ADDvantage April 2020

April 2020

Add Value to Your Membership!

CEO John Embree

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The Theory of Non-Embarrassment Why hitting through the ball isn’t always the best advice

The Ripple Effect

Emma Doyle gets creative to make a difference

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From the CEO USPTA

Add Value to Your USPTA Membership!

John R. Embree, USPTA CEO

A

s I travel the country meeting our members or chatting with them on the phone, I am consistently amazed at how passionate people are about our Association. They speak enthusiastically about how much it means to them to be a part of our organization – from the credibility USPTA certification has in the marketplace to the value of networking opportunities at our conferences. These cannot be found anywhere else.

But to get a better analysis of our membership’s feelings, the USPTA recently commissioned two separate surveys to ask about the benefits of USPTA membership. The results were very positive.

Still, I hear from members that are concerned about the financial cost of their membership. They worry about the cost of their dues and what tangible benefits they receive. These concerns are completely understandable, and they are why we do everything we can to

add value to your membership.

One such benefit I want to emphasize is our AIM Program (Advocate, Inspire, Mentor). It’s no secret that you, the member, are the most effective recruiter of future USPTA tennis professionals.

You are best positioned to inspire your fellow tennis professionals to become USPTA members.

Think about your own path into coaching. How many coaches helped you through the ranks?

Sustaining a steady pool of highly qualified professionals to teach our sport will ensure the success of the USPTA for future generations. We also understand that our members want to maximize the value of their membership. That’s why we created the AIM Program. For each new member you bring in, you will earn a $50 discount in the next year’s annual dues. Think about that: if you bring in six new members, your next year’s dues are FREE!

The process is simple enough. Any applicant who submits their online application just needs to include the name of the member in good standing that encouraged them to become certified.

AIM has been in place for several years now. In the last two years, over 700 members have recruited a new tennis professional and thereby earned reduced dues. I would love nothing more than to reward 1,000 members for working to grow and improve our Association.

But AIM is just one of the programs and benefits of USPTA membership. We also offer our members a Supplemental Savings Program, which contributes a percentage of their purchases from USPTA endorsees to a personal savings account. Our members receive 30% discounts on Avis car rentals and can reserve hotel rooms below wholesale rates on BookingCommunity.com. There are so many more!

Our National Staff and division Executive Directors do everything they can to increase the value of USPTA membership, but so few of our members take advantage of all that is available to them. You are leaving money on the table! As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.

So do yourself a favor: visit uspta.com/benefits to see all the financial perks and benefits of your membership with the USPTA. You won’t be disappointed.*

April 2020 — ADDvantage Magazine - 43

USPTA Vice President’s Message

It’s Time to Elevate Jason Gilbert, USPTA Vice President

Photo credit: Gustavo Reyes / USPTA

T

he famous expression that MC Michael Buffer yells out before a boxing match to fire up the crowd is “Let’s get ready to Rumble!”. In 2020, the USPTA will launch a very exciting membership initiative that will be sure to get our new and existing members fired up. The initiative is called Elevate.

Elevate is a membership growth and retention initiative that will focus on members who have been in the organization for five years or fewer.

The specific goal is to connect, involve and engage new and existing members.

Elevate will be grow and retain membership by supporting our new and existing members at both the National and Divisional level with consistent touch points and viable resources that specifically give our members what they’re looking for.

The U30 Initiative will strategically transition into Elevate, which will give us the ability as an organization to provide resources and assistance to all age demographics while still capturing the important needs of both the younger or more seasoned professional. The U30 Initiative did a tremendous job focusing on 45% of our new members, but with a broader and more inclusive initiative like Elevate, we will be able to assist the additional 55%.

Bringing in younger professionals continues to be a big priority for the USPTA. Our organization will continue to ride on the momentum that our U30 Initiative has captured. As one of

Jason Gilbert ( left) with Florida Division Executive Director Pat Anderson (middle) and Florida Division President Joe D’Aleo (right) pose with the 2019 Large Division of the Year award at the World Conference in Las Vegas.

the originators of the U30 Initiative, I couldn’t be prouder of the impact that this volunteer initiative has made. A big thank you to Mike Baugh and his team for leading our U30 efforts.

The Career and Leader Mentoring Program will fall under the membership committee as a subcommittee, becoming more important than ever, especially as it relates to engaging and educating new and existing members as mentors and mentees. The Career and Leader Mentoring Program will also play a big role with identifying and cultivating future leaders of our organization. I would like to thank Southern Division President Kevin Theos, Mitch White

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and all the individuals who have worked tirelessly with this gamechanging initiative.

With big changes happening in 2020 and beyond and as an organization, the USPTA will continue to adapt and evolve to meet the everchanging needs of our members. Since taking office in January, USPTA President Feisal Hassan has challenged us all to think more broadly and holistically, and Elevate is one of the ways that will help us to do just that. I’m confident that we can rally behind an initiative that inspires, engages and unites us, so we all can play a part in the long term success of an organization that is so near and dear to us.*

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USPTA Master Professional Corner

The Theory of Non-Embarrassment James Shaughnessy, MSS, CSCS, USPTA Master Professional

I

The Theory Of NonEmbarrassment states that a player swinging with insufficient upward racquet trajectory and insufficient upward racquet velocity will instinctively open the racquet face. This is because in the last few hundredths of a second before impact, the player’s brain subconsciously realizes the ball is going to go into the net and they instinctively adjust, opening the racquet face to avoid embarrassment, even though this emergency adjustment can send the ball screaming toward the fence.

Thus, the higher the skill level, the less the player hits through the ball.

Why “hit through the ball” isn’t always good advice

Photo credit: Adam Vilimek / Shutterstock

f you had friends watching you play tennis for the first time, would you rather miss a shot into the bottom of the net or miss the same shot 60 miles per hour over the fence? People almost always answer the latter even though the net is a lot closer to being in play. Why? Because being weak is embarrassing.

Hitting a ball 60 miles per hour over the fence may lose the point, but shows strength. Humans strive to be viewed as strong rather than weak.

When asking students for their style preference as “a soft hitter who gets a lot of balls in play” or “a hard hitter,” I have never once had a player choose to be coached in a soft-hitting, pusher style. It’s perceived as weak – embarrassing.

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Research shows that none of the top ten pro players hits “through the ball” (Tennis Industry, Sept/ Oct 2018: 48-49). And yet, in our coaching, we consistently hear coaches instructing players to “hit up and through the ball.” This advice ignores the essential requirement for an upward ball trajectory to clear the net.

The coach understandably wants topspin and a solid racquet-to-ball impact. To create topspin, a player must cause friction on the ball by swinging upward from lower than impact, on an oblique (indirect) path to the ball’s center of gravity. The definition of “hitting through the ball” is the action of meeting the ball with the stringbed of the racquet perpendicular to the path of the ball AND moving directly along the path of the ball’s center of gravity.

A player cannot swing directly and indirectly at the same time. The coach is asking the player to do the impossible.

The solidness of a ground stroke is the result of the ball impacting with the sweet spot of the stringbed on an indirect trajectory to the ball’s path.

Typically, the racquet swing path of a successfully aggressive groundstroke has an upward trajectory of 25 to 39 degrees when measured horizontally or from the ground. Data show that the closer the trajectory is to 25

Master Professional Corner USPTA Photo credit: Adam Vilimek / Shutterstock

To address this, here are some simple coaching take-aways: 1. Be mindful that the lower the racquet is below the impact, the greater the available distance to build upward racquet velocity and to create the friction necessary for topspin and ball elevation over the net.

2. Data show the best pro players begin their stroke an average of 16 inches below impact, which is about one and a half racquet head widths. A coach can focus on this point just before contact to ascertain that the racquet comes from 16 inches below the ball. Feedback is important, as the student often times will not feel this without practice and guidance.

Data show a direct correllation between the upward trajectory of a stroke and the skill level of the player. The steeper the stroke, generally, the better the player.

degrees, the lower the skill level of the player. The closer the trajectory is to 39 degrees, the higher the level of the player.

Coaches often object to upward trajectory with statements like “there’s nothing on the ball,” or “it’s all spin,” or “the ball doesn’t get through the court.” But the problem of getting the ball through the court with something on it has to do with the forward velocity of the player’s racquet, while the problem of getting the ball over the net and down in bounds has to do with upward velocity. Coaches think that by taking the upward trajectory off the racquet, the ball will go faster. It will because it has less spin, but this ignores the additional problem that the ball must rise above the net and drop down inside the baseline. Therefore,

merely telling a player to hit through the ball is dangerously flawed advice, unwittingly forcing the player into the embarrassment zone.

Coaches must understand that racquet speed is a combination of forward, upward and sideward components. The forward racquet velocity component causes the ball to have greater speed, but the net and gravity preclude a level swing path.

A coach’s advice to have a level swing will cause a player to instinctively open the racquet face and miss long.

3. High-level players must hit sufficiently hard to succeed, but coaches must avoid trying to add forward ball speed by advising players to level their swing and hit through the ball.

This advice causes otherwise great players to fall subject to the inevitable net-baseline problem and the Theory of Non-Embarrassment.

Unaddressed, this natural human instinct to avoid embarrassment can result in major problems when coaching a player’s forehand.

However, understanding it can solve important forehand issues. *

James R. Shaughnessy MSS, CSCS, is a USPTA Master Professional specializing in the application of sports biomechanics to elite tennis players training at Tucker Tennis Academy, a USTA Regional Training, Racquet and Health Center located in Tulsa, Okla. He is an award-winning professional with 30 years of experience as a speaker, researcher, analyst and consultant in tennis biomechanics, 3D motion analysis and computerized exercise prescriptions. He is the founder of SCiO 3D Sports. Special thanks to Hank and Molly Pelegrini, who make this work possible.

April 2020 — ADDvantage Magazine - 49

USPTA

Emma Doyle Finds Unique Ways to Make an Impact E

mma Doyle answers the phone on a wintry afternoon in a small town an hour north of Oslo, Norway. She and her partner Tina are in town to speak at an upcoming tennis teachers conference.

“We’re heading up on Monday to try to catch the northern lights before the conference,” Doyle said. “Heading right up to the top.”

It’s hard to catch Doyle in one place for too long. She splits time between her native Melbourne, Australia; Scotland and her adopted home of Denver, Colo., using tennis to offer motivational and educational presentations to coaches, players and corporations around the globe.

Doyle, a USPTA Elite Professional, finds unique ways to incorporate tennis into other people’s lives, too.

Years ago, back home in Melbourne, Doyle started a dating service, Doubles for Singles, where people would gather for tennis at clubs and table tennis in pubs. The only rule was they weren’t allowed to ask two questions: where the person lived, and what they did for a living. The idea was to develop interesting questioning skills, like what they like to eat for breakfast on Sunday morning.

“I’m not saying they’re unique questions, but they shed more light about who a person is,” Doyle said.

“That was the secret sauce, if you will, to the program, which was super fun.”

And it gave Doyle two marriages – “one is still together, so 50/50 odds is pretty good,” she laughed.

But what tennis has really given Doyle is an outlet – a means of communicating her passion for player development and female

empowerment. And it stuck with her even when she thought of leaving the game.

There was a time when Doyle started getting burned out from life on the court. She started studying anything she could on emotional intelligence, neurolinguistic programming and life coaching, all in preparation for a career change.

Instead, it “catapulted me back into tennis.”

“Once I realized I had to have more coaching tools in my toolkit and more strategies on how to adapt my language, that’s why I got back into coaching coaches how to coach,” she said. “Whether you are coaching an athlete or someone in the corporate world, the core principles are very similar and lend well towards unleashing human potential.”

The ripple effect

It was in 2016 when Doyle felt compelled to fight the dropout rate among teenage girls in sports.

“Corporate leadership is linked to playing sport when you’re growing up,” she said. “I felt that was important, to keep girls connected with sport because female empowerment is one of the greatest underutilized resources in the world.”

So Doyle decided to host a Girl Power camp. To warm up, she incorporated the dances from Miss-Hits, a program started by Judy Murray, the mother of Jamie and Andy Murray, in which each character has a specific tennis shot and dance to get them excited about tennis while building their confidence.

“Judy said, ‘This is grand! Can you be

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Photo credit: Alisha Lovrich / Tennis New Zealand

Lucas Casás, USPTA Communications

in Scotland in two weeks and show me what you’re doing?’” she said. “That was the birth of the Girl Power camps.”

They’ve since grown from just Girl Power camps to include numerous presentations and coach education sessions. Before the camp begins, the coaches learn about the research behind why girls drop out of sport and the fundamental principles of the camp.

Then the teenage girls arrive so that the coaches can learn on the job, experience first-hand what it feels like and see how to bring a Girl Power camp to life.

She incorporates three main principles: engage the students by listening to their values, develop their tennis knowledge and skills and empower them through encouraging language “to strengthen their inner voice.”

Though she’s only been putting on camps for about three years, they’ve had a big impact.

Since she hosted a camp at the Victorian Tennis Academy in Melbourne in 2017, Tina Keown, the director of the academy, has hosted four

Girl Power camps and will host a fifth this Easter.

“The ripple effect is the fact that it’s become an integrated part of their player pathway,” she said. “They’ve adopted it as being important and have seen a dramatic shift in the retention of female players in their business.”

The ultimate goal, she says, is to keep girls connected with sports, “in a way that’s important to them, listening to their values and providing an environment where they feel like they belong.”

“I can go to her with anything”

Doyle ( left) was the captain of the 2018 Australia Junior Fed Cup team.

speaker, as she showed at the 2019 World Conference in Las Vegas, where she gave an on-court presentation called “Game of Zones – Unlocking the ROGY Pathway.”

And she’s also proven herself an inspiring mentor.

Neely Zervakis, a USPTA Elite Professional and the associate director of tennis at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center in Virginia, first met Doyle at the USPTA Mid-Atlantic Conference in 2019.

“I loved her presentation on Aussie doubles tactics,” Zervakis said.

“Afterwards I went up to express how amazing and helpful her presentation was. We instantly connected and bonded, sharing our passions.”

Photo credit: Gustavo Reyes / USPTA

It was almost by accident that Doyle fell into coaching.

She was 14 and the kick-serve had just come out. There was only one coach around who could teach it, but her parents couldn’t afford another private lesson, so Doyle traded a lesson as a student for one as a coach.

“I remember walking off the court after my first lesson, which I realize is very rare, but thinking this is the greatest job in the world,” she said.

“How can I be the best coach that I can be?

Doyle has asked herself that question nearly every day since. For her, it’s by reaching other coaches.

She is a motivating, energetic public

Photo courtesy of Emma Doyle

USPTA

Doyle offering corrections during her presentation, Game of Zones - Unlocking the ROGY Pathway, at the 2019 World Conference in Las Vegas.

Doyle has mentored Zervakis ever since.

“I can go to her with anything,” Zervakis said.

Zervakis said Doyle’s knowledge of neurolinguistic programming has been especially helpful, and not just on the court, but in life.

“It’s about how our thinking affects how we feel and how our feelings affect how we behave,” she said. “She taught me to try to never tell a player what they are doing wrong, but to use powerful key phrases, like ‘imagine if’ or ‘next time what we can do is,’ which allows them to problem solve on their own and build their mental strength.”

Not long ago, Doyle ran a Girl Power camp for disadvantaged girls in New Jersey. She said that the next day, a young girl “fired off her anchor and her affirmation” before a track meet and ran a personal best.

“They’re the little things that still give me a tremendous buzz because that is why I coach,” Doyle said. “You have to be passionate about wanting to see the growth of another human.

We’re all in the character-building game, because how many of those kids actually go on to have a day like [Sofia] Kenin did at the Aussie Open? Not many. It’s about how you take those skills and apply them to the greater good so that we can all unleash our potential.”*

April 2020 — ADDvantage Magazine - 51

USPTA

Tennis Instructors and the New Certification Pathway Sid Newcomb, USPTA National Head Tester

T

Photo credit: Lucas Casás / USPTA

his is such an exciting time in the world of professional tennis coaching in our country. We are taking a monumental leap in our certification process – perhaps the biggest shift in the history of our Association.

The USPTA recently unveiled a new certified membership category, Tennis Instructor, that will replace the non-certified Recreational Coach category on Jan. 1, 2021. Tennis Instructors will receive coverage under the USPTA’s $6 million liability insurance policy for annual dues of just $199.

We would like to encourage our current Recreational Coaches to convert to Tennis Instructors by the

Dec. 31, 2020, deadline. To make this change, Recreational Coaches must complete the Tennis Essentials 1 workshop, Safe Play training and pass a background check before the end of the year. Those that choose not to convert to Tennis Instructors will become USPTA Tennis Instructor Applicant Members on Jan. 1, 2021.

To facilitate this paradigm shift, the USPTA is also implementing a new certification pathway. Starting in 2021, all new applicants who wish to become certified professionals will need to work under the watchful eye of a designated USPTA mentor for six to nine months of hands-on learning at a club or facility. Additionally, new

applicants will need to complete 300 hours of online and/or face-to-face education, as well as complete Safe Play training and pass a background screen every two years.

These new certification requirements will take effect for all applications started on or after Nov. 1, 2020.

All certified Professional level applicants that start their applications on or before Oct. 31, 2020, will follow the current certification pathway and must complete all tested components by Dec. 31, 2020.

All USPTA divisions are increasing testing dates by a minimum of 15% in the fourth quarter of 2020 to accommodate those seeking certification by the year’s end. Cities of Orlando, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Houston will feature weekly testing in November and December of 2020, excluding holiday weeks, if needed.

Should you have any further questions about the new certification pathway or about the new Tennis Instructor category, please feel free to contact the Membership team at membership@uspta.org. *

April 2020 — ADDvantage Magazine - 53

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USPTA

We’ll Never Stop Wowing Our Members John R. Embree, USPTA CEO

W

hen we were designing our state-of-the-art headquarters in Lake Nona, Fla., our goal was to create a home of which our National Staff and our entire membership can be proud. I take great joy in welcoming our members, introducing them to our staff and showing them around our beautiful building.

One of the first things members notice when they walk in is our mission statement – I’m sure you all know it: “to elevate the standards of tennis-teaching professionals” – emblazoned on the wall behind reception. They also see three core values that are ingrained in our DNA: 1. Serve Our Community 2. Empower Our Team 3. WOW Our Members These values are carefully crafted, and we take them to heart.

Take our World Conference in Las Vegas this past September, for example. It would be nearly impossible for anyone to say it was not one of our best World Conferences

in the last 15 years. We lived up to all three of our core values with the quality and depth of the education presented. The bar was raised to a superior level.

Wowing our members isn’t just a goal of the national office; it permeates throughout the Association. The fact that we hosted 132 education events that were attended by over 4,300 people in 2019 reflects on the incredible work that our divisions do each and every year to engage our members and make them better professionals.

Whether they be small lunch-andlearn get-togethers or larger division conferences over several days, each is designed to inspire and motivate our members to serve their constituents as best as possible.

When we moved to Lake Nona and assembled what was ostensibly a brand-new team, we worked tirelessly to create a culture that is totally focused on providing the absolute highest quality customer service. For two and a half years, we lived by that credo of wowing our

members with timely follow-up and cheerful phone comportment. I’ve heard from so many people that they enjoyed their experience when dealing with our customer service team. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.

However, at the time of this writing, we are going through significant turnover on our staff in two important departments, which has resulted in not doing the job of promptly answering the phones or following up on correspondence that required immediate attention. For that, I take full responsibility.

I want to be clear: the group we have in place is wholly dedicated to doing the right thing. They have tremendous work ethic and I am proud to represent them. They worked diligently through December and January, when the sheer volume of calls from members paying their dues was overwhelming, even with a full staff.

Thus, I ask for your patience as we work through the process of rebuilding our team. It won’t be easy to fill the holes left behind by the good people that have moved on, but I am excited about the prospects of bringing in talented individuals to join the team.

They will undoubtedly bring a fresh perspective and new ideas for ways to regain your trust and confidence.

They will also take seriously, just as all of us on the National Staff do, our core value to wow our members.

Because only when we go above and beyond for you can we really elevate the standards of tennis-teaching professionals and coaches.

So please, stop by, take a tour of our office and say hello, won’t you? *

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USPTA

The Team Approach Dr. Sean Drake, RacquetFit Vice President

H

ave you ever had a situation where your player is not performing to the level you think they should? What about a player battling an injury that limits their time on court? Do you ever have trouble finding the proper person to refer them to?

These are just a few of the questions I continue to get from teaching professionals all over the world: 1.

Why isn’t my player performing like I expect them to?My player is injured. What should I do?

2. Who is best to work with my athlete in fitness or medical?

3. Picking the best experts for medical and fitness in tennis to work with your player can be a tough task. Understanding how the body moves while playing tennis is critical in order to ensure your player continues improving.

Having been involved in tennis now for a few years from the coaching, medical and fitness sides, I see a major gap on collaboration between the three professions. At RacquetFit, we call this a Team Approach, which involves common language and a specific system for understanding of tennis skills that are required for the athlete.

When I ask tennis professionals around the country if they have anyone on speed dial for fitness and medical,

not a lot of hands go up.

With the release of the latest figures on the amount of people playing tennis, we need to do our part to keep tennis fun, engaging and healthy.

Most coaches are great at teaching tennis and understand the importance of mental resilience in tennis, as shown by the slight growth in overall tennis participation. But many coaches do not have a system to evaluate the athlete’s kinesthetic movement while playing.

The body is overlooked.

This is where screening your athlete is so important. Imagine looking at your athlete’s simple, tennis-specific motions and knowing within minutes whether or not the problem the athlete is experiencing can be solved through coaching, fitness or medical attention.

Overall tennis participation rose 1% from 2013 to 17.9m players nationally - Tennis Industry Association It is a common misconception that medical inattention is the reason an athlete gets injured. On the contrary, medical professionals are there to keep your athlete healthy and enjoying

their time on the court playing the sport we love. Athletic trainers are experts in providing specialized corrective exercises or tennis-specific programming. These are important experts to collaborate with because they will improve your knowledge and you will impress your athlete with the experts they need to reach their goals on the court.

So where do you start? First, network with fitness and medical professionals in your area. Host an evening lecture or lesson where you review your coaching style and philosophy for your club or community, and invite fitness and medical professionals, as well as fellow tennis professionals, to sit in.

“My success as a fitness coach and, more importantly, the success of my athletes, is dependent on the relationship and communication with the tennis coach and medical team,” Dean Hollingworth said. “All three components must work together in order to provide athletes with the most efficient and safe path to achieving their goals.”

The best players have a team that includes a coach and a medical and fitness professional. Why should we treat our players any differently? The USPTA has stepped up to work toward this for the tennis player of today and the future. By bringing the Team Approach to the game, we solidify awareness around the sport and, more importantly, we create opportunities for more professionals and players to get involved in tennis.

To learn more about how RacquetFit can teach you the language and skills needed to work more deeply with tennis athletes, visit RacquetFit.com. *

Dr. Sean Drake is the Vice President of RacquetFit. He works with amateur and professional athletes throughout the world. He is also a Performance Director at Titleist Performance Institute. He earned his doctorate and master’s degrees from Life University and his bachelor’s from Florida State University.

April 2020 — ADDvantage Magazine - 57

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Awards • Branded Merchandise • Outerwear & T-Shirts • Print Materials

USPTA

NATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS President................................................................. Feisal Hassan First Vice President.............................................Richard Slivocka Vice Presidents...............Lane Evans, Mark Faber, Trish Faulkner, Jason Gilbert, Bill Mountford Immediate Past President............................................ Gary Trost CEO...........................................................................John Embree Legal Counsel........................................................George Parnell

ADDVANTAGE MAGAZINE Editor..................................................................................Lucas Casás Layout/Design............................................................... Gustavo Reyes Editorial Assistance ........................... Jacquelyn Dahre, Alegna Hollis, Ramona Husaru, Sid Newcomb, Fred Viancos, Ellen Weatherford Circulation.................................................................... Trevor Trudelle USPTA World Headquarters 11961 Performance Dr. Orlando, FL 32827 800-887-8248- www.uspta.com

ADDvantage is published monthly by the United States Professional Tennis Association.

The opinions expressed in ADDvantage are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ADDvantage or the United States Professional Tennis Association.

Copyright© United States Professional Tennis Association, Inc. 2020. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any portion of the magazine is not permitted without written permission from the USPTA.

April 2020 — ADDvantage Magazine - 59

USPTA Career Development

Career Development USPTA Certification Testing Dates

April 3-4......................................................Bayou Bluff Tennis Club

Gulfport, MS April 4.................................................... Mingus Union High School

Cottonwood, AZ April 6-7.......................................................USTA National Campus

Orlando, FL April 10..................................................................Life Time Fitness

West Harrison, NY April 10-11.....................................................................BYU-Hawaii

Laie, HI April 11-12...................................................... Atlanta Athletic Club

Johns Creek, GA April 15-16........................................................ Tyler Junior College

Tyler, TX April 17.......................................................Tennis Club of Trumbull

Trumbull, CT April 18-19................................................. Rush Copley Healthplex

Aurora, IL April 19-20................................................... Burbank Tennis Center

Burbank, CA May 1..................................................... Newport Tennis & Fitness

Newport, RI May 1-2....................................................................... Holiday Park

Cheyenne, WY May 2....................................................................... Wakonda Club

Des Moines, IA May 2-3.........................................................Sea Cliff Country Club

Huntington Beach, CA May 8-9......................................................Arlington Tennis Center

Arlington, TX May 9............................................................. Eastlake High School

Chula Vista, CA May 9-10.......................................................... Oaks at Boca Raton

Boca Raton, FL May 11-12............................................................... Bay Clubs SFTC

San Francisco, CA May 14-15............................................... Grand Canyon University

Phoenix, AZ May 15..................................................................Tennis Addiction

Exton, PA May 15-16...............................................April Sound Country Club

Montgomery, TX May 16......................................................... Ferris State University

Big Rapids, MI May 17........................ Williamson County Indoor Sports Complex

Brentwood, TN May 17.................................................................... Dominion Club

Glen Allen, VA May 20-21.......................................................................... Monaco

Denver, CO May 23................................... John and Fay Menard Tennis Center

Eau Claire, WI

Exam reservations must be made by calling the USPTA World Headquarters at 407-634-3050 ext. 2 at least 21 days prior to the dates listed. Each date includes an exam and upgrade. PTCA I is included in the two-day exam. Exam cancellations must be received no later than 14 days before the exam, or a cancellation fee will be charged accordingly.

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2020 USPTA Division Conferences May 1-3 .

May 1-3 .

May 14-16 .

May 15-17 .

May 28-31 .

June 5-6 .

June 13-14 .

Sept. 21-25 .

Eastern...................International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Newport, RI New England.......... International Tennis Hall of Fame Newport, RI Southern.................................... Atlanta Athletic Club Johns Creek, GA Southwest........................... Grand Canyon University Phoenix, AZ Florida...................... Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club Naples, FL Pacific Northwest................................Linfield College McMinnville, OR Hawaii............................................... Punahou School Honolulu, HI USPTA World Conference...................Hilton Riverside New Orleans, LA

Visit www.uspta.com for a complete listing of certification and educational opportunities • Wheelchair • Padel • Platform

• Pickleball • RacquetFit

Visit TennisResources.com to find hundreds of exclusive educational and instructional videos, audio material, articles and drill diagrams related to all levels and aspects of the game of tennis. The user friendly video interface is great for watching on a desktop or mobile device and makes it easy to #GetYourSix wherever you are!