indoor / hard court tennis. If you do not grow up in Florida, Texas, or Cali, you're playing indoor tennis for most of the year. Many non-academy/local tennis clubs where kids learn to play are even exclusively indoor since they need to make money in the winter. This then leads to most tournaments being played indoors even in the summer, this environment favors the big serve-big forehand game heavily. In Europe kids learn on red clay which is a big part of the ATP tour and favors the all-around game.
- Travel; the way the junior ranking system is set up, many kids HAVE to travel very far at a certain point to access the tournaments with more ranking points. I grew up in Chicago, and even in such a major city w/ a lot of players there were 1-2 tournaments max per year that offered a lot of points. My dad would have to consistently travel with me 4+ hours by car just to play in more of these high level tournaments (most kids in these tournaments ended up being from my area as well lol). As you can imagine, burn out rate is super high when you have to travel far and spend a lot of money to lose in the first or second round. Coming from a very affluent family almost becomes a requirement. Not sure if the USTA has addressed this at all in the past decade.
- Other sports; Most of the best US Athletes are in basketball, with maybe a few exceptions in other sports who would make good tennis players. You can be the 500th best basketball or football player in the US and make more money than almost every ATP player except for maybe the top 20 or 30. It is also much, much harder to get a university scholarship for tennis than football or basketball because those sports make money for the school and have bigger teams. A junior player I competed against was looking for a tennis scholarship and couldn't get one, but instead he got a football scholarship as a kicker and eventually became a super bowl champion in the NFL - true story.
My opinion is that Isner, Opelka, Querrey, and even Fritz are a few exceptions that managed to muscle their way onto the tour by being some of the tallest / strongest guys out there.
I agree, no offensive backhand. They very seldom hit it down the line. Hell, Jack Sock will run in the doubles to avoid hitting a back. Big serves and wait on the forehand.
Wow excellent comments here
@@pitskovich Excellent points, spot on.
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"Help create healthy people for society". Some teachers/coaches understand this so well, just like Jedi Steve Jackson does! Thank you for this great interview!
Hey there! The algorithm dropped me into your channel a few weeks ago and I've enjoyed it. Today, it spat out this video while I was getting ready for bed. I know this is 2 years old, but I was fascinated by this as someone who grew up in Bradenton and currently lives less than a mile from IMG.
I've also known Nick since I was a little kid. In fact, the old Boliterri academy courts now belong to the local school district. They are the closest courts to my house and I play on them a couple times a week.
They are usually empty.
IMG is big here. It employs a lot of people and you can't go anywhere without a bus full of sun tanned young kids in athleisure being shepherded around by someone (especially Chipotle).
But I want to tell you a brief story that also maybe gets to the heart of why tennis is floundering.
IMG stands for International Marketing Group. You'd never guess that based on how little outreach they do.
The other day, I went to dinner with my father. The men's finals were on in Cincinnati so we wanted to go to a sports bar for a burger and beer and watch the match.
When we walked in, the finals weren't on any tv. No problem, it's a sports bar with satellite, we just asked the waiter to throw on Tennis channel.
They didn't have it.
This sports bar is less than a mile from IMG as the crow flies and you'd never know it. It's not a big franchise either. This is a local spot that's been around for decades.
Despite the ubiquity of IMG students around town, the company itself is shut up in its enclave. My father is an extremely active member of the community, but when I asked him if IMG ever really worked with the city or school district, he drew a blank.
I know a lot of people who worked with IMG. About half my high school class were IMG students who left at noon every day to go train. I actually trained there for baseball myself at one point (I did the reverse of the video, I hit a wall with baseball and switched to tennis in my teens).
But the IMG kids were never fully a part of the class. They travel in little bubbles around town with their adult keepers and return to the enclave.
And that's the problem. They are here but they aren't present. IMG can't even promote itself and its presence to little old Bradenton. Outside of tennis, no one's ever even heard of this place (unless you love Tropicana orange juice). It still feels weird hearing it talked about on Tennis Channel so casually, like everyone knows what Bradenton is.
But while everyone here is aware of IMG, it has little visible impact or interest in promoting tennis or any other sport for that matter.
And that's true of a lot of the secondary academies around here. They exist in their own bubbles. The nearest local tennis store is in the next city over, Sarasota. If you want gear, your choices are a poorly equipped Dick's or Walmart. Otherwise, you've got some exclusive club pro shops or the internet.
It's a shame. This is tennis mecca, all greats make a pilgrimage here at some point. But you'd never know it.
I don't care if it's IMG, the USTA, or someone else. But tennis needs an advocate at the local level. I'm in my 30s. My best friend played and loved football growing up. He has a kid now and will never let him play that sport. This is a common sentiment among many I know. This is a golden opportunity for tennis to be the alternative. It's a low cost sport to start and all you need is a wall, a ball, and a racket to entertain yourself. But no one is interested in promoting it. Certainly not IMG, who just built a massive new football/soccer stadium.
You'd think we'd have a local torunament to show off the up and comers. Maybe host a 250 event. My dad said we used to, back when Nick was the man. But not now.
And that's the problem.
This we helpful for me to think about parenting. My kid is not even one yet, but I am reminded of a lot of what I need to be as a father. I can apply these principles to so many things besides tennis. Thanks so much!
Terrific interview with Steve Jackson. Many of the points he makes are spot on. One other key factor are clay courts. American boys are used to the serve +1 which are facilitated by fast hard courts at the local level. They don't learn to construct points the same way European boys have to on clay. When the tour slowed down the courts, it put the emphasis on players moving, constructing points and having a solid all round game which is facilitated more in clay court tennis. By the way i had the pleasure of watching Ryder Jackson play in the Juniors in Norcal and he had one of the sweetest all court games around...well done Steve!
Incredibly insightful commentary on men's and women's pro tennis development in America!
Very good interview and Mr. Jackson is a wonderful tennis diplomat
You forgot to mention Michael Chang who won the French open in 89.
I do not know why people forget Chang
@@codyross1000 yeah i dont know why. chang has been in 3 major finals and has 34 titles including 1 major. Roddick has been in 4 major finals and has 32 titles including 1 major title yet he is remembered all the time. very similar careers between the both.
Chang, a Anomaly in USA tennis.
@@codyross1000 I do: it’s called 14 years-the time between Chang’s win at the French and Roddick’s win at the Open
I'm 15 and started tennis about 3-4 years ago with a Head TI-S6 that my parents got from a random sports store (I've moved to a Babolat Pure Aero Since then, used that for a couple years and now switching to a more control oriented frame as I feel I can generate the power myself. The Blade 98 16x19 V7 and Yonex Vcore Pro 97 310g are my top candidates. Any other recommendations by chance?) I've been through most of the American popular sports: Baseball, basketball, soccer, football, and the only one I really stuck with for a little while was baseball..... that is until I played tennis for the first time at a local school summer camp with my friends. Ever since I never really got competitive until this year; late 2019 and 2020. I'm really considering putting the effort in and moving from my local club that I've been practicing with for a few years to my local Tennis Academy that's supposedly pretty hardcore (Manchester Athletic Club or MAC for short) I really want to put the determination and effort into tennis and so far I've really been enjoying it.
Another informative video. I really enjoyed thanks and keep them coming..
Frankly, the nail was hit on the head mid video. Europeans train at the exclusion of all else and so they succeed. Americans don't and with all due respect to your guest, the European success directly contradicts his way of coaching by pushing other choice instead of making "the best". Frankly, that any coach is trying it the way he is, trying to wait until that "passion for tennis over other sports" expresses itself, only highlights how much the passion for tennis is lacking in America overall. That lack of passion IS the problem. Tennis just isn't seen the same way as it used to be. You know what else has dwindled as much as tennis' popularity? Country clubs. The two were synonymous with each other. Now, most country clubs I've known/traveled by have torn out their courts and are little more than wedding/banquet halls with open public golfing.
Great insights.
The one thing he left out - bad coaching. Roddick won the 03 USO and the focus became ‘big guys with monster serves and FHs.’ Isner, Johnson, Querrey have weak BHs and returns. So their careers were limited.
Thankfully Fritz, Paul, Fratangelo, and other young players are getting the BH reps in.
There's nothing wrong with a great serve as long as you can back it up. Yes, you have to be strong on both sides.
@@slipperyblueclay2521 you are not going to beat Djokovic or Nadal on big serves.
When I responded (a year ago), I was saying just that. Many big servers are one-trick ponies. They can't back it up!
"Lonely" sports and "love" - thanks for your perspective. I haven't thought it seriously what my daughter would go through at court and need outside.
Amazing content, thank you!
IMO opinion the game has changed but American tennis hasn’t. Even in comments on YT channels how many Americans do you see trashing western grip, heavy top spin, baseline play without coming to net, defensive play, and even insisting one handed backhand is the only way? Sooo many. It’s the American nostalgia. And it’s not just America it happened in the UK before the US. Not producing champions because stuck on the old style. The game changed. Poly strings. Slower surfaces. Coaching western grips and extreme spin and baseline play and defense. American coaches for the most part have not changed that much. Coaches I came across as a kid in the 90’s were all pushing people to play like McEnroe or Sampras. Even today I see coaches trashing the modern game. Also the changes to the surfaces and strings put a bigger premium on endurance and defense vs speed and power. That favors soccer players vs American sports. So Europeans exposed to soccer are doing better. Just having a good serve, FH, and volley isn’t gonna cut it anymore. Michael Chang would have done much better in this era.
Amazing video, so many deep thoughts & advices
Very insightful and a perspective for patents and athletes alike
Good video, thanks, agree on many points. Have lived in Europe and know the differences. About the Williams sisters - much respect for them and their parents/family for the supporting, enduring and committing through it all as it was the strong foundation needed to sustain their long term success in tennis.
American tennis has put to big of a price tag on the spot. Kids can’t go out and just enjoy playing it like others sports. When you show up to play basketball, no cares what “equipment” you have and you just play (for free in most cases).
Kids like to mimic their friends and parents, if they don’t see them getting onto the courts enjoying it, the child won’t pursue it. In the economy we live in today, it’s upwards to $30 for groups and $65+ to have someone give you 30 minutes of their time teaching how to play. No-one paying for that can show a child to enjoy something when the time is being monetized and usually for little results.
James Blake was awesome his match against Agassi is still one of my favorites of all time.
Fritz would be lucky to make top 10 let alone getting anywhere close to a slam final.
I know this is a 2yr old post, but definitely did not age well lol. As of now he is ranked no.9.
Something called Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic happened. Put in Murray too..The most talented players ever in tennis.
Super interesting! Thank you
Track/swimming is also huge in america mens and womens side.
If you analyze Federer, Murray, Djokovic and Nadal's forehands, they are totally different than what is being taught in a very high percentage of clubs. A former Swedish tennis star was asked a similar question about the state of tennis in Sweden, which used to dominate. He said teachers get stuck, and that they teach what used to work and not what works now. There is a gigantic market for mediocracy in the USA. A kid who won that states literally flew to Spain to work on his forehand. He could have driven 10 minutes to my house. There are a lot of reasons we stink at men's tennis, but one of them is the teaching. The teachers teach what used to work or what will still work against the other weak towns and just take your lumps when you play against an elite town which will coincidentally be very wealthy.
I think all tennis parents should watch this video as well. Especially parents with kids that are young (like 6-8 years old)..
Remember Stefan Kozlov who was coached by pat mcenroe. He disappeared. Not to offend your guest but I think something is troubling in the USPTA. Weapons like big serve big forehand are important but we lack baseline point construction. His refusal to answer at 32:00 is the problem. Be blunt so we can call out the reality.
I think Stefan Kozlov is from South Florida and mainly coach by his parents (his academy so I read) most of his life. I seen him play on TH-cam once or twice. Is obvious he has tennis skills (helps when your parents owns a tennis academy), but really not much physical talent (not big/tall, not very fast, not very strong) compared to most pro tennis players. He was never really projected to be top pro, maybe mid-level at best. He won alot during junior years, but not as impressive as Donald Young.
AngryBill he was hyped up by pat McEnroe . Especially when he coached him
Great episode! Rafa, Roger and Thiem were
All talented soccer players
Great video!
Great analisys! Here in Argentina, when journalists or people around local tennis is asked for the reason about we only have a single one top ten right now instead of 4 or 5 top tens like 15 years ago, the general explanation reduces to exchange rate of our local money related to U.S. dollar, because the succesfull tennis is mainly in U.S.A....
Here is my two cents worth of why American tennis is not where it should be. 1- if you want to be a really good tennis player, you need to start them with soccer. Develop The legs. If you cannot get to the ball on time, you can’t hit the ball. 2- we must make a bigger investment in clay courts in the USA. And have more kids play on clay courts, developing the strategies, tactics and most importantly “patience”, willpower and determination to grind out a win. Not by hitting a forehand at 1000 miles an hour, but by the use of smart tactics, sheer will and determination to win. You’re also working those legs out on clay. 3- The money issue. There’s way too much money on the top, not enough going to the top 100 players. There needs to be some adjustment so that you can make a decent living if you’re in the top 50 to 100 players. Otherwise, a lot of talent is just gonna drop out and go sell real estate or stocks or whatever the hot product happens to be at the time. And that’s my two cents worth.
I watched it at 2x speed. still good enough ! until Master Yodha started speaking
coach Steve has many good insights
Thank you ,, I needed this ,, I got a gifted 8yo who now has a real coach now ( not just me)
More like this or from this guy... Thanks again,
KORDA KORDA KORDA KORDA !!!!!!!! KORDA is the next big upcoming STAR ⭐️ !! The kid has it all. The pedigree, a family of athletes. Dad played professionally. Sisters are legitimate stars on the LPGA tour. He has the backing financially although he doesn’t want things handed to him. He has raw talent and has risen at a fast pace in a short time. He has the size. Tall, lean and aggressive. Cool calm composure. I’m surprised he wasn’t mentioned at all in this video or in the comments section. I know this video was 1 year ago but still. SEBASTIAN KORDA . Remember the name.
I love your channel !! 😀😀
Steve finally said what I have been saying for a long time, the tennis players today are not real gifted athletes, they just know tennis, skilled in hitting from the baseline, thats it, and secondly, my opinion, they are not taught right, they stand on the baseline and the S/V has disappeared, which is the most athletic move one can make on the court, and it has disappeared. The more advanced the racket is, the less need to S/V, why should they just stand at baseline and bang the ball, it's not a real athletic skill to perfect. Today's racket's have allowed the 'less than' athletic child to enter the game.
Such a great video. I think it's fair to say that it's not so much the commercialization of American sports, in the classic sense of an academy with a business model for making $$$, but it's the INSTITUTIONALIZATION of youth sports in America, that is sucking the enthusiasm of young naturally talented athletes away from particular sports. If you look at soccer in the US vs Europe, USA is now 100% institutionalized right down to 8 year olds who have to hook into a US Soccer sanctioned team in order to play competitive soccer. It's no longer possible to just walk onto a field and play a pick up game with other kids in most of America. And tennis in most of USA, outside of FL, NY, CA, maybe a couple other places, has only nominal institutional infrastructure in place to compete with that mindset (a mindset I think is unhealthy, BTW, but one that nontheless is how American society has moved). JTT was an attempt to do that, as was bizzaro "quick start" tennis. Meanwhile you can barely find a legit tennis shop like Tennis Spin in most of the "major" midwest markets. I mean not one. They have been put out of business by online shops. Meanwhile tennis pros are able to fill their schedules just hitting with middle aged home-makers and "want to stay sharp" retirees. The money flows for them by books 12-hour days, not by developing supportive, nurturing relationships with super-talented kids, who, on a dime, might leave the area when their parent gets a job offer, or, even worse, decide to go off to an academy once they start knocking on the door of high national rankings. If you look at the sports the US tends to do very well at in international competition (so leaving out American football, baseball, and basketball... where USA just plays with itself), most of those sports claim the padawan at a tender age and demand year-round training. Gymnastics. Swimming. Skating. These sports grind up and spit out kids for all the reasons Coach Jackson mentioned - mental fatigue, injury, costs, etc. How has women's hockey boot-strapped itself? One way has been picking up the cast-off 10-year-olds from ice skating, whose coaches/parents didn't see gold medals in their future. To adopt a successful strategy, US mens tennis needs to become more adept at picking up those cast-off's: the 5-star athlete whose parents pull him from football after the third concussion, or the soccer star whose parents saw a near guaranteed college scholarship nearly go up in smoke on an illegal tackle that merely resulted in a 2 weeks of rehab vs. 6 months and surgery. And this is where things go really south for tennis as an individual sport, because unlike most technical sports that have a crew structure, where the new guy can learn from the person above him, tennis primarily employs a harem approach, i.e., favoritism and currying favor. Coaches often allow a player/family to believe that their success derives from the quality coaching. And therefore when the coach starts to spend the time necessary on a freshman who hasn't paid his dues, hasn't been with the coach for years, etc., it is seen as a betrayal. The top player who sees a nobody who has transferred in from playing another sport nipping at their heels feels as though their coach is favoring someone else and sinking them. This kind of thing is true also for music at the elite levels of youth music competition -- something which is very similar to tennis. That leads to problems and ultimately can jeopardize the ability of the coach to survive -- another reason why as a business decision, it's safer to rely on the patronage of middle-aged and retired folks than parents of would-be stars. I can say that even tennis coaches are a jealous bunch when it comes to players. Instead of embracing the idea that a player will be better if they learn from many masters, many coaches will take it personally if a player moves to another coach, even if it turns out to be a temporary matter of whose schedule had openings that worked with a parent's other commitments. Which brings us back to the first point... there is no country that programs it's youth sports more than USA. Ironically, while the pathway to pro tennis tournament tennis remain highly institutionalized, teenagers still make spontaneous plans to head to the public courts and hit with their friends (where they can still find public courts - that's a whole other problem) far more than with any other sport except possibly basketball. And at the HS level, a huge amount of interest in the sport comes from that caliber of player - kids who took a year or two of lessons and play with friends on weekends when they are bored. Those kids then do relatively well playing amongst themselves, but when they come up against a staked team with USTA kids, they get clobbered. And for the most part they laugh it off, because for them, it's a social sport, not a competitive sport.
The point with the college system is very true. While college sport is a great way for good athletes to play on a semi-professional level, it is not a top level competition for those, who want to end at world class level. The college system clearly is, no matter how competitive it still is, a massive step below that. This argument obviously doesn’t come into play for the US sports like basketball, baseball or American football, which are not played outside the US with few exceptions. For those athletes, the idea of going to college is still fine. But for any athlete playing a global sport, like tennis or soccer, college is not what brings you to the very top, what makes you a superstar, what earns you a grand slam.
Just one additional comment: Nadal had just turned 19 when he won in Paris back in 2005. that is basically a freshman-sophomore in college.
awesome channel
Can you do Canada next? I feel like us Canadians are stepping up
14:19 This response is inadequate and is one of the reason that U.S. tennis hasn't produced a solid top 10 tennis player in almost 2 decades. If a kid comes to you and tells you that he wants to go pro, or if you see a kid who is a hard worker and wants to dedicate to going pro, you had better encourage it enthusiastically and either take on the job or send them to someone who can. Coaches are the problem, not the kids because kids do not doubt themselves until an adult tells them that they can not do something. In other nations, the end of your tennis journey is professional and college is your fall back. In the U.S. it is the opposite. ANYONE can play pro tennis as long as you have the money to travel to the tournaments and have the ability to sign up for a tournament. A first round loss in a Futures event will give you 1 ATP point. To qualify for that event, you either need a high enough ITF ranking or go through the qualifying rounds. Generally these Future events have players in the 12-14 UTR range. This is absolutely attainable if you prepare a junior in the right way and if they have the drive and means to get there. Quit it with the Mediocracy! You can still compete on the pro tour, while going to college. College tennis is NOT for everyone.
Enjoyed the video!
What racquet,strings, and grip would you recommend for a budget tennis beginner?
It really helps thanks.
Babolat Boost.
Great point about options and female and male comparison - and you need money 💰
36:54 "Like Baby Steps" Does this man read the manga too!?
There's an anime too. It's a common phrase though, but Harry's a weeb until proven otherwise.
Tennis is a super hard sport to make money at. Only the top 400 players can make a living at tennis. All the money is made at the top. You are competing against the best in the world. Tennis is a super hard, technical sport. It is not realistic to plan to make money at tennis. It is better to stay in school and be a doctor, nurse, lawyer, pharmacist, etc. Getting a profession is a smarter bet than trying to play pro tennis. I love tennis, but it is not a smart idea to play pro tennis for momey.
Smart and perceptive observation.
RondelayAOK agreed, also most US parents can’t afford paying lessons. It is very expensive to have private coach. There was already an interview here in this channel that the girl got full scholarship for college. But her family had spent much more money on her tennis than the actual scholarship.
You're being generous with that top 400, narrow it to top 200. A top 400 is playing futures and staying even in therms of what they spend vs what they make, if not having to pay to work.
Leonardo Gatti
Thanks!
I cant believe how top heavy tennis is! All the top players make almost all the money! It took me 30 years to get to 4.5/5.0! Its a hard sport!
@@johnyang1420 yeah, it's a very hard sport to make money professionally, specially when you compare with team sports like soccer. I mean, if you stop to think that you need to be among the best 200 people in your job just to make some money after investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process of getting good at it, trying to go pro playing tennis is not a very wise investment
I apologize for blowing up the comments section. You made a good topic as you always do and it really struck a nerve here obviously. I hope it’s for the best.
Not enough money in tennis to attract the best athletes. Compare Challenger prize money of $10K to golf, baseball, or basketball money. Plus tennis is physically more grinding and much harder than golf or baseball. Think about how many hundreds of balls a Challenger finalist hits during 4-5 matches versus a golfer who only hits about 280 strokes in four days. The last great athlete in American tennis was Sampras who could’ve been a HOF baseball pitcher. BTW, only the top 5-10 guys out of college each year can make $$ on the tour.
For girls/women no sport comes close to tennis for money, teach girls soccer but teach tennis as well and they will pick.
Maybe... you have to realize that during the decades off the 70' till the 90' ..USA was the Nº1 country of the world in terms of performance training, knowledge and efficiency in tennis. As the world developed their's economy and culture towards sports, this difference became shorter year by year. If you check the top 20 ranks during the 80' and 90' you `ll see names such as Sampras, Currier, Chang, Agassi, Martin just to mention the first line of american's players were common residents of the ATP tour 's elite. Today if you check the 2020 ATP's ranking you will see that spanish, argentinians and french players fills almost 50% of the top 100 players...and the other 50 places are shared by players from the rest of the world..including USA.
Great Interview
Can you do a video showing which racquets from different brands are similar.
Grew up playing on terrible rough full of cracks courts with nets that had holes in the local park. Only later started playing at clubs at high cost $$ Wouldnt trade the humble beginnings for anything.
Nice video! Coach Steve has one song play tennis, How many years old he does? If I give him a test, I can ......
Golf. Thats what happened.
Hahaha hitting other than a tennis ball. I got the innuendo
Ashley Barry is a prime example. Left tennis for a couple of years for soccer or something came back and became number one
a huge problem in pro tennis is that only around top 200 players can earn well and live from it... players who are below that, after they finish their career at some 33-35 years old, what else is left for them? coach kids at a local club? not a very enticing prospect. compare that with soccer, where you have tens of thousands of players making decent money and able to live from their earnings after they retire.
1. Elitism. You have to be very connected (even more so than other sports) and almost have to come from a well-off family in order to get the proper court time and training required to become a full-fledged pro. This wasn’t as much of a problem in the past. But since the economy has been crap for over a decade now and the middle class has shrunk, there’s less opportunities, and therefore less Americans are making it through the “system”.
2. Consolidation of media & choosing other sports. The media has become heavily consolidated since the TCA of 1996, with 5 companies owning basically everything you see and hear on TV. As this has happened, sports TV has become compressed, and almost all of it is about the Big 2 sports now. While tennis has always been behind the major sports leagues in popularity, it got enough of a share of people that were interested to keep American tennis going. But now that it’s become strictly a niche sport in the US, with barely more than lip service on ESPN & the like, even more kids are choosing football and basketball.
3. Lack of clay. Since the advent of poly strings tennis has become a more physical game that requires patience and endurance. Where are these skills best learned? Clay. Unfortunately the US has always for some reason not had many clay courts, and most of the ones that DO exist are Har-Tru green clay courts, which are fine, but not as good as “real” red clay, like is found in Europe. Hence why there hasn’t been a competent American on clay in this century, and why they have in general tended to be 1-dimensional bashers. Playing exclusively on hard courts doesn’t teach players the value of strategy and patience.
These are what I would cite.
I've always wondered why professional US women's tennis are more successful than men's tennis. Coach Jackson just gave a logical reason why. For men we have football, baseball, basketball or ice hockey as a career in sports. For women, there are only tennis or golf.
Another interesting point about the genders in the same sport will be the public exposure and the amount where commercial sponsors would be marketing the tournaments.
Also the promotions and the perceptions of the viewer audiences in various sports as well, tend to gravitate with the popularity and the viability to make a decent living as professionals. Women's tennis and golf have been around for a long time on television compared with other professional sports participated by them. Both sports in the professional levels are fairly close to even in terms of tournaments' earnings and sponsorship revenues with their male counterparts than many sports. Also Track and Field promotes both genders equally too to the most part.
I don't want to bring up the sensitive issue of the US Women's National Soccer Team and their on-going legal fights against the US Soccer Federation several years back for their skewed inequality of pay. I am all for equality for everyone when it comes to all aspects of equal work and pay. The US Women players definitely had a case here. However, the huge divide of the gap where the revenues being generated for a FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup is night and day. In the US, you can say the same for the NBA and the WNBA where the women's professional games still struggled to have adequate paying fans to watch. Most of the ladies have to play all year round with two professional leagues or juggling with another career during the off-season. The worst case in Women's professional hockey where world class players often forked out their own expenses and playing at near empty arenas for years, leading to league folded recently until it was restructured and bailed out by the National Hockey League themselves.
I believed more ladies participating in Tennis and Golf because they received worldwide exposures. Also mostly as individual sports, they can stand out and garnering more marketing than in team sports, where the stand out players often would be recognized and having similar opportunities instead.
I think....without listening to all of this video, despite its interest, I feel I've heard most of these reasons/excuses previously.
Look at the array of countries that are now playing tennis seriously and in vast numbers. It's simply not like the 70-80s.
The problem lies in the fact that essentially America is a wealthy country where opportunities exist & there are a myriad of distractions.
By contrast, many of the players from other countries do not live in so called wealthy and opportunistic countries.
They literally cannot afford to be distracted from their goal. Thus they have genuine desire to train, not this push by mum and dad mostly. Their lives literally depend on it.
Others here have commented on outdated styles of play, training and so on that no doubt likely all play a part.
Why not go surfing if you live on the coast, chase girls, enjoy the college lifestyle, play a team sport....the alternatives usually seem way more attractive to American mens tennis players, than doing the hard yards with steely focus.
It's a super tough individual sport and those that make it fit that mold!
Cheers
This is exactly what I wanted to say!! There's a reason the majority of high level players have come from Eastern European countries in the last two decades. The inherent culture is far more hard working and there are far fewer opportunities. When you're talented at a sport, you pursue it to the absolute death because that sort of chance is rare. In America (relatively speaking) it's an incredibly commercialized and homogenized lifestyle where there are so many opportunities and you're given so many chances that, if things are too tough, the stakes are much lower. If you dont succeed it seems to matter far less.
@@maxmcallister6148 the men are masculine over there. they do not put up with feminism over there.
So true about not forcing a child into a sport, know a couple of parents who did it and now those kids don't want anything to do with tennis
Interest in tennis has declined due to the fact that it is televised less today than in the past. We used to have all 4 slams on television as well as Davis Cup on major channels. Now it's only the semis and finals maybe and everything else is on espn2. In addition American College tennis has become dominated by foreign players which leaves less spots for American players. Also America offers kids many more sports like soccer baseball football and others that other nations dont. Add to these factors that the usta hasn't been interested in grass root development, they are more interested in identifying and supporting the cream of the crop. So put all this together and it is a wonder that any kids play tennis at all.
Biggest problem is most coaches are racist assholes who will take money from the young players parents but not really help the kids.
When you do to USTA Jr level there are bad habits and cheats and scoring is done by players so a good player might not win and it starts to hurt confidence and moral. I have tried finding good coaches in NJ and in AZ and its a rigged game.
USTA needs to have real tennis camps not run by colleges to collect money and checkout a few possible stars. Real pros need to come teach tennis, physical fitness, diet and sports psychology. And we need to do that for thousands of players to find a Serena, Djokovic, Federer or Nadal. We can do it but the attitude to charge more and do less by coaches has to change. We need to look at African Americans and Asian kids who can make it bigger but need help. Parents need help so they can get best results for money spent.
Do you have any estimation of when the new pro staff is coming out? I know you said sometime this year, but do you have any idea when this year? Love your videos!
Great video . You forgot Michael Chang:-):-)
I agree with you, missing Michael Chang from the list is a bit ashamed, I am old enough to see Chang beat Lendl at the French Open, who would have thought, David against Goliath in tennis.
A lot had to do with the Tiger Woods effect. Many parents ( especially fathers) believed they could have the next Tiger, removed their sons from tennis to golf. Also in America tennis is not as popular now as it was in the 80's and 90's. Tennis was a top 5 sport back then but now it is number 10. Last, American males have access to more popular sports like football (the number one sport in America), and baseball (the number 2 sport) where as their european counterparts don't.
How is that black yellow Volki racket marked with XX any good? Never played with Volki.
Volkl is an underrated brand. Give them a try and you can see how solid their rackets are.
RF, Nadal and Djoker happened
I think Andre Agassi and his kid is perfect example why tennis is downhill is the US. I am sure he and his wife Stephie Graf can train their son to be a pro tennis player. But they didn’t, he’s son choose baseball, and going to play at USC(correct me if I am wrong). Agassi pretty much admitted that tennis is a very lonely sport. He hated for most part. And same reason he never push his kids towards tennis..
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
that intro of the guest is epic LOL
Great channel very informative. There is a lot of good points on this video. I am a Spanish coach. And one thing that’s incorrect is that tennis is the number 2 sport in Europe. Simply not true.As in USA in Europe it’s 3rd or 4th plate. In Spain main sport is soccer followed by basketball, then maby maby tennis . France and England 2nd probably Rugby. Rest of Europe 2nd is mostly Basketball. So no excuses.
Sorry man its the truth. Even if tennis the fouth most important sport in europe at best 7th or 8th here. Its not comparable at all. The best athletes here are cherry picked early!!! Tennis is probably even 9th in some areas. Football, BBall, soccer, baseball, hockey, boxing, mma, then you get to golf, tennis, track and field etc.
Your basketball players are not playing near the levels that Americans are, though, so that is not really saying anything to be honest.
My theory ... maybe height is the problem. The tall guys who dominated in their junior days become too tall to be competitive or sustain an injury-free career. Top guys tend to be 6'1" or 6'2". When was the last time we had a 6'6" number 1 or a Slam champion. Del Potro was probably the tallest Slam winner in the past decade and he has injury issues. So juniors who are disadvantaged by height should persevere on.
Not sure I agree with you. Many of the upcoming stars are much taller: Medvedev, Berrettini, FAA, Zverev, Hurkacz, Tsitsipas - all 6’ 4” or taller. I’d say they are the new prototype. Will be interesting to see whether that group starts to win slams. Or whether you are right, and the winners continue to be shorter (not counting the big 3).
@@nicks6813 You could well be right. Those are all very promising players. Guess we'll know in a couple of years if they can stay healthy. Anyway, based on my height theory, the next-gen guys who fit the mould are the likes of Thiem, Shapovalov, Rublev. Not forgetting de Minaur.
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When he says Europeans can travel across countries easily, think about Australians. They basically have no where to go until they start to play pro tour.
Basketball, football, hockey, and baseball have always been around as alternatives to tennis. The US had world number 1's and consitent grand slam winners through the early 2000's. What no one wants to talk about is the lack of access to quality youth tennis programs to Americans of African origin. If you're making a decision about where to spend precious resources...it isn't going to be tennis. We are leaving future grand slam winners on the table.
No one wants to actually say that bro. but we all know thats fact
@@thertisan3440 well, both of us just said it. Let's keep saying it. Loudly.
Tell George Soros to fund an all black tennis team. I will destroy them and any other here in Cali. That is one of the stupidest comments I have heard in my life. White people used to fight with great swords back in the medieval ages. What were blacks doing back then? Insulting each other for two hours straight? Throwing crap at each other? Give me a freaking break haha. Most pro athletes are white it just happens that a lot of star NBA and NFL players are black.
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I just want me some pizza and ice cream... love it
participation trophies
Another thing that drove American men's tennis was the fact that the players weren't best buds off the court. Many of them didn't really like each other that much off the court. There were always bitter rivalries between them. Scores that needed to be settled on the tennis court. Not anymore.
In my opinion, the NCAA is good for "American" sports like basketball and American football, but it's bad (in terms of sporting success) for non-mainstream/not american sports like tennis and soccer. What would you rather do: get a degree paid for at an above average college, and enjoy playing sports, or start making money at 14 as a pro player (small sponsorships perhaps but not that common I think) or doing ITF Juniors. From a tennis perspective, the latter might be better as a good personal coach (expensive) would develop a player better than college (possibly underfunded) programs. From a person perspective, a degree can go beyond playing days, up to retirement.
You actually made a good video for a change. Good job
Im from Argentina, so neither Europe or the US, the main issue to me as an outsider is the point you guys talked about the different sports offered to athetically gifted kids out there, tennis is too much grind for too little return, its a solitary sport, theres less money to make... it has too many negatives.
We are even worse. 🇦🇺 18 years. Our last was Hewitt in 2002.
We have the best basketball players in the world. If we could get those athletes into tennis then we could dominate. As someone from the black community tennis isn't really a sport the youth are exposed to. I think if we expose all our youngsters in every community to the sport then we will churn out some great players.
I feel like these were filmed at different points in time and they arent sitting next to eachother
What's going on with American men's tennis?... The rest of the world caught up and now most who are good enough to play elite tennis can now also play and there are only so many places in all tournaments
Tbh with all the reasonings why, I think it's just Europe's time. We're witnessing the 3 goats in one era. Fed, Nad, Djok. Enjoy it while it lasts..
Yanik Sinner is a bit of an exception to all of this.
20 years of Patrick McEnroe and Jay Berger running the show for player development is why men's tennis is what it is today. Favoritism and glamour. They did nothing to develop tennis outside of the prestigious parents.
Hmm agree with some of his points but ultimately I think there’s a softness to American tennis, there seems to be a safety ‘college’ net in American tennis that Europeans don’t have as someone from the uk I think most of our top ranked players are over achieving, this is the opposite for Americans they have far greater numbers who play tennis I don’t think many go onto other sports as he claims. college tennis is huge in America and guaranteed there’s far more participation in the USA for tennis than many places. You literally can’t play tennis here in the uk unless you pay a significant membership fee. He’s protecting his livelihood with some statements. There should be a push to get Americans out of college tennis quicker and onto the tour.
I'm seeing a troubling pattern developing here and it doesn't seem that people are recognizing the problem. If a player's parents have a gifted athlete for their son, they should not be thinking of how much money he may be worth in the future. The boy should be led by his desire to play tennis. If he likes dating more for a year, he will probably come back. If he's more attracted to baseball, football, etc., then so be it. Our culture is what it is. We shouldn't be influencing our kids to like what pays more. And what of his potential otherwise? I believe that comes from having your heart fully in what you're doing with your life.
Then there's the seduction part of it. Usually the parents decide which of the boy's interests they think is a sound investment. BUT WHAT DO THEY KNOW ABOUT IT? And on the other side we have an over-developed junior program. The young player finds himself in a deep chasm between his parents and the USTA or the like. And why so many stops along the way to a pro career? Couldn't we have tennis communities (=
I enjoy your TH-cam videos. I really do. You’re not as slick as Tennis Warehouse so in a weird way that’s your appeal. You are more personable compared to TW or Tennis Express. But if you are going to bring special guests you need a wider shot to include both you and your guest within the frame. That will make your videos more appealing and better looking. Keep up the good work. You be you.
We need more Soviet mom's, most of the next gen guys have one. Thiem's dad owns a tennis club.
Ask master Jedi to show us how to hit a forehand
Another question might be why Roger, Rafa and djokovic can dominate the tennis in the last 17 years?
Another problem now days kids don't do any exercise if you don't push they just want to play video games or social meda parenting play a big role in all that.
The problem is in American schools every kid wins a trophy for participating in a sport. What is the motivation for winning?
I also believe that european players play on clay. Clay courters develop patience, stamina, and strategy better than on hard court players. Every country in europe has different styles and those players have a more variety of competition during the early years.
Currier, agasi, chang won french opens. American players today are not that great of athletes. Roddick was decent but not.the fastest guy.
@@waingro5834 Agassi, Courier, and Chang trained at the Nick Bolletieri Academy during the 80's. The academy had several clay courts besides indoors and hard. Sharapova and Seles also trained there and both won the French.
Now a days every American just train on hard courts.
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Tennis, in general, is missing exposure. As a high school coach, boys and girls are introduced to basketball, soccer, softball, lacrosse (recently) and football. For some families, the cost is minimal. Athletes from low income homes aren't picking up a tennis racquet. Here in Virginia, predominantly black high schools are lucky to even field a tennis team. During Covid, many teams shut down. Public parks tennis (in some areas) is dying. The sport has gone back to the country clubs.
I love Tommy Paul and Christopher Eubanks...my American mens tennis hopes lie with them atm.
23:48 Your name is Harry! :)
LOL, the cat is out of the bag. I think since the last video when someone commented after googled his stored.