HOW THE IS EVOLVING AND CHANGING WITH RACQUET SPORTS

Mark Faber, USPTA Vice President

Our industry has evolved since I achieved my USPTA P-1 certification in December 1993. The key to facing evolution is how you view it and respond to it, and it comes down to two simple words: resist or embrace.

As the USPTA National Board, we are charged with looking at the overall scope of our industry and what allows us to grow as an association while not compromising our core values, something that is not very easy to do. I am proud of how our association recognizes the need for evolution and has truly undertaken that challenge. When things evolve, they often present challenges, and how you view the word “challenge” is how you will deal with it. To me, the word challenge has become synonymous with the word “opportunity.”

Safe Play

Over the past years, it has been well documented that there have been unfortunate cases of coaches crossing the line with athletes. As a parent myself, this is one of the worst nightmares you could face. As a national board member, I can also promise we echo these sentiments 100%, as these acts and the people who perform them are unacceptable. The USPTA recognizes and supports safe environments for youth and stands behind SafeSport, as all new members who come into the association must first complete the tennis version of the regulation known as Safe Play. If you don’t pass, you will not get to have the

USPTA letters by your name. We see this as an opportunity to let our customers (present and future) know that when you go to a USPTA professional, your child is going to be in a safe environment.

Virtual Certification

Many of us reading this article are certified professionals. Many of us tested through the old system of a one-to-twoday in-person test. We had to leave our jobs, lose income and incur expenses, all things that are very tough for young professionals today. So, we took this challenge, and through the work of Past President Feisal Hassan, we created a certification pathway that allows our future generation to start the certification process virtually from their homes. By doing this, they lose fewer hours on-court and have zero travel expenses. We still value face-to-face, but this is an opportunity to show and acknowledge how things have evolved. We want to embrace this and make this pathway inclusive for all.

refer & earn

I have heard it said the best promoters of one’s product are the people who either use the product or are the product. We also recognize that, while many of us in the past would promote the USPTA with nothing in return, it is not necessarily how things should be done today. So, we took this opportunity to really look at and promote our association’s best kept secret—USPTA's Refer & Earn program, previoulsy known as the AIM program. This is an incentive-based program where members earn for referring new applicants. We'll be announcing new details soon about how you can take advantage of this program to earn money through recruiting new applicants.

Additional Certifications

As I mentioned earlier, the true landscape of racquet sports looks much different than 30 years ago. As this evolution is occurring, we must ask ourselves, are we going to remain stuck in the past or are we going to take this opportunity to increase the value of our certified professionals by embracing, educating and certifying them in other racquet sports such as pickleball, padel and platform? The answer is easy, if we want to continue to raise the standards and help our professionals be more marketable, then yes, we should. We truly saw the value and power in this, and we were instrumental and involved from the start in the University of Florida’s Director of Racquet Sports Certification Program.

D, E and I

We continue to evolve in our D, E and I space. While this is an area some would say never moves fast enough, we have not only spoken of what we want to do, we are actually doing it. We have partnered with the top women’s coaching association, WTCA, to provide and build more opportunities for female coaches. We are continuing to embrace the African American, Asian, Native American, Hispanic, LGBTQ+ and adaptive communities, as we know that if we want to be the best teaching association in America and the world, then we must look like what America and the rest of the world looks like.

This article could go on and on, as the USPTA is always evolving. We also recognize our core product will always be tennis. Though it is who we are, we want all racquet sports professionals to have what they need to succeed in their careers. The USPTA needs to be like a cup of coffee. It starts as a cup of water and some coffee grounds, but when you put the grounds in the water and stir, they blend into what some call the greatest morning drink. The water represents the current USPTA (tennis) and the grounds the future of the sport (pickleball, padel, platform and whatever else is coming). In the end, it evolves to the blend, which represents our opportunity to be the greatest teaching association in America and the world: the USPTA.*